On Love

If you ask any of my friends they would tell you "I love to love" or that I am passionate, but what is passion if not an abundance of positive emotion directed towards something or someone. 


Recently a former student of mine published an article in AUB's OUTLOOK condemning homosexuality.


The article had two pieces: one condemning homosexuality, and one supporting it.Unfortunately, my student struck oil with his op-ed: it went viral for being homophobic. 

The article link is here

 I am not sure if Outlook will post the article on its website, but if you are interested in looking for it

Here is Outlooks Homepage  

The article itself is filled with nuances that have weak claims:

Even if I were to put religions aside, our cultures, logic, morals, and humanity have and hopefully always will condemn such acts whether in public or in private.

Another Example: 

People are not born homosexual, usually one changes as he is growing from the infant stage up until puberty, some even later than that. This is, according to psychologists, due to certain factors during infancy and homosexuality can be treated in various ways.

 Or the one that made me cringe: 

I mean, let’s stop for a minute and say that it was okay to be gay all over the world and have a chain around a man’s neck and have him dragged around. 

Sadly, I and many people were not surprised by his remarks, but what would have been accepted in the past was vehemently rejected.

Take this Response by an AUB student here

Or the call towards homosexual humanity here

This is all a sign of progress in Lebanon's ever so volatile social makeup. 


I who loves deeply and is passionate about life was moved by what happened, not simply because I knew this kid when he was only 16, but also because this is a subject that I adamantly have argued about in the past.   


Phrases like 
"Show me how science proves Homosexuality is not natural"
or
"Show me the evidence that homosexuality is forbidden in Islam"

The latter phrase gets people riled up really fast. 


Given that I am a highly secular person, I would comfortably say religion shouldn't matter on this subject. But it does. So i dug a little deeper and found this beautiful documentary about the relationship between Islam and sexuality. 

Though I know that this wouldn't satiate all Muslims, I believe it was an eye-opener to me at least. 

When I taught my student, the one who wrote the op-ed, I absolutely loved him. He was smart and driven and yes religious, but that was no reason to attack him. I feel it is important to spread knowledge through love and acceptance of difference, though it is really hard to do, as a teacher at the very least it is something one must encourage in their students! 

For more information on the controversy here is a blog that collaboratively accumulated all the information on the articles press.