Multiple implications of homophobic terror
I hope the text’s content has already clarified the multiple implications of its title. I would like to conclude with a quick clarification of those meanings which could be considered a margin to this text. The title refers to four main meanings.
On the one hand, the title refers to phobia in an expression of two different meanings: the first meaning refers to homophobia; the state of apprehension felt by straight people towards gay people and the second refers to the phobia that gay people may have towards straight people. On the other hand, the title refers to terror, a word which shares a common root with the word phobia. Here, too, the wording includes two possible meanings: One to the terror that straight people may feel towards gay people, while the other refers to the terrorism practiced against gay people in many parts of the world.
Regarding the first meaning, there is a popular belief of the existence of such a phobia —homophobia. In this text, I attempted to argue that if the term/concept of phobia refers to a psychopathological condition and is inappropriate to describe what is referred to as homophobia. In this case, this term gives the wrong impression of the psychology and pathogenesis of this phenomenon and overlooks and obscures the fact that it is, first and foremost, a moral, political, legal, media and social issue. This first meaning is related to the third meaning of the title as it is commonly held that homosexuals are the ones who provoke this alleged phobia among anti-gay advocates and opponents of their lifestyle. According to this theory, homosexuals practice terror and conjure fear, dread, and a supposed phobia among straight people. This text is based on the rejection of this hypothesis, and its related provisions and values.
The thesis I defend in this text relates to the second and fourth meanings. Regarding the second meaning, it seems to me necessary to highlight the fact that those who are subjected to intimidation, repression, persecution as well as psychological, moral and physical punishment are homosexuals themselves. It is gay people, not those persecuting them, who are justified in feeling terror or even a phobia as a result of their social rejection and political oppression. This hostility and persecution is what I suggest calling terrorism, as a violent practice, or the threat and implication of it, with the intent to intimidate and stir terror, fear and dread in order to achieve some goals or targets. This is what homosexuals experience in most Arab and Islamic countries. On the one hand, in the common perception in the region, homosexuality is associated with rape, drug abuse and pedophilia, gang activity and perverted criminal practice as well as with values alien to our society and culture, etc. On the other hand, homosexuals are being prosecuted and assaulted socially, legally, financially, morally, physically and spiritually and denigrated in media discourse. They are subjected to painful and degrading anal examinations, and severe penalties that may amount to imprisonment for many years or even execution by hanging or stoning.
In the title of this text, its four implications coalesce, intersect and overlap in a deliberate manner intended by the author, and they refer to what is and what ought to be. When making claims about what ought to be, it is necessary to recall what is. It is also necessary to take into account the normative “ought” discourse, how it is currently conducted and what it can alternatively be. In this text, I attempted to present a critical reading of the concept of homophobia and of anti-gay discourse in general. My reading is founded on descriptions of reality on the one hand and on what it can and should be on the other, both from my perspective and from the vantage point of the global human rights system.