A "Clash of Civilizations," Sending Pink Sparks Flying?

[Yoshie Furuhashi <furuhashi.1@xxxxxxx>]

Do you remember Pim Fortuyn, a gay Dutch politician who rose to
notoriety with his call for a moratorium on immigration and whose
political party Lijst Pim Fortuyn received "1.6 million votes and 26
seats in the 150-seat parliament" nine days after Fortuyn's
assassination on May 6, 2002? . . .

The rise of Pim Fortuyn . . . signaled a new era of white gay male
politics. By promoting anti-immigrant politics vigorously and
marketing it with anti-Muslim prejudice demagogically, Fortuyn showed
that right-wing populism can very well be gay and enormously popular
to boot, as LPF votes in in 2002 attest, in the Netherlands, "the
first country in the world to legalize same-sex marriage (in March
2002)" (Wim Lunsing, "Islam versus Homosexuality? Some Reflections on
the Assassination of Pim Fortuyn," Anthropology Today 19.2, April
2003, p. 19). . . .

While Fortuyn's life came to an end at the hands of a mad animal
rights activist Van der Graaf, immigrants and asylum-seekers in the
Netherlands live with his legacy . . . .

Will the phenomenon of a gay man successfully popularizing the
rhetoric that pits "Islam" (misrepresented as inherently and
monolithically homophobic and misogynistic) against the "Western
Civilization" (made out to be inherently and monolithically feminist
and pro-gay) remain unique to the Netherlands? Or will the
Netherlands be a harbinger, as more white gay men, now integrated in
the militaries and soon to gain the equal right to marriage in most
rich industrialized nations, lose the ability to identify with other
outcasts like the Palestinians and migrant workers that once defined
the politics and aesthetics of Genet (e.g., Prisoner of Love) and
Fassbinder (Ali: Fear Eats the Soul)? . . .

Take Peter Tatchell, perhaps the most famous queer activist in
Britain, for example. Unlike Fortuyn, Tatchell is still capable of
gesturing toward the existence of tolerant Muslims, but a number of
his writings suggest a paranoid fear of political powers of Muslims:

* The New Dark Ages are already with us. For hundreds of millions of
people in parts of the Middle-East, Africa and South-East Asia, the
ascendancy of Islamic fundamentalism has ushered in an era of
religious obscurantism and intolerance. The liberal, compassionate
wing of Islam -- although it still has large numbers of adherents --
is being forced onto the defensive and increasingly eclipsed. (Peter
Tatchell, "The New Dark Ages," 1995)

* The political consequences for the gay community could be serious.
As the fundamentalists gain followers, homophobic Muslim voters may
be able to influence the outcome of elections in 20 or more marginal
constituencies. Their voting strength could potentially be used to
block pro-gay candidates or to pressure electorally vulnerable MPs to
vote against gay rights legislation. (Peter Tatchell/OutRage! Press
Release, "The Rise of Islamic Fundamentalism in Britain," April 10,
1998) . . .

The full posting is at
<http://montages.blogspot.com/2004/06/clash-of-civilizations-sending-pink.html>.
--
Yoshie

* Critical Montages: <http://montages.blogspot.com/>
* Bring Them Home Now! <http://www.bringthemhomenow.org/>
* Calendars of Events in Columbus:
<http://sif.org.ohio-state.edu/calendar.html>,
<http://www.freepress.org/calendar.php>, & <http://www.cpanews.org/>
* Student International Forum: <http://sif.org.ohio-state.edu/>
* Committee for Justice in Palestine: <http://www.osudivest.org/>
* Al-Awda-Ohio: <http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Al-Awda-Ohio>
* Solidarity: <http://www.solidarity-us.org/>