A poster asking for death sentence to homosexuals and other members of the LGBT community was put up in Madurai, Tamil Nadu, by a Muslim Party called ‘Indian National League’ a day after the tragic mass shooting at a Gay Nightclub in Orlando, US where 50 people were killed.

According to this article the poster labelled homosexuals as ‘cultural terrorists’ and asked the Government to amend section 377 of IPC and include ‘death sentence under the section 377’ for the people belonging to the LGBTQ+ community.

According to gender activist and an Intersex person, Gopi Shankar, “This is not for the first time this is happening. They put the exact same poster when the Supreme Court recriminalized homosexuality”. Shankar said the LGBTQ+ community in Madurai is routinely targeted by the INL whose members distribute the Quran and homophobic pamphlets at spaces where gay people meet.

The LGBTQ+ community in Madurai is extremely frightened, especially after the terrorist attack in Orlando by an IS-inspired jihadi and due to the rising popularity of IS among Tamil Nadu Muslim youth. 

Islam goes beyond merely disapproving of homosexuality. Sharia teaches that homosexuality is a vile form of fornication, punishable by death.

Islamic Radicalization in Tamil Nadu

As our previous articles show, it is clear that many radical Islamist groups are active in Tamil Nadu right now. Wahhabism and Deobandi schools of Islamic thought are very much prevalent in Tamil Nadu right now.

A picture of young men wearing IS t-shirts doing the IS style salute in Tamil Nadu went viral on the internet, and one of the first IS recruits from Bharat, Haja Fakkaruddin, was from Tamil Nadu. There are clear indications that IS ideology is getting stronger in this state. You can read more about Wahhabism and Deobandi schools of Islam and their effects in our earlier article.

Another recent incident which show the worrying rise of Islamofascist forces in Tamil Nadu was the Hinduphobic Conference organized by Muslim fundamentalist outfit Thowheed Jamaath (TNTJ) on January 31, 2016. This was the poster put up Thowheed Jamaath at that time –

In Islamic parlance, Shirk is the prohibited practice of worshipping idols or photos of Gods, something for which Hindus are destined to burn in eternal hellfire as per Islamic theology.

And as is common across Bharat today, these fundamentalist forces are getting a free run in Tamil Nadu due to Muslim votebank appeasement politics. As this Vijayvaani article says, “Politics of minority-ism of the dangerous kind in Tamil Nadu has been practiced by both the DMK and the AIADMK at least since the 1990s decade. If today Tamil Nadu is sitting on the jihadi tinder box the blame has to be laid squarely and equally at the doors of both Karunanidhi and Jayalalithaa.”