Egypt has announced a bid to ban atheism in the hopes that it will stop people from “turning” gay.
The parliamentary commission on religion has said that plans to make “promotion of atheism” illegal will be pushed.
(Photo by DANIEL LEAL-OLIVAS/AFP/Getty Images)
It comes as the commission ruled that atheism can cause “mental imbalances” which in turn leads to homosexuality.
The bid is one of a number of moves being carried out by Egyptian authorities in a crackdown on the LGBTQ+ community.
The country has seen 34 people arrested and imprisoned for offences linked to homosexuality, including debauchery, inciting sexual deviancy and joining an outlawed group.
Related: No-one is talking about Egypt’s shocking homophobic purge
It is believed that the commission hopes that by pushing through the law it will support the bid of another law which has been deemed the most homophobic law in the world.
The second law which is currently being pushed through targets the community by punishing gay sex in a public or private place with a prison sentence ranging from one to three years.
The measure was introduced by MP Riyad Abdel Sattar, a politician leading the rhetoric that those who identify within the LGBTQ+ realm have a “disease”.
As well as criminalising gay sex it also puts journalists and activists at risk of covering LGBTQ+ events as it threatens conviction.
The post Egypt launches bid to ban atheism over fears it turns people gay appeared first on PinkNews | Latest lesbian, gay, bi and trans news | LGBTQ+ news.