In case you've ever wondered why facial hair is so popular in the Islamic world:

[url]http://www.qss.org/articles/beard.html[/url]

"The beard is a major distinction between men and women. Shaving it removes this distinction, and is thus a means of imitating women. The Messenger (S) said:

Allah curses those men who imitate the women, and He curses those women who imitate the men. [Al-Bukhari]"

Actually, the gender bending issue is only #7 on a list of 8 reasons, but it does make for a good thread title. [;)]

Hmmmm I thought they made the differences between men and women quite clear by draping forty pounds of cloth all over female heads.

It wouldn't look so bad if

A) Their beards didn't resemble pubic hair so closely

and

B) They trimmed them once in a while.

Hmmmm


Colour me stupid but I would interpret this as being a damnation against gays....not a call to beards.

Well, assuming the translation is correct, a Westerner could be drawn to think that.

But that interpretation was never used.  In the early Islamic world, there were many men engaged in homosexual relationships. Its a side effect of denegrating women so much. Eventually having relations with them becomes defiling to the men, especially those of the warrior classes who have to worry about such things cause their death may come at anytime without warning and a chance to purify themselves.

Your comrads in arms become the only people worthy of trew affection and women are only useful for providing children. Mullahs would have never gotten very far if they railed against homosexuality back then...

Soon after the Talibans were driven out of Afghanistan, the practice of keeping a 14 year old tenderoni boyfriend came back in vogue.  Think there's a connection?

[smoke]

It doesn't matter what allah thinks anymore.  I killed him yesterday.

I don't know how common homosexuality was in the early Islamic world, but the Koran does explicitly condemn it.

"Of all creatures in the world, do you approach males and leave those whom Allah created for you as your mates? But, rather, you are transgressors!" (Al-Sh'ura 26: 165-166)

And Mohammed supposedly said, "Allah will not look at a man who has intercourse with a man or a woman in the anus."

[url]http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Parthenon/7377/homo.html[/url]

Hmmm.  Many Arab men wear what looks like a long dress, they hold hands with other men and, the ones I have met, have a handshake grip like a dead fish.  In my culture they would be labeled potential fags.

Eddie