Clerics in Moradabad issue fatwa against homosexuality

Moradabad, July 3 (ANI): A day after the Delhi High Court overturned ban on gay sex, Muslim clerics in Moradabad have issued a fatwa against homosexuality.

The Delhi High Court on Thursday had ruled that gay sex was not a crime, a verdict that will bolster demands by gay and health groups that the government scrap a British colonial law.

The ruling is expected to be repeal the 1861 law that makes homosexual sex punishable.

However, the verdict did not go down well with Muslim clerics.

Justifying the fatwa, Sibtey Nabi Ashrafi, a Muslim cleric said that relationship between same sexes is against the law of the nature and against Islam.

"Relationship between same sexes is unnatural and we cannot bear it. Islam forbids sex between same genders. We have issued a fatwa since its illegal. Both male and female have particular role to play and it's against the nature of the law," said Ashrafi.

The court's ruling that homosexual sex among consenting adults is not a crime is expected to boost an increasingly vocal pro-gay lobby that says the British-era law was a violation of human rights.

The ruling applies to the whole of the nation, but can be appealed at the Supreme Court. (ANI)