DAR ES SALAAM, March 29, 2004 (LifeSiteNews.com) - The Zanzibar government has opted to outlaw homosexual sex. Being “caught in the act” could carry prison terms of up to 5 years, authorities there say. Zanzibar, with a 99 percent Muslim population, is an archipelago state of Tanzania, located in the Indian Ocean. The move was initiated by wide-spread anxiety over permissive Western cultural influence in the region, which “condones such behavior,” according to Zanzibar constitutional affairs minister Adam Mwakanjuki.
Mwakanjuki said that “Our society is Muslim and we cannot accept” homosexual practices. The draft bill, which makes illegal sexual relations between persons of the same sex, will appear before parliament on Tuesday. Read local coverage at: http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?click_id=68&art_id=qw1080491220470B252&set_id=1 Read the related LifeSiteNews.com coverage, “U.S. Supreme Court Strikes Down Texas Sodomy Law” http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2003/jun/030626.html