JERUSALEM, May 5, 2005 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The homosexual “World Pride” parade scheduled for August in Jerusalem has been postponed indefinitely. Organizers cite the Israeli pullout of occupied Gaza three days before the planned event as the reason, but opposition to the parade in the city that is at the centre of three world religions has been cited as the true cause.
Shlomo Amar, Israel’s Sephardic chief rabbi described the Open House, the homosexual centre organizing the event, as “creating a deep and terrible sorrow that is unbearable” at a news conference sponsored by all major religions in protest of the event in April.
“We can’t permit anybody to come and make the Holy City dirty,” said Sufi sheik Abdel Aziz Bukhari at the same news conference last month. “This is very ugly and very nasty to have these people come to Jerusalem.”
“God destroyed those cities and everyone in them,” added Muslim cleric Abdel-Salem Menasra, presumably speaking of Sodom and Gomorrah. “I’m warning everybody, God will destroy Jerusalem together with the Jews, the Christians and the Muslims.”
Other Muslim leaders warned that, if homosexuals did not abandon their plans to march in Jerusalem, “their lives will be in danger.”
Both Latin Patriarch Michel Sabbah and Catholic Archbishop Pietro Sambi also condemned the World Pride event.
“We are shocked to have received notice that a worldwide assembly of 10 days, including an immodest parade devoid of minimal propriety, is scheduled to be held in Jerusalem this summer,” the religious leaders said in a joint statement given last month, according to a WorldNetDaily report. “It will offend the very foundations of our religious values and the character of the holy city.”
Last month, arsonists set fire to the country’s only ‘gay’ bar. Bar owner Sa’ar Netanel is one member of the group planning the event.
See related LifeSiteNews.com coverage:
tv