PEGIDA Canada Reaction To Orlando

It goes without saying that the mass murder that took place in Orlando last week horrified all decent people. Whether the murder was motivated by an extremist interpretation of Islam, homophobia, or a combination of all of the above and aided by a gun culture that permeates much of American political discourse, the murder of 49 human beings (with 50 injured) was a terrible tragedy.

Of course, there are those out there who would use the tragedy to further their own agenda.

It's sort of hard to take Ron Banerjee seriously in light of a long history of homophobic statements and online post (see here, here, and here as only a few examples). It's even less believable when, only a day before he posted on Twitter attempting to promote himself as a fighter for LGBTQ rights, he emailed the following to Gerry Lincoln (yes, THAT Gerry Lincoln) who forwarded the exchange to us:

Not to be outdone, fellow Trump supporter Paul Fromm also offered his $0.02 which also includes Southern Ontario Skinhead member Dan Hall also contributing his thought.... if it could be characterized as such:

 

And then, there's PEGIDA Canada.


First, to illustrate the hypocrisy of PEGIDA Canada on the issue of LGBTQ rights, this is just one of the exchanges that took place on the PEGIDA Canada Facebook page before the Orlando tragedy:

There's something wrong with promoting, "no means no" now?

Yep. Really progressive on the women's rights and LGBTQ issues, which is why their sudden amnesia is particularly galling:

But then things get interesting.

You see, PEGIDA Canada just had another march in Toronto this past weekend. It went as poorly as you might expect that it did:

The march also prompted some folks who opposed PEGIDA Canada's bigotry to visit the Facebook page (which, we will note, has currently been suspended by Facebook as a result of said bigotry). In response to comments regarding the Quran containing hate speech, she posted similar verses from the Bible to show how easy it is to cherry pick each text to suit one's agenda:

One person commented that the information minimized the relevance of the verses since they came from the Old Testament, resulting in this reply:

This final comment by Emma resulted in a post by the PEGIDA Canada Facebook group administrator that was so stunningly nonsensical that it calls into question their knowledge of their own professed religion, much less Islam which they claim to be knowledgeable about:

Christians don't follow the Old Testement [sic] except the 10 commandments. Your quotes are irrelevant.

Really?

Then why is the Old Testament included in the Christian Bible?

And why did Jesus, who we are led to believe is sort of a big deal in Christianity, say this?

Do not think that I came to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I did not come to abolish but to fulfill. For truly I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest letter or stroke shall pass from the Law until all is accomplished. Whoever then annuls one of the least of these commandments, and teaches others to do the same, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but whoever keeps and teaches them, he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven. Matthew 5: 17 - 19

But that is neither here nor there. Let's take a look at how SOME contemporary Christians view the LGBTQ community after the Orlando tragedy in light of an Old Testament that they apparently don't follow:

• Baptist pastor doubles down post-Orlando: They deserved to die
• ‘God will finish the job’: Texas pastor prays for injured Orlando survivors to die
• Pastor Steven Anderson Celebrates ’50 Less Pedophiles in the World’ After Orlando Attacks
• ‘Sodomy is more dangerous to America than radical Islam’: Anti-LGBT preacher unendorses Trump
• Pat Robertson on Orlando: The Best Thing To Do is Let LGBT, Islamic Allies ‘Kill Themselves’
• The Orlando Shooting Didn't Stop the Anti-Gay Protest at Los Angeles Pride
• Pastor Perry Noble on Orlando Shooting: Without Jesus, Possibilities for Evil Are Endless
• A ‘Gay’ Muslim Democrat Walks Into a Bar…
• Pastor defends antigay sign linking Orlando massacre to ‘God’s wrath’

We could post more unrelated to Orlando (such as Kevin Swanson who advocates the execution of homosexuals and who was an organizer of an event attended by a number of Republican presidential candidates last year), but we think we've made the point.

Then again, our detractors might claim that these individuals are fringe and that no Christian country persecute homosexuals.

Uhm....

• Meet the American Pastor Behind Uganda's Anti-Gay Crackdown
• The Brutal Consequences of Uganda's Infamous Anti-Gay Law
• Kenya's anti-gay laws are leaving LGBT community at the mercy of the mob
• Community Lithuania: Parliament to consider five separate anti-gay and anti-trans bills
• Latvia, Lithuania and Poland worst countries to be gay in EU
• Belarus weighs Russia-style anti-‘gay propaganda’ law

Speaking of Russia, perhaps we should remind PEGIDA Canada members the views of two men they seem to admire a great deal, Vladimir Putin of Russia and Viktor Orban of Hungary: 

• Russian police detains gay couple for Orlando tribute
• Russia wants to expand anti-gay law to ban all ‘public’ displays of homosexuality
• Russian crime gangs have a new target: gay men
• Move Over, Putin: Scott Lively Has A New Anti-Gay Strongman-Crush
• Hungary approves new ‘anti-gay’ constitution
• Hungary blocks European agreement on LGBT rights

Again, this is only a sample.

You know, if we were cynical, we would suggest PEGIDA Canada's defence of the LGBTQ community might have more to do with attacking Muslims than defending lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgendered, and queer folks. Otherwise they might also defend that community against homophobic Christians in addition to homophobic Muslims.