Predominantly Muslim countries among global leaders in searching for homosexual pornographic content

The Islamic view on homosexuality is well known. Not only is it forbidden in the religion, but it is also a punishable offense in certain Muslim countries. A recent Gallup poll below highlights the negative attitude of Muslims in Western countries towards homosexuality. 

This trends gains strength in Muslim majority countries. A Pew Global Attitudes Survey indicates that besides Western Europe and the Americas, the majority of polled citizen from Eastern Europe, Russia, Ukraine, East and Southeast Asia, Africa, South Asia and the Middle East believe that homosexuality should be rejected. Included in these regions are obviously the countries whose populace is mostly Muslim.

None of these surveys are surprising.



What is interesting is that Google Trends shows that statistically speaking, several Muslim countries are amongst the global leaders in homosexual pornographic searches on Google.

For example the search for gay sex pictures in Google is run the most by the following countries in decreasing order:

1. Kenya
2. Nigeria
3. Sri Lanka
4. South Africa
5. Pakistan
6. Philippines
7. India
8. Serbia
9. Ireland
10. United States

The search for gay sex video download in Google is run the most by the following countries in decreasing order:

1. Indonesia
2. Philippines
3. Malaysia
4. India
5. Pakistan
6. Vietnam
7. United States
8. Brazil
9. United Kingdom

The search for gay porn download in Google is run the most by the following countries in decreasing order:

1. Philippines
2. South Africa
3. Indonesia
4. Malaysia
5. Pakistan
6. India
7. Serbia
8. Greece
9. Singapore
10. New Zealand

There were several more Google searches that I looked at but the facts don't change...and here the facts.

• The search data from several Muslim countries indicates that they lead they way in the searching for homosexual content on the Internet
• These statistics show that the number of searches go far and beyond anything that represents fringe behavior.
• Hardly surprising, but there are plenty of homosexuals that reside in these countries. 
• Gays are everywhere. 

Those were the facts. Now whats my conclusion?

For one things, I know and believe that homosexuality is natural. Sexual preference is something people are born with and it must be recognized as such. Science has made plenty of strides in this regard to show the genetic basis of homosexuality.

Secondly, Islam is certainly not the only religion that attacks homosexuals. Almost all the major monotheistic religions look down upon homosexuality. I did this study on predominately Muslim countries because I wanted to prove a point. Muslim countries probably have the same proportion of gays and lesbians as other countries. However their rights are probably suppressed, they probably feel more isolated and resort to the Internet more than their Western peers. It is a lot more difficult to 'come out' in a Muslim country than it is to come out of the closet in Westerns nations.

Having said that, I think the US government made a great decision to try help bolster the rights of gays abroad.

In a memorandum issued by President Obama in Washington and in a speech by Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton here, the administration vowed to actively combat efforts by other nations that criminalize homosexual conduct, abuse gay men, lesbians, bisexuals or transgendered people, or ignore abuse against them.

That's great news and a recent editorial in the Jakarta Post regarding this subject is encouraging dialogue. The author writes

Within a more humanistic framework, celebrating beliefs and expressing sexual identity are part of our human rights and for that reason the government should recognize them as they are explicitly mentioned in international documents.

and

In fact, two-way communication to bring different perspectives about sexual identity and to convey the message that it is a fluid concept should be encouraged in order to create commonalities among components of society.

 This debate needs to be encouraged in all countries.