‘I could not deny a human right to fellow citizens,’ says Greek Muslim MP

In Islam, homosexuality is a grave sin that is believed to incur the wrath of Allah. In some strict Islamic countries, such as Saudi Arabia, Iran, Pakistan and Afghanistan, punishments such as flogging, stoning, and burning at the stake are prescribed. In Turkey, gender-affirming surgery has been legal since 1988, but gay people cannot marry, are not allowed to adopt children, are prohibited from donating blood and are exempt from conscription, as the Turkish Armed Forces define homosexuality as a "psychosexual illness."

In Greece, the unauthorized muftis of the Muslim minority in Thrace had disapproved of the recent government bill - voted into law on February 15 - that established marriage equality, and in Parliament only one of the four Muslim MPs, Ilhan Ahmet of center-left PASOK, who represents Rhodope, defied the teachings of the Quran and the possible nagging of...