Our Advice for Herr Westerwelle: Stay Home

Our Flemish correspondent VH wrote the following report last October, but it got lost in the shuffle. Fortunately, the issue discussed in this article —the likely fate of gay people in the Third World, especially in Islamic countries — is still relevant.

VH adapted his report from material posted at Het Vrije Volk. I formatted the list of countries into an HTML table, so if any errors have crept in, they are probably my own:

Which country should the new German Foreign Minister avoid?

By E.J. Bron

Guido Westerwelle (FDP) is likely to become the new Foreign Affairs Minister of Germany. His homosexuality is no secret. But there are many countries which impose life imprisonment or even the death penalty for that.

The chairman of the FDP [Freie Demokratische Partei, “Free Democratic Party” — Liberal, Center] Guido Westerwelle presented his partner in public in July 2009, during a celebration to mark the 50th birthday of Angela Merkel, the Chairman of the CDU [Christian Democratic Union] and the Chancellor. His homosexuality was not a secret anymore, and other senior politicians have also come out. Klaus Wowereit of the SPD [Socialists], for example, who is mayor of Berlin, Ole von Beust (CDU), the first mayor of Hamburg, and Volker Beck, parliamentarian for the Greens. It is an achievement of our democracy and our society that this is possible.

The situation is somewhat different in several other countries on this planet. Guido Westerwelle as Minister of Foreign Affairs has to represent the Federal Republic of Germany abroad, and thus will probably meet heads of state of countries where homosexuality is criminalized and even punished with death.

In December of last year, Westerwelle for the first time formulated foreign policy guidelines. He explicitly stated that he wanted to stop development aid to states “where men and women are executed solely because they are gay”.

Guido Westerwelle is actually not allowed to visit a number of countries, because they have adopted laws against homosexuality.

Here a list of these states and their maximum penalties:

- - - - - - - - -

Africa		Political/religious info		Penalty
Algeria		OIC — Muslim 99%		3 years imprisonment
Benin		OIC — Muslim 25%		3 years imprisonment
Botswana		Christian 71.6%		7 years imprisonment
Egypt		OIC — Muslim 90%		3 years imprisonment
Eritrea				3 years imprisonment
Ethiopia				3 years imprisonment
Gambia		OIC — Muslim 90%		14 years imprisonment
Guinea		OIC — Muslim 85%		3 years imprisonment
Cameroon		OIC — Muslim 20%		5 years imprisonment
Kenya		Christian 78%, Muslim 10%		14 years imprisonment
Liberia		Christian 40%, Muslim 20%, Indigenous 40%		A fine
Libya		OIC — Muslim 97%		5 years imprisonment
Malawi		Christian 19.9%, Muslim 12.8%		5 years imprisonment
Morocco		OIC — Muslim 97%		3 years imprisonment
Mauritania		OIC — Muslim 100%		death penalty without exemption
Mauritius		Christian 8.6%, Muslim 16.6%, Hindu 48%		5 years imprisonment
Mozambique		OIC — Muslim 18%		3 years imprisonment
Nigeria		OIC — Muslim 50%		death penalty (stoning) / 14 years imprisonment for men
Uganda		OIC — Muslim 12%		20 years imprisonment (for men)
Senegal		OIC — Muslim 94%		5 years imprisonment
Sierra Leone		OIC — Muslim 60%		life imprisonment
Sudan		OIC — Muslim 70%		death penalty
Somalia		OIC — Muslim, 15% Bantu and Arabs		death penalty where Sharia rules, otherwise 3 years imprisonment
Tanzania		Muslim 35%, Christian 30%, Indigenous 35%		14 years imprisonment
Togo		OIC — Muslim 20%		3 years imprisonment
Tunisia		OIC- Muslim 98%		3 years imprisonment
Zambia		Christian 50-75%, Muslim ±5%,		14 years imprisonment (for men)
Zanzibar		100% Muslim		25 years imprisonment (equal to murder), 3 years imprisonment (for women)
Asia		Political/religious info		Penalty
Afghanistan		OIC — Muslim 99%		15 years imprisonment
Bahrain		OIC — Muslim 80%		10 years imprisonment (only for men)
Bangladesh		OIC — Muslim 83%		life imprisonment
Brunei		OIC — Muslim 67%		10 years imprisonment
Iran		OIC — Muslim 98%		death penalty (for men), 100 whippings (for women)
Yemen		OIC — Muslim 99%		death penalty
Kuwait		OIC — Muslim 85%		7 years imprisonment
Lebanon		OIC — Muslim 60%		1 year imprisonment
Maldives		OIC — Muslim 100%		10 years imprisonment
Malaysia		OIC — Muslim 60%		20 years imprisonment
Myanmar		Socialist dictatorship		life imprisonment
Nepal		Hindu 80.6%, Buddhist 10.7%, Muslim 4.2%		1 year imprisonment
Uzbekistan		OIC — Muslim 88%		3 years imprisonment (for men)
Oman		OIC — Muslim 90%		3 years imprisonment
Pakistan		OIC — Muslim 95%		life imprisonment (for men)
Qatar		OIC — Muslim 77%		5 years imprisonment
Saudi Arabia		OIC — Muslim 100%		death penalty
Singapore		Buddhist 42.5%, Muslim 14.9%, Christian 9.8%		2 years imprisonment (for men, but not enforced)
Sri Lanka		Buddhist 69.1%, Muslim 7.6%, Christian 6.2%		10 years imprisonment
Syria		OIC — Muslim 89%		3 years imprisonment
Turkmenistan		OIC — Muslim 89%		2 years imprisonment (for men)
UA Emirates		OIC — Muslim 96%		10-14 years imprisonment

In the Caribbean he had better avoid Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados, Grenada, Jamaica, St. Kitts and St. Nevis, St. Lucia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, and Trinidad and Tobago, since he would risk 10 years imprisonment to a life sentence and forced labor. In Oceania he might want to bypass the Cook Islands, Kiribati, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, the Solomon Islands, Tonga, and Tuvalu where he risks 4-10 years imprisonment. And in South America there is still the OIC member state Guyana^[1] to avoid, where he would risk a life sentence.

An easy rule would be: avoid the Caribbean and the OIC member states.

[1]

Yes, Guyana is an OIC member state, although it has only a 7% Muslim population. There are twelve other OIC member states like that, of which Gabon is the most peculiar one: less than 1% Muslim.