Gays Condemn Blair’s Visit to Egypt

The Gay and Lesbian Humanist Association (GALHA) has condemned Tony Blair’s decision to spend a holiday in Egypt as hypocrisy and a slap in the face for lesbian and gay people around the world.

Blair’s trip comes just over a month after Egypt convicted 23 men for their “immoral behaviour” and “contempt of religion” and imposed prison sentences with hard labour on them.

GALHA Secretary George Broadhead said: “At the Labour party conference last year, Blair said that human rights would be at the centre of his foreign policy, and yet here he is offering support to a regime that persecutes gays. Earlier this year, when the show trials of these men were taking place, GALHA was the first organisation to call for a boycott of Egypt and sent a letter of protest to the Egyptian ambassador in the UK. Blair’s decision to go to Egypt for a holiday amounts to sheer hypocrisy and is a slap in the face for lesbians and gays around the world. It is clear that he is putting aside human rights considerations in favour of assuring regimes like Egypt that he is pro Islam. In fact, he has gone out of his way to praise Islam for its ‘compassion and tolerance’. However, like many other Islamic states, Egypt has an appalling record on human rights and it should be called to account for these, not encouraged.”