Book Translation: "Gay" Equals "Pervert"

This is an interesting article ... what's more interesting is reading the comments below !! It is sad to see how deep the social rift is between the arab and the western world .... arabs are viewed as blood-thirsty ghouls in the west .. and the west is viewed as an immoral society by the arabs ... my gosh, before we start defending the gay rights in the arab world I think we need to work on a serious issue here! ... you mention the word Arab in the west and you're damned on the spot ... and boy oh boy if you happen to be a muslim as well then there's no hope for you!! .. What I specially find ironic is the gay culture that if anything should understand well the meaning of hate and discrimination, and it's among the most judgemental of cultures around!!

If you all thought Pat Robertson and company were a bunch of greasy homophobes for preaching to love the sin but hate the sinner, just wait until you see how the islamic religion views your lifestyle. In islamic countries such as Saudi Arabia, Iran, Afghanistan, etc. homosexuals are often tortured and executed in accordance with islamic sharia law. As the muslim population grows in the west, you'll see more and more just how loving, peaceful and tolerant their faith is. The multicultural loving leftists may have to make a choice as to which sacred cow they'll support, gays or islam. My money is on islam.

If the publisher finished early then they should have time to correct the translation before distribution. The author should have proofed it. I would stop the presses! We are not perverts!

Over the years, we have been called everything in the book. There is an old saying, that any publicity is good publicity, as long as they spell the name right. The authors name is spelled correctly and that is all that matters. The Arab population is not overly fond of gay people so it really makes no difference what they call us. Remember, all gay people, your self esteem does not depend on the translation of a book or anything else.

Hi Scott, I just wanted to mention that I think the fact that a book entitled "Gay Travels in the Muslim World" exists, that there is debate to change from the negative "Shaz" to the neutral "Mithli," and that there are LGBTQI organizations in the Middle East trying to make a difference is an enormous positive. I agree that Arab Diffusion choosing to use the old word is a set-back, but it's a set-back from an impressive move forward. Also, I don't expect Michael Luongo to experience difficulty from the governments he intends to visit: he will need to watch out from the societies. At the same time as there is some brewing acceptance, the general trend is to oppose homosexuality, and as J Laburnum points out, crimes against homosexuals tend to fall under the jurisdiction of "honor" crimes, meaning much lighter sentences for those who attack them. I hope I can catch the author in one of his stops along the way.

It must be hard trying to educate willfully ignorant people. But such is the power of long standing, culturally accepted brainwashing a.k.a. religion.

D'oh! So much for cutting and pasting the Arabic text in the last comment. Damn Mondays!

As an Arabic speaker, I was curious to see how they actually translated the title. There are different Arabic words (with differing degrees of harshness) used to refer to 'family members'. Yeah, in this case, they chose the word that also has the meaning of 'deviant, unnatural, abnormal'. As bad as we complain about having it here in the States, in many places in the Middle East it is still legal to beat, imprison and even execute gays. (For any Arab readership, the publisher's Arabic translation is رحلات شاذ إلى العالم الإسلامي)

As an LGBT activist in Lebanon, our fight to change the habit of using politically-incorrect words by the media here has been long and painful. We finally succeeded. You rarely see the word "pervert" in our media and they all use the word "mithli" or "homo" instead. Now comes this books with a horrible translation mistake that will definitely set us back 2 decades. I strongly urge you not to distribute it before the mistake gets fixed even if this will mean a heavier financial burden on the publisher. That is a shame and a blow to our struggle here in the middle East.

Im sorry but if the gay society has nothing better to do than constantly point out how they are so disliked by the rest of the world, then that is sad. I would like to see the advocate focus on some more positive or happy things and not always make headline news about all the negative crap. I understand the importance of being informed, and I understand that gay people have been the victims of discriminiation for the entire existance of mankind. But there are a lot of good things that we could turn our attention to. Im starting to wonder what we would do with our time if we suddenly had exact equal rights, and if the rest of the world stopped hating us. How about a section to highlight successful adoptions, or marriages in the allowed states? (for example)