Erdogan supports an Islamist cleric criticized for claiming that "homosexuality brings disease"

The homophobic comments of the head of Turkey's Directorate of Religious Affairs have once again put the country in the spotlight. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Monday showed his support for Turkey's leading Muslim cleric, who has caused controversy after saying that homosexuality causes "disease" and is "responsible for the decline of this generation". The head of Turkey's Directorate of Religious Affairs Ali Erbas also added that "homosexuality is the cause of VIH".  "Come and let us fight together to protect people from such evil," Erbas continued in his weekly sermon in the middle of the holy month of Ramadan. 

This incident has led to a clash between the president's party, the Islamist-based Justice and Development Party (AKP), and the country's leading law societies that defend freedom of expression. The Ankara Law Society has condemned these declarations as "damaging to human dignity", according to several Turkish media.  

These statements came after the Turkish leader said that "any attack on Erbas was equivalent to an attack on the state" and an AKP spokesman accused the lawyers of having a "fascist mentality". The Ankara Public Prosecutor's Office has launched an investigation after accusing the directors of the Ankara Law Society of being "suspected of insulting the religious values of the people of Turkey". 

However, the Ankara Law Association has warned that such statements by the AKP and its allies are not new, and that they "come from a long time ago". For its part, the Izmir law association has expressed its concern about the fact that this statement could encourage new hate crimes, the Reuters news agency reported. 

The controversy moved to Twitter where AKP sympathizers showed their support for the Muslim cleric with the hashtag "Ali Erbas is not alone". "It is natural for people to speak according to the value system they believe in," AKP spokesman Omer Celik said on the social network, according to Reuters. In the same vein, Celik insisted that "the unusual thing is to demand the opposite" and accused the Ankara Law Society of displaying a "fascist mentality" aimed at depriving Erbas of his right to free speech.  Presidential spokesman Ibrahim Kalin, using the same hashtag, also showed his support for Erbas by claiming that he had expressed "divine judgment".

Erbas' sermon has been criticized by opposition politicians, various bar associations, the LGBT community and several human rights groups. After the Muslim cleric said that "homosexuality caused illness", the hashtag "#GoToHolland" became a trending topic on Twitter, according to several Dutch media. It should be remembered at this point that the Turkish LGTB collective has close ties to the Netherlands, according to these newspapers. 

The Ankara-based Human Rights Association has filed a complaint against Erbas, calling for his dismissal, saying it would not be surprised if the cleric was the next to ask people "to light torches and burn women as witches," according to the Associated Press. 

Unlike other countries in the region, Turkey does not punish homosexuality. However, several human rights organizations and the European Union have accused the Erdogan regime in recent years of neglecting the rights of religious and ethnic minorities, homosexuals and women. An example of this is the bans on Gay Pride parades, which each year attracted thousands of people from all over the Middle East.