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Silence over "liability" Choudhary

Thu 14 Jul 2005 In: New Zealand Daily News

The Prime Minister may have asked Muslim MP Ashraf Choudhary to clarify his comments about stoning gays, but she's not passing on any details to the public – and neither is gay MP Chris Carter, who also told media last week he'd be speaking with Choudhary. Both Carter and the Prime Minister told journalists last week that they would seek clarification from Choudhary for his comments, made on the TV3 current affairs programme 60 Minutes, in which he suggested stoning gays to death was acceptable, because it was written in the Koran. GayNZ.com requested answers from the Prime Minister and Carter as to what the nature of their "clarification" discussions with Choudhary had been, but received no response. The PM's office sent a copy of Choudhary's brief three-line statement on the comments, released last week in an effort at damage control. The statement said that he "personally abhors the practice of stoning" but stood by the teachings of the Koran. "I have been a devout Muslim all my life and stand by the teachings of the Koran - to me it is like the Bible is to a Christian. But as a matter of personal belief, I abhor stoning and am strongly opposed to violence,” he said, concluding the statement by saying no further comment would be made on the issue. However, gay community support groups are not letting Choudhary off so lightly. Neville Creighton of Auckland's Gay   

Credit: GayNZ.com News Staff

First published: Thursday, 14th July 2005 - 12:00pm

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