The following are excerpts from a TV show featuring the Islamic cleric Tareq Sweidan, which aired on Qatar TV on April 22, 2005.

Sweidan: "Anyone caught committing sodomy – kill both the sodomizer and the sodomized." The clerics determined how the homosexual should be killed. They said he should be stoned to death. Some clerics said he should be thrown off a mountain. This is an abominable act in human life, and so the punishment is severe.

Moral values – with them societies rise and without them, they collapse. If moral values sink to this level, Man becomes lower than a beast. Therefore, the punishment was extremely severe, and the position of Islam was clear and courageous. There should be no lenience in this case, and governments and countries must enforce the law strictly against anyone committing such an abomination. No one should say it is a matter of genes or a personal issue that doesn't concern us. This could cause the deviation of society as a whole, if it spreads, as it did among the people of Lot.