| | After submitting this article, I feared I might be misinterpreted as arguing that Asha himself was necessarily a homosexual, or that homosexuality itself was a direct cause of people becoming terrorists. I considered requesting the moderator to withdraw the article, so I might expand it, but since I don't wish to change my general thesis, I figured it would be better to leave the article stand and comment afterward.
There are several points that I find interesting.
In the West, the "celibate" priesthood has long been the refuge of the closeted homosexual - and the predatory womanizer. We need not discuss at length the damage that this has led to. But since the sexual revolution, with the freeing up of sexual mores, the number of men entering traditional seminaries has decreased, with the Catholic priesthood suffering a crisis in recruiting, one that far exceeds the drop in the number of practicing Catholics. While it might be impossible to elicit any evidence to prove this, the question does arise, is it possible that the priesthood had served as a safety valve and an alternative for homosexuals men in the West, as a safety valve which is now, due to the removal of much of the "oppression" of homosexuals, no longer needed and thus much more rarely used?
If the West did indeed have the priesthood as a escape for homosexuals in the past, what is the corresponding cultural phenomenon for this in the Muslim world? Imams and mullahs are not priests in the Western sense, and all are expected to marry. In Hindu India, homosexuality as it is practiced in the West as the "gay" lifestyle is not historically seen as an acceptable way of life, but transsexuals do have the alternative of serving in a eunuch religious caste which is treated simultaneously as holy and as untouchable, and which serves to officiate at traditional weddings in order to bring fertility blessings upon the married couple. There is no sanctioned analog to this in devout Muslim society under Sharia law.
Most cultures also have holidays analogous to the Brazilian Carnivale where role reversal, sexual and otherwise, is accepted on at least a limited basis and under the pretense of anonymity. What is the Muslim analog to this?
Historically, homosexuality has not necessarily been associated with a lack of manliness or military prowess. The Sacred Band of Thebes, which consisted exclusively of mutually paired male lovers sworn to battle to the death was a legendary force in ancient Greece. Likewise, the Janissaries of the Ottoman empire were kidnapped and enslaved boys who were a nominally celibate caste that were raised as the shock troops of the sultan. And there are many other historical examples.
Essentially, the phenomenon that strikes me as most interesting is the rise of fundamentalist Islam which, since the Iranian revolution, and more importantly the end of the Cold War, has coincided with the establishment of forms of Sharia Law from Pakistan to Algeria and with the abolishment of cosmopolitan and liberal lifestyles that have been replaced by religious militancy, anti-Western pogroms, and sexual repression on a large scale. During the Cold War, most Muslim societies were either aligned with the liberal West or the nominally scientific, atheist, and egalitarian Soviet Union. For Islam, this was a choice between two evils, either decadence or apostasy. Now that the Soviet Union has collapsed and the West has done little in its indolence to cement liberal reforms in only half-Westernized lands, we see the atavistic reactionary barbarity of Hamas, Hizbollah, Jamiat Islamiya, Al Qaida and so forth resurgent.
Is it any wonder that these barbaric forces, which simultaneously adopt Western arms and Qur'anic tactics would adopt the techniques tested and proven during the Palestinian-Israeli conflict of hijackings, roadside bombings, kidnapping, assassination - and suicide bombings? And is it any wonder that those who see themselves as misfits for whatever reason would be willing recruits to a cause which promises a heady combination of sex and death in the bargain?
Ted Keer
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This article caused a little controversy when I first posted it. I was surprised one day when I visited Slate to read Christopher Hitchens to find a link showing a video about homoerotic photos taken of Taliban warriors before their overthrow in 2001. I could not download the video as it is not Mac compatible. 
But Thomas Dworzak has documented a swath of homoerotic Taliban self-portraits. One can search google images using the keywords "dworzak taliban" or see his work for yourself here at 