Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan
on Monday said that he agreed with Turkey's top Muslim cleric's claim
that homosexuality “brings disease and causes this generation to
decay.”
According to NBC
News, Eli Erbas made the comments on Friday as he gave his first
sermon during the holy month of Ramadan. He also told followers that
homosexuality and adultery are responsible for HIV and called for an
end to “this kind of evil.”
Human rights groups criticized Erbas,
but Erdogan backed him up and chided the groups for attacking Islam.
The president said that Erbas had
fulfilled the duties of “faith, the wisdom [of Islam], and of his
office.”
The Turkish government said that it
will charge human rights groups who criticized Erbas with “insulting
religious values.”
In 2001, Erdogan founded the
conservative Justice and Development Party (AKP), the nation's
largest political party. It has been accused of being Islamist, an
accusation the party has denied.