A top Imam in the Tatarstan city of Kazan has warned believers not to go to the Elton John concert in the city in December out of concern for their moral well-being.
Saidjagfar Lutfullin, chief Imam of Kazan's Zakabanna mosque, spoke about "lessons" passed on by ancestors and blamed homosexuality for the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, Interfax reported Thursday.
"The two legendary biblical cities which were destroyed by Allah for the sins of its inhabitants — for same-sex relationships, homosexuality," he said in a statement.
Homosexuality "is promoted by Elton John, known throughout the world to be gay," Lutfullin added, Interfax reported Thursday.
"We are seeing how our healthy and moral society is being attacked by nonconformists and perverts. I think that we must prevent this with the help of the media, by sermons and discussions about the nature of humanity and the prolongation of the human race, about the schemings of the Devil, in the form of a sodomite — Elton John," the Imam said.
Elton John said last month that he would perform in Moscow in December, despite the Russian government's adoption of a law in June banning the promotion of "non-traditional sexual relations" to minors, which has been labelled anti-gay by the LGBT community.
"As a gay man, I can't leave those people on their own without going over there and supporting them. I don't know what's going to happen, but I've got to go," the singer said in an interview with The Guardian in September.
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