MEDIA RELEASE

Christians & Muslims Stand Together to Stem STD Epidemic

The Rev Fred Nile has commended the Islamic community for their stance on Sex Education and has called on both Christian and Muslim communities to stand together to stem the tide of a growing epidemic in Sexually Transmitted Diseases.

“I commend the Islamic community, especially their schools for their stand on Sex Education. I would like to echo the comments made by the principal of Minaret College, Mohamed Hassan; if you tell children that ‘Safe Sex’ is ok, you are basically inferring that sexual promiscuity is fine as long as you take precautions. It is not.

Sexual promiscuity, especially amongst adolescents, can and does have profound effects that can manifest for an entire lifetime. We now have a situation where many young women think it expected of them to offer exotic sexual favours to gain acceptance, popularity and male attention. Many young males in return come to regard women as sex toys for their own personal gratification. Young lives are scarred and destroyed in the process”, Rev Fred Nile stated.

“Even ignoring the significant moral, psychological, emotional and spiritual effects that such practices can have on our young, the physical consequences can be horrific.

Despite intensive Federal and State education programs on so-called “Safe-Sex”, in excess of 52,000 Australians contract a sexually transmitted disease every year. In NSW, Syphilis has increased 15%, Gonococcal Infections 47% and Chlamydia a whopping 220% since this time in 2000. 11, 293 people, 60.7% of whom are 15-24 year olds contracted Chlamydia alone last year. This year in NSW we are getting around 835 new reported cases of Chlamydia per month! Many more remain unreported.

The term “Safe Sex” is a misnomer that only further exacerbates the problem as our young are blinded to the dangers before them. There is no such thing as “safe sex”. It’s time our legislators began teaching children the value of personal pride, respect, dignity and ethics. Abstinence until marriage is the ONLY ‘Safe Sex’ and if educators where to start teaching that, we may just still have a chance to save some of our children from the burgeoning problems of STDs and social deterioration.

The Christian and Muslim community agree on this issue and we will both pray that legislators head our concerns”, stated Rev Nile.