This quote from the New Yorker article on the prisoner abuse scandal in Iraq...
Such dehumanization is unacceptable in any culture, but it is especially so in the Arab world. Homosexual acts are against Islamic law and it is humiliating for men to be naked in front of other men, Bernard Haykel, a professor of Middle Eastern studies at New York University, explained. “Being put on top of each other and forced to masturbate, being naked in front of each other—it’s all a form of torture,” Haykel said.
Right. Ask any American man how he'd feel about being in that situation. I suspect he wouldn't feel much more positively about being forced to participate in sex acts with other men at gunpoint. I know, I know, he said such "dehumanization is unacceptable in any culture"...
