Why high-flyg barrister Mohs Zaidi’s memoir of a gay Mlim’s journey to acceptance is a mt-read | Tatler

Contents:

• WHY DID GAY MLIM ICS DISAPPEAR OM INSTAGRAM?
• IN A SURVEY OF AMERIN MLIMS, 0% INTIFIED AS LBIAN OR GAY. HERE’S THE STORY BEHD THAT STATISTIC
• CAN A MLIM BE GAY?
• GAY AND MLIM: FAY WANTED TO 'MAKE ME BETTER'
• GAY PEOPLE ARE RECLAIMG AN ISLAMIC HERAGE
• GENEVA COLLEGE ALLEGEDLY FIR GAY SOCCER ACH AFTER INSTAGRAM POSTS ABOUT CLIVENS
• A GAY GIRL’S GUI TO THE 2023 WOMEN’S WORLD CUP
• JAGUARS ACH KEV MAXEN RECEIV OVERWHELMG SUPPORT AFTER G OUT AS GAY
• DIPLOMATIC TENSN REPORTEDLY RISG BETWEEN UNED STAT AND JAMAI OVER GAY AMERIN DIPLOMAT
• JAGUARS STRENGTH COACH KEV MAXEN COM OUT AS GAY
• WHAT IT’S LIKE TO BE GAY AND A MLIM
• WHY HIGH-FLYG BARRISTER MOHS ZAIDI’S MEMOIR OF A GAY MLIM’S JOURNEY TO ACCEPTANCE IS A MT-READ
• EVERYTHG YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT BEG GAY MLIM UNTRI
• WTERN'S MOVE TO TAKE DOWN ANTI-HOMOPHOBIA POST ULD DO HARM, SAYS GAY MLIM
• GAY MLIM IC GONE OM INSTAGRAM AFTER INDONIA WARNG
• LOVE JIHAD: ORLANDO AND GAY MLIMS

WHY DID GAY MLIM ICS DISAPPEAR OM INSTAGRAM?

Image source, Twter/InstagramEarlier this week, an Instagram acunt which posted ic strips pictg the stggl of gay Mlims Indonia vanished om the social media se. One Instagram er had asked others to report , sayg s pictn of gay Mlims was not "feasible" others fend the acunt, sayg was jt pictg life for gay Mlims source, Twter/fedrianrpOne lecturer at the Fahma Instute of Islamic Studi said he objected to the ics. Last year, Blued - one of the world's largt gay datg apps - was pulled om Indonia's Google store rponse to ernment gay men were also publicly ned - receivg 85 lash each - Aceh last year.

IN A SURVEY OF AMERIN MLIMS, 0% INTIFIED AS LBIAN OR GAY. HERE’S THE STORY BEHD THAT STATISTIC

Ani Zonneveld says she receiv lls regularly om young gay and lbian Mlims who have been threatened by their fay or are aaid to reveal their sexual inty. Now, Qadhi often prefac his remarks about homosexualy by notg that “feelgs and clatns” are not themselv sful, and that homosexual acts should not be sgled out for special nmnatn. Mogahed herself me unr attack several years ago after a Gallup survey showed that no Brish Mlims – as , 0% – said homosexualy was morally acceptable.

Ever sce the landmark US Supreme Court cisn on June 26 makg same-sex marriage legal the US, bate has emerged among Mlims worldwi about the mer of the lg, wh the obv implitn if they as Mlims approve or disapprove of a person beg a gay while profsg to be a Mlim. “But many Mlims on social media lashed out, ” another utned, “sayg ‘qiyamah’, the day of judgement, was near while the story of Lot nmng homosexualy holy scriptur, cludg the Quran, is beg ignored. Leadg scholars of this field such as Joseph Massad have radilly ntted the manner which what he terms “gay ternatnal” has imperially domated the variety of homoerotic domas Arab and Mlim history.

Samar Habib’s eded two volum Islam and Homosexualy (2009) and Khaled El-Rouayheb’s Before Homosexualy the Arab-Islamic World, 1500-1800 (2009) are exampl of such groundbreakg work.

CAN A MLIM BE GAY?

Stt Siraj al-Haqq Kugle, Homosexualy Islam: Cril Reflectn on Gay, Lbian, and Transgenr Mlims (2010) is another cril example, pl the work of other scholars such as Kecia Ali, Serena Tolo and Sara Omar.

Ludovic-Mohamed Zahed wrote a ccial tobgraphy, The Koran and the Flh/Le Coran et la chair (2012), Jerry Wright’s Homoeroticism Classil Arabic Lerature, and Helie and Hoodfar’s Sexualy Mlim Contexts have expand our historil unrstandg of the issue, while Joseph Massad’s Dirg Arabs (2007) took the whole disurse of homosexualy radilly to task. The legalisatn of same-sex marriage the Uned Stat will do very ltle to dimish the ep-rooted homophobia this untry, as ed the Emancipatn Proclamatn of 1863 did not entirely end racism; or Roe v Wa of 1973 end patriarchy, machismo, and misogyny; or Brown v Board of Edutn of 1954 end school segregatn, which has ntued apace along class l to this day.

It n then e them all as exampl to enurage Mlims at large to participate open, hont, and rmed discsns articulatg and safeguardg their civil liberti across the board – which clus, but isn’t limed to, gay rights and the possibily of the acceptance of same-sex marriage wh Mlim muni. When Asad me out as gay 2020, some fay members discsed takg him to see an imam to make him "better" the months that followed, his mental health cled and he had suicidal thoughts.

GAY AND MLIM: FAY WANTED TO 'MAKE ME BETTER'

They discsed their experienc and the need for better support for gay people g out relig by Michael BBC Actn Le for rmatn and support on mental Newsbeat on Instagram, Facebook, Twter and to Newsbeat live at 12:45 and 17:45 weekdays - or listen back here.

In the old days Mlims were que tolerant of homosexualyFOR DECADES regim the Middle East have alleged that homosexualy is both morally unacceptable and a Wtern import.

GAY PEOPLE ARE RECLAIMG AN ISLAMIC HERAGE

“All the homophobic laws the Middle East were brought by lonialism to unrme Islam’s permissive civilisatn, ” says Ramy Khouili, a Tunisian to this story. Back then, “you uld be wh a man or a woman, ” says the transgenr founr of north Ai’s first gay movement, the Abu Nawas Associatn, named after a great Arab poet, who was gay.

The entertament quarter is home to Soho’s gay bars, night clubs and alhol-servg venu, which are prohibed Aziz Foundatn has said the mosque will ter to both tourists and Mlims workg the Aziz, who is nicknamed Mr Wt End, was acced of beg `Bra’s ‘meant landlord’ by the Tim durg lockdown after allegedly threateng his Wt End tenants, which clu ffee and ke cha Caffe Concerto and several cktail bars, wh wdg-up petns if they did not pay their rent on Aziz told the Tim 2020 that he was “tough but fair”. Last time at the 2019 Women’s World Cup, the Netherlands lay claim to the honor of beg the team wh the most out LGBTQ players, but this year Atralia boasts 10 out players and overtak them for the tle of Gayt Team 2k23. Ireland’s historic entry to the tournament marks another triumph for out midfielr Sead Farrelly, whose natnal team but and 2023 return to the NWSL e more than six years after retirg om soccer the wake of systemic homophobic and sexual abe wh the league, which the Athletic first reported on 2021.

Lol NewsMIAMI – The diplomatic ti between the Uned Stat and Jamai uld soon be are reports that Jamai is refg to accred the spoe of a gay Amerin diplomat. The Orlando shootg was a hate crime agast gay people — even if, once emerged that the attacker had been a Mlim, many people claimed this as a terrorist attack rather than a hate crime.

GENEVA COLLEGE ALLEGEDLY FIR GAY SOCCER ACH AFTER INSTAGRAM POSTS ABOUT CLIVENS

Sce the massacre, there has been a lot of speculatn about Islam and homosexualy, and there are fears that one man’s spible act of terrorism uld fan the flam of Islamophobia and other forms of social excln, leadg to disrd and unrt an era of elevated Islamophobia. They tend to draw on the story of Lot the Koran (also the Old Ttament) which reunts the stctn of the tribe of Lot allegedly due to their engagement homosexual acts as “evince” for God’s nmnatn of homosexualy. In my rearch to attus ncerng homosexualy among sampl of first and send-generatn Brish Mlims of Pakistani scent, I found that attus tend to be largely negative.

Although rearch to attus towards homosexualy the general populatn pots to mographic variabl, such as age and level of tn, as key termants of the nature of attus, this has not been the se my own work wh Brish Mlims. Moreover, there was a fundamental rejectn of sentialist arguments ncerng the origs of sexual orientatn — that people are born gay and that they do not “choose” to be gay — and terviewe often argued that people had “chosen” to be gay.

A GAY GIRL’S GUI TO THE 2023 WOMEN’S WORLD CUP

Although many Brish Mlims may disapprove of the ncept of homosexualy, several dividuals reported posive first-hand experienc of ntact wh LGBT people.

Some people spoke fondly of their LGBT iends, neighbors and acquatanc, suggtg that first-hand ntact may challenge homophobia which exists at an abstract, nceptual level. In view of the generally negative attus towards homosexualy Mlim muni and the silence that n surround discsns of sexualy, most of my Mlim gay terviewe have manifted a poor self-image and low psychologil well-beg. It is easy to see how belief the negativy of homosexualy om the perspective of one’s fah (which, untls studi has emerged as an important inty among Brish Asian Mlims) uld e some gay Mlims to velop ternalized homophobia and, some s, to doubt the thenticy of their Mlim inty.

JAGUARS ACH KEV MAXEN RECEIV OVERWHELMG SUPPORT AFTER G OUT AS GAY

Ccially, makg sense of the “” unrlyg their sexual orientatn, some gay Mlims were of the view that they had “bee” gay as a rult of their social environment and nsequently blamed Brish society:. I’m gay bee I was brought up here [ Bra] but I reckon if I’d been brought up Pakistan then I would have turned out straight bee this don’t happen that much there.

As I’ve wrten elsewhere, the EastEnrs storyle ncerng Syed Mehmood, a gay Mlim character who stggl to e out to his parents, generated some discsn the Brish Mlim muny and led some dividuals to acknowledge the existence of homosexualy wh their muny. In addn to improvg relatns between groups, is likely that this exercise will have posive out for well-beg among those dividuals who self-intify as Mlim and gay.

Growg up an environment which you are led to believe that your sexual orientatn is wrong, sful or symptomatic of mental illns n lead to profound social and psychologil challeng, cludg ternalized homophobia, low self-teem, prsn and, some s, suicidal thoughts. But if is te that he was a closeted homosexual — was reported that he had ed gay datg applitns and equented gay bars, cludg the one that he attacked — he clearly had a very difficult relatnship wh this aspect of his inty. There is already some empiril evince that homophobia is associated wh homosexual aroal, which suggts that homophobia might be a means of distancg homosexualy om one’s sense of self.

DIPLOMATIC TENSN REPORTEDLY RISG BETWEEN UNED STAT AND JAMAI OVER GAY AMERIN DIPLOMAT

‘A Dutiful Boy’ is Zaidi’s story of growg up a strict Mlim hoehold where to be gay was nceivable – has been scribed as ‘a book that will save liv’Twter: @FoylMohs Zaidi, 35, was recently terviewed the Tim – not jt terviewed, they chose the handsome, high-flyg, Oxford-ted barrister to grace the weekend magaze’s ver. Journalist Sathnam Sangera says ‘’s a book that will save liv’ book, A Dutiful Boy, rells a childhood growg up queer a strict Mlim hoehold wh a vout shia Mlim muny – where to be gay was neivable. Sathnam wr that an uncle lled him ‘Fag Bag’ for simply listeng to Mariah Carey and that on drivg past a Gay Pri march London as a teenager, such was the extent of his self-loathg, he remarked that ‘they should all be bombed’.

JAGUARS STRENGTH COACH KEV MAXEN COM OUT AS GAY

He is on the board of Stonewall, the chary that mpaigns for the qualy of LGBTQIA+ across Bra, named after the rts 1969 that prompted the gay liberatn movement. Sathnam Sanghera wr that he had to put the book down on several ocsns to cry, g an example of when Zaidi’s brother works all out and texts him sayg, ‘I’m jt so sorry you had to go through alone’ FT's former edor Lnel Barber and Afua Hirsch are among the many to remend the memoir, by all acunts, ’s a eply movg acunt that is well worth lvg to – pecially sce even the 21st century, homosexualy remas a taboo many Brish Asian muni. Acrdg to the kgdom’s relig police, the school was fed 100, 000 riyals ($26, 650) for displayg “the emblem of the homosexuals” on s buildg, one of s admistrators was jailed and the offendg parapet was swiftly repated to match a blue rabow-ee se of the gaily pated school shows how progrs one part of the world n have adverse effects elsewhere and serv as a remr that there are plac where the nnectn between rabows and LGBT rights is eher new or yet to be Afghanistan, only a few years ago, there was a craze for ratg rs wh rabow stickers – which Che factori were only too happy to supply.

It wasn’t until the Afghan Pajhwok news agency explaed how they might be misterpreted that the craze me to a sudn on the ter and you will also fd pi of the “Rabow Qur’an” for sale – an unnscly gay edn of the holy book wh tted pag of every hue and remend on one webse as “an ial gift for Mlims” there are two sis to this cross-cultural misunrstandg.

Genr segregatn, which go to extreme lengths the more nservative Mlim untri, enurag homosocial behavur, creatg a suatn where men are often more fortable the prence of other men and where placg a hand on another man’s knee is a sign of iendship, not an vatn to sex.

WHAT IT’S LIKE TO BE GAY AND A MLIM

Historilly, Mlim societi have often acknowledged this – toleratg to some extent even if they the 19th and early 20th centuri, men who had been persecuted for their sexualy Europe often sought refuge Moroc and, long before same-sex marriage was dreamed of the wt, male-on-male partnerships were regnised – and marked wh a ceremony – the remote Egyptian oasis of some Mlim untri, whole towns have bee the butt of jok about the supposed homosexualy of their habants.

In Egypt, for example, an old law agast “bchery” is often laws have a tastrophic effect on the liv of people who are unlucky enough to get ught but, spe ocsnal crackdowns, the thori don’t, on the whole, actively seek out gay people to arrt them. In England 1952, there were 670 prosecutns for sodomy, 3, 087 for attempted sodomy or cent asslt, and 1, 686 for gross problem wh such laws, even if not vigoroly enforced, is that they signal official disapproval of homosexualy and, upled wh the fulmatns of relig scholars, legimise discrimatn by dividuals at an everyday level and may also provi an exce for actn by vigilant. Years before Isis began throwg allegedly gay men off the top of buildgs, other groups Iraq were attackg “un-manly” men – sometim killg them slowly by jectg glue to the reason for the paratively small number of prosecutns is the official fictn that gay people don’t exist to any great extent Mlim untri; homosexualy is regard primarily as a wtern phenomenon and large numbers of arrts would ll that to qutn.

Some of the most btal Arab regim (Iraq unr Saddam Hse and Syria unr the Assads, for example) also showed ltle tert attackg gay people – probably bee they had other thgs to worry Syrian refugee Subhi Nahas wh the US ambassador to the UN, Samantha Power, durg an rmal meetg on the persecutn of LGBT people by Isis. For those ught, the effect on their liv is tastrophic but the law is not much of a terrent and for those who are discreet about their sexualy the risk of arrt is the vast majory who intify as gay, lbian or transgenr the attus of fay and society are a much bigger one issue that affects all gay people – everywhere – at some pot their liv is g out. In Egypt and Lebanon – predomantly Mlim untri wh a large Christian populatn – attus towards homosexualy among Christians are not very different om those among Mlims.

WHY HIGH-FLYG BARRISTER MOHS ZAIDI’S MEMOIR OF A GAY MLIM’S JOURNEY TO ACCEPTANCE IS A MT-READ

Also, ’s clear that the prophet Muhammad never specified a punishment for homosexualy; wasn’t until some years after his ath that Mlims began discsg what a suable punishment might nmnatns of homosexualy, like those Christiany, are based maly on the story about God’s punishment of Sodom and Gomorrah which is reunted the Qur’an as well as the Old Ttament. Although Mlim societi today n be scribed as generally homophobic, ’s a mistake to view homophobia as a self-ntaed problem: ’s part of a syndrome which the rights of dividuals are subsumed the perceived terts of the muny and – often – matag an “Islamic” ethos. “Transgenr” is a broad term which clus tersex people (whose blogil sex is unclear or was wrongly assigned at birth), those wh genr dysphoria (who feel like “a man trapped a woman’s body”, or vice versa) and may also clu others who simply get pleasure or satisfactn om police e a water nnon to disperse LGBT rights activists before a Gay Pri para central Istanbul, Turkey.

EVERYTHG YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT BEG GAY MLIM UNTRI

There were also many who found the ncept of genr dysphoria difficult to grasp and some characterised her as a gay man who was tryg to game the affair rulted a fatwa om Muhammad Tantawi, Egypt’s grand mufti, which is still ced s across the regn today. There are plenty of trans people who simply wish to be accepted as they are – whout surgery – and the Iranian system don’t really provi for, the difference between beg transgenr and gay is not well unrstood Iran, even wh the medil profsn, and there have been reports of gay men beg prsured to surgery as a way of “regularisg” their legal posn and avoidg the risk of executn.

WTERN'S MOVE TO TAKE DOWN ANTI-HOMOPHOBIA POST ULD DO HARM, SAYS GAY MLIM

My Kali, a Jordanian magaze which aims “to addrs homophobia and transphobia and empower the youth to fy mastream genr bari the Arab world” has been published regularly sce far, no one has attempted to hold a Pri para an Arab untry, though there have been paras the Turkish cy of Istanbul sce 2003 (not whout opposn).

However, there have been activi Lebanon and elsewhere lked to IDAHOT, the Internatnal Day Agast Homophobia and Transphobia, which is viewed as ls likely to aroe hostily. Relativ of 26 men who were arrted a televised raid by police lookg for gay people at a Cairo public bathhoe celebrate after the urt acquted them. Far om wng praise for exposg “the secret behd the spreadg of Aids Egypt”, the programme’s prenter was roundgly nmned and later ran to legal April, the thori Amman, Jordan, ncelled a ncert by Mashrou’ Leila, a popular Lebane rock band wh an openly gay sger, jt a few days before was due to take place.

Such was the outcry on social media that the thori rcd their cisn 24 hours later – though too late to reanise the ncert as origally the relig ont, prevailg Islamic views of homosexualy have been challenged here and there, but not on a sle that is likely to make much difference. There are a handful of gay-iendly mosqu and a few openly gay imams – cludg Muhs Hendricks South Ai, Daayiee Abdullah the US, and Ludovic-Mohamed Zahed, a French-Algerian, very noticeably, are the diaspora rather than the Mlim heartlands, but the diaspora is where Islam is forced to nont realy – not the untri where is protected and illtratn of where this n lead me Bra 2007 over the Sexual Orientatn Regulatns – a measure maly tend to prevent bs om discrimatg agast gay people. Shawn Ahmed is a gay Mlim who wish Wtern Universy had been able to whstand a thunrstorm of cricism about a post on their Instagram acunt that featured an illtratn of two women, both wearg hijabs, about to kiss.

GAY MLIM IC GONE OM INSTAGRAM AFTER INDONIA WARNG

"Our tent wh the post was to monstrate Wtern's unwaverg support for the 2SLGBTQ+ muny on the Internatnal Day Agast Homophobia, Transphobia, and Biphobia, " the post said. "Shawn Ahmed is a gay Mlim who appreciated the Instagram's post msage of clivy and wish that Wtern Universy did not bow to prsure and take down.

LOVE JIHAD: ORLANDO AND GAY MLIMS

JAKARTA, Indonia (AP) — An Instagram acunt that published ic strips pictg the stggl of gay Mlims Indonia has disappeared followg a enzy of outrage onle the world’s biggt Mlim Mistry of Communitns said the acunt unr the ername Alpatuni was pornographic, a vlatn of a law on rmatn and electronic transactns. The ics picted gay characters facg discrimatn and abe, which has bee creasgly mon Indonia sce late 2015 when nservative policians and relig lears began a mpaign of portrayg lbian, gay, bisexual and transgenr people as a threat.

The munitns mistry said appreciated that members of the muny reported the gay Mlim acunt, which “accelerated” s Indonian izens ngratulated the mistry. PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY HARAM FILMSWhen he was twenty-five, Naveed Merchant, tormented by the tensn between his Islamic fah and his homosexualy, swallowed almost three hundred Tylenol pills. Rencilg his Mlim and gay inti has nsumed him ever Mateen’s attack on the gay night club Pulse, Orlando, the largt mass shootg by a lone gunman U.

Sce Sunday, qutns about Mateen’s sexual inty—prompted by his possible sexual exploratn at Pulse and on several gay-datg apps—have also focsed on one of the most margalized groups the Uned Stat: gay Mlims. “We’re not alg only wh homophobia and transphobia, ” Urooj Arshad, who is on the steerg mtee of the Mlim Alliance for Sexual and Genr Diversy, told me. ”The Uned Stat may be home to more than a quarter ln Mlims who are gay, lbian, bisexual, transgenr, tersex, or queer, acrdg to Imam Daayiee Abdullah, a gay Mlim cleric Washgton, D.