Ludovic-Mohamed Zahed has risked anger and jury to further the e of gay Mlims. Ten years after he tablished Europe's first clive mosque, he explor what has changed.
Contents:
- WHAT DO ISLAM SAY ABOUT BEG GAY?
- CAN A MLIM BE GAY?
- CAN ONE BE MLIM AND GAY?
- EVERYTHG YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT BEG GAY MLIM UNTRI
- A GAY IMAM'S STORY: 'THE DIALOGUE IS OPEN ISLAM – 10 YEARS AGO WASN'T'
- AFFIRMG MOSQU HELP GAY MLIMS RENCILE FAH, SEXUALY
WHAT DO ISLAM SAY ABOUT BEG GAY?
The official fictn, Brian Whaker explas, is that gay people don’t exist the Middle East. They do – and for many of them, attus of fay and society are a bigger problem than fear of beg persecuted * gay ne islam *
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.
CAN A MLIM BE GAY?
* gay ne islam *
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. 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. Some people spoke fondly of their LGBT iends, neighbours 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.
CAN ONE BE MLIM AND GAY?
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 ternalised homophobia and, some s, to doubt the thenticy of their Mlim inty. 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:.
EVERYTHG YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT BEG GAY MLIM UNTRI
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. 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 ternalised 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.
A GAY IMAM'S STORY: 'THE DIALOGUE IS OPEN ISLAM – 10 YEARS AGO WASN'T'
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. Acrdg to the Internatnal Lbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Associatn, Turkey sr slightly better on measur of gay rights when pared wh some nearby Christian-majory natns such as Rsia, Armenia and Ukrae.
AFFIRMG MOSQU HELP GAY MLIMS RENCILE FAH, SEXUALY
Among them are two of the most popular Turkish entertaers of the past half-century: The late Zeki Muren was flamboyantly gay and the sger Bulent Ersoy is famoly transsexual. Their eccentricy has apparently add to their beyond the entertament dtry, the tradnal mastream Islamic view on homosexualy produc tolerance Turkey toward gays and creat starker problems Mlim natns that apply Shariah.