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:
- A GAY IMAM'S STORY: 'THE DIALOGUE IS OPEN ISLAM – 10 YEARS AGO WASN'T'
- EVERYTHG YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT BEG GAY MLIM UNTRI
- HOMOSEXUALY ISLAM: CRIL REFLECTN ON GAY, LBIAN, AND TRANSGENR MLIMS PAPERBACK – FEBARY 1, 2010
- GAY PEOPLE ARE RECLAIMG AN ISLAMIC HERAGE
A GAY IMAM'S STORY: 'THE DIALOGUE IS OPEN ISLAM – 10 YEARS AGO WASN'T'
* homosexuality in islam *
For homosexualy volv numerable evil and harms, and the one to whom is done would be better off beg killed than havg this done to him, bee after that he will bee so evil and so rpt that there n be no hope of his beg reformed, and all good is lost for him, and he will no longer feel any shame before Allah or before His creatn. In the Wt today, where homosexualy was once nsired an illns by the Associatn of Psychiatrists, has now been removed om the list and replaced by homophobia (the dislike of homosexuals and homosexualy). Furthermore, June 1994, the Chigo Tribune reported that a junr rearcher Hamer’s laboratory who assisted the gene mappg the homosexualy study, alleged that he selectively reported his data.
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. 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.
EVERYTHG YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT BEG GAY MLIM UNTRI
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 * homosexuality in islam *
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.
HOMOSEXUALY ISLAM: CRIL REFLECTN ON GAY, LBIAN, AND TRANSGENR MLIMS PAPERBACK – FEBARY 1, 2010
The group's public executns of gay men are part of a liberate moral policg mpaign, one aimed at showg supporters and enemi alike that means to enforce s narrow, atavistic view of Islamic law wherever n. * homosexuality in islam *
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 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:.
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.
GAY PEOPLE ARE RECLAIMG AN ISLAMIC HERAGE
Homosexualy Islam: Cril Reflectn on Gay, Lbian, and Transgenr Mlims: 9781851687015: Kugle, Stt Siraj Al-Haqq: Books * homosexuality in islam *
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. How Amerin Mlims Mt Rpond to Orlando Israel's First Gay Major General Is No Cse for Pri The Real Opprsors of Gaza's Gay Communy Beit Pri Canceled After Organizer Detaed by Authori Lebanon last year beme the first Arab untry to hold a gay pri week, though the openg event was nceled bee of safety ncerns after threats of vlence.
In Egypt, there have been police raids of spected gay gathergs and people have been put on trial g a vague legal text that equat homosexualy wh prostut and tri gays for "vlatg public moraly. " "Middle Eastern and North Ain untri have nounced the Orlando shootg when at the same time they crimalize homosexualy wh sentenc rangg om years prison to the ath penalty, " said Ahmed Benchemsi, munitns and advocy director for the Middle East and North Ai at Human Rights Watch. 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. 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.