In a survey of Amerin Mlims, 0% intified as lbian or gay. Here's the story behd that statistic | CNN

Contents:

• WT MIDLANDS SCHOOL CRICISED AFTER ATH THREATS TO GAY MLIM SPEAKER
• REPORT HEAVILY CRICIS WOOD GREEN AMY OVER ‘GAY MLIM’ LSON
• POLICE NOTIFIED AS GAY MLIM SPEAKER RECEIV 'ONLE THREATS' AFTER WOOD GREEN AMY TALK
• HECKLG OF GAY MLIM SPEAKER AT SCHOOL PROMPTS GOVERNMENT TO SEND VTIGATORS
• WHAT ’S LIKE TO BE GAY AND MLIM
• BEG GAY THE MLIM WORLD
• EVERYTHG YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT BEG GAY MLIM UNTRI
• IN A SURVEY OF AMERIN MLIMS, 0% INTIFIED AS LBIAN OR GAY. HERE’S THE STORY BEHD THAT STATISTIC
• CAN A MLIM BE GAY?
• WHAT IT’S LIKE TO BE GAY AND A MLIM
• GAY PEOPLE ARE RECLAIMG AN ISLAMIC HERAGE

WT MIDLANDS SCHOOL CRICISED AFTER ATH THREATS TO GAY MLIM SPEAKER

A Wt Midlands school has been cricised for failg to “teach ntroversial issu a way that is safe for everyone”, after a gay Mlim speaker was challenged by stunts and later received ath threats on social external report on Wood Green Amy Wednbury was missned after the cint November last year, which stunts qutned the speaker on his views about homosexualy and Qurhi, founr of the Birmgham Asian LGBT group, was ved to the school’s sixth form to speak on “diversy the face of adversy”, but the ssn appeared to scend to chaos, vios posted on social media Qurhi said there wasn’t anythg the Qur’an that said homosexualy was a s, stunts uld be heard sayg he was “offendg people” and “advotg the wrong thg”.

REPORT HEAVILY CRICIS WOOD GREEN AMY OVER ‘GAY MLIM’ LSON

Teachers tervened, wh one scribg the stunts’ ments as “homophobia” and another g a reference to 9/11 to expla how the UK was a “tolerant society” cint at the school of 1, 500 stunts led to parents formg the Wood Green Amy Actn Group, which said pupils were fearful about returng to school after the pennt report, sent to parents last month and seen by the Guardian, nclud: “There is clear evince there is sufficient awarens and experience to be able to liver the teachg of ntroversial issu a way that is safe for everyone. ”The group said had llected other plats om pupils and parents, cludg a pupil beg harassed for wearg a long skirt and headsrf, the school refg to create a signated prayer room, mothers beg nied entry to the school while wearg a veil and teachers failg to tervene ex-stunt said his younger sister was one of the pupils lled homophobic by a teacher the vio, before she was directed to a staff office where she started cryg.

Wt Midlands Police said vios of a fallout between staff and stunts at a Black Country school followg a vis om a gay Mlim speaker "uld be taken out of ntext" and "may be flamg the suatn". 5Pillars unrstands that over 50 Mlim stunts did not attend Wood Green Amy Wednbury yterday after pupils were discipled followg a vis to the school by “gay Mlim” activist Khakan Qurhi.

At a meetg at the Mada Edutn Tst on Sunday, attend by 160 people, Mlim parents and muny members said that their children felt fearful about gog back to school after their normative Islamic beliefs on LGBTQ issu were challenged by Mr Qurhi, who said was okay to be gay and Mlim and that the Quran do not nsir homosexualy to be a s.

POLICE NOTIFIED AS GAY MLIM SPEAKER RECEIV 'ONLE THREATS' AFTER WOOD GREEN AMY TALK

Police lled after teacher c 9/11 to rebe pupils homophobia row but lls attackers Mlims rather than terroristsGay Mlim mpaigner Khakan Qurhi spoke at a Wt Midlands schoolHe told Wood Green Amy Wednbury about g and beg a MlimHe was asked beg gay and Mlim was wrong and also received ath threats Teacher rebed class after he referred to the 9/11 terrorists as 'Mlims' Published: 22:34 BST, 19 November 2022 | Updated: 12:11 BST, 20 November 2022. A teacher has been dragged to an extraordary Islamophobia row after cg 9/11 while rebg pupils for clashg wh a gay Mlim mpaigner, Khakan Qurhi, was ved to Wood Green Amy Wednbury, Wt Midlands, last week to share his experience of g a tty Q&A exchange wh sixth-formers, Mr Qurhi faced hostile qutng, wh one stunt askg: 'Do you agree that beg gay and Mlim is wrong? He said that he gave a siar talk 2020 about beg gay and Mlim and was received warmly by this time, he was warned by teachers that he might face a more hostile dience as a number of Mlim pupils had moved to the Amy om a lol fah Qurhi said: 'They kept on sayg that you nnot be gay and Mlim, bee that ntradicts the Qur'an.

An pennt review of events at Wood Green Amy Wednbury last November – where pupils were discipled followg a vis to the school by “gay Mlim” activist Khakan Qurhi – has heavily cricised the amy for creatg an unsafe environment for children. Followg the RSHE lson on November 15, Mlim parents and muny members said that their children felt fearful about gog back to school after their normative Islamic beliefs on LGBTQ issu were challenged by Mr Qurhi, who said was okay to be gay and Mlim and that the Quran do not nsir homosexualy to be a s. This led to a verbal nontatn wh some children before teachers tervened scribg the stunts’ ments as “homophobia” wh one g a reference to 9/11 to expla how the UK was a “tolerant society.

The sixth form pupils asked him if he agreed that "beg gay and Mlim is wrong" and he was asked to "prove" he was really a follower of the an d clip of the November cint, one stunt is heard sayg "you allowed a gay Mlim to tell li" while another says: "There is only one Koran, what the f--- is this guy on".

HECKLG OF GAY MLIM SPEAKER AT SCHOOL PROMPTS GOVERNMENT TO SEND VTIGATORS

Acrdg to Qudrah, they were terrogated and beaten every day for around a week, as the prison warns tried to make them nfs they were gay: "God is angry wh Nigeria bee of people like you, " they said. In Nigeria, mob vlence agast gay men has bee creasgly mon sce January 2014, when Print Goodluck Jonathan passed a harsh law crimalizg same-sex relatnships throughout the untry.

Acrdg to a report the Washgton Post, ten untri impose the ath penalty for homosexual acts: Sdi Arabia, Sudan, Yemen, Iran, Mrania, parts of Nigeria and Somalia, the Uned Arab Emirat, Iraq, and Qatar.

Zafar Bangash, an imam and journalist who serv as the Director of Contemporary Islamic Thought and print of an Islamic Society chapter Canada, has openly lled for gays to be stoned to ath: "My brothers and sisters, is not time to live existence wh them. God is very straightforward about this — not we Mlims, not subjective, the Sharia is very clear about , the punishment for homosexualy, btialy or anythg like that is ath. 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.

WHAT ’S LIKE TO BE GAY AND MLIM

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.

BEG GAY THE MLIM WORLD

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. 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.

EVERYTHG YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT BEG GAY MLIM UNTRI

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.

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.

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.

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

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. 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.

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.

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. 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.

CAN A MLIM BE GAY?

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.

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:.

WHAT IT’S LIKE TO BE GAY AND A MLIM

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.

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.

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.

GAY PEOPLE ARE RECLAIMG AN ISLAMIC HERAGE

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. 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.

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. 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.