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:
- IN A SURVEY OF AMERIN MLIMS, 0% INTIFIED AS LBIAN OR GAY. HERE’S THE STORY BEHD THAT STATISTIC
- 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'
IN A SURVEY OF AMERIN MLIMS, 0% INTIFIED AS LBIAN OR GAY. HERE’S THE STORY BEHD THAT STATISTIC
Beg lbian, gay, bisexual, transgenr, or any other sexual orientatn or genr inty is difficult enough on s own, but beg Mlim as well n e one to stggle wh rencilg their inty wh Islam and Allah. However,... * lgbt islam *
1IntroductnThis year on May 17, Canada’s Internatnal Day Agast Homophobia, Transphobia, and Biphobia, a poster, promoted unr the spic of a Canadian universy, picted two Mlim women headsrv on the verge of kissg. ” The poster also featured a biracial homosexual uple, a black heterosexual uple, and a uple nsistg of a fully-abled and a disabled person, alongsi the two Mlim women, wh each uple engagg a romantic act.
The LGBTQ Natn article end wh the followg statement: “Mlim culture isn’t herently anti-gay: the Qur’an says nothg about homosexualy (unlike the Bible); Islamic history is filled wh texts openly pictg homosexualy as a betiful, matter-of-fact thg; and more Amerin Mlims support same-sex marriage than do Christian Evangelils, Prottants, and Mormons, acrdg to a Pew Rearch Study. ”4 The amg of the article as a whole, om s tle to s fal paragraph, portrays Mlims who objected to the poster as unnecsarily “homophobic”: they were prottg a betiful thg that their own relig scripture supposedly do not nmn and that their own history has allegedly celebrated for the end, however, the universy acquiced to the mands of the Mlim muny and pulled the poster down.
Even agast the aggrsive agenda of the cultural, polil, and palist el, the Mlim muny sred a small but signifint victory for their fah and favor of tth and elaborated below, Islam’s prohibn of homosexual acts is tegoril, and s teachgs on genr relatns and sexual norms are foundatnal and separable om belief Allah and His revelatn. Given the prodig changg of the cultural wds, is no longer sufficient for Mlims—and others who disapprove of same-sex relatnships—simply to say that they do not approve of homosexual behavr the same way that they do not approve of drkg or premaral sex between men and women.
EVERYTHG YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT BEG GAY MLIM UNTRI
For many LGBT Mlims, g out of the closet to their fai and relig muni n be a ght cisn. One Mlim lear says she receiv lls regularly om young gay and lbian Mlims who are aaid to reveal their sexual inty. * lgbt islam *
The disurse on homosexualy has shifted so quickly and radilly that the old Mlim fens and attus (“It is not our problem, ” “How is this different for Mlims om fornitn or we-drkg?, ” or “Live and let live”) have bee effective and we are nonted wh grave challeng. To our young, llege-gog Amerin Mlim, who generally champns liberal the name of jtice and love, to say that “beg gay” is haram might be like sayg that beg Arab or South Asian is haram. It then discs homosexualy and transgenrism om two angl: om the Islamic moral and legal (sharʿī) nsiratns, followed by a discsn of how to support Mlims who stggle wh same-sex attractns.
In the years followg gay marriage legalizatn, Same Street, SpongeBob, and other such rtoons were also featurg openly LGBT-intifyg LGBT narrative has also permeated at an stutnal level wh several stat, cludg California, Colorado, Illois, New Jersey, Oregon, Rho Island, and Washgton, mandatg LGBT tn var public schools, some as early as elementary school. 15 This reprents a prime example of how an allegedly entertament-oriented rporatn, known for producg rtoons and movi, n be policized and absorbed by the burng qutns of the a siar move earlier this year, a Burger Kg ad Atria proudly featured the “Pri Whopper, ” a burger wh matchg top and bottom buns—a not so subtle reference to homosexual male terurse where one partner plays the top role and the other the bottom role.
Ironilly, the cricism was directed not at this vulgar sexual reprentatn a s-old fast food rporatn but at the cha’s failure to unrstand “how gay sex works” and the accatn of “rabow-washg” durg Pri Month. In this ntext, the terms are ed wh very specific fns to imply that if one do not fully endorse homosexual behavr, relatnships, and fay stctur, then one lacks rpect for people’s digny—a ser moral charge.
A GAY IMAM'S STORY: 'THE DIALOGUE IS OPEN ISLAM – 10 YEARS AGO WASN'T'
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 * lgbt islam *
In morn society, everythg om the mon e of terms such as ‘straight’ and ‘gay’ everyday nversatn to the unrlyg assumptns of ternatnal human rights law pruppos that this is the se.
In 1989, nropsychologist Marshall Kirk and social marketg and advertisg executive Hunter Madsen -thored the book After the Ball: How Ameri Will Conquer Its Fear and Hatred of Gays the 90s. Qutng the terms: Homosexualy and LGBTTo unrstand homosexualy—as well as the broar trends and inti clud unr the LGBT label—om wh an Islamic amework, we mt beg by qutng the terms of the disurse and the unrlyg assumptns they en.