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.
Contents:
- AFFIRMG MOSQU HELP GAY MLIMS RENCILE FAH, SEXUALY
- EVERYTHG YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT BEG GAY MLIM UNTRI
- GAY PEOPLE ARE RECLAIMG AN ISLAMIC HERAGE
- FIRST MLIM MAJORY CY U.S. BANS GAY PRI FLAGS
- IN A SURVEY OF AMERIN MLIMS, 0% INTIFIED AS LBIAN OR GAY. HERE’S THE STORY BEHD THAT STATISTIC
AFFIRMG MOSQU HELP GAY MLIMS RENCILE FAH, SEXUALY
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 * muslim gay pride *
They are om nearby Dearborn where they were part of an effort last year to ban books wh LGBTQ+ talkg pots mirror those ma elsewhere: some Hamtramck Mlims say they simply want to protect children, and gay people should “keep their home” that sentiment is “an erasure of the queer muny and an attempt to shove queer people back the closet”, said Gracie Cadix, a queer Hamtramck rint who is part of the Anti-Transphobic Actn Amer Ghalib, 43, who was elected 2021 wh 67% of the vote to bee the natn’s first Yemeni Amerin mayor, told the Guardian on Thursday he tri to ern fairly for everyone, but said LGBTQ+ supporters had stoked tensn by “forcg their agendas on others”. Imam El-Faro Khaki -found Toronto's first LGBTQ-iendly mosque, Uny Mosque, 10 years ago to allow lbian, gay, bisexual, transgenr and queer Mlims to attend prayers whout havg to hi their sexual orientatn or genr inty for fear of discrimatn. INTERPRETATIONGay Mlim scholar Stt Siraj al-Haqq Kugle has spent two s rearchg LGBTQ issu the Islamic fah and said many people are surprised to disver that Islam is not herently nmng of LGBTQ people.
“In the Quran, there is no word that explicly scrib homosexual or transgenr persons; the Arabic terms were vented after the Quran’s revelatn, by medieval jurists and ntemporary journalists, doctors and social crics. “Many tradns are locked to a particular time, place and culture — they're not necsarily appropriate for today or for people who will be worshippg 50 years om now, ” Abdullah Daayiee Abdullah, founr of the Mec Instute, is one of the first openly gay Imams the U.
EVERYTHG YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT BEG GAY MLIM UNTRI
Several LGBTQ+ advot and supporters joed Gordon Sunday, wh some scrawlg pro-LGBTQ+ msag wh lored chalk on the siwalk around the flagpole that read: "Hamtramck Will Always Be Gay, " "Here and Queer, " "TransTramck, " and "All Are Wele. “While we unrstand the tratns of the CEMB wh regard to the perceived stance of mastream Mlims on homosexualy, Imaan feels that the banners that the group marched wh serve only to epen divisns between muni. Imaan noted that the east London Mosque which was sgled out by the CEMB s prott had reacted wh posive ments agast homophobia – assertg that Islam do not promote hatred or homophobia and that the mosque had mounted mpaigns to to nmn ‘gay-hate’ stickers Tower Hamlets.
“We’d like to formally ve east London mosque to a meetg to discs ways which together we n bat the surge of gay-phobia, lbian-phobia, bi-phobia and transphobia – perhaps at a jot event for Eid al Adha at east London Mosque. After googlg “Is OK to be gay and Mlim” and skippg past the first 9 rults sayg no, a lucky few eventually fd , and we support our members through the difficult moments.
"Image source, AlamyImage ptn, Joy, sunglass, says LGBT Mlims face prsur of both homophobia and IslamophobiaJoy is a member of Imaan - a group of LGBT Mlims who are hopg to crowdfund £5, 000 to put on the volved wh Black Pri and Trans Pri have prevly told Newsbeat that their events are important bee of abe they've experienced wh the LGBT says this happens to LGBT Mlims as well.
GAY PEOPLE ARE RECLAIMG AN ISLAMIC HERAGE
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.
FIRST MLIM MAJORY CY U.S. BANS GAY PRI FLAGS
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 A SURVEY OF AMERIN MLIMS, 0% INTIFIED AS LBIAN OR GAY. HERE’S THE STORY BEHD THAT STATISTIC
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.
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.