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
Contents:
- WHAT DO ISLAM SAY ABOUT BEG 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'
- GAY PEOPLE ARE RECLAIMG AN ISLAMIC HERAGE
- 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 ’S LIKE TO BE GAY AND MLIM
WHAT DO ISLAM SAY ABOUT BEG GAY?
* islam and gay *
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. >> After Orlando: Amerin Mlims mt challenge our muny's homophobia || Opn >> The ath penalty stead om the Hadh, or acunts of the saygs of the Prophet Muhammad.
EVERYTHG YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT BEG GAY MLIM UNTRI
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. * islam and gay *
The group bas this gome punishment on one acunt which the Prophet Muhammad reportedly said gays "should be thrown om tremendo height then stoned. Across the Arab world, gays have been arrted and sentenced to prison on charg lked to "bchery" - and faced floggg or even the ath penalty Iran and Sdi Arabia.
A GAY IMAM'S STORY: 'THE DIALOGUE IS OPEN ISLAM – 10 YEARS AGO WASN'T'
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. * islam and gay *
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. In Syria, al-Qaida's lol branch as well as other Islamic surgent groups battlg ISIS, have also killed gays and some homosexuals have had to flee the untry for their own safety.
GAY PEOPLE ARE RECLAIMG AN ISLAMIC HERAGE
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. 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.
IN A SURVEY OF AMERIN MLIMS, 0% INTIFIED AS LBIAN OR GAY. HERE’S THE STORY BEHD THAT STATISTIC
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.
CAN A MLIM BE GAY?
The average nservative Mlim tak this story as a jtifitn to stigmatize gays, but there is an important qutn that serv nsiratn: Did the people of Lot receive dive punishment for beg homosexual, or for attackg Lot and his heavenly guts? The even more signifint nuance is that while the Quran narrat this dive punishment for Sodom and Gomorrah, cre no earthly punishment for homosexualy — unlike the Old Ttament, which clearly cre that homosexuals “are to be put to ath.
But signifint nam among them, such as the eighth-century scholar Abu Hanifa, the founr of the popular Hanafi school of jurispnce, argued that sce a homosexual relatnship did not produce offsprg wh an unknown father, uldn’t be nsired real Islamic basis for punishg homosexualy is the hadhs, or saygs, attributed to the Prophet Muhammad. Such jurispntial facts might help Mlims today to velop a more tolerant attu toward gays, as some progrsive Islamic thkers Turkey, such as Ihsan Eliacik, are enuragg.
WHAT ’S LIKE TO BE GAY AND MLIM
People’s private liv are their own bs, he argu, whereas the public Mlim stance should be to fend gays when they are persecuted or discrimated agast — bee Islam stands wh the downtrodn.
Yet those Mlims who sist on nmng gays should rell that acrdg to Islam, there are many ss, cludg arrogance, which the Quran treats as among the gravt moral transgrsns.