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'
- 17 RIGHTFUL WAYS ON HOW TO CURE BEG GAY ISLAM
- IS HARAM TO BE GAY? SAME SEX RELATNSHIP ISLAM
- EVERYTHG YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT BEG GAY MLIM UNTRI
- CAN A MLIM BE GAY?
- WHAT DO ISLAM SAY ABOUT BEG GAY?
- 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
A GAY IMAM'S STORY: 'THE DIALOGUE IS OPEN ISLAM – 10 YEARS AGO WASN'T'
* gay in islam *
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. 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.
17 RIGHTFUL WAYS ON HOW TO CURE BEG GAY ISLAM
Fd out is haram (forbidn) to be gay? Islamic view on same sex relatnship/marriage om Quran & Sunnah! * gay in islam *
They (gays and lbians) both go agast the natural disposn (frah) which Allah has created mankd – and also animals – whereby the male is cled towards the female, and vice versa. 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.
Acrdg to several Mlim scholars, cludg Abu Bakr As Shiddiq, ‘Ali ibn Abi Thalib, Khalid ibn al Walid, ‘Abdulah ibn al Zubayr, ‘Abdullah ibn ‘Abbaas, Ishaaq ibn Raahawayh, and Imam Ahmad, gay is one of the biggt a Mlim uld have ever done, so that the punishment should be a lot severe than those who m adultery. Be nfint that if you fight the sire of beg gay specially if ’s really difficult for the sake of Allah, Allah will give you the tools to make an easy missn and He will give you somethg much better this life and the next life sha’Allah (if Allah Wills). The four Sunni schools of jurispnce all agree that practicg homosexualy is an egreg crime that earns an pecially harsh punishment, although the schools vary regardg what exactly this punishment should be.
IS HARAM TO BE GAY? SAME SEX RELATNSHIP ISLAM
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 * gay in islam *
In the Shafi'i school, the practicg homosexual is punished the same manner as one who engag illegal terurse (za) - that is, they are lashed 100 tim if unmarried and stoned to ath if married. "[4] For more than a thoand years, however, the Islamic tradn has drawn s views on homosexualy om the acunts of Muhammad's perspective found the hadh, for Muhammad is scribed the Quran (the word of Allah) as 'the perfect example' (wa hasana) for all of humankd. "[8] Even among the 3% of the world's Mlims livg "more-veloped regns", [9] homosexualy is generally held to be unacceptable, though there is a trend towards more socially liberal views.
EVERYTHG YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT BEG GAY MLIM UNTRI
A Gallup survey rried out early 2009, for stance, found that Brish Mlims have zero tolerance for homosexualy - not a sgle Brish Mlim terviewed believed that homosexual acts were morally acceptable. Acrdg to their analysis, while 52% of Brish Mlims polled thought homosexualy should be illegal Bra, 28% of younger Brish Mlim rpondants aged 18-24 said stead that homosexualy should be legal pared to 18% of Brish Mlim rpondants overall. [15] Attempts to legalize homosexualy India were stifled for some time by Islamic clerics who mata that "Homosexualy is an offence unr Sharia Law and haram (prohibed) Islam, " and that "Legalizatn of homosexualy is an attack on Indian relig and moral valu.
Exact figur are hard to terme, due to the polil turmoil many Mlim-majory stat, but as of 2009 homosexual relatnships, acts or behavr are forbidn approximately thirty-six Islamic untri cludg Afghanistan, Algeria, Bahra, Banglash, Bnei, Djibouti, Egypt, Errea, Gambia, Guea, Guea Biss, Indonia, Iran, Kuwa, Lebanon, Libya, Malaysia, Maldiv, Mrania, Moroc, Nigeria, Oman, Pakistan, Qatar, Sdi Arabia, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, Tanzania, Tunisia, Turkmenistan, the Uned Arab Emirat, Uzbekistan and Yemen, wh punishments cludg anythg om a fe up to life imprisonment. [18][19] Ten of those untri out of the thirty-six impose the ath penalty for homosexuals, the are: Iran, Mrania, Nigeria, Pakistan, Sdi-Arabia, Somalia, Sudan, Uned Arab Emirat, Yemen and some stat Malaysia.
CAN A MLIM BE GAY?
Iraq, for stance, spe not havg any official laws discrimatg agast same-sex relatnships, is at the same time host to ath squads which operate throughout the untry killg gays and lbians (as well as effemate men and mascule women spected of homosexualy) on sight, killg, one se, sixty-eight gay and trans-genred men the space of four months. 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.
WHAT DO ISLAM SAY ABOUT BEG GAY?
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.
GAY PEOPLE ARE RECLAIMG AN ISLAMIC HERAGE
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. 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.
IN A SURVEY OF AMERIN MLIMS, 0% INTIFIED AS LBIAN OR GAY. HERE’S THE STORY BEHD THAT STATISTIC
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).
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.