The Secret Hajj: A Gay Mlim Documents His Pilgrimage to Mec

Contents:

• EVERYTHG YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT BEG GAY MLIM UNTRI
• THE SECRET HAJJ: A GAY MLIM DOCUMENTS HIS PILGRIMAGE TO MEC
• MEET THE GAY MLIM FILMMAKER WHO SECRETLY FILMED HIS PILGRIMAGE TO MEC
• GAY MLIM FILMS SECRET PILGRIMAGE ‘A SNER MEC’
• SDI GAY SCENE: 'FORBIDN, BUT I N'T HELP IT'
• ‘A SNER MEC’ DOCUMENTS GAY MLIM PILGRIMAGE
• GAY MLIM’S SECRET PILGRIMAGE TO MEC
• GAY NEW YORK CY

EVERYTHG YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT BEG GAY MLIM UNTRI

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.

THE SECRET HAJJ: A GAY MLIM DOCUMENTS HIS PILGRIMAGE TO MEC

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 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.

MEET THE GAY MLIM FILMMAKER WHO SECRETLY FILMED HIS PILGRIMAGE TO MEC

“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.

GAY MLIM FILMS SECRET PILGRIMAGE ‘A SNER MEC’

Relativ of 26 men who were arrted a televised raid by police lookg for gay people at a Cairo public bathhoe celebrate after the urt acquted them. 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. When Parvez Sharma, a New York-based documentary film maker ma his first film, “A Jihad for Love, ” his claratn as a gay Mlim ma him a marked man throughout the Islamic do you do for an enre?

For Sharma, there was only one other challenge tt his own fah, Sharma embarked on a hajj, the once--a-lifetime pilgrimage ma by the most vout Mlims to Mec, knowg full well that filmg would be prohibed and that beg gay would be nsired a s punishable by spent unr one month Sdi Arabia, shootg much of his documentary secretly wh an iPhone rult, “A Sner Mec, ” buted at this month’s Toronto’s HotDocs ftival and has been the talk of the documentary circu. Sce the 2007 release of his documentary “A Jihad for Love, ” which chronicl the liv of gay and lbian Mlims 12 untri, he’s been labeled an fil Sdi Arabia.

SDI GAY SCENE: 'FORBIDN, BUT I N'T HELP IT'

To feel ee he tak long vatns to Thailand, where he has a boyiend, and spends weekends Lebanon, which he regards as havg a more gay-tolerant at home Sdi Arabia, he is vigilant. He and his iends are nstantly wary of officers om the Commissn for the Promotn of Virtue and Preventn of Vice, the kgdom's relig police, who patrol for and punish men they spect of beg gay.

In le wh sex-segregated social norms, gay lovers n often spend timate time together whout arog gays and lbians Sdi Arabia still need to acmodate the prsur of public life, some s pairg off to acmodate a eer liftyle. It's the perfect solutn, " says Samir, addg that he wouldn't md a lbian wife of his Samir, the dozens of emergg Web foms for gay Arab men are a eer alternative to the offle Sdi society.

‘A SNER MEC’ DOCUMENTS GAY MLIM PILGRIMAGE

Usg proxy servers men n get around the bans to the blocked s, nnectg wh potential dat and buildg a knowledge base for gay life the Arab blog om Syria, largely nsired a reprsed society, tails a tourist's gui to gay hangouts Damasc and Aleppo. If they have their eye on you, they n follow your every move, " he Samir's approach seems paranoid, 's ndned by horror stori of harsh crackdowns by Arab ernments on gay life. " Human Rights Watch documented dozens of Web-based entrapments -- men arrted by Egyptian police then tormented wh beatgs, electrocutn and anal vice squad's practice of vertly huntg gay men chat rooms oled once the teemg gay Inter scene Egypt slowed down.

GAY MLIM’S SECRET PILGRIMAGE TO MEC

At one pot onle entrapment was yieldg one arrt per week, acrdg to Human Rights Web was part of a greater crackdown Egypt, a untry that was once a liberal environment for homosexuals.

") Social and thorarian attus toward homosexualy began to change after the Egyptian Revolutn 1952, and grew steadily harsher through the 1990s as the secular state gave way to a growg Islamic puranism. In the early morng hours of May 11, 2001, police raid a floatg nightclub lled the Queen Boat, a then-popular gay hangout moored on the Nile River. Government Has Been Quiet About Gay Crackdown IraqWhat ensued om the Queen Boat arrts was a show trial -- forced nfsns, some extracted unr torture and a media circ signed to amplify public fear and maximize the ernment's polil ga om the arrt.

Though Egypt claims to have no law agast homosexualy, routely crimaliz and prosecut gay men unr a law prohibg "juhur, " or bchery, a charge origally levied for the heat of the se, one article the state-owned Al-Gomhoureya newspaper gave full nam and intifyg tails of the acced, pictg the arrted homosexuals as part of an unrground relig cult.

GAY NEW YORK CY

In 2005, thori Abu Dhabi, part of the Uned Arab Emirat, arrted more than two dozen men the sert town of Ghantout at an event state officials characterized as a mass gay weddg. In attacks that accelerated last Febary, Shie iamen have rried out a seri of beatgs and assassatns of gay men, ocsnally wh the help of the Interr Mistry, acrdg to Stt Long of Human Rights Watch.

Al Qaeda Iraq, a rival Islamist group, has also reportedly attacked gay men Iraq, what human rights activists ll a clear moral cleansg mpaign.