A gay imam's story: 'The dialogue is open Islam – 10 years ago wasn't' | World Enomic Fom

Contents:

• WHAT DO ISLAM SAY ABOUT BEG GAY?
• CAN A MLIM BE GAY?
• GAY PEOPLE ARE RECLAIMG AN ISLAMIC HERAGE
• 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'
• WHAT'S WRONG WH BEG GAY AND MLIM?
• IS BEG GAY HARAM?
• IS HARAM TO BE GAY? SAME SEX RELATNSHIP ISLAM

WHAT DO ISLAM SAY ABOUT BEG GAY?

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. 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.

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.

CAN A MLIM BE GAY?

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.

Sce the massacre there has been a lot of speculatn about Islam and homosexualy and there are fears that one man’s spible act of terrorism uld fan the flam of Islamophobia and other forms of social excln, leadg to disrd and unrt an era of elevated Islamophobia. They tend to draw on the story of Lot the Koran (also the Old Ttament) which reunts the stctn of the tribe of Lot allegedly due to their engagement homosexual acts as “evince” for God’s nmnatn of homosexualy.

Although rearch to attus towards homosexualy the general populatn pots to mographic variabl, such as age and level of tn, as key termants of the nature of attus, this has not been the se my own work wh Brish Mlims. Moreover, there was a fundamental rejectn of sentialist arguments ncerng the origs of sexual orientatn – that people are born gay and that they do not “choose” to be gay – and terviewe often argued that people had “chosen” to be gay. In view of the generally negative attus towards homosexualy Mlim muni and the silence that n surround discsns of sexualy, most of my Mlim gay terviewe have manifted a poor self-image and low psychologil well-beg.

GAY PEOPLE ARE RECLAIMG AN ISLAMIC HERAGE

It is easy to see how belief the negativy of homosexualy om the perspective of one’s fah (which, untls studi has emerged as an important inty among Brish Asian Mlims) uld e some gay Mlims to velop ternalised homophobia and, some s, to doubt the thenticy of their Mlim inty. As I’ve wrten elsewhere, the Eastenrs storyle ncerng Syed Mehmood, a gay Mlim character who stggl to e out to his parents, generated some discsn the Brish Mlim muny and led some dividuals to acknowledge the existence of homosexualy wh their muny. Growg up an environment which you are led to believe that your sexual orientatn is wrong, sful or symptomatic of mental illns n lead to profound social and psychologil challeng, cludg ternalised homophobia, low self-teem, prsn and, some s, suicidal thoughts.

EVERYTHG YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT BEG GAY MLIM UNTRI

But if is te that he was a closeted homosexual – was reported that he had ed gay datg applitns and equented gay bars, cludg the one that he attacked – he clearly had a very difficult relatnship wh this aspect of his inty.

A GAY IMAM'S STORY: 'THE DIALOGUE IS OPEN ISLAM – 10 YEARS AGO WASN'T'

Ever sce the landmark US Supreme Court cisn on June 26 makg same-sex marriage legal the US, bate has emerged among Mlims worldwi about the mer of the lg, wh the obv implitn if they as Mlims approve or disapprove of a person beg a gay while profsg to be a Mlim.

Ludovic-Mohamed Zahed wrote a ccial tobgraphy, The Koran and the Flh/Le Coran et la chair (2012), Jerry Wright’s Homoeroticism Classil Arabic Lerature, and Helie and Hoodfar’s Sexualy Mlim Contexts have expand our historil unrstandg of the issue, while Joseph Massad’s Dirg Arabs (2007) took the whole disurse of homosexualy radilly to task. The legalisatn of same-sex marriage the Uned Stat will do very ltle to dimish the ep-rooted homophobia this untry, as ed the Emancipatn Proclamatn of 1863 did not entirely end racism; or Roe v Wa of 1973 end patriarchy, machismo, and misogyny; or Brown v Board of Edutn of 1954 end school segregatn, which has ntued apace along class l to this day.

WHAT'S WRONG WH BEG GAY AND MLIM?

It n then e them all as exampl to enurage Mlims at large to participate open, hont, and rmed discsns articulatg and safeguardg their civil liberti across the board – which clus, but isn’t limed to, gay rights and the possibily of the acceptance of same-sex marriage wh Mlim muni. Clearly Qatar, which is set to host the 2022 FIFA World Cup and has adhered to two major human rights treati, nnot rema an outsir to the velopments—pecially given that FIFA has now a tailed human rights policy and is particularly supportive of clive football associatns such as the Internatnal Gay and Lbian Football Associatn. A siar msage was offered by Tariq Ramadan, Profsor of Contemporary Islamic Studi at Oxford, when he vised New Zealand: Mlims and others have to rpect each other, which clus acceptg that the law perms gay marriage.

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. " "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.

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.

IS BEG GAY HARAM?

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.

IS HARAM TO BE GAY? SAME SEX RELATNSHIP ISLAM

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. 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).