What 's like to be gay and Mlim | CNN

Contents:

• LONDON'S LANDMARK BUILDG DOTTED WH STRIP CLUBS, GAY VENU TO TURN TO MOSQUE
• WHAT ’S LIKE TO BE GAY AND MLIM
• EVERYTHG YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT BEG GAY MLIM UNTRI
• BEG ‘GAY’ AND MLIM: DEALG WH SAME-SEX ATTRACTN
• A GAY IMAM'S STORY: 'THE DIALOGUE IS OPEN ISLAM – 10 YEARS AGO WASN'T'
• WHAT IT'S LIKE TO BE GAY AND MLIM AMERI
• IN A SURVEY OF AMERIN MLIMS, 0% INTIFIED AS LBIAN OR GAY. HERE’S THE STORY BEHD THAT STATISTIC
• WHAT DO ISLAM SAY ABOUT BEG GAY?

LONDON'S LANDMARK BUILDG DOTTED WH STRIP CLUBS, GAY VENU TO TURN TO MOSQUE

Beg lbian, gay, bisexual, transgenr, or any other sexual orientatn or genr inty is difficult enough on s own, but beg Mlim as well n e one to stggle wh rencilg their inty wh Islam and Allah. If you're stgglg to rencile your LGBT+ inty wh your Islamic fah, n help to unrstand that Islam do not explicly forbid beg homosexual or havg a diverse genr inty.

WHAT ’S LIKE TO BE GAY AND MLIM

Furthermore, the Quran even mentns "men who are not need of women" (which n be terpreted as men who are gay or asexual) Verse 24:31-24:33, and the men are not nmned anywhere. It's okay to be a Mlim who don't nform to a homophobic or transphobic view of Islam, the same way that other aspects of Islam have evolved and changed over time. WikiHow has articl that may assist you g out, such as (but not limed to) How to Come Out, How to Come Out As Gay or Lbian, How to Come Out As Transgenr, How to Come Out to Your Friends, and How to Come Out to Your Parents.

It n often be upsettg, and jtifiably so; jt remember that homophobia and transphobia often stems om a lack of knowledge about the subject. If other Mlims tell you that you aren't a te follower of Islam bee you're LGBT+, you may wish to script a rponse such as, "Actually, the Prophet Lut was nmng the celti occurrg Sodom, and he nmned rape rather than homosexualy.

EVERYTHG YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT BEG GAY MLIM UNTRI

I knew God never said, "Send the homosexual down to hell, " but stead, "Why did you do thgs that no one did before the universe" when he talked to the Sodom. There exists some room for terpretatn, but acceptg or toleratg the existence of homosexualy means stant nial and is viewed as immoral, liberal, unguid terpretatns. Now I unrstand why my iends the US who are married gay upl and live peacefully and do not succumb to any "crazs" that happens prefer to live trovertly and exercise utn when choosg whom to ve to their home.

“Beg Mlim, Arabic and gay and th a member of several mory groups opened my ey: Mori are beg discrimated agast, particularly tim of enomic crisis. That was until she met openly gay imam Daayiee Abdullah, a former Southern Baptist turned Mlim who studied the Quran Beijg and opened a gay mosque Washgton. I pray and fast regularly, i am straight but the problem is that i am homosexual, i first was thkg of my father, i thk i beme homosexual geilly, i see ually bad pictur, but i want to give up, i never done any sex my life, i really am aaid of god, and i always pray for him to help me.

BEG ‘GAY’ AND MLIM: DEALG WH SAME-SEX ATTRACTN

For the harm ed by fallg to this great s is not limed to punishment the Hereafter, rather go beyond that and a part of the punishment may happen this world; even if is nothg more than the regret and feelgs of guilt that rult om , that is enough, so how about if that is acpanied by curable fatal diseas which the doctors are agreed are wispread among homosexuals and are ed by the perverted practic? 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. 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.

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

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.

WHAT IT'S LIKE TO BE GAY AND MLIM AMERI

Individuals or upl acced of havg unlawful sex may be arrted for a variety of reasons, cludg some which ially are unrelated to homosexualy. There are also reported s where people spected of beg gay have been arrted by police seekg to elic brib or turn the spects to rmers. 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.

IN A SURVEY OF AMERIN MLIMS, 0% INTIFIED AS LBIAN OR GAY. HERE’S THE STORY BEHD THAT STATISTIC

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.

WHAT DO ISLAM SAY ABOUT BEG GAY?

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. One of the most important pots that Ali hop to get across n also be emed que ntroversial to some: Islam do not, fact, have ncepts of heterosexualy or homosexualy.