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:
- 17 RIGHTFUL WAYS ON HOW TO CURE BEG GAY ISLAM
- WHAT DO ISLAM SAY ABOUT BEG GAY?
- IN A SURVEY OF AMERIN MLIMS, 0% INTIFIED AS LBIAN OR GAY. HERE’S THE STORY BEHD THAT STATISTIC
- GAY PEOPLE ARE RECLAIMG AN ISLAMIC HERAGE
- EVERYTHG YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT BEG GAY MLIM UNTRI
- AFFIRMG MOSQU HELP GAY MLIMS RENCILE FAH, SEXUALY
17 RIGHTFUL WAYS ON HOW TO CURE BEG GAY ISLAM
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. * gays for islam *
The Orlando shootg was a hate crime agast gay people – even if, once emerged that the attacker had been a Mlim, many people claimed this as a terrorist attack rather than a hate crime. 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.
In my rearch to attus ncerng homosexualy among sampl of first and send-generatn Brish Mlims of Pakistani scent, I found that attus tend to be largely negative. 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.
Some people spoke fondly of their LGBT iends, neighbours and acquatanc, suggtg that first-hand ntact may challenge homophobia which exists at an abstract, nceptual level.
WHAT DO ISLAM SAY ABOUT BEG 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. 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.
Ccially, makg sense of the “” unrlyg their sexual orientatn, some gay Mlims were of the view that they had “bee” gay as a rult of their social environment and nsequently blamed Brish society:.
IN A SURVEY OF AMERIN MLIMS, 0% INTIFIED AS LBIAN OR GAY. HERE’S THE STORY BEHD THAT STATISTIC
I’m gay bee I was brought up here [ Bra] but I reckon if I’d been brought up Pakistan then I would have turned out straight bee this don’t happen that much there. 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.
In addn to improvg relatns between groups, is likely that this exercise will have posive out for well-beg among those dividuals who self-intify as Mlim and gay. 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. 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.
GAY PEOPLE ARE RECLAIMG AN ISLAMIC HERAGE
There is already some empiril evince that homophobia is associated wh homosexual aroal, which suggts that homophobia might be a means of distancg homosexualy om one’s sense of self. 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. 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
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. 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.
AFFIRMG MOSQU HELP GAY MLIMS RENCILE FAH, SEXUALY
" "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. In the Wt today, where homosexualy was once nsired an illns by the Associatn of Psychiatrists, has now been removed om the list and replaced by homophobia (the dislike of homosexuals and homosexualy). Furthermore, June 1994, the Chigo Tribune reported that a junr rearcher Hamer’s laboratory who assisted the gene mappg the homosexualy study, alleged that he selectively reported his data.
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.