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

Contents:

• IN A SURVEY OF AMERIN MLIMS, 0% INTIFIED AS LBIAN OR GAY. HERE’S THE STORY BEHD THAT STATISTIC
• LONDON'S LANDMARK BUILDG DOTTED WH STRIP CLUBS, GAY VENU TO TURN TO MOSQUE
• 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'
• GAY PEOPLE ARE RECLAIMG AN ISLAMIC HERAGE
• WHAT ’S LIKE TO BE GAY AND MLIM
• THE SECRET MOSQU OPENG THEIR DOORS TO GAY MLIMS

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

E: I lerally knew nobody else that, you know, intified as such - plenty of Christians, even some Jewish dividuals, but not Other relig muni are havg the same ternal stggl about cln and homophobia. The percentage of Amerin Mlims who said society should accept homosexualy has doubled the last , to 52%, and is even higher among Millennials. Ani Zonneveld says she receiv lls regularly om young gay and lbian Mlims who have been threatened by their fay or are aaid to reveal their sexual inty.

Now, Qadhi often prefac his remarks about homosexualy by notg that “feelgs and clatns” are not themselv sful, and that homosexual acts should not be sgled out for special nmnatn. Mogahed herself me unr attack several years ago after a Gallup survey showed that no Brish Mlims – as , 0% – said homosexualy was morally acceptable.

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

If 92% of Amerin Mlims intified as straight, she said, then the remag 8% may be lbian or gay, even if they’re reluctant say so.

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). Arguments favour of tolerance towards homosexuals are based on the assumptn that homosexual behavur is blogilly based and not merely learned om society. To unter such arguments, homosexual rearchers sured the earth until they found supposed homosexual behavur among the animal kgdom.

EVERYTHG YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT BEG GAY MLIM UNTRI

Durg the 1980’s was claimed that a gland the base of the bra which is small women and large men was found to be small among homosexuals.

Dean Hamer, a rearcher at the Natnal Cancer Instute, claimed to have disvered 'the first ncrete evince that ‘gay gen’ really do exist. He gave expert ttimony to the Colorado Supreme Court that formed the basis of the victor cisn strikg down anti-gay proposns.

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.

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

It is nceivable that God ma people homosexuals then clared a crime and prcribed punishments for both this life and the next. ” Khan was born to the Mlim fah, while Ty – who intifi as non-bary – is a recent pansexual uple are among a dozen or so people who have gathered to listen to Muhs Hendricks, often lled “the world’s first openly gay imam”. Unterred, he ntued to spread the msage that beg gay and Mlim are not patible, and is now the subject of a new documentary film, The Radil, which has s European premiere Berl this prayer at Masjadul Ghurbhh.

”In 2011 Hendricks bolstered his role as an imam figure by settg up a mosque space after a iend endured a lol sermon nmng homosexualy.

’”Same-sex marriage has been legally regnised sce 2006 South Ai, which is more acceptg of homosexualy than many Ain untri. ”skip past newsletter promotnafter newsletter promotnHendricks says there’s nothg the Qur’an that “should be ed as blanket nmnatn of homosexualy”.

GAY PEOPLE ARE RECLAIMG AN ISLAMIC HERAGE

In 2019 he went to Kenya to promote LGBTQ+ rights ahead of the untry’s high urt upholdg anti-homosexualy laws current activism projects clu creatg onle vios Urdu and Hdi discsg LGBTQ+ Mlims.

He talks to the few other gay imams around the world, such as Atralia’s Nur Warsame and US-based Daayiee Abdullah, but remas the only one Ai. The area is also known for s ncentratn of bars, nightclubs, gay venu and strip jots – all of which are nsired sful Islam. 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.

WHAT ’S LIKE TO BE GAY AND MLIM

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.

THE SECRET MOSQU OPENG THEIR DOORS TO GAY MLIMS

Statistics are srce but the number of arrts is undoubtedly lower than was durg the Brish wave of homophobia the 1950s. 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. Arrts the Arab untri often volve groups of men at parti (sometim scribed as gay “weddgs”) and ocsnally at hammams (bathho).

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.