What 's like to be gay and Mlim | CNN

CAN A MLIM BE GAY?

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 * muslim gay *

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.

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.

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.

EVERYTHG YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT BEG GAY MLIM UNTRI

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. * muslim gay *

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.

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.

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.

CAN ONE BE MLIM AND GAY?

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. However,... * muslim gay *

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

* muslim gay *

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.

AFFIRMG MOSQU HELP GAY MLIMS RENCILE FAH, SEXUALY

Miriam hid that she was gay for years - she explas how hard was to e out to her strict Mlim parents. * muslim gay *

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.