At the Crossroads of being Gay and Muslim

via Advocate, by Amanda D. Quiraishi

During the past decade North America has seen an emergence of politically motivated Chicken Littles running around frantically warning of an imminent takeover by Muslims and their Sharia law.

Insurgent Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain, for example, famously said he wouldn’t allow any Muslim to serve in his Cabinet for fear of the foreign-sounding code of laws.

Religious and political scholars as well as the Muslim mainstream have effectively repudiated such nonsense.

The real story, however, lies with progressive Muslims who are using the protection of secular Western laws to actively reform centuries-old interpretations of their faith.

In May 2009 in Toronto, El-Farouk Khaki, his partner, Troy Jackson, and their mutual friend Laury Silvers founded el-Tawhid Juma Circle, the first mosque created for all gender identities and sexual orientations. And this year two sister circles formed — in Atlanta and Washington, D.C.

Khaki is a longtime activist in the Muslim world, but he knew a place for LGBT people was needed after September 11, 2001.

Khaki found himself called to defend Muslims living in the West against discrimination and prejudice because of terrorism done in the name of Islam.

Yet, despite his dedication in representing Muslims, he soon ran into opposition.

“I found that there isn’t a lot of understanding for someone who is both openly Muslim and openly gay,” Khaki says.

“Many queer or socially progressive Muslims give up their religion because they feel there is no space for them, and often they lose their spirituality in the process. I got tired of people saying ‘we need more inclusive spaces’; ‘we need more female imams.’ Who is stopping you from having these things? If there is no space for you, make the space!”


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A Jihad for Love

Devotion and angst play equal roles in the lives of gay Muslims who struggle to remain devout members of a faith that decrees them deserving of being stoned to death. A JIHAD FOR LOVE chronicles the personal jihad, i.e. spiritual struggle, of gays and lesbians desperate to remain true to the faith they love yet forced to remain in the closet or emigrate from homelands including Egypt, India, and Iran, where they are hunted and imprisoned. The heart of the tragic dilemma is exposed in the film’s stark contrast between interviews with subjects including a gay South African imam, a Parisian lesbian couple, and gay Iranian men persecuted for attending a gay wedding, and the harsh dogmatic pronouncements by conservative clerics. In English, Arabic, Hindi, Persian, Urdu, and French with English subtitles

Movie opened in Chicago this past Friday and is screening at the Gene Siskel Film Center through Thursday. Click here for more info.

Round 2 - Islam not exactly thrilled with homos...

via The Jakarta Post

A controversial discussion late last week on homosexuality spilled over Monday as mainstream religious organizations claimed homosexuality was a psychological disorder, not a natural behavior given by God.

Comments by several progressive Muslim scholars last week that the dominance of heterogeneity was a social construction spurred mainstream religious organization of all denominations to clarify that its roots were in the word of God.

"Yes, it's a social construction, but it is derived from the Koran. The Koran clearly states that homosexuality is unacceptable, and we ulema have agreed about that," Ma'aruf Amin, chairman of the Fatwa Commission at the Indonesia Ulema Council, told The Jakarta Post.

Siti Musdah Mulia of the Indonesia Conference of Religions and Peace said last Thursday in a discussion hosted by the non-governmental organization Arus Pelangi that homosexual behavior should be considered a condition sent by God.

Responding to this, Ma'aruf said homosexuality was an option, not something natural.

"It's a curable disorder. There have been many cases where homosexuals have realized what they did was wrong and became heterosexuals again. It's something that can be fought off," he said.

Ma'aruf acknowledged that every behavior was rooted in God.

"God created both good and bad behaviors, but He told humans to choose the good ones. So, it's a matter of options," he said.

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Islam "recognizes homosexuality"

via The Jakarta Post

Homosexuals and homosexuality are natural and created by God, thus permissible within Islam, a discussion concluded here Thursday.

Moderate Muslim scholars said there were no reasons to reject homosexuals under Islam, and that the condemnation of homosexuals and homosexuality by mainstream ulema and many other Muslims was based on narrow-minded interpretations of Islamic teachings.

Siti Musdah Mulia of the Indonesia Conference of Religions and Peace cited the Koran's al-Hujurat (49:3) that one of the blessings for human beings was that all men and women are equal, regardless of ethnicity, wealth, social positions or even sexual orientation.

"There is no difference between lesbians and nonlesbians. In the eyes of God, people are valued based on their piety," she told the discussion organized by nongovernmental organization Arus Pelangi.

"And talking about piety is God's prerogative to judge," she added.

"The essence of the religion (Islam) is to humanize humans, respect and dignify them."
Musdah said homosexuality was from God and should be considered natural, adding it was not pushed only by passion.

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A Jihad for Love: Can your faith really kill you?

A film about gay Muslims will surprise a Western audience

[via Times Online]

Inevitably, Parvez Sharma filmed some moving testimonies in A Jihad for Love, a collection of real-life stories that show what it is like to be gay or lesbian and living within, or in the shadow, of Islam. The stories come from Iran, Turkey, India, Egypt, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Saudi Arabia and South Africa.

In one of those quirks of timing, the film will be shown on Sunday at the London Lesbian and Gay Film Festival in the wake of the controversy around the case of Mehdi Ka-zemi, the gay Iranian whose deportation back to Iran was halted recently after an indecent, indeed shaming, amount of prevarication on the part of the Home Office. An Iranian lesbian, Pegah Emambakhsh, is also seeking asylum in this country.

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