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The Quran
Was it really the eternal word of God to Mankind?The Muslim claim is based on circular reasoning:
We know the Quran was from Allah because Muhammad said so and we know that Muhammad spoke for Allah because the Quran says so.
The Quran
Estimated Chronology of the Quran
Suras from Mecca
96, 68, 73, 74, 111, 81, 87, 92, 89, 93, 94, 103, 100, 108, 102, 107, 109, 105,113,114,112,53,80,97,91,85,95, 106,101,75, 104,77,50,90,86,54,38,7,72,36,25,
35, 19,20, 56,26,27, 28, 17, 10, 11, 12, 15, 6, 37, 31, 34, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 51, 88, 18, 16, 71, 14, 21, 23, 32, 52, 67, 69, 70, 78, 79, 82, 84, 83, 29
Suras from Medina
2, 8, 3, 33, 60, 4, 99, 57, 47, 13, 55, 76, 65, 98, 59, 110, 24, 22, 63, 58, 49, 66, 61, 62, 64, 48, 9, 5
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No, the Council on American-Islamic Relations Doesn't Like Homosexuals
While quick to express solidarity with the victims of Sunday's terror attack, the Council on American-Islamic Relations has long ignored Muslim American LGBT activists.
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The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) has touched the hearts of many journalists since an ISIS-inspired terror attack left 49 dead at a gay nightclub in Orlando early Sunday morning. CAIR Executive Director Nihad Awad called for solidarity with "all communities who are the victims of violence and persecution in our country." CAIR-San Francisco Director Zahra Billoo vowed to "stand with the LGBT community against homophobic violence." The head of the organization's Florida chapter, Hassan Shibly, declared his "overwhelming love and support and unity" for the LGBT community.
In light of Islam's well-known prohibitions against homosexuality, it's great to hear such words in any context.
But let's not kid ourselves. CAIR was founded by members of the Sunni Islamist Muslim Brotherhood, whose hatred of homosexuals is quite explicit. Shibly himself decried homosexuality as "evil" and a "quick way to earn God's wrath" in a 2009 Facebook essay on gay marriage.
Most CAIR officials have avoided expressing anti-LGBT opinions publicly.
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Moreover, CAIR coordinates very closely with other Islamist organizations that have not felt the need to bite their tongues when talking about homosexuality. Tahirah Amatul Wadud, a member of the CAIR-Massachusetts Executive Board of Directors, also happens to be general counsel for the notoriously anti-gay organization The Muslims of America Inc. (TMOA), led by Mubarak Ali Gilani (for high-profile cases handled at TMOA by Wadud, see here and here). Gilani called the U.S. Supreme Court's legalization of gay marriage on June 26, 2015 "a black day in the history of mankind."
CAIR frequently hosts Muslim preachers known for virulent anti-gay rhetoric.
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In short, CAIR has done nothing to stand up for the rights of LGBT Americans or promote more tolerant Muslim-American attitudes toward sexual orientation, while giving radical Islamist preachers on whom it depends for support a platform for anti-gay incitement.
CAIR's sudden expressions of affinity for the LGBT community are nothing more than damage control, designed to obscure its role in propagating the murderous ideology that led Orlando shooter Omar Mateen on his rampage. Fancy PR footwork aside, CAIR is part of the problem, not part of the solution.
Gregg Roman is director of the Middle East Forum.
Related Topics: Council on American-Islamic Relations, Muslims in the United States, Sex and gender relations | Gregg Romanreceive the latest by email: subscribe to the free mef mailing list
Gays Should STOP Defending Islam
As we are at the beginning of a new year, we can tell that homosexuality will keep being a controversial topic in the world. We see that more and more Western nations decide to legalize same-sex marriage, but we also see that gay rights is still a part of protests, a part of “intersectionality” in the West – in America. We even see that homosexuals and advocates find themselves in the same ranks as Muslims.
We all hopefully know that the Islamic world is by far the worst when it comes to homosexuality. In multiple predominantly Muslim countries, homosexuality can be punished with death, in the majority of predominantly Muslim countries it is forbidden to practice or to publicly defend homosexuality. I was part of the Muslim community for more than 20 years, and I can barely remember anyone who had no problem with homosexuality, let alone supporting it. What is funny, however, is that people in the West who are seemingly so concerned about social justice, gender equality, freedom and gay rights, totally ignore the oppression of homosexuals in the Islamic world, call others racist when they mention it, gang up as confused intersectional activists and protect the idea that is the most dangerous when it comes to women and homosexuals: Islam. I will not pretend that all homosexuals defend Islam. I have seen many homosexuals who were openly against Islam for obvious reasons, but there are too many, especially if they are influential and lead LGBT support groups, that criticize the West, but support the Islamic world — with silence or deflection.
Here is why homosexuals, no matter what they think they’re doing, should never defend Islam, and why people who care about the well-being of homosexuals shouldn’t either, if they really care. I care about homosexuals, and can declare myself proudly a defender of homosexuals in the face of the growth of Islam.
- How Islam as a religion views homosexuals
Islam views homosexuality as crime – against God. It pictures homosexuality as a horrible act, immoral, so much that Allah once sent down a major punishment for it. It is based on the biblical story of Lot (Arabic: Lut). The difference is that the Quran dumbs the story down and puts the emphasis on homosexual activity, multiple times, that Lot is considered a holy prophet and that the aftermath with his daughters and his drunkenness is not mentioned, because prophets are perfect in Islam.
In the story, the people of Sodom and Gomorrah commit sexual sins, two angels disguised as handsome boys come to visit Lot, the people go crazy and come to Lot’s house because they are “interested” in the handsome boys, Lot refuses and offers his daughters to them. Afterwards Lot leaves the cities at night, the cities are punished and destroyed by Allah, together with Lot’s impure wife, and that’s where the story ends. The Quran repeats the story multiple times and explicitly mentions that the people have committed homosexual intercourse, which Allah “justly” punished with death.
Muslims usually make the defense that homosexuality alone is not punishable, that homosexual activity is. That’s partially correct, but that’s also exactly the point. Homosexual activity deserves, according to Islam, violent punishments. In Sunni Islam this punishment can be harsh beatings, followed by the death penalty if repeated, it can also be that the homosexual person is imprisoned until death, in some views the punishment is to kill them by throwing them off a high building. No matter what, the punishment is eventually death for people who commit homosexual intercourse repeatedly, and the consensus is that homosexuality should be dealt with death in order to prevent it from spreading and being downplayed.
In Quran 4:16, Allah tells Muslims to punish them if two men commit unlawful sex, they should be punished. [1] Interpretations by universally accepted scholars such as Ibn Kathir, say that this includes gay sex. [2] It is even further explained in hadiths. Mohammed says that men who are caught having gay sex should be killed. [3] In more detailed hadiths he says they should be stoned to death. [4] The same thing is mentioned in other hadiths from other sources. [5] Mohammed even says that you should turn men out of your houses if they behave like women. [6]
The Western person may say that these are just words in a holy book, but for the Muslim it’s quite different. These rules are not just rules that were applied in the 7th century. Let’s not forget one important thing: Whenever you see a Muslim and ask him about whether Islam is still the same as in Muhammad’s time, they will proudly tell you that Islam never changes and it is the same now as back then. That’s one of the main rules in Islam: It rules in the same way forever, because the Quran says so and it can’t be changed. So if Islam is there, then so are the rulings on homosexuals. They don’t disappear just because you want to feel like victims, together against Trump.
- How Muslims view homosexuals
Many apologists in the West will tell you that the majority of Muslims are just like us. By “like us” they mean people in Germany or America or the UK. They don’t want to talk about statistics. They don’t want to hear your saying that most Muslims harshly disapprove of accepting homosexuals. They don’t want you to speak out the fact that Muslims majorly want to criminalize homosexuality. Before I begin, I want to point out that Muslims in America are among the least religious Muslims, and that they are compared to other Muslims much more liberal. For example; Pew research shows us that 52% of Muslims in America are in favor of accepting homosexuals in society. [7] That’s still less than the American general public (63%) and less than Republicans (54%), even though left leaning self-haters will tell you otherwise, but it is by far better than in the Islamic World. [8] However, even though you might think that Muslims are totally fine with homosexuality if you live in America, the truth proves you wrong.
Let’s see some numbers of the Islamic world. Thanks to Pew Research, we can have quickly an idea of what Muslims think. In the first graphic, we see the opinion of Muslims on specific moral questions. As you can see, the vast majority strictly disapproves of homosexuality:
[9]
In the second graphic, it is illustrated even better, and you can see that there are only 3 countries among those surveyed, where 10% of Muslims or slightly more say that homosexuality is morally acceptable. Those countries are Bangladesh, Uganda and Mozambique.
[10]
If we come closer to home, we can see some numbers in the West:
A Gallup study from 2009 says that none of 0% of 500 interviewed Muslims think that homosexuality is morally acceptable. In Germany it was 19% of Muslims and in France it looks a bit better. 35% found it acceptable. [11]
A Germany a study by WZB Berlin Social Science Center, conducted in 2013 shows that 60% of Muslims reject homosexuals as friends, while only 10% of Christians gave the same response. See how Christians are “just as bad as Muslims”? Unsurprisingly 45% of Muslims also said that Jews can’t be trusted, 65% said that religious laws are more important than local secular laws and 54% said that the West tries to destroy Islam. Why they live in Germany is a mystery. [12]
A study, conducted by ICM 2016, shows that 52% of Muslims in Britain say homosexuality should be illegal. Only 18% say it should be legal. 30% don’t have an opinion. [13] Every other Muslim in Britain wants to ban and prosecute homosexuality. Can you believe that? We’re talking about a country where Ex-Muslims were condemned by Pride for Islamophobia during the Pride walk. [14]
The opinion of Muslims in the US is by far better as you see, but that’s just the USA. Don’t let it fool you. It’s not just radical Muslims in very backward countries that have such opinions. The majority holds the same view in Western countries, and these numbers prove it. Yet we are told that concerns are just based on partisanship and on an irrational fear: Islamophobia.
- Homosexuality in the Islamic world (Compared to the West)
We don’t even have to research much. The UN talked long about LGBT rights in UN countries. In 2008 57 countries signed a statement that opposes LGBT rights. Almost all of them are predominantly Muslim countries, that find their signature on the same statement that North Korea signed. Only 2 Muslim majority or plurality countries supported LGBT rights, while the entire Western World along with South America and several other countries supported it. [15] [16]
If we just have a closer look at those Muslim majority countries, we can see that homosexuality is illegal in almost all Muslim majority countries, in others it is either illegal to propagate it or it is systematically cracked down on. In Turkey for example the LGBT pride parades were cancelled, forbidden or attacked by authorities for multiple reasons, such as disturbing the peace or not being suitable for the public morality. [17] [18] [19] [20]
In 10 countries, homosexuals can be punished to death by either local jurisdictions or federal laws. Those countries are Yemen, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Mauritania, Qatar, Somalia, Sudan, the UAE (Dubai) and Nigeria. The case of Nigeria is very interesting, considering that those who are afraid of “Islamophobia” always want to bring up Christians when Islam is mentioned. Nigeria is split into Northern (Islamic) Nigeria and Southern (Mixed-Majority Christian) Nigeria. The death penalty for homosexuality exists only in its northern Islamic states. Again in the case of Sudan and South Sudan – both separate countries now – homosexuality can be punished with death in Islamic Sudan but not in Christian South Sudan. It’s important to point out that this is about countries where homosexuality CAN be punished with death. In the UAE for example there is no knowledge of the punishment ever being executed, but the ability is there and it is intimidating. [21]
There is so much more that can be said about this very specific topic, but I’ll just stop it here. There are so many more numbers, numerous statistics that can be given, such as that Muslims were in 2006 responsible for ¼ of crimes against homosexuals in Britain despite being less than 5% of the population, but I will just stop it here.
Conclusion
Just by reading this through, just by looking at the impartial sources below or just by dedicating 10 minutes of your time, you can find out that Islam, the Islamic world and the Muslim community are by far the worst when it comes to homosexuality. That is especially true today. We see that the Islamic world is the worst in how it treats homosexuals. We see that Muslims everywhere around the world hate homosexuals, and we see that Muslims in the West are not much better, even though many in the West tell you that people in Islamic countries are just not educated enough. The idea that Muslims will be totally peaceful and “just like you”, when they go to school in Europe, is wrong, and multiple statistics easily prove that. I saw it myself when I grew up in Germany. I was just as homophobic and anti-semitic as the majority of Muslims in Britain. It didn’t just go away because I was in Germany, I made it go away when I renounced my Islamic faith, because my Islamic faith was the one that ORDERED me to hate. The same religion tells the Muslim world to hate, and the vast majority of the Muslim community obeys, as you can see.
So why would any sane homosexual person or any sane advocate attempt to stand up for Islam or the Islamic world? I would answer that question with 3 words: Partisanship, ignorance and naivety. Partisanship because many people just align with Muslims as part of “intersectionality,” among minorities against “the oppressor” whose oppression consists of not allowing you to implement sharia law. Ignorance because many of them don’t know what Muslims actually believe, they don’t know how Islam is different and they don’t know about statistics, because statistics are racist. Naivety because they honestly think that any “minority” is just like them. They believe that they could turn a cannibal from an untouched tribe into their friendly American neighbor after talking to them for 2 hours. You can see how that works for the UK, with 52% of Muslims wanting to ban homosexuality. Whatever the reason, it is counterproductive.
It is not only irrational but it also puts people in danger. By ignoring the danger that Islam and its adherents spread, self-loathing Westerners put homosexuals, women, Jews, Christians and the West in danger. By staying silent you won’t solve the problem. You will close your eyes and cover your ears, but the crash will happen anyway, if you don’t do anything against it. If there are problems in society — and the majority of Muslims wanting to persecute homosexuals is a big one — then those problems need to be talked about. They need to be solved. How are we supposed to fix problems in society? How are we supposed to fix a system if we are not allowed to talk about them because that offends someone? How are we supposed to stop rape if we are not allowed to talk about the rapist due to his ethnic or religious background? We can’t. So, stop defending Islam. If you see problems, criticize them and help to solve them. If you don’t want to solve them (because no one has to) then don’t try to stop and shut down those who want to solve the problem. That won’t make you a hero. It will make you an obstacle. Don’t be an obstacle in the fight to preserve our rights. Stop defending Islam!
Ridvan “Rico” Aydemir
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Sources:
[14] http://www.pinknews.co.uk/2017/07/17/pride-in-london-condemns-islamophobia-in-allah-is-gay-row/
Why Do Western Gays Abandon Their Islamic Brothers?
Translations of this item:
- The LGBT establishment has, it seems, been hijacked by a politicized elite that cares little about the rights of their brethren in the Islamic world.
- LGBT activists and celebrities have never once promoted a boycott of the Islamic regimes that stone, execute and jail their homosexual citizens. Why do they not orchestrate a campaign to boycott Iranian, Indonesian, Palestinian and Turkish goods?
Whenever Islamic radicalism has been defeated after its reign of horror and fear, what follows among ordinary citizens are scenes of hope and liberation.
Syrian women burned the burqas the Islamic State forced them to wear, after the militants were being driven out from the city of Manbij. "Damn this stupid invention that they made us wear," one woman said as she set fire to the garment. "We're humans, we have our freedom".
When the Taliban tyranny in Afghanistan ended, women's faces also began to reappear on the streets; and men, forced by the Taliban to grow beards, flocked to buy razors.
Why hasn't the West raised the question of gay rights under Islam? Go ask the LGBT establishment.
"Fight the nationalism that invokes walls and borders". This was the platform in 2017 of Rome Pride, the annual event of Italy's LGBT movement; it called for "resistance" against "populism" and yelled slogans such as "Make Italy Gay Again". But as the English magazine The Spectator noted, "the battle for gay rights stops at the borders of Islam". The Islamic State knows this well and, borrowing the slogan used by President Obama after the Supreme Court declared same-gender marriage legal, ISIS took to using the hashtag #LoveWins. Islamic supremacists laugh at our weakness.
During the summer, in cities across the West, the LGBT movement celebrated two weeks of marches and parades for "Rainbow Pride." At Chicago's "Dyke March," the organizers ejected marchers who carried rainbow flags with the Jewish Star of David. They were labelled "offensive" for this "inclusive" event, despite the fact that hundreds of gay Palestinians have found refuge in Israel.
The big New York Pride March last year became just another protest against President Trump, in favor of Obamacare and gun control (tell it to the 49 homosexuals murdered by ISIS jihadist Omar Mateen at the Pulse Club in Orlando), and against the Trump Administration's immigration policy. In Toronto, the Pride parade was dominated by the militants of Black Lives Matter. In Minneapolis, the LGBT marchers asked the police chief, Janee Harteau, to avoid the event.
That was just two ordinary weeks of "LGBT resistance" in the liberal and free West. What, however, was happening beyond its borders, in the lands of Islam?
In Erdogan's Turkey, Islamists attacked gays in Istanbul. Chechnya jailed and tortured gays. In Gaza, Hamas executed civilians and even fellow terrorists suspected of being gay.
Western LGBT marches did not raise a single flag against Chechnya, or advance slogans against the treatment of gays by the Venezuelan socialists, or protests against the murders of gays in the Islamic State. There were no chants against Indonesia, which has recently flogged homosexuals in the streets; no strikes to protest against the murders of gay Bangladeshi bloggers and LGBT activists, and no flash mobs against Iran, which had recently arrested 30 homosexuals in a night raid and submitted them to a "sodomy test".
But in the West, marchers shouted many useful slogans such as, "No cops! No banks". The marchers did not condemn the hacking to death of the editor of an LGBT magazine in Bangladesh.
At these LGBT parades, not a single slogan was heard against ISIS Caliph Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, who declared a "war on gays" and whose henchmen, in a single day, executed nine men and one boy for being homosexuals. ISIS fighters are "tracking down every gay man". But at New York's gay pride parade, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and Jared Kushner were called "queer-bashers", while Chelsea Manning, the idol of "fluid identity", thundered against America, evidently forgetting that Obama had graciously pardoned her.
The LGBT establishment has, it seems, been hijacked by a politicized elite that cares little about the rights of their brethren in the Islamic world. As Mark Steyn wrote, after ISIS jihadist Omar Mateen murdered 49 gays in an Orlando nightclub:
It is important to understand the death trap of the classic liberal position of Canada's Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who, at Toronto's Pride Parade wore rainbow-colored socks printed with the Arabic words "Eid Mubarak" (a traditional Muslim holiday greeting). Trudeau just wished "happy pride to Allah", while many Muslim countries today condemn, if not murder, homosexuals.
Ayaan Hirsi Ali explained:
Gay fashion legends Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana faced a boycott and a backlash of controversy when they said they opposed gay "marriage" and adoption, find in vitro fertilization unnatural, and believe procreation "must be an act of love". The Italian pasta-maker Barilla caused outrage when its chairman Guido Barilla said he would only portray the "classic family" in his advertisements. But LGBT activists and celebrities have never once promoted a boycott of the Islamic regimes which stone, execute and jail their homosexual citizens. Why do they not orchestrate a campaign to boycott Iranian, Indonesian, Palestinian and Turkish goods?
The "LGBT resistance" need get out from under its "safe space" of Western "rights", complacency, moral relativism and security. They need to fight for their fellow persecuted "immorals" languishing in the Islamic world, beyond the borders of Western freedom. Their silence only encourages the intolerance aimed against them and others. It is not liberalism, permissiveness or tolerance. It is merely blindness, relativism and cowardice.
Syrian women burned the burqas the Islamic State forced them to wear, after the militants were being driven out from the city of Manbij. "Damn this stupid invention that they made us wear," one woman said as she set fire to the garment. "We're humans, we have our freedom".
When the Taliban tyranny in Afghanistan ended, women's faces also began to reappear on the streets; and men, forced by the Taliban to grow beards, flocked to buy razors.
Why hasn't the West raised the question of gay rights under Islam? Go ask the LGBT establishment.
"Fight the nationalism that invokes walls and borders". This was the platform in 2017 of Rome Pride, the annual event of Italy's LGBT movement; it called for "resistance" against "populism" and yelled slogans such as "Make Italy Gay Again". But as the English magazine The Spectator noted, "the battle for gay rights stops at the borders of Islam". The Islamic State knows this well and, borrowing the slogan used by President Obama after the Supreme Court declared same-gender marriage legal, ISIS took to using the hashtag #LoveWins. Islamic supremacists laugh at our weakness.
During the summer, in cities across the West, the LGBT movement celebrated two weeks of marches and parades for "Rainbow Pride." At Chicago's "Dyke March," the organizers ejected marchers who carried rainbow flags with the Jewish Star of David. They were labelled "offensive" for this "inclusive" event, despite the fact that hundreds of gay Palestinians have found refuge in Israel.
The big New York Pride March last year became just another protest against President Trump, in favor of Obamacare and gun control (tell it to the 49 homosexuals murdered by ISIS jihadist Omar Mateen at the Pulse Club in Orlando), and against the Trump Administration's immigration policy. In Toronto, the Pride parade was dominated by the militants of Black Lives Matter. In Minneapolis, the LGBT marchers asked the police chief, Janee Harteau, to avoid the event.
Marchers at the 2017 San Francisco Pride Parade. (Image source: Pax Ahimsa Gethen/Wikimedia Commons)
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That was just two ordinary weeks of "LGBT resistance" in the liberal and free West. What, however, was happening beyond its borders, in the lands of Islam?
In Erdogan's Turkey, Islamists attacked gays in Istanbul. Chechnya jailed and tortured gays. In Gaza, Hamas executed civilians and even fellow terrorists suspected of being gay.
Western LGBT marches did not raise a single flag against Chechnya, or advance slogans against the treatment of gays by the Venezuelan socialists, or protests against the murders of gays in the Islamic State. There were no chants against Indonesia, which has recently flogged homosexuals in the streets; no strikes to protest against the murders of gay Bangladeshi bloggers and LGBT activists, and no flash mobs against Iran, which had recently arrested 30 homosexuals in a night raid and submitted them to a "sodomy test".
But in the West, marchers shouted many useful slogans such as, "No cops! No banks". The marchers did not condemn the hacking to death of the editor of an LGBT magazine in Bangladesh.
At these LGBT parades, not a single slogan was heard against ISIS Caliph Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, who declared a "war on gays" and whose henchmen, in a single day, executed nine men and one boy for being homosexuals. ISIS fighters are "tracking down every gay man". But at New York's gay pride parade, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and Jared Kushner were called "queer-bashers", while Chelsea Manning, the idol of "fluid identity", thundered against America, evidently forgetting that Obama had graciously pardoned her.
The LGBT establishment has, it seems, been hijacked by a politicized elite that cares little about the rights of their brethren in the Islamic world. As Mark Steyn wrote, after ISIS jihadist Omar Mateen murdered 49 gays in an Orlando nightclub:
"the biggest mound of gay corpses ever piled up in American history and the worst terror attack on American soil since 9/11, all the usual noisy LGBTQWERTY activists fell suddenly silent, as if they'd all gone back in the closet and curled up in the fetal position".It is now time for the LGBT activists to abandon this fetal position and fight for the freedom of their brothers and sisters in the Islamic world. For that, they would also find supporters among those who, in the West, oppose same-gender marriages. That battle would be gays' right to life, something conquered in the West long time ago but still questioned in many other parts of the world.
It is important to understand the death trap of the classic liberal position of Canada's Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who, at Toronto's Pride Parade wore rainbow-colored socks printed with the Arabic words "Eid Mubarak" (a traditional Muslim holiday greeting). Trudeau just wished "happy pride to Allah", while many Muslim countries today condemn, if not murder, homosexuals.
Ayaan Hirsi Ali explained:
"no fewer than 40 out of 57 Muslim-majority countries or territories have laws that criminalize homosexuality, prescribing punishments ranging from fines and short jail sentences to whippings and more than 10 years in prison or death".We need to understand that, as Milo Yiannopulous said, "as a gay person, the scariest words you will ever hear are "Allahu Akbar".
Gay fashion legends Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana faced a boycott and a backlash of controversy when they said they opposed gay "marriage" and adoption, find in vitro fertilization unnatural, and believe procreation "must be an act of love". The Italian pasta-maker Barilla caused outrage when its chairman Guido Barilla said he would only portray the "classic family" in his advertisements. But LGBT activists and celebrities have never once promoted a boycott of the Islamic regimes which stone, execute and jail their homosexual citizens. Why do they not orchestrate a campaign to boycott Iranian, Indonesian, Palestinian and Turkish goods?
The "LGBT resistance" need get out from under its "safe space" of Western "rights", complacency, moral relativism and security. They need to fight for their fellow persecuted "immorals" languishing in the Islamic world, beyond the borders of Western freedom. Their silence only encourages the intolerance aimed against them and others. It is not liberalism, permissiveness or tolerance. It is merely blindness, relativism and cowardice.
Giulio Meotti, Cultural Editor for Il Foglio, is an Italian journalist and author.
© 2019 Gatestone Institute. All rights reserved. The articles printed here do not necessarily reflect the views of the Editors or of Gatestone Institute. No part of the Gatestone website or any of its contents may be reproduced, copied or modified, without the prior written consent of Gatestone Institute.
Recent Articles by Giulio Meotti
- The Pope's Stubborn Silence on the Persecution of Christians, 2019-02-03
- Strasbourg: Capital of the EU and "The Future of Europe", 2019-01-17
- Europe's New "Munich": Iran, 2019-01-03
- The Fracturing of France, 2018-11-24
- The West Must Offer Immediate Asylum to Asia Bibi, 2018-11-14
The secret gay history of Islam
In Muslim cultures, homosexuality was once considered the most normal thing in the world – so what changed?
Find out the real LGBTI history behind Islam
Islam once considered homosexuality to be one of the most normal things in the world.
The Ottoman Empire, the seat of power in the Muslim world, didn’t view lesbian or gay sex as taboo for centuries. They formally ruled gay sex wasn’t a crime in 1858.
But as Christians came over from the west to colonize, they infected Islam with homophobia.
The truth is many Muslims alive today believe the prophet Muhammad supported and protected sexual and gender minorities.
But go back to the beginning, and you’ll see there is far more homosexuality in Islam than you might have ever thought before.
1 Ancient Muslim borrowed culture from the boy-loving Ancient Greeks
The Islamic empires, (Ottoman, Safavid/Qajar, Mughals), shared a common culture. And it shared a lot of similarities with the Ancient Greeks.
Persianate cultures, all of them Muslim, dominated modern day India and Arab world. And it was very common for older men to have sex with younger, beardless men. These younger men were called ‘amrad’.
Once these men had grown his beard (or ‘khatt’), he then became the pursuer of his own younger male desires.
And in this time, once you had fulfilled your reproductive responsibilities as a man you could do what you like with younger men, prostitutes and other women.
Society completely accepted this, at least in elite circles. Iranian historian Afsaneh Najmabadi writes how official Safavid chroniclers would describe the sexual lives of various Shahs, the ruling class, without judgment.
There was some judgment over ‘mukhannas’. These were men (some researchers consider them to be transgender or third gender people) who would shave their beards as adults to show they wished to continue being the object of desire for men. But even they had their place in society. They would often be used as servants for prophets.
‘It wasn’t exactly how we would define homosexuality as we would today, it was about patriarchy,’ Ludovic-Mohamed Zahed, a gay imam who lives in Marseilles, France, told GSN.
‘It was saying, “I’m a man, I’m a patriarch, I earn money so I can rape anyone including boys, other slaves and women.” We shouldn’t idealize antique culture.’
2 Paradise included male virgins, not just female ones
There is nowhere in the Qu’ran that states the ‘virgins’ in paradise are only female.
The ‘hur’, or ‘houris’, are female. They have a male counterpart, the ‘ghilman’, who are immortal young men who wait and serve people in paradise.
‘Immortal [male] youths shall surround them, waiting upon them,’ it is written in the Qu’ran. ‘When you see them, you would think they are scattered pearls.’
Zahed says you should look at Ancient Muslim culture with the same eyes as Ancient Greek culture.
‘These amrads are not having sex in a perfectly consenting way because of power relationships and pressures and so on.
‘However, it’s not as heteronormative as it might seem at first. There’s far more sexual diversity.’
3 Sodom and Gomorrah is not an excuse for homophobia in Islam
Like the Bible, the Qu’ran tells the story of how Allah punished the ancient inhabitants of the city of Sodom.
Two angels arrive at Sodom, and they meet Lot who insists they stay the night in his house. Then other men learn about the strangers, and insist on raping them.
While many may use this as an excuse to hate gay people, it’s not. It’s about Allah punishing rape, violence and refusing hospitality.
Historians often rely on literary representations for evidence of history. And many of the poems from ancient Muslim culture celebrate reciprocal love between two men. There are also factual reports saying it was illegal to force your way onto a young man.
The punishment for a rape of a young man was caning the feet of the perpetrator, or cutting off an ear, Najmabadi writes. Authorities are documented as carrying these punishments out in Qajar Iran.
4 Lesbian sex used as a ‘cure’
Fitting a patriarchal society, we know very little about the sex lives of women in ancient Muslim culture.
But ‘Sihaq’, translated literally as ‘rubbing’, is referenced as lesbian sex.
Sex between two women was decriminalized in the Ottoman Empire in the 16th century, probably because it was deemed to have very little importance.
Physicians believed lesbianism developed from a hot itch on a woman’s vulva that could only be soothed by another woman’s sexual fluid. This derived from Greek medicine.
Much later, the 16th century Italian scientist Prosper Alpini claimed the hot climate caused ‘excessive sexual desire and overeating’ in women. This caused a humor imbalance that caused illnesses, like ‘lesbianism’. He recommended bathing to ‘remedy’ this. However, because men feared women were having sex with other women at private baths, many husbands tried to restrict women from going.
5 Lesbian ‘marriage’ and legendary couples
In Arabic folklore, al-Zarqa al-Yamama (‘the blue-eyed woman of Yamama’) fell in love with Christian princess Hind of the Lakhmids. When al-Zarqa, who had the ability to see events in the future, was crucified, it was said the princess cut her hair and mourned until she died.
Many books, especially in the 10th century, celebrated lesbian couples. Sapphic love features in the Book of Salma and Suvad; the Book of Sawab and Surur (of Justice and Happiness); the Book of al-Dahma’ and Nisma (of the Dark One and the Gift from God).
‘In palaces, there is evidence hundreds of women established some kind of contract. Two women would sign a contract swearing to protect and care for one another. Almost like a civil partnership or a marriage,’ Zahed said.
‘Outside of these palaces, this was also very common. There was a lot of Sapphic poetry showing same-sex love.’
As Europeans colonized these countries, depictions of lesbian love changed.
Samar Habib, who studied Arabo-Islamic texts, says the Arab epic One Thousand and One Nights proves this. He claims some stories in this classic show non-Muslim women preferred other women as sexual partners. But the ‘hero’ of the tale converts these women to Islam, and to heterosexuality.
6 Muhammad protected trans people
‘Muhammad housed and protected transgender or third gender people,’ Zahed said. ‘The leader of the Arab-Muslim world welcomed trans and queer people into his home.
‘If you look at the traditions some use to justify gay killings, you find much more evidence – clear evidence – that Muhammad was very inclusive.
‘He was protecting these people from those who wanted to beat them and kill them.’
7 How patriarchy transformed Islam
Europeans forced their way into the Muslim world, either through full on colonialism, like in India or Egypt, or economically and socially, like in the Ottoman Empire.
They pushed their cultural practices and attitudes on to Muslims: modern Islamic fundamentalism flourished.
While the Ottoman Empire resisted European culture at first, hence gay sex being allowed in 1858, nationalization soon won out. Two years later, in 1870, India’s Penal Code declared gay sex a crime. LGBTI Indians finally won against this colonial law in 2018.
But what is it like to be colonized? And why did homophobia get so much more extreme?
‘With the west coming in and colonizing, they think [Muslims] are lazy and passive and weak,’ Zahed said.
‘As Arab men, we have to prove we are more powerful and virile and manly. Modern German history is like that, showing how German nationalization rose after [defeat in] the First World War.
‘It’s tribalism, it’s the same problem. It’s about killing everyone against my tribe. I’m going to kill the weak. I’m going to kill anyone who doesn’t fulfil this aggressive nationalistic stereotype.’
Considering the male-dominant society already existed, it was easy for the ‘modern’ patriarchy to end up suppressing women and criminalizing LGBTI lives.
‘In the early 20th century, Arabs were ashamed of their ancient history,’ Zahed added. ‘They tried to purify it, censor it, to make it more masculine. There had to be nothing about femininity, homosexuality or anything. That’s how we got to how are today.’
8 What would Muhammad think about LGBTI rights?
Muhammad protected sexual and gender minorities, supporting those at the fringes of society.
And if Muslims are to follow in the steps of early Islamic culture and the prophet’s life, there is no reason Islam should oppose LGBTI people.
For Zahed, an imam, this is what he considers a true Muslim.
‘What should we do if we call ourselves Muslims now? Defend human rights, diversity and respect identity. If we trust the tradition, he was proactively defending sexual and gender minorities, and human rights.’