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  • johnpi 9:22 am on February 5, 2010 | 1 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: , , homosexuality,

    Contrasting the difference between how homosexuality is viewed in Europe and America versus the Muslim world.

    Luongo — who details his adventures in Afghanistan, where he attends a “gay party” — agrees with Sharma, saying that while in Europe and America “homosexual desire and acts become the very definition of a person,” in the Muslim world, “homosexual desire and acts are simply one aspect amongst others, something people do but not something that defines a person above all things.” Thus many of the Muslim men the writers encounter do not identify themselves as gay, and ask the latter why they don’t have wives, causing deep confusion, and in the case of Richard Ammon, offence.

    Via Kawdess tweets.

     

  • arif 5:18 pm on February 1, 2010 | 0 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: , , , homosexuality

    Since there’s been a recent conversation on Afghanistan and the myth of homosexuality, I thought I make a separate post from the comment I left earlier.

    Here’s the documentary (quality work no less) called Jihad for Love [youtube playlist]
    One can appreciate above if you read an essay by Scott Kugle in Progressive Muslims. He has also written a book (which I have not read). [Amazon link]. Here’s one quick review of the essay [futureislam.com]:

    One of the volume’s boldest and most compelling essays is Scott Kugle’s, “Sexuality, Diversity and Ethics in the Agenda of Progressive Muslims.” Through careful textual exegesis, Kugle provides a detailed rejoinder to the narrow and exclusivist constructions of homosexuality among premodern Muslim jurists.

    Just some of the resources to make an informed worldview.

     

  • johnpi 5:26 pm on January 30, 2010 | 15 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: , , , , homosexuality, ,

    Afghan men struggle with sexual identity, study finds.

    As if U.S. troops and diplomats didn’t have enough to worry about in trying to understand Afghan culture, a new report suggests an entire region in the country is coping with a sexual identity crisis.

    An unclassified study from a military research unit in southern Afghanistan details how homosexual behavior is unusually common among men in the large ethnic group known as Pashtuns — though they seem to be in complete denial about it.

    (More …)

     

  • johnpi 2:49 pm on January 26, 2010 | 2 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: , , , homosexuality, , , ,

    Islam Online has a new section called “Unveiling the homosexuality.”

    Here’s an excerpt from an interview with Dr. Awsam Hanna, an Egyptian psychiatrist who has experience in ‘reparative therapy’ where he is describing the ‘homosexual personality.’

    It is also a part of the whole “homosexual personality,” characterized by low self-esteem, lack of social skills, disconnection from body, and emotional isolation from society with varying degrees in different individuals. The isolation is not just because of the hatred and homophobia of society, it is an element in the psychopathology (disease process) of the disorder itself. Of course the homophobia of the society adds to it, but it is not entirely caused by it.

    I guess that means there is no such thing as a socially or economically successful gay person.

    Via Kawdess tweets

     

  • johnpi 4:01 pm on December 16, 2009 | 3 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: , homosexuality,

    ‘Model student of Islam,’ regional Muslim Student Association leader, “explodes out of the closet,” founds international gay Muslim group.

     

  • johnpi 8:17 am on October 14, 2009 | 1 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: , , , homosexuality, , , ,

    In researching another story about homophobia in Muslim communities, I came across this three-years-and-still-going thread about in-the-closet Muslim lesbians. It seems that a lot of “secret” Muslim lesbians are finding succor on this thread, so I thought I would pass it along. The descriptions of flourishing lesbian communities in some Muslim countries are also noteworthy. Some excerpts:

    From Saudi Arabia:

    Yes there are many Muslim Lesbians around. I am from Saudi Arabia, the worst country there is for Homosexual yet, I am telling you I have never faced any problems. Ok, I am not very “visible” but it is my choice for a variety of reason one of which is my style and fasion taste. But, dykes are every where. We have a famous shopping mall here in Riyadh with a floor for women only. That place is heaven! Just visit the place on weekends and you will be amazed at the number of “couples” strolling around, window shopping etc. There are a few lesbian spots on the floor as well.

    From Malaysia:

    How are you? I was born, raised a muslim and I practice Islam well… quite religiously. hehe..

    I am out to most of my friends, and most of them are practicing muslims. and they cant be more supportive. Well, two or three have showed negative responds and those two/three were egyptians. But we Malaysians are really quite open about it. They treat me the same if not better.

    These supportive friends of mine, they know and love me for who i am. Alhamdulillah, being gay does not change their perspectives on me. I even changed some of their mind about lesbians and homosexuals.

     

  • thabet 7:21 am on October 8, 2009 | 0 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: , , , homosexuality, ,

    French football team made up of Muslims refuses to play a football made up of gays:

    An amateur Muslim soccer team has provoked an outcry in France after refusing to play against a team which promotes homosexual rights and has gay players.

    The Creteil Bebel Muslim team pulled out of its planned tie with Paris Foot Gay (PFG) at the weekend, saying it went against their religious beliefs to play against homosexuals.

    The PFG said they would sue Creteil Bebel for homophobia.

    [...]

    Creteil Bebel defended their pullout, saying their religious convictions were much more important than any sporting event.

    “As a Muslim, I have the right not to play against homosexuals because I don’t share their ideas,” Zahir Belgarbi, one of the team directors, told France Bleu radio.

    They seem a little selective in which ideas they don’t seek to share a football pitch with. Do they oppose teams made up of people who have sex outside of marriage, drink alcohol, eat pork, and wear those embarrassingly tight 1970s football shorts?

    More importantly, surely they must have been aware as to who their potential opponents might be when they entered this amateur tournament? If this was a league-style tournament, then they must have known. Even if it was a knockout, they would only have been hedging their bets (haram!) and hope Paris Foot Gay would be knocked out (or they themselves were eliminated from the tournament).

     

  • thabet 12:16 am on October 6, 2009 | 6 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: homosexuality, , , , , ,

    Inayat Bunglawala writes on a topic which will get him panned amongst most Muslims:

    Some religious communities are not reciprocating the tolerance and respect they insist on from others when it comes to gay rights, particularly in Muslim and some Christian communities [...] At its best, Islamic civilisation was more than willing to learn from other surrounding countries and cultures and adopt the best aspects as its own. Actively working to ensure that people are able to live free of discrimination based on one’s ethnicity, gender, religion or sexual orientation is a worthy goal and should be viewed as an Islamic goal.

    The ongoing change of Bunglawala is quite interesting (consider his admission that he was wrong about the publication of The Satanic Verses). I wonder how the hierarchy in the Muslim Council of Britain see him?

     

  • johnpi 7:26 am on October 2, 2009 | 19 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: homosexuality, , ,

    The progressive Islamist position on homosexuality:

    “As an Islamist I cannot condone homosexuality, and I cannot render halal that which is seen as haram in Islam, anymore than I can declare alcohol to be halal. But this I can say: when confronted by things like this, we have two choices: the hard choice or the soft choice. We can take the hard line and say that homosexuals are wrong and they ought to be punished. Or we can take the soft line and say that they are a gendered minority, and while they are practicing something we do not approve, we should defend them when they come under attack and we should counsel them. As an Islamist, I choose the latter, because for me Islam is still the religion of love, not hate.”

    Noor comments:

    For Islamism to even remain relevant today, Islamists (like the ones I mentioned above) will have to understand that we live in modern democratic societies where laws and governance are measured in the public eye in terms of concrete long term results. All the hate-campaigns and pogroms of groups like Fron Pembela Islam in Indonesia have done nothing for Muslims there, but only worsened the prejudice against Islamists in toto. Rather than hot air and fiery rhetoric, Islamists need to demonstrate that they can govern justly in plural societies and learn to live with difference and diversity. Demonising gays, non-Muslims, women and other minorities is no longer a gimmick that works, and in fact is now counter-productive.

    To this it should be added that the ’soft’ Islamist approach to dealing with real social issues should not be seen as the ‘weak’ approach neither. Just because an Islamist renounces violence and violent hateful rhetoric, doesnt make him/her a lame Islamist with no teeth. In fact, the reality is precisely the opposite: It is only when Islamists stop wasting our time with silly bans on concerts and movies, and stop scaring us with threats of demonstrations and pogroms, that they will be taken seriously. If Islamists really want power, then they ought to demonstrate an adult and rational ability to deal with power and its mechanics. Anything else is just empty sloganeering and posturing, and ought to be left on the soap-box with the other peddlers of nonsense and hype.

     

  • johnpi 9:19 pm on July 27, 2009 | 1 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: , , , , homosexuality, , ,

    Zionist Hasbara activists are marketing the production of the first all Israeli/all Jewish porno film. Why?

    Richard Silverstein tells all:

    Make no mistake, this is not a one-off promotion by an odd-ball Jewish gay pornographer. This is part of an orchestrated hasbara campaign spearheaded by groups like Stand With Us, who promoted Israel during the latter’s Gay Pride Festival as a natural ally of gays around the world. The angle for SWU (and there always IS an angle with groups like this) is to trumpet the alleged homophobia of Palestinian/Arab society compared to the alleged freedom and tolerance of “western” Israel towards a gay lifestyle. Never mind that Israel is less tolerant of gays than the average western country. That matters little for the hasbaraniks of SWU.

     

  • johnpi 5:31 am on July 2, 2009 | 0 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: , , homosexuality,

    India decriminalized homosexual acts.

    The petition had been staunchly opposed by religious groups, particularly leaders of India’s Muslim and Christian communities who argued that all homosexual acts were “unnatural” and should therefore be banned.

     

  • johnpi 6:12 pm on June 6, 2009 | 1 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: , , , , homosexuality, , saudia arabia, , ,

    One of the values of all of the stories coming out of the Gulf Arab states right now about sex therapy and sex issues are just the examples of the range of struggle that people live with that may make others feel less isolated in their misery and seek help/improvement:

    In Saudi Arabia and other countries where the genders are rigorously separated, many men have their first sexual experiences with other men, which affects their attitudes toward sex in marriage, Ms. Lootah said.

    “Many men who had anal sex with men before marriage want the same thing with their wives, because they don’t know anything else,” Ms. Lootah said. “This is one reason we need sex education in our schools.”….

    She reels off stories from her practice in rapid fire: the Emirati military officer whose wife had an affair because he was away from home too much; the woman who thought fellatio was against Islam (not true at all, Ms. Lootah notes); the wife who discovered her husband dressing up as a woman and going out to gay bars. She seems bent on showing that there is a whole world of sexual confusion that would benefit from open discussion.

     

  • johnpi 2:07 pm on June 1, 2009 | 2 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: , , homosexuality, ,

    ABC has a four-page expose on Saudi gay life in particular and throughout the Middle East in general. Some highlights:

    * Paranoia is rampant: In a recent case, the muttawa arrested a man at a Jeddah shopping mall for homosexuality because his jeans and shirt were too tight.

    * Denial is widespread: Among Arabs, it seems, a mix of stigma and machismo causes most gays to identify as “tops.” “It re-enforces this feeling that you’re not really gay. They’re more comfortable with being tops, because it’s easier to negate [the gay stigma].”

    * Egypt was once known as the “San Francisco of the Middle East,” but whomping on gays is a great way to steal fire from the Islamists. “One of the ways [Arab authorities] prove they’re bona fide is by cracking down on people that everyone hates.” Hate as an organizing principle of society doesn’t seem any closer to God than war as an organizing principle of society (as in the US).

    * Elites imitate the neoconservative mindset in having one set of rules for themselves and another for the ‘little people.’ “I’ve been invited to private parties for gay men in Jeddah, but I never go because I know what would happen if we were caught. Unless it’s a VIP house — if the party is at the home of one of the princes or one of the sheiks then you’re protected.”

    * ABC fails to apply post-colonial analysis and observe that all Arab homosexuality is derivative of Western colonization…oh wait, Saudi Arabia has never been colonized. Never mind.

     

  • johnpi 8:03 am on June 1, 2009 | 0 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: , homosexuality, , , ,

    Coming a little late to this story, but on Friday the US embassy in Iraq held what the invitation says is the first-ever U.S. Embassy Gay Pride Theme Party.

    “Come celebrate the start of Summer with color . . . and in costume!” the May 10 invitation says. “Dress in drag or as a gay icon. All are welcome.” The invitation was attached to what was called an “All Hands Alerts” e-mail.

    An embassy spokesman said by way of explanation: “This is an event organized and sponsored by a group of employees. Given the lack of places to meet in Baghdad, the embassy allows groups to use its social facilities for events on a first-come, first-served basis.”

    This plays right into the ‘post colonial analysis’ of Iraqi homophobes who claim that homosexuality was imported with the occupation.

     

  • johnpi 1:03 am on May 30, 2009 | 0 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: , , homosexuality, ,

    The International Day Against Homophobia is being observed in Jakarta on Sunday, and the Jakarta Post has several articles, here and here.

     

  • thabet 5:52 am on May 26, 2009 | 1 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: , , homosexuality,

    Father John Owen, a Catholic official in Cardiff, has said that most peadophilia is committed by homosexual men, and said that anyone who questioned these facts wanted nothing less than gay orgies in front of the Vatican.

     

  • johnpi 8:25 am on May 20, 2009 | 0 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: , family, , homosexuality, , ,

    Exposé on gay life in Syria:

    There is a powerful societal expectation for a man to marry and have a family in Syria, and most gay men will eventually marry a woman to ease this pressure and to fulfill their own desire for a family. Even Fadi, who believes that gay men who claim to be “bisexual” are under an illusion, hopes to somehow find a way to be both gay and married to a woman.

    “The gay men here say the life of the family is on one side, and gay life on the other side,” he says. “I want to have a family, I want children; maybe I can still get married even if she knows that I’m actually gay.”

    Once married, many gay men continue to live a secret second life with other men.

    Throughout the world there are different perceptions of what it means to be gay, and it is apparent that the traditional gay-straight binary is not sufficient in describing sexual identity in Syria.

    Some men who consider themselves straight may turn to homosexual acts out of strong sexual frustration, as relationships with women before marriage are forbidden and can be extremely challenging to manage under the family’s watchful eye.

    As male friendship is expressed in the Middle East differently than in the West, with physical intimacy such as holding hands and cheek-kissing a common occurrence between friends, gay couples can go largely undetected.

    Fadi says, “If a woman and I were having sex, and people saw us together, we’d have a problem. If we were guys, we could walk together, hold hands, sleep in the same bed together and no one would think anything of it!”

     

  • razib, murtad fitri 8:11 pm on May 5, 2009 | 0 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: homosexuality

    so maine, and probably new hampshire, is going to pass gay marriage legislatively. wow. how the zeitgeist in new england has changed. one of the issues with gay marriage is i think it’s really a matter of zeitgeist and not individual reason. though to be honest, i think this is true of almost all public policy positions.

    it seems to me that the problem in the USA is that a nation of 300 million over a continent is actually nations. new england is where much of europe is, the west, mid-atlantic and midwest will follow, and no doubt the rockies & south will bring up the rear. until then there are simply conflicting frames that are almost unintelligible.

    i think a uniform legal framework and multiculturalism are fundamentally incompatible in a deep sense, though they can coexist through pragmatic compromises and selective acceptance of minorities of majority norms in exchange for slack on less central values.

     

  • razib, murtad fitri 9:10 pm on May 3, 2009 | 2 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: homosexuality, terminology

    commenter ned below said:

    Razib, as someone who’s Pakistani, gay, and has been with only one person in a long-term monogamous relationship her entire life, I will agree with you that it is not fair to call every opponent of gay marriage homophobic. I have conservative friends who are not thrilled by the idea but I would not call them homophobic. I have suggested among queer circles that people should learn to differentiate between homophobes and what I might call “homoskeptics” (though both words are etymologically stupid and ugly to be honest). Some people are simply skeptical of the value of long-term gay relationships. I think they are being narrow-minded and unfair, but I don’t think their skepticism amounts to bigotry.

    i think ned’s insight can be generalizable.

     

  • johnpi 7:47 pm on May 3, 2009 | 0 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: , , homosexuality, , , ,

    Denial-istan goes to Baghdad.

    Iraqi ‘executioner’ defends killing of gay men.

    “We see this [homosexuality] as a serious illness in the community that has been spreading rapidly among the youth after it was brought in from the outside by American soldiers,” he said, in an interview in the Iraqi capital. Abu Muslim is not his real name. “These are not the habits of Iraq or our community and we must eliminate them.”

    If it weren’t for those darn outsiders…

     

  • johnpi 8:49 pm on April 20, 2009 | 0 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: , , , homosexuality, , , , ,

    Israel recruits gay community in PR campaign against Iran.

    “We have to lay the foundation in the world, and particularly in Europe, in order to be able to take harsher steps against Iran, especially in the economic sector,” said one senior political source in Jerusalem.

    The new campaign, to be overseen by the Foreign Ministry, aims to appeal to people who are less concerned with Iran’s nuclear aspirations and more fearful of its human rights abuses and mistreatment of minorities, including the gay and lesbian community.

    Lucky Muslim gays to have such a champion of their human rights, and for such noble reasons…

     

  • johnpi 7:01 pm on April 20, 2009 | 0 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: , homosexuality, , , , serial killers

    An Indonesian serial killer who is facing the death penalty, Verry Idham Henyansyah – most of whose victims were gay, and who happens to be gay himself – has written an autobiography, “The Untold Story of Ryan” (Ryan was his nickname). Interesting fact:

    Ryan writes in the book of being a good boy who graduated at the top of his class from both elementary school and high school, and who went on to become a Koran studies teacher — ironically he also dated his first Koran studies teacher, a man, for nine years from the age of 20.

    “Ryan’s” violence against other gays reminded me of a comment from another recent story in which a persecuted young gay man in southern Iraq said one of his boyfriends was a religious militia man who had threatened to kill him.

     

  • Kawthar 6:10 am on April 20, 2009 | 0 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: homosexuality,

    Senegal’s court of appeals has overturned convictions of nine men for homosexuality

     

  • johnpi 9:13 pm on April 15, 2009 | 0 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: , homosexuality, , ,

    In the last few weeks, 25 boys and men are reported to have been killed in Baghdad because they were, or were perceived to be, gay, Amnesty said….

    The letter [from Amnesty International] also raised concerns that religious leaders may be inciting violence against members of Iraq’s gay community.

    For more information, the [newly redeemed] Little Green Footballs blog has some context.

     

  • razib, murtad fitri 4:39 pm on April 8, 2009 | 2 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: homosexuality

    from the article about dubai thabet linked to:

    In every large city, gay people find a way to find each other – but Dubai has become the clearing-house for the region’s homosexuals, a place where they can live in relative safety. Saleh, a lean private in the Saudi Arabian army, has come here for the Coldplay concert, and tells me Dubai is “great” for gays: “In Saudi, it’s hard to be straight when you’re young. The women are shut away so everyone has gay sex. But they only want to have sex with boys – 15- to 21-year-olds. I’m 27, so I’m too old now. I need to find real gays, so this is the best place. All Arab gays want to live in Dubai.”

     

  • razib, murtad fitri 2:50 pm on April 8, 2009 | 2 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: homosexuality

    re: quantitative data on homosexuality & saudi arabia. i can’t find any. in fact the HIV epidemic, what exists, isn’t attributed to homosexual activity at all.

     

  • razib, murtad fitri 11:50 am on April 8, 2009 | 12 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: gayness, homosexuality

    gayis not homosexual.

     

  • razib, murtad fitri 11:31 pm on April 7, 2009 | 0 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: homosexuality, Musilm-on-Muslim violence

    Iraq’s Newly Open Gays Face Scorn and Murder.

     

  • johnpi 5:12 pm on March 2, 2009 | 0 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: , homosexuality, , ,

    This will be a political nonstarter, as it is intended to help the two groups that are most loathed by the still-very-powerful religious right – gays and immigrants. Supporters however see it as part of a multi-year effort to compel passage.

    Reps. Keith Ellison and Betty McCollum are cosponsoring legislation that would help bi-national same-sex couples keep their families together. Called the Uniting American Families Act, the legislation would allow non-citizen partners of gays and lesbians to gain permanent resident status in the same manner as married couples.

     

  • johnpi 10:03 am on February 20, 2009 | 1 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: , Asia, , homosexuality, ,

    Interesting fact:

    Asia is believed to have the world’s largest number of men who have sex with other men, with a preliminary estimate of 10 million, according to WHO.

    While describing the figure as “extraordinary high,” Ghidinelli said it still appeared to be conservative because of the stigmatization of male-to-male sex.

    Muslims the world over are told that homosexuality is a “civilisational disease” of the West, which is the fountain of origin for all gayness in the world. Yeah, right – though I’m sure some sophists would argue that homosexuality is a colonial import that didn’t exist in some mythical past, the way the Iranian president fantasized several years ago that homosexuality doesn’t exist in Iran.

    Important takeaway from the linked article above: Asia sees growing HIV rates among young gay, bisexual men.

     

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