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.

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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.

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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.

The study, obtained by Fox News, found that Pashtun men commonly have sex with other men, admire other men physically, have sexual relationships with boys and shun women both socially and sexually — yet they completely reject the label of “homosexual.” The research was conducted as part of a longstanding effort to better understand Afghan culture and improve Western interaction with the local people.

The research unit, which was attached to a Marine battalion in southern Afghanistan, acknowledged that the behavior of some Afghan men has left Western forces “frequently confused.”

The report details the bizarre interactions a U.S. Army medic and her colleagues had with Afghan men in the southern province of Kandahar.

In one instance, a group of local male interpreters had contracted gonorrhea anally but refused to believe they could have contracted it sexually — “because they were not homosexuals.”

Apparently, according to the report, Pashtun men interpret the Islamic prohibition on homosexuality to mean they cannot “love” another man — but that doesn’t mean they can’t use men for “sexual gratification.”

The group of interpreters who had contracted gonorrhea joked in the camp that they actually got the disease by “mixing green and black tea.” But since they refused to heed the medics’ warnings, many of them re-contracted the disease after receiving treatment.

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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

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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.

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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).

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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?

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“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.

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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.

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