Dissident Sexualities: Muslim and Gay in the UK
Yakoub Islam takes a look at the gay Muslim scene in
Britain and argues that homophobia is an act of social injustice based on
prejudice rather than fact and reason.
Muslim
WakeUp! Inc., December 29, 2004
Email: info@muslimwakeup.com
UK Gay Muslims march in 2002, Photo by Andrew
Hodges [the brilliant author of Alan
Turing: the Enigma -Bob]
By Yakoub Islam
As a middle class, white, British-born convert to Islam,
nothing has perplexed me more than the ideas and beliefs held by many ordinary
Muslims about gay people. I’ve tried to rationalize it, justify it and
excuse it. In the end, I felt impelled to put on my sociologist’s cap and
investigate the problem. What I discovered was that the history of Lesbian,
Gay, Bisexual, Transgendered, Questioning (LGBTQ) Muslims, even their social
reality, has been grossly misrepresented and misunderstood.
In this article, I will attempt to reconstruct the core
historical and contemporary realities of LGBTQ Muslims in the spirit of ithar,
a term which roughly translates as ‘self-sacrificing generosity’. I will
start by brushing off the cobwebs of the past and roughly summarize what is
known about LGBTQ Muslims by gender historians. The social research on LGBTQ
Muslims in Britain will then be considered, exploring the human rights
problems experienced by one section of this population – lesbian, gay and
bisexual women.
As I am not an expert on Shariah, I will not be
considering the legality of LGBTQ behaviours within Islam. Rather, my
intention is to draw people’s attention to the dire consequences of
continuing to rely on prejudice, rather than reason and research, to relate to
LGBTQ Muslim people in the UK. My conclusions, however, should be equally
applicable to other developed nations with Muslim minorities.
Speaking Historical Truth
In Arab and South Asian lands, pre-colonial LGBTQ
activity was almost always hidden from the public gaze, but was nonetheless
well-known. It took diverse forms, and even amongst the mainstream literature
of classical Islam, there are numerous examples of same-sex relationships
written about in an affirmative way. Medieval Persian poetry, including Rumi,
esteemed the love of the older man for the younger man; and the now lost Kitab
al-Sahhakat (Treatise on Lesbianism), dating from the ninth century, is
equally assenting of women-women sexual activities, as are later works of Arab
eroticism. There is also substantial evidence of the stigma surrounding
pre-marital heterosexual relations finding outlet through male-male sexual
acts, as there is in contemporary gay Muslim studies.
The arrival of the colonial Europeans introduced new ways
of conceptualizing dissident sexual and gender behaviours. By the nineteenth
century, Europeans had two well established social discourses on
non-heterosexual activities. One was the institutionalization of lesbian and
gay activities within a social identity, separate from gender: the
self-conscious, dissident homosexual. For some lesbian, gay and bisexual
Muslims, this may call into question their explanation of sexuality as
something biologically innate. But Europeans did not invent homoerotic desire
– what they did was link it to their sense of self.
The other discourse was evangelical Christian homophobia,
a moralizing fear and hatred far more extreme than the mocking indifference
common throughout much of the pre-colonial Muslim worlds. It was a discourse
that has its parallels in the reactionary masculinities of popular Salafism
and Wahhabism. From the hijab to homophobia, Salafis and Wahhabis sought
cultural defense against colonialism through promoting their patriarchal and
hyper-masculine ideologies. The fanatics who flew jet planes into skyscrapers
on 9/11 proved to be no different in their hyper-masculine mumblings than
modern neo-fascists – misogynistic, and inevitably, homophobic.
The rationalization of homophobia is an example of Salafi
dissimilation par excellence. Indeed, if ever there was an exemplar of the
intellectual bankruptcy of Salafism, it is in the telling of non-heterosexual
Muslim history. From laughable accounts of how the American Psychiatric
Association reluctantly capitulated to gay pressure groups in deciding to
scratch homosexuality from its Diagnostic and Statistical Manual, to the
claims that homosexuality is a ‘Western disease’, the Salafabi mindset
demonstrates what their anti-secularism is all about – the end of critical
thought.
Fortunately, the interaction between Muslim and colonial
texts has also forged more positive discourses. Non-heterosexual and
transgendered Muslims around the world are increasingly talking about their
sexual experiences and gender identities in a way that echoes European
discourses. It makes sense to them, like computers and cars. But these
dissidents are not talking quite the same talk, or walking quite the same
walk, as European and American gays.
Witness the birth of the modern LGBTQ Muslim.
Speaking Personal Truth
Today, gay Muslims in Britain are speaking truth to
prejudice on two fronts: the personal and the political. Unusually, it is
within the former realm that help has come from professional academia. This
April, Dr. Andrew Yip, a reader in sociology at Nottingham Trent University,
published a groundbreaking study into the personal and family lives of a small
group of gay Muslims in London. As well as the clandestine practices and
marriages of convenience, Yip met a number of Muslims who had quietly come out
to their families. And in doing so, he uncovered widespread and fundamental
misconceptions within the Muslim community – about gay Muslims, and about
British society.
“My parents think I am having sex all the time!”
Adaam laughs. This is the perception of many Muslim parents – Britain, a
debauched society, poisons the minds of their young and sucks them into a life
of homoerotic vice and self-indulgence. The term to describe this view is
becoming increasingly well-known: Westoxification. In Britain, it’s a
perception which finds easy reinforcement in the media, not to mention our
rowdy, boozy pub culture. Ironically, Yip’s study suggests most gay Muslims
are in tune with their parents, and prefer not to visit clubs, partly because
they perceived them as being ‘cruisy’. In the real world, of course,
people who drink and engage in premarital sex may be stupid, but they don’t
mutate into self-serving ogres.
Adaam was also a participant in Yip’s research, and
spoke to me on the telephone on behalf of Imaan, a LGBTQ Muslim collective
based in London. Originally founded in 1999 as a US chapter of Al-Fatiha, led
by Adnan Ali, the organisation has recently been re-launched as a collective
catering to LGBTQ Muslims, their families and friends, and is committed to
‘Islamic notions of social justice, peace and tolerance’. Adaam is
responsible for liaising with individuals, groups and organisations interested
in the gay Muslim issue.
Despite a recent upsurge in homophobic violence in
London, Britain is more comfortable with dissident sexualities than ever
before. The rebirth of Imaan has clearly revitalised Britain’s gay Muslim
community, with media interest showing interest in a range of organisations,
including the Naz Project, which focuses on gay sexual health issues. A TV
documentary is in the offing, and BBC’s flagship talk station, Radio 4,
recently devoted an entire programme to gay Muslims in Britain. Muslims are
now visible on gay pride marches, and this year gay Muslim placards could be
seen above the crowds of London’s Mardi Gras.
Adaam is keen to emphasise that Imaan is, first and
foremost, a religious and social organisation which supports LGBTQ Muslims,
forging links with the wider Muslim community with its solid commitment to
fighting Islamophobia.
“A more social take on things was demanded by the
membership,” He explained. This year, Imaan is holding an Eid party, with a
representative from the Mayor of London’s office invited to attend. There
are also monthly meetings, with members’ discussions revolving around a
selected topic. Next meeting, the group intend to discuss the difficulties of
having a non-Muslim partner. Yet in both its social activities, as well as in
its wider remit, what makes Imaan stand out is its commitment to a
compassionate and wholly non-judgemental ethos.
“If someone at a meeting says he or she can’t be both
gay and Muslim, that’s okay with us,” Adaam explained, “But equally, if
someone is gay, Muslim and proud, that’s okay too.”
The same non-confrontational ethic also informs Imaan’s
dealing with the media on national and international issues, including the
recent visit to Britain by Yusuf al-Qaradawi, who co-opts a term from
Victorian biological determinism to describe homosexuality –
‘unnatural’. Some British gay activists argued al-Qaradawi should be
banned from visiting Britain, but Imaan remained neutral throughout the media
foray condemning him. The collective are already in quiet discussion with
other religious leaders over the legality of gay relationships, although such
is the tendentious nature of the topic that Adaam mentioned no names.
With Britain’s ulema still dominated by Imams educated
outside the UK, attitudes to LGBTQ Muslims generally reflect the laws and
customs of the countries of origin. Like Imaan’s original membership, Islam
in the UK is predominantly South Asian, with 43% of Britain’s 1.6 million
Muslims having ethnic origins in Pakistan. Perhaps partly due to the Barelvi
Sufi tradition of tolerance and humanism, homosexuality is tacitly accepted in
many parts of Pakistan, providing it doesn’t threaten traditional marriage.
At the same time, Britain has seen the encroachment of a more intolerant
Islamism, and is not immune to other international gay Muslim issues,
including the politically expedient clampdowns in Egypt, and the recent
legislation against homosexuality in Zanzibar.
Perhaps the most powerful friend of gay Muslims in
Britain is Zaki Badawi, the curmudgeonly graduate of Al-Azhar with a PhD in
psychology from a London University, who has long condemned homophobia and
controversially once suggested many high-ranking leaders in the Muslim world
were gay. Yet inevitably, there are also leaders who continue to fan the
flames of prejudice. Amongst the more disturbing is Sheikh Sharkhawy, based at
the prestigious Regent’s Park mosque in London, who once denigrated gay
people as “paedophiles and AIDS carriers.”
Speaking Political Truth
Testimony to the impact of such flagrant bigotry comes
from the Safra Project, an organisation founded in 2001 to pursue the
interests of Muslim lesbian, bisexual and transgendered (LBT) women.
Originally part of the old Al-Fatihah-UK, Safra has demonstrated an ability to
consult widely and focus on social policy issues. In 2003, Safra published a
searing indictment of the difficulties Muslim LBT women experience in
accessing legal and social services in the UK.
At this point in time, I want to get preachy and sound a
word of warning. In Britain, many Muslims feel embattled by Islamophobia on
the street and in our own government’s foreign policies. There is no doubt
that negative portrayals of Muslims in the media contribute to this
predicament. At the same time, one of the most perilous consequences of
Islamophobia is the silencing of self-criticism, whereby Muslims defend what
is indefensible. By any measure, the treatment of Muslim LBT women is
indefensible. I hope you can dare to look these unpleasant truths in the
face-–imagine being there, suffering, living these people’s lives. Then by
Allah do something about it.
Imagine experiencing intense same-sex desire, in a world
where such feelings are not only condemned as wrong, but information about
dissident sexualities is inaccessible. Imagine seeking counsel from within
your community over such feelings, even from Asian women support services,
only to face homophobic hatred and rejection. But there are so few people you
can tell, anyway – the fear of the loss of honour (izzat) is such that you
dare not risk your family’s public vilification should your secret become
public knowledge. What can you do?
Imagine then turning to people outside the community, and
finding things no better there. Homophobia also exists amongst state-funded
social services, along with Islamophobia and racism. Some service providers,
holding misplaced ideas about ‘cultural sensitivity’, don’t like to
bring the issue of dissident sexualities up. Muslim LBT women working for
these services may be silenced from professing their sexuality for exactly the
same reason.
Imagine the sense of isolation and inner turmoil, but you
don’t have to imagine the outcome. Muslim LBT women suffer serious mental
health problems, with some attempting self-harm and even suicide. And at this
juncture, the only ‘sin’ many have committed is inside their heads.
Those Muslim LBT women who dare to come out to their
families face rejection, despite being brought up to believe that family is
the only real protection a Muslim woman can have. Those who are not rejected
often face intense pressure to marry, or physical and emotional domestic
violence from parents or siblings. Not surprisingly, some Muslim LBT women
never come out, and consequently spend their whole lives either in torment or
in clandestine relationships.
Other Muslim LBT women, isolated from information and
support, struggle to make sense of their own sexuality well into adult life,
by which time they have a husband and children. These women then sometimes
risk physical or emotional violence from husbands, either due to conflicts
over sexual interest or the discovery of the truth that cannot be spoken. Some
women, filled with self-loathing, leave their husbands and give up their
children, or even lose them to abduction.
You have imagined the worst. Thankfully, the problems of
Muslim LBT women are not universally the same–-middle class women,
particular those who are educated and economically independent, fair slightly
better than their poorer, worker class sisters. Some families are simply more
sympathetic than others. And these problems are not without some remedy –the
testimonies of women and men who have been helped by Safra and other
organisations show that Muslim LGBTQs can cope with the right support. But two
troubles remain to be told.
The Mustad’afun fi’l-Ard and HIV
The conflict between sexuality and faith which Muslim LBT
women and gay men usually experience is almost always overwhelming. In my
view, that is a matter for each individual; for the wider ummah, my view is
that LGBTQ Muslims are clearly among the mustad’afun fi’l-ard—that is,
they are among those individuals and groups mentioned in the Qur’an who, for
no reason of their own, are pushed to the edges of society and live in
oppression. Muslims have a duty to defend them. This is what the academic
histories and the sociologies of dissident Muslim sexualities and genders are
saying to me.
Some assert LGBTQ Muslims are not amongst this group,
since they choose to be who they are. This is not an argument I can accept,
because the extraordinary level of suffering experienced by gay Muslims makes
no human sense if you assume choice is involved. The psychologists agree with
me on this one. To date, the American Psychological Association maintains
that, “human beings can not choose to be either gay or straight.” But if
this doesn’t convince you, let’s be clear where continued condemnation of
LGBTQ Muslims is leading.
More than anything, it is leading precisely nowhere.
LGBTQ Muslims are not going to go away, although a minority end up abandoning
their Muslim faith as inimical to their sexuality. For most, the continued
vilification of LGBTQ Muslims pushes them further underground, where they are
forced to live a lie. Even in liberal Britain, many continue to hide in
marriages of convenience, only able to express their sexuality through
clandestine relationships or purchased sex.
Putting aside the intolerable pressure this must place on
such artificial families, such practices clearly put men, women and unborn
children at risk from sexually transmitted diseases, including HIV. Yet rather
than viewing this predicament in terms of health risks, some Imams with a
direct line to Ar-Rahman’s will exploit this issue in order to attack LGBTQ
Muslims, by claiming AIDS as divine justice. One must ask, then, why Allah
would want to kill 66 Irish haemophiliacs with HIV, or infect unborn children.
There is no answer to this question, of course, because such diatribes are
expressions of hate and fear, not reason.
And so the suffering cascades through our communities,
its history and faulty logic forgotten. Despite the clear injunction on
Muslims to care for the sick, the outcome for many Muslims suffering from HIV
is rejection by the families, communities and even their faith leaders –
with some Imams even refusing to give people who have died of AIDS a proper
burial.
Non-heterosexual sexual activity has been a part of
Muslim life for centuries. In Britain, where there are 1.6 million Muslims, it
has forged a community and identities that are compassionate, insightful and
bursting with a passion for our faith. But some Muslims continue to view this
community with malice, born of a hatred unknowingly borrowed from their former
colonial masters. It’s a hatred that kills justice and, by creating a
climate of fear, may even be killing Muslims.
Time to put the hatred to bed, and wake up love!
For reasons of confidentiality and security, individual
names have been changed.
REFERENCES
Bates, S. (2003) Imams join Plea for Gay Tolerance, The
Guardian 26 11 03 p.11
BBC Online (1999) Inquiry begins into contaminated blood,
BBC Online Monday 27 September 1999 http://news.bcc.co.uk/ accessed 18/11/04
Davies, M. (2002) Wilful Imaginings, New Internationalist
345, http://www.newint.org/ accessed 15/11/04
Dhaliwal, L. (2002) Across the Last Gay Frontier, The
Guardian Online 29 September 2002 http://www.guardian.co.uk/ accessed 14/11/04
El Fadl, K. (2001) Islam and the Theology of Power, Islam
for Today http://www.islamfortoday.com/elfadl01.htm accessed 01/11/04
Griffiths, R. (2000) Sodom and the Koran, Gay Times April
2000 http://groups.yahoo.com/group/al-fatiha-news/message/45 accessed 08/11/04
Human Rights Watch (2004) In a time of torture: The
Assault on Justice In Egypt’s Crackdown on Homosexual Conduct (London: Human
Rights Watch)
Kimmel, M. (2003) Globalization and its Mal(e)Contents:
The Gendered Moral and Political Economy of Terrorism, International
Sociology, 18, 603 – 620
Kugle, S. (2004) Sexuality, diversity and ethics in the
agenda of progressive Muslims, in Omid Safi (2004) Progressive Muslims; On
Justice, Gender and Pluralism (Oxford: One World)
Murray, S, and Roscoe, W. (1997) Islamic Homosexualities:
Culture, History and Literature (New York: New York University Press)
Naz Project London (2000) Emerging Sexualities: Ten
Testimonies (London: Naz Project)
Office for National Statistics [UK] (2004) Focus on
Religion http://www.statistics.gov.uk accessed on 26/10/04
Reuters (2004) Zanzibar brings in gay sex ban, The
Guardian Online August 21 2004 http://www.guardian.co.uk/ accessed 23 08 04
Safra Project (2002) Initial Findings, Identifying the
difficulties experienced by lesbian, bisexual & transgender Muslim women
in accessing social & legal services (London: Safra Project)
Seabrook, J. (2004) It’s not natural, The Guardian
Online 03 July 2004 http://www.guardian.co.uk/ accessed 05 07 04
Shariati, A. (1969) Humanity and Islam, in C. Kurzman
[Ed] (1998) Liberal Islam: A Sourcebook (Oxford: Oxford University Press)
Yip, A. (2004) Negotiating space with family and kin in
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Sociological Review 2:3 p.336-350
LINKS
Imaan http://www.imaan.org.uk/
Muslim Youth http://www.muslimyouth.net/
Naz Project http://www.naz.org.uk/
Safra Project http://www.safraproject.org/
American Psychological Association http://www.apa.org/pubinfo/answers.html
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