30
Aug
2010
A Jihad for Love
I recently watched what turned out to be a most impressive documentary about gay men and women in Muslim communities and countries.
What was so impressive about this were two main themes I came across, no matter the level of persecution they were under: just about everyone interviewed were devout–certainly everyone considered themselves Muslims, and none seemed to be atheists, or even agnostics, though some certainly struggled with issues their situation raised–and all of them had incredibly supportive friends and family.
This seems to make something clear to me: Islam and homosexuality are not intrinsically at odds.
Just as in Judeo-Christian traditions, most of the Quaranic edicts against homosexuality come from the story of Lot and Sodom and Gomorrah. One person argues that in the story, the residents of Sodom and Gomorrah were basically raping male visitors to their city, so Allah was mad about the rape, and not necessarily homosexual relations.
In fact, in South Africa, there lives an Imam who is openly gay. He has known he was gay since he was a kid, but he struggled with it, even to the point where he married a woman and has three kids. He and his wife have separated and he decided it was time for him to come out. It’s clear that he is a loving father and his kids adore him. But, they’re normal kids. At one point he asks them if they think he should be stoned for being gay. One kids says, yes. He asks why, and the kid says “because you won’t take me to KFC.”
When he came out, he’d been teaching at two Muslim schools he was asked to leave. However, I believe that he is still an Imam. Though to what extent he still functions as a regular Imam, I’m not sure.
Many of the people interviewed have had to literally flee their native countries to Europe or North America in order to escape prosecution or persecutions. If you lived in nations such as Iran or Egypt, or even Morocco, things are not looking up for you if you are LGBT. In fact, you might be thrown in jail, raped, beaten, threatened…
Meanwhile, it makes me think about our own intolerance in the U.S. Is gay marriage what they call a first world problem? Certainly I’m 100% in favor of gay marriage. But it just seems a little bourgeois in comparison.
I can’t stress enough how highly I recommend this film. In fact, I’ve found it online here.
Looks fascinating! I’m going to see if I can get it from my library–my computer knows how to stream video but doesn’t necessarily like to. :p
This sounds like a great documentary – I’ll be keeping me eyes out for it. I love how faith can be (and should be, in my opinion) interpreted in ways that are loving to ALL that it is supposed to help.
Also, it is definitely something to think about, how even in the US there are still some forms of persecution. Thank goodness I’m from Canada and we allow gay marriage here! I just always wonder how people can speak out against the persecution of gays in one place, but still persecute them (albeit not as bad!!) in their own country, know what I mean?!
I watched this film for the first time about a year ago about purchasing a copy. I loved it! I think it’s really enlightening for people – both Westerners and those from the Middle East – to really realize that there are people who are queer and yet still continue to be religious and to fight for equality from within their faith.