From: waseems@sco.COM (Waseem Siddiqi)
Subject: Islam and gays
Organization: SCO Canada, Inc.
Date: Wed, 19 Aug 1992 22:58:24 GMT


Here's an article that came out recently in a magazine about Muslim gays.
I think that is a contradiction in term. One  can't be a Muslim and a 
gay/lesbian at the same time.

However we should know what is going on in the Islamic community and 
understand the challenges that we face. Hence the posting of this  article.

There's a shocking para in there about homosexual  activities in Pakistan.
I didn't know this kind of things happened in Pakistan.

regards
waseem


PS - all typo errors are mine.
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                     Islam's Hidden Homosexuals

                               by
                          Zuhair Kashmeri

                      NOW, July 30_Aug 5, 1992

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They're young, dynamic and Muslim, and they passionately believe that Islam
and homosexuality can be reconciled.
And while a group of Muslim parents and elders gear up to damn a plan to 
sensitize high schoolers in Toronto to the homosexual lifestyle, TO's Muslims
gays and lesbians are brewing up a rebellion that may well set the pace for
a reinterpretation of Islam.
A growing number of them are coming out, at least among themselves and among
progressive young Muslims who reject many of the values of their orthodox 
parents.

A support group of Muslim gays and lesbian, is only just being formed  in
downtown Toronto- meanwhile, they end up joining associations like Khush,
an urdu word meaning gay/happy, which brings together South asian gays,
or ALOT which stands for Asian Lesbians of Toronto.
They are North American Muslims, Torontonians who draw their inspirations
form Ontario's Human Rights Code. They are reinterpreting Islam to reconcile 
their spirituality and their sexual preference, convinced that they can 
pray and play as they please and still defend their faith.
According to Khush president, Nelson C., "We have a telephone contact list
of about 150 or more and more than half of them are Muslim."
Consider Zohra, Khadija and Fatima, three Muslim lesbians. It is late 
evening at the By-the-Way Cafe on Bloor, and they are involved in an
animated discussion about a Time magazine cover story on Islam as the
new enemy of the West and of the women's movement.
"The article was terrible, and I burned the magazine." says Zohra,
her large, shy eyes framed by dark shoulder-length hair and a black 
baseball cap. The two other agree.

Their passionate defence of Islam is ironic, because in Islamic countries
such as Iran, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia, they would either be flogged or
stoned to death (the punishment is also used for premarital sex). That
is unless they repented and agreed to become the mandated fields for men
to 'cultivate', as the Quran stipulates.

However there is a flip side to the anti-gay posture taken by these countries
as a correspondent for Khush's newsletter, Khush Khayal (gay thoughts) 
reports about his experiences in the Pakistani city of Karachi.

The obvious cruise language on the street, which is incredibly common 
and open is adjusting and grabbing their crotch. This means the game is
on. Since women aren't out after 8 pm, the streets are full of gorgeous men.
Cruising in Karachi is easy. There are no head games like in Toronto bars.
Somehow size is discussed in great detail.

"A total surprise is the frankness of the men. They'll just say. 'I like
you, you want to come with me?' One is usually quite shocked after having
been accustomed to spending hours in a bar in Toronto. Here 
it takes fifteen minutes. When you meet a man, he'll introduce to you to his 
friends. Everyone wants a sample of foreign meat."

Fatima describes growing up in Iraq, where lesbian lovers were referred
to as 'special friends'. She recalls a wedding. "there was a woman dancing
by herself and when I asked, they told me she was the special friend
of the bride. it happened in Iraq and in Kuwait where I went later on.

Like their eastern counterparts, many of Toronto's gay and lesbian Muslims
are as passionate about their religion as they are about their sexuality.

Zohra for instance is a Shia. Though deep in the midst of an affair, she
conscientiously observed the recent ten days of Muharram, when Muslims
especially Shias, wail and beat at their chest at the mosque to mourn the 
gruesome massacre of prophet Muhammad's grandson, family and companions.

Her Iranian father is a follower of Ayatollah Khomeini. Her mother who
hails from India is a Syed or a descendant of the prophet's family.

Islam is very clear about homosexuality, says Abdullah Hakim Quick,
head of Islamic Social Services and Resources in Toronto. Quick who
is of Mohawk and African descent, was raised in Boston and accepted Islam
22 years ago. He trained at Medina University in Saudi Arabia and worked
as Imam, or religious leader, in several countries including five years
as Imam at the Jami mosque in Toronto.

Homosexuality he says, is "considered deviant behaviour punishable by
death" under Islamic fiqh(law). The only way out is repentance and a
conversion to straight behaviour.

He says the ban is driven from the biblical story of Lot, which is
also repeated in the Islamic scripture, the Quran as the story
of al-Lut.

Quick says Islam believes that "human beings are born with male and female
organs and whichever they go to the bathroom with that determines their sex."

He says there is no reform position on the question of homosexuality, and
that Muslims "won't change our position for this society".

Quick says homosexuality has become  "a subculture which involves drugs
and blue movies. There are lot of people in the homosexual community 
who are evil".

Having said this, Quick adds that in North America punishments can't be
viewed from the point of view of Eastern society.

"Pregnant girls in high school can't be stoned. People just can't be 
blackballed for being gay, because society is fostering this. I would 
counsel them. I would encourage them to come to the mosque. It is the
home of Allah. Allah guide whom he pleases."

The traditional view of homosexuality is total rejected by a dynamic young
Muslim gay in Toronto, a well known Islamic activist who is in the forefront 
of anti-racism protests. Like the others he does not want to be named
for fear of bringing the wrath of the community not just on himself but on
his family.

Brought up as a muslim, 'Farhan' learned to pray five times a day, read
the Quran and observe other Islamic rituals as such as fasting during the 30 
days of Ramadhan. He realised as early as 13 that he preferred males to females
but his family's religious pressure continues to torment him.

"Sometime I would pray at  night that I'd wake up straight in the morning,"
he says.

As an adult, he began frequenting a nearby bar that his parents knew
was a gay bar , arguing that his friends went there and that besides, it had
good music. Later on, when he became a professional and began living downtown
he moved into an apartment with his French-Canadian lover. farhan has not come
out with his parents, but he believes there is an unspoken acceptance.

"My mother often comes to stay with me. And she sees my lover. She sees
that we sleep on the same bed." says Farhan, a tall, dark and handsome man
who is quick-witted and cutting in his retorts. "He goes to Muslim gathering 
with me. We visit my parents together. He's been to the mosque with me. One
of these days, I feel I should come out and say 'Let's cut this bullshit'"

Farhan has a feeling that he won't be totally ostracised, but he can't be
sure, he says, because many Muslims confuse the rituals of Islam with its
real spirit. He cites the example of a close Muslim friend who knows 
about his practice of the faith but maintains a distaste for his lifestyle.

"He asks me, 'How can you be a Muslim? You smoke, you drink, you fuck. The
only thing you don't do is eat pork.' But I've sat in mosques next to
people who follow all the rituals of Islam but lie and cheat. How can they
claim to be better Muslim than I?"

Farhan says, "I consider myself a Canadian Muslim who has 1400 years
of history and culture that he is not willing to give up. I have
reconciled my sexuality and my religion."

"I don't think Allah's grace is exclusionary. I do not have a choice about 
my sexuality, just as nobody asked me about my skin colour. And I am 
damned if I am gay, than this is one unjust god."

He believes that Muslims, not the Quran, are at fault for refusing to 
interpret the scripture to reflect today's realities.

Others, like Imran, a 27-year old Pakistani with a cute smile and a sexy lilt 
to his speech, believes that Islam has reconciled with homosexuality by
simply turning a blind eye to it in countries such as his own.

"In Pakistan I practised homosexuality more freely than here, where it's
a meat market. There it is a different kind of a meat market. My younger
brother is also gay, and he's had a lover for 10 years, since he
was 13. In areas like Peshawar and North West frontier Province it is
very open. In some cities like Bannu, it is well known that men have wives
and little boys as their homosexual lovers."

But the road towards reconciling Islam and homosexuality is fraught with
personal conflicts. For instance, Islam inculcates a very closely knit 
family  bond, and one can see this playing itself out in the conflict
that several gays and lesbians are going through.

Zohra, who is 22, says, "I had my first lesbian experience four years ago.
And when I broke up with my lover after two years, I found my self being 
attracted to men again. The attraction was a need to satisfy my parents.
I wonder how much of this shapes my identity as a bisexual.

"Defining myself as only a lesbian would then mean totally denying my
parents, and that would hurt me a lot. I am working out a way of living
up to my parents expectations, and finding my own sexual identity."

The question of family and parents remain even in extreme cases such
as that of Sa'ad, a budding film maker and a poet. He has largely given
up on Islam and is in search of 'the perfect Tantric orgasm'.

"I am very much into sex. Period. both gay and heterosexual, although
lately I have been more and more attracted to men. You can't differentiate
between feelings and sex. IF I have feelings toward a man, I want to be naked
with him. Right now I have one female and two male lovers. Sex is my  
spiritual experience."

The 27-year old Canadian Pakistani comes from a fairly religious family-
his father was a religious leader in Toronto, involved in building a
mosque. Saad who has just completed a 15-minute documentary on masturbation,
called self-pleasuring continues to go for community prayers with his
father on special occasions.

Yet, when asked about coming out and telling his parents, he says, " Are
you crazy? I will never tell my family. They would have a heart attack.
I have to protect my family. If I told my dad, our relationship would end."

Some, such as Khadija, who calls herself a 'baby dyke, an invitro lesbian',
came out at an early age. She is an Ismaili Muslim and was asked by her 
parents, when she was 17 and in high school, why she was spending so much 
time with a woman.

"I told my mother she's my lover and if you want to talk to a counsellor,
you can do that. She replied, 'No, I'll deal it with my god'. Since then 
it's been open. I take my lover home, and I am moving back with my parents."
says the 21-year old, who was given a gay award at McGill University
in Montreal recently.

She says her parents only concern is to be discreet and not discuss openly
what she does in bed with her lover.

None of them want to be rejected by their families, or their community.
For these gays and lesbians have already been rejected once by
mainstream society because of their skin colour- some of these rejections
taking place in mainstream gay bars.

They feel trapped, and one constant theme they echo is summed up in
the words of Muhammad, a financial expert and an Ismaili Muslim form 
East Africa. He says, "We have become a minority within a minority"

In gays bars, says Muhammad, "You would be lucky if a white came up and
talked to you" He himself, like many others, has opted for an Oriental 
partner. Their living room has a mix of two cultures- a poster of Shogun
on one wall and an Arab painting on the other, and in the middle a carving from
East Africa, Muhammad's homeland.

Khadija sums it up succintly by saying, "In dyke bars there is no understanding
of who you are, because you are the other, the women of colour, and if you 
say your are a Muslim, they say you can't be a lesbian then. By definition, a
lesbian is a white butch looks like, wearing boots and short, blond hair.
Zohra wears skirts, has long hair and wears some makeup so, politically she
can't be a lesbian."


As a result, say these Muslim gays and lesbians, their only hopes lies in
setting their own associations and support groups and giving each other courage
and understanding.
They all agree that an ideal solution to reconcile Islam with their
sexuality would be to set up a mosque for gays and lesbians. But in the same 
breath, one quickly adds, " That won't fly. It would be bombed in the
first week by the fundamentalists."
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-- 
Waseem A. Siddiqi                                 Tel:    (416) 922 1937 
SCO Canada                                        email: waseems@sco.com 
Toronto, Canada                                        uunet!sco!waseems
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