Eye on ‘Gay Muslims’

This strange man is known as ”Imam” Daayiee Abdullah, and he is trumpeted by his colleagues at the Al-Fahisha Foundation as being the world’s only openly gay Muslim scholar, and similar nonsense.

In the couple of interactions I’ve had with him, I’ve been astonished by his unwillingness to engage with alternative points of view. He writes with great assurance, and perhaps his many readers in the Muslim Gay Men group will be convinced by his posturing.

On a number of occasions, I have invited his people to debate, but they have always refused. Yet they then claim that we are the ones refusing, or even that debates have taken place and we have been refuted! (Thankfully, these are things that can be easily verified by recourse to evidence. I can provide mine in a later post, but for now let’s stick to the subject at hand.)

Recently, Afdhere Jama, editor of Huriyah Magazine, said the following on a public group:

also, at huriyah, it is more a mixture of cultural/faith/regional. we don’t talk about islam all that much. i would like to see how people are dealing with the question of islam and sexuality, in a more open and honest writing.

I ought to let you know of a bit of history between me and Afdhere. My ‘debate’ with him was probably the most substantial I’ve had with that lot, and I was very disappointed with the level of intellectual engagement I met. See the article I posted here, then our to-and-fro here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here… While you’re at it, note Al-Fahisha chief Faisal Alam’s response to my challenge, and see how I answered him.

Anyway, after Afdhere’s recent plea for “open and honest writing”, I put to him the following: “In that case, would you be interested in views that are not “gay-affirming”? How about some features where you ask a question and there are 2 alternative responses, say one from me and one from a prominent Al-Fatiha member? How about a feature with exchanges between me and such a person, to allow people to understand the dynamic of the debate?”

His reply?

the most prominant person from al-fatiha is a sheikh someone who actually went to school (for 16 years) on islam alone. his name is daayiee abdullah. if you have someone with such high islamic knowledge, that can be verified, i would welcome that.

but i’m not going to ask daayiee to debate with a self-hating someone who is not versed in islam.

I’ll freely admit that I’m no scholar, but then again, I’m not the one with the outlandish claims contradicting all Islamic scholarship, and of course source-texts.

Now to the point of this post. Daayiee (or whatever his real name is) touts himself as “a person trained in Arabic as a linguist and grammarian, a legal scholar in Shari’ah and Fiqh, a scholar in comparative legal systems” (talk about pompous) - yet I am still to see any evidence for this.

He claims to have graduated from the Graduate School of Islamic & Social Sciences, and further claims to have had a close association with their main scholar, Sheikh Dr. Taha Jabir Alalwani. Yet Sheikh Alalwani has had a forthright fatwa published clarifying Muslims’ proper stance against homosexualist groups.

When this was posted on Muslim Gay Men, Daayiee made one of his “Moderator’s Comments”, which I present here:

When I see such materials as this passed on as “absolutes” which are utilized for the purpose to “place blind fear” in LGBTQ Muslims’ minds it once again shows how limited many Muslims are by their literal interpretations of Allah’s greatest gift to humankind. As a graduate of GSISS and having had the opportunity to study with Dr. Al-Alwani as one of his top students for more than two and a half years, he affectionally called “Sheikh”, and refused another to sit at his right hand–a honorific position in a madressah, I must set the record straight so to speak. Dr. Taha did not teach in his courses what has been suggested here in this article. Dr. Taha frequently explained that Allah’s message was for all of humankind for all time, and since time has not ended, there is much to learn because our perspectives are limited, e.g., what was considered a truth 1400 years ago, we know today is not a truth today–therefore, there is much room for growth in understanding and interpretation. Dr. Taha also taught us to have an open mind because Allah is always revealing to humankind his diversity and bounty through nature. Dr. Taha further warned us to not utilize Al-Quran Al-Kareem to substantiate our personal prejudices.

Though I have seen this particular statement at Straightway in the UK, I know this is not Dr. Taha’s writing style, but a compilation of one of his students and an employee of the Fiqh Council–whose name I will not mention–and put forward as Dr. Taha’s work. I know that Dr. Taha’s mind and heart is very different than how he is portrayed here. I sincerely see such statements as “political” Islam and community pressures–for example, GSISS implimented a new rule in its Student Handbook in 2002 (and not there prior) that made it mandatory that students adhere to a “code of conduct”–read as you cannot be openly gay or promote an understanding that homosexuality is permissible in Islam–that was pushed by members of the school’s Administration after they learned I was gay–and not the true expression of a great Islamic Shaffi’i scholar, a man I affectionally refer to as “Abi”. Again, as Dr. Taha taught, I must be wary of accepting anything and everything that is put forth as “Allah’s only” truth–except for shirk, for Allah’s mercy is far greater than his wrath, and everyone’s judgment is based upon one’s intent and not one’s circumstances. When this message is taken to a clean heart, Allah’s mercy and justice is evident, and Allah’s creation is not limited by human interpretation.

Fine claims indeed! I am certain this charlatan is lying against Sheikh Alalwani, since I have read some of the latter’s work, including on on The Principles of Jurisprudence, and he is a respected mainstream Muslim scholar, not a bizarre hack-ademic like the others referred to by the Muslim homosexualists.

I have corresponded with the GSISS, and now have good reason to believe that Daayiee never graduated from there. I now challenge him to come up with his EVIDENCE.

Of course, the burden of proof is on the one who claims the existence of something. So if he has any certificates to back up his claim to scholarship, he should be obliging enough to show the world.

I expect he will retort that he is in no need to prove anything. I beg to differ. People’s trust in him is based on their assumption that he is properly trained and certified in the Islamic sciences. Doubt in that claim, let alone proof that he is a liar, will be fatally damaging to his charade.

So let’s hear from him, and while he’s at it, why not let us hear from his colleagues at GSISS, and the “man he affectionately refers to as ’Abi’”? I would be interested to hear their perspectives on homosexuality, and some more insights into the supposedly liberal curriculum at the school.