Comments on: Whitaker on the “Brokeback Desert”

By: Rasheed Eldin

Rasheed Eldin — Sat, 09 Dec 2006 20:46:00 +0000

Some readers may have wondered whether Brian Whitaker is gay himself, and I did wonder too. It’s not that important a question, otherwise I would just have asked him. Anyway, in an interview on NPR (American radio station), he confirmed that he is indeed gay. However, he said that it made no difference to his role as a journalist researching his book.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=6586537&sc=emaf

By: Yousef

Yousef — Tue, 06 Jun 2006 11:12:52 +0000

I wanted to add another point to the birth vs. choice debate…those are NOT the only two possibilities! What about environment, conditioning, and circumstance! Those are all valid points that shape our personalities and our realities. It is our duty as human beings to sort out our lives and figure out what is going on. Things are not as simple as “birth vs. choice”.

By: Yousef

Yousef — Tue, 06 Jun 2006 08:58:56 +0000

Anyone who claims that women are the root of evil clearly has little or no knowledge of the Islamic religion. Gender fairness in the Qur’an is one of its most beautiful characteristics. One need only look at verses that deal with motherhood or with the Virgin Mary, or with Pharoah’s wife, or with the Virgin Mary’s mother. Also, the verses that deal with the relationship between spouses, as well as verses that describe pregnancy and childbirth.

You might also want to listen to some of the lectures that were pointed to earlier on this blog about “Love in Islam”. Those lectures offer a beautiful understanding of the status of women and men. Again, like Br. Rasheed pointed out…please please please brother, do not allow yourself to go astray because of things that you “feel” might have happened. If it is true that some people are misinterpreting the Qur’an, then do some research yourself and ask the scholars that clearly aren’t. You are more than welcome to keep in touch and I truly would love it if you did no matter what decision it is you make about your life. Assalamualaykom.

By: Rasheed Eldin

Rasheed Eldin — Tue, 06 Jun 2006 00:17:19 +0000

Dear Shareef,

Thank you for writing your comment. I very much welcome all views, especially those that disagree with me in a considered, well-argued way. I'd like to respond to your points here.

Let me be clear first of all that I am not interested in the "straight perspective", but only the Islamic perspective, if there is one clear answer (as I am convinced there is).

"Consensual" homosexual acts (without God's consent) may not harm anyone, but that is not the basis of all Islamic rulings. Does it harm anyone if, in the seclusion of his home, a man bows his head in worship before a wooden idol he carved by his hands? No, but it is the most grievous of sins in the sight of Islam.

Homosexual acts are classified as major sins. Let me explain what this implies:
(1) They incur God's anger and make a person deserving of punishment.
(2) That punishment may come to him in the hereafter or before that. He might be sent to hell for a period of time to atone for it.
(3) He can repent from that sin at any time, just by turning to Allah and asking for His mercy and forgiveness (and obviously resolving not to continue the sin).
(4) Allah may even choose to forgive that sin without punishing the person, but nobody should be at all complacent in this regard. And this does not apply to the sin of worshipping others beside God alone, or associating partners with Him.

We should bear in mind two additional points:
(5) Some sins may require a wrong to be righted, such as theft – you must return anything stolen, if possible.
(6) Some sins – including anal sex between men – are considered societal crimes and attract a worldly punishment, either defined by a source-text or at the discretion of a judge, after due process.

Let's move on. I won't answer all your related questions here, as they are covered in some ways elsewhere on the blog. Please do browse. In particular, since you've called yourself gay but only "Muslim" in quotes, I would especially recommend this article by Mujahid:
http://gaymuslims.wordpress.com/2006/01/22/muslim-before-anything/

You make a point about the Qur'an perhaps being misinterpreted. Brother, anyone is free to make a claim, but a real problem is when anyone does so for a self-serving purpose, whether that be to justify unfair treatment of women, or to justify acts that are clearly against Islam and nature. Any claimant must justify his claims with evidence, then he must be ready to face criticism also on the basis of evidence.

By: Shareef

Shareef — Sun, 04 Jun 2006 21:05:46 +0000

I havent read the book yet i am looking forward to reading, but reading the article by Mr. Rashid and the sense of negativity i caught from him..
it was said that its a choice to choose the gay/lesbian lifestyle, it has some truth to it but its not as clear crystal
i as a gay muslim am still having issues, i dont understand why am i being punished for something two men or women have agreed upon as long as they are not harming no one else. especially if its love. to me personally if i had a choice to fall in love or even be physically attracted to a girl i would but appearantly i cant. So why do i not have love and get married (it is sunnah to get married ok maybe to a woman) to a guy. how would that harm the natural of the order hence sending me to hell ?

I do understand the straight perspective of this, which makes it a huge taboo to be gay because it is just said in the Quran, or because its said in hadeeth that anal sex shakes the thorn in the Quran. However sometimes things can be interperted in certain ways, sadly i havent fully read the quran, but sometimes i think maybe that it was interpreted in a certain way to satisfy a certain generation years ago.same thing happens when i go to a friday cermon and i hear the guy clearly says that woman are the root of evil and they are the devils themselves, and that they are getting more naked by the minute and it is shameful, and putting all the blame on the women only, as far as i remember it says in the Quran that if a women is in decent then men shouldnt. because at the end of the day not all people are muslim or religious therefore not all of them are obliged to be covered up .. back to my point of intreptation the same way something was misinterpeted so that it shows woman as devils for the guys own agenda .. maybe the with regards, to homosexuality it is misintreperted .. again just thoughts and i am not in a position to make literally and accurate comments as i dont know the Quran that much but all i can say is my experiance as Gay “muslim” 23 year old who decided to accept himself as a gay person at the age of 19.

Thanks for taking the time to read the comment

By: Yousef

Yousef — Mon, 03 Apr 2006 13:10:25 +0000

From what I have found it is essential that the dialogue include sound scientific arguments based on the history of the homosexualist campaign as well as the neuroscience of emotions and attractions.

By: Rasheed Eldin

Rasheed Eldin — Fri, 31 Mar 2006 21:54:21 +0000

Thanks for popping by, Brian. I do hope that we can maintain some discussion on these issues, which are usually dealt with in the most superficial, sloganeering way.

On your latter point, which we might also describe as the conflict between LGBT and Islamist campaigners, I think we need to emphasise on finding a common ground on which to start talking.

I would be very interested in your feedback on other posts I have put here, as I do mean to promote principled dialogue.

By: Brian Whitaker

Brian Whitaker — Fri, 31 Mar 2006 21:33:08 +0000

Thanks for noting my article about “Brokeback Desert”. Although I didn’t mention the religious dimension in the article, there are two chapters covering that in my forthcoming book.
I am sure you will disagree with a lot of the things I say in the book, but I respect Straightway for drawing attention to the all-important distinction between attractions and actions in Islam – a distinction that many Muslim websites fail to make.
One of the issues that has to be addressed before it gets out of hand is the growing gays-versus-Muslims conflict (“Islamophobes” versus “homophobes” as some people put it). I hope my book will go some way towards introducing an element of common sense into that debate.

By: ibrahim

ibrahim — Sat, 25 Mar 2006 20:36:04 +0000

homosexuality is prohibited in Islam. and if one does have homosexual tendencies, control them. i am a straight guy, and i am not married – i must control myself. people have different challenges and roles in life, you think living without ‘sex/sexual actions’ for a lifetime is a challenge (assuming you can never go ‘straight’), check out the people in Africa that have to walk 5 miles a day to just get water to survive.