Thursday, October 19
Que(e)rying Islamophobia: Race, Sexuality and Imperialism

Discourses of race, gender and sexuality have always served an important ideological function within imperialist projects and the current phase of American imperialism, characterized by the War on Terror, is no exception. Given contemporary geo-political context, this contemporary imperialist project requires the deployment of increasingly explicit forms of Islamophobia. ‘Queer rights’ have become the latest front in this purported battle between Civilization (liberal modernity as embodied by ‘the West’) and barbarism (Islam). This panel will bring together scholars and activists to discuss these and other issues pertaining to the nexus – historical as well as contemporary – between Islam, sexuality and imperialism.

Panelists include: Saadia Toor, College of State Island, CUNY; Sahar Shafqat, St . Mary’s College of Maryland; Ayaz Ahmed, author of “Queer and Muslim in post 9/11 New York”; and Kourosh Shemirani, co-founder of Qiam, the Queer Iranian Alliance.

http://web.gc.cuny.edu/clags/calendar.htm

http://www.wctimes.com/gay/lesbian/news/ARTICLE.php?AID=12791

http://www.workers.org/2006/us/anti-iran-0720/

everything and nothing i suspect.

as for a behind the scenes ‘agenda’, hmm, i’m not convinced. the LGBT movement simply likes to plant rainbow flags wherever none exist. it’s kinda territorial in that way. and a bit insecure, perhaps.

but from there to say that it works hand-in-hand with the military establishment is quite a statement. however, no doubt their interests converge, somehow, occasionally. last year iran made the headlines (in the LGBT press) because two kids were publically executed. it had something to do with sex. and ultimately it had a lot to do with politics, both within the country and without.

the LGBT movement wanted to make a point, score a goal if you like. so did Ahmadinejad. so too did politicians everywhere else in the world. and the final score was 1-1, everybody happy. except for the kids’ friends and family.

so, what will be said in the gaytimes article ? much truth, much nonesense, much crap. hey, i’ll just call it fluff, or toilette literature.

Excerpt:
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Our suspicion of the cyber-writers is deepened by the language and attitude that they have adopted to talk about Iran. For example, Peter Tatchel, the head of OutRage!, proclaimed, “This is just the latest barbarity by the Islamo-fascists in Iran,” and he goes on to advocate economic sanctions and political isolation for Iran. And Doug Ireland has repeatedly used the word “pogrom” to refer to the situation of sexual minorities. This language is more in harmony with the “clash of civilizations” rhetoric adopted by the Bush administration than with human rights advocacy. It paints the violence of the Iranian regime as in a class of its own, barbaric and distinct from the presumably civilized violence of the war on Iraq, Abu Ghraib, and Guantanamo.

For this reason, the caveat of “no war with Iran” added to the bottom of the list of demands of the July 19 actions rang hollow and disingenuous. Intentionally or not, this rhetoric adds ammunition to the current U.S. administration’s stated goal of isolating and possibly attacking Iran, a policy that has nothing to do with protecting sexual minorities.
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In answer to your questions, Syria is the latest in a series of articles I have written on gay rights in countries/regions outside the UK, which includes Romania, Eastern Europe and Russia. Syria was chosen because a local writer approached Gay Times offering an insight and research into this area.

Insofar as there is an “agenda”, the article will be a sympathetic look at the difficulties gay people in Syria face and any headway the gay rights movement might be making. Should you wish to check my veracity, please feel at liberty to contact Gay Times directly, http://www.gaytimes.co.uk.

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None of that rules out my thought that the Gay Times (rather than perhaps the writer herself) may be indirectly supporting the government’s nasty agenda (on which I merely speculate). I’m sure she will be very sympathetic to “the difficulties gay people in Syria face”, but that is not what I’m worried about.