"Homosexuality in Islam" By Abdennur Prado

For years I have been conducting research on homosexuality in Islam, covering aspects of doctrine, history, jurisprudence and Qur'anic hermeneutics. I believe there is no basis in either the Qur'an or the example of the Prophet Muhammad for a condemnation of homosexuality, understood as love between two men. This study covers more than a hundred pages, it would be very difficult to summarize now. In this speech, I just want to show my position, warning those present that this position is not at all representative of Islam as a whole, but the result of a personal investigation whose results are opposed to the mainstream. It can not be otherwise: every time a human being enters reflects itself in opposition to mainstream thinking, because thinking is dominant when it becomes a prison for consciousness.

The condemnation of homosexuality in Islam, repeated again and again by the self-proclaimed "religious authorities" - is based on two main arguments. On one hand, condemning the alleged sexual trend contained in the Quran, in the verses that tell the transgressions committed by the people of Lot. Furthermore, in consideration of heterosexual marriage as the basis of equilibrium and ideal order that applies in an Islamic society, with a clear division of roles they must assume the man and woman. Ultimately this approach leads to the complete segregation of women.

The first point, on what is called "transgressions of the people of Lot", as shown to us in the Qur'an: people who practiced all kinds of sexual perversions. A close reading of these verses leads to the conclusion that there is not a single explicit mention of homosexuality, just unbridled promiscuity and rape, besides the transgression of the laws of hospitality. When the people of Lut (as) wants to take the angels of Allah, not about homosexuality, but about an attempted rape. Some confuse one with the other, and cite these verses to show that Allah has condemned homosexuality. My interpretation may be wrong, but is based on careful analysis and conscious of the Qur'an.

The other common argument is social, and is exactly the same used by the most reactionary sectors of other religions to condemn homosexuality. As an example, recall that the Judicial Council (advisory body of Spanish judges) attacked in January 2005 against the gay marriage bill, arguing that marriage is a heterosexual institution specifically, to be based "on the principle complementarity between the sexes. "

This argument is the same one used by reactionary mullahs to justify repression of homosexuals. As he described in The sexualité Abdelwahab Bouhdiba in Islam (ed. Pouf, p. 43): "The Islamic view of the couple founded on pre-established harmony between the sexes is essential complementarity between masculine and feminine. Such complementarity harmonic is creative and procreative. (...) The bipolarity of the world rests on the strict separation of two 'orders', the feminine and the masculine. whatever violates the order of the world is but a serious 'disorder', source of evil and anarchy. "

According to this view, man should act only as "man" and remove yourself any feminine trait. Women should act according to the well-known features of the "feminine" submission, passivity, motherhood, tenderness ... He reserves to himself the active qualities of penetration and domination. Given this rigorous polarity, any term or approach that tries to break or blur the boundary between the sexes is seen as an aberration against nature and, even worse: as a destructive tendency of society. Hence the double conviction, moral and criminal, are forced to homosexuals.

We believe, these considerations are extremely rude, and are the result of misunderstanding of Qur'anic cosmology. Actually, demonstrate the absence of spirituality in their promoters. The fact that everything has been created by peers does not mean exclusively male things against other exclusively female, but within all created things there that polarity:

Jalaqa ladzî Subhana al-al-'azwâja

Laha mim tumbitu kul al-mâ 'ardzu

anfusi-him wa wa ma The ya'alamûn mim.

Glory be to Him Who created pairs

in all that the earth produces,

and in the same egos, and they do not know.

(Qur'an 36: 36)

This verse clarifies that the pairs (polarities) are within all creation. A couple is not only the union of a male and a female, but the pairs inhabiting creatures: and in the same egos (nafs). The man and woman are a couple, and in each of them there is a masculine-feminine polarity. Should eliminate one of these two poles, the pair would be destroyed and the men and women would no longer be complete creatures. Nothing in creation than dual, except Allah, who has established the balance.

In loving union that duality is given: establishing roles. This happens in both heterosexual couples as in homosexual. The loving union, melee, is the search for unity in something outside of us, and yet this binding takes us back to our own interiority. If the couple is the union of complementary, what matters is not alleged a physical, but spiritual. A man who loves a woman is not a partner with her, much to their sexes appear coupled. Two homosexuals who love each other are fully a couple, check your drive in the mirror of the Beloved.

Faced with union consciousness lies the dream of segregation, territorialization of masculine and feminine in areas well separated. This dream is the fanaticism of those who refuse to acknowledge their own femininity. Hence entirely male hierarchical structures common to many religions. This is the disease of the guardians of the faith, God's representatives on earth. Regarding homosexuality, can not accept that God created a being that is presented as a hybrid, and that breaks its dualistic schemes. A man being physically and spiritually woman: this seems to contradict the perfect order of things, the utopia of a static order and unmixed. Yet the opposite is true: homosexuality is a sign which is to expose the differences between masculine and feminine are not sharp, that all creatures partake of both qualities. The feminine and masculine dimension can not be based on physical distinctions: there is a male character of women and femininity in man.

Actually, establish roles as physical appearance leads to serious imbalances: does it matter if someone has penis not want a woman? In times of repression, many homosexuals marry women to save face, leading to either spouse to live in unhappiness and frustration of their natural appetites. The point of marriage is consummated the union (sexual, intellectual, emotional) between complementary. From this point of view, the union between a homosexual and a woman is truly unnatural, does not lead to the mutual satisfaction of the parties.

Homophobia in the name of religion is a constant, both among Christians, as Buddhists, Hindus, Muslims ... A Pope's statements must be added the Dalai Lama, in Odyssey magazine: "The sexual organs were created for reproduction between male and female element. Any deviation to this is unacceptable. Homosexuality is bad". Of course in the Islamic world is where you bear the brunt because of the persistence of supposedly religious laws.

According to Human Rights Watch, in the early twenty-first century there are 83 countries where homosexuality is explicitly condemned by the law, 26 where Islam is dominant. Including almost all members of the Arab League. In some countries the penalty for sodomy (Liwat) is the death penalty: Saudi Arabia, Iran, Mauritania, Sudan, Yemen and Afghanistan. Although in most cases the penalty does not apply, know cases of homosexuals executed in recent years in Iran, Saudi Arabia and Afghanistan under the Taliban.

Elsewhere, the sentence for homosexuals is jail. In Malaysia, Article 377 of the penal code punishable by 10 years in prison the "unnatural behavior", and up to 20 years in prison if "penetration among men." In Pakistan and Bangladesh, the penal code equates homosexuality with bestiality, and can bring up to ten years in prison. In Syria and Jordan, the penalty is five years, and in Morocco, Tunisia, Algeria, Iraq and Kuwait, up to three years. Although in many of these countries have "de facto tolerance", these laws remain a threat.

Being the serious legal problem, it is no less cultural. Homophobia is spreading like a cancer among Muslims. Islam, which for centuries was a sign of justice and progress, has been transformed into a retrograde religion and cruel towards minorities. Young Muslims who despise and make life difficult for homosexuals in many parts of the Islamic world does not know that his attitude is destroying a centuries old tradition. Here, as always, ignorance is guilty of a painful situation, an ignorance fostered by leading legal scholars, universities and institutions through which it promotes ignorance and mechanical repetition of dogmas.

The persecution of homosexuals in the Islamic world is very recent, and has to do with colonization and Western influence. There are countless evidence that homosexuality until colonization was fully accepted. During the first decades of the twentieth century, the Maghreb was a "paradise for homosexuals" Puritan fleeing Europe for sexual freedom that existed in Islamic lands. In Morocco, homosexuality is considered a crime only since 1972, and this because of Saudi influence. In Indonesia (the country with the most Muslims in the world) has never been prohibited, with the majority Shafi'i school.

Acceptance of homosexuality in Islamic history is well documented, at different times and territories. There was something hidden or marginal but socially acceptable. Western scholars have highlighted homosexuality in amazement the attitude shown towards this in dar al-Islam. Worth highlighting the vision of John Boswell on homosexuality in al-Andalus in their works Christianity, Social Tolerance and Homosexuality and The Marriage of similarity.

In the Cordoba Caliphate, homosexuals lived an entire neighborhood, known as Ibn Zaydun derb. The case of al-Andalus is not isolated. There is extensive literature on homosexual content Abbasid period, in addition to the testimony of historians. Besides al-Mutamid, other Islamic leaders recognized as Muslims in history, such as Fatih Sultan Mehmet, the conqueror of Constantinople. In the chronicles of the grand vizier Nizam al-Mulk discussing homosexuality as usual.

This open attitude reaches the beginning of colonization. The works of travelers, scientists and European settlers recount, between fascination and surprise, the degree of acceptance of homosexuality among Muslims. In Victorian society, this was one of the favorite arguments to show that Islam was a religion lewd and immoral. In XXI century Europe, we talk about the persecution of homosexuals in the Islamic world to show how Islam is a religion and puritanical wild. Between the one and the other, something has happened.

We can not mention all the scholars who have emphasized the full acceptance of homosexuality in the history of Islam. They are simply too many. In his book Islamic Homosexualities, Stephen O. Murray and Will Roscoe give ample evidence of the centrality of teen-adult male eroticism in Islamic countries. In his translation of The Thousand and One Nights, the adventurer and writer Richard Burton described the sexuality in the Islamic world, which ran from end to end (even made the pilgrimage to Meka). Burton's fascination for Islam was not free of prejudice and fanciful look. Still, his testimony can not be excluded completely: in Egypt, young men seeking frequent public restrooms, as in times past. In Morocco, Muslims living openly with teens. In Persia, the practice is "so inherent in the bones."

Anyone who has followed us so far, will not be surprised to discover the existence of gay marriage in the Islamic world until well into the twentieth century. The first time we reported this finding, caused surprise and even indignation. Some Muslims seemed nonsense, and even accused me of having invented it. Specifically, the celebration of Muslim gay marriage is documented in Siwah oasis, located in the desert of Libya, currently in Egyptian territory.

It is unlikely to be an isolated case. On April 7, the TV network al-Arabiya reported on penalties imposed on a group of men to celebrate gay marriage in Saudi Arabia, in the holy city of Medina. The incident occurred in March, when police interrupted the wedding celebration and arrested about 120 men, some of them dressed as women. Judges have sentenced two thousand lashes and two years in prison for spouses, two hundred lashes for 31 attendees, and one year in prison for the remaining 70. If they had had time to consummate the marriage, the sentence could have been death, as happened to two men in 2001 in Saudi Arabia itself. Just weeks ago we have received similar news UAE. Apparently, twelve gay couples were preparing to celebrate their marriage when police stormed.

If this occurs in a context in which homosexuality death sentence, what may have gone through fourteen centuries of tolerance? The strange thing would be that this kind of marriage would not have occurred, and that will not occur in the future. Because in Islam do not need no priest to celebrate the marriage, a very small group of Muslims / as you can. Apart from that we consider this legal or a perversion, it is unquestionable that there has been and there are Muslims who consider it lawful. The existence of "gay marriages Muslim" shows that the death sentence is far from being the only option. In the land of Islam always coexist different options, sometimes so far apart that it seems to be different religions. (There ulema who say: "Islam forbids music," but in another place we read: "music any civilization has been so inseparable as the Islamic").

This reflection is part of a given situation. From the moment that marriages between same sex were legalized in Spain, nothing prevents concluded between Muslims / as. If even one Muslim recognized in the category of "Islamic leader" (Article 3.1 of the Cooperation Agreement signed between the Spanish State and the Islamic Commission of Spain), is willing to celebrate so that we have "marriages between men (or women) by Sharia "in full force for civil purposes. For my part, the acceptance of marriage between men is implicit in the content of this talk.

A principle of realism is necessary. Those who condemn homosexuality morally can not deny that it will be practiced. From the moment we know that homosexuality is a constant in the history of mankind, and that no human can modify ban one iota the Creation of Allah the Almighty, is not it sensible to ensure the rights of all believers whatever its nature?

Following the persecution, many Muslims have come to gay sex life semiclandestine, so do not even want to talk about marriage. This not realize who give more than the social acceptance or rejection of their sexual orientation. The family is the privileged setting to verify the complementarity between the male and female principles. Denying homosexuals the right to marriage is very serious, is to deprive them of a fundamental right, something that Islamic tradition recognizes as a great benefit. Must have a basis for this.

Marriage is home, peace, satisfaction of desires. It is the refuge of the ego, but its maximum aperture. It is the meeting of two worlds. Each element of the pair is connected to the others, their immediate circle, his family. Marriage is the interaction of two worlds, the consecration of the community and openness. Family, disclosure, balancing forces. Improper self and stop being immobile, walked into the other, we live for another. What has all this to do with the physical characteristics of the people, with his penis, the anus or vagina? Rather it has to do with their level of awareness of the reality around them. It has to do with the ability of each to love and surrender, to merge with the other. It has to do with spirituality and how this is done everyday. It has to do with the ability to transform each of our actions in an act of 'ibadah, form of worship to the Creator of heaven and earth.

Bibliography:

Will Roscoe and Stephen O. Murray (ed.): Islamic Homosexualities: Culture, History, and Literature (New York University Press, 1997)

John Boswell: Christianity, Social Tolerance and Homosexuality (Muchnik, 1992)

John Boswell: The Marriage of similarity (Muchnik, 1996)

Daniel Eisenberg: Homosexuality in English History and Culture (1999)

Afsaneh Najmabadi: Women with Mustaches and Men without Beards: Gender and Sexual Anxieties of Iranian Modernity (University of Califronia Press, 2005)

Everett, Jr. and K. JWWright Rowson (ed.): Homoeroticism in Classical Arabic Literature (Columbia University Press, 1997)

Khan Badruddin: Sex, Longing, and Not Belonging: A Gay Muslim Journey (Floating Lotus, Bangkok, 1997)