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As scholar Khaled el-Rouayheb explains in his historical survey of same-sex desire in the Islamic world from 1500 to 1800, sexual identity categories we use today have not been relevant Islamic categories. Since I am no theologian, I defer here to thinkers who have meditated deeply on the place of sexual diversity within Islamic cultures.
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The passage from acts to identities is crucial here, as it also constitutes the greatest stumbling block in debates about whether or not "Islam" condemns same-sex desire. Later on, the community of people pathologized by this term rallied together under the term of their persecution and began to demand recognition, equality and, finally, rights.
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The word homosexual does not appear anywhere in the Koran, and indeed it couldn't, because the word is an invention of the late 19th century, when medical societies in Europe tried to place groups of people who took part in similar sex acts under a common category, which they then labeled "homosexuality." Starting from the terrain of the obvious, we can get some misunderstandings out of the way. The answer to this question greatly impacts whether this highly variable assembly of beliefs, practices, institutions and texts we call "Islam" actually condemns what we might think it condemns.įriends and family embrace each other outside of Orlando, Florida's police headquarters after the Pulse nightclub massacre on June 12. What is Islam's stance on homosexuality? This question is highly vexed and impossible to answer, as there are not one but many stances, not one but many Islamic schools of thought, and scholars have rightly offered much-needed criticism of the idea that there is one monolithic body called Islam that can be consistent over time and space, let alone have stances.Īn equally thorny and interesting question regards what we mean by "homosexuality." Can we define it as same-sex desire, homosexual acts, or is homosexual identity more central to its meaning? I have been solicited countless times to "explain" Muslims' alleged homophobia, before but especially after the Orlando tragedy, and each time I have wondered why this homophobia is taken as a given. In each case, Mateen's religion of Islam was isolated as the underlying cause of violence. The rationale for the crime, first considered to be a straight man's act of homophobic violence, became self-loathing when it came to light that for years Mateen had corresponded on gay dating apps and was a regular patron of the very club on which he mounted his murderous attack. In the wake of the mass shooting at Pulse nightclub in Orlando, Florida, that took the lives of 49 people, there has been much speculation around gunman Omar Mateen's motives for the attack.