I am interested in the conflict within Islam between being gay and believing in the Qu’ran and the Hadith. I would like to know if you have a story to tell about this that you could write for me and post here.
I have had many arguments with fellow liberals about Islam and many take a postmodernist approach that Islam is whatever people make it to be, and thus if you are a liberal Muslim, you are just as warranted in being representative of Islam as a fundamentalist. I have set these arguments out here and here where I disagree with that approach, given a divine decree in a holy book which is universally accepted by Muslims (as far as I can tell) in being God’s word.
I am skeptical that you could be a Muslim and be gay. Islam appears to be homophobic and homosexuality appears to be a sin (most certainly in the Hadith, the Qu’ran says less, but still appear to be anti-homosexuality – see the discussions here). So how does this work for non-Muslim liberals who are progressive supporters of gay rights and equality, and equally supporters of the minority religion (contextually) of Islam (especially against robust criticism and critics).
I think there is a tension here between claiming “Muslims” (scare quoted because there is a difference between the term used as a descriptive term, and a normative one) are generally good people and that Islam should not be represented by hardliners, and supporting gay rights, when Islam seems to have direct claims about homosexuality that these fellow liberals of mine would surely find despicable.
Anyway, any first hand experience of such things would be fascinating to find out about.
