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LGBTQ people and Islam

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For age-structured homosexuality, see Pederasty in the Islamic world

There is no concept analogous to "homosexuality" in Islam -- not in the sense of an innate identity, not in the sense of a behaviour, nor in the sense of a common identity of both (all) parties in sex between members of the same sex or gender. Instead, same-sex sexual expression manifests in a number of separate forms, which are not treated alike, either socially or juridically.

Rather, Islam concerns itself with sexual behaviors, rather than desires. In particular Islam condemns anal intercourse—whether with males or females—as a major sin. [1] The concept of sexual orientation is neither recognized nor accepted in Muslim society or in Islamic doctrine.

The traditional tolerance, literary and religious, for (chaste) pederastic love affairs which according to Khaled El-Rouayheb had been prevalent since the 800's began to be eroded in the mid-1800's by the adoption of European Victorian attitudes by the new Westernized elite. (El-Rouayheb, 2005, p.156)

Constructions and examples

Mahmud and Ayaz

Passing over Islamic view to Homosexuality, considerable number of legislations are found in Islamic law regarding all types of same-sex behaviors. The most common type of same-sex behavior is liwāṭ, most commonly used for anal intercourse between a man and a boy, though it can refer to that between two men or between a man and a woman, but it is not equally prohibited in all cases (most jurists disapprove but do not punish it when done with one's wife or slave – some even with the male slave). The man is known as a luti, which does not imply so much his nature as his role of penetrator. His partner, if paid, is amrad mu'ajir (beardless rented, pl.: murd mu'ajirin), if unpaid, amrad (beardless), or ghulam (youth, pl. ghilman,).

A separate category exists for men who are "afflicted" with the desire to be penetrated by male partners. They are known as ma'bun and considered to be victims of a disease, ubnah, one with a physical etiology and a number of presumed remedies. Their status is thus very different from that of their penetrative partners.

Another category consists of men who are vulnerable to the attractions of handsome boys. Most refined men are thought to fall into this category, and their desires are seen as natural, if problematic in that they render one susceptible of becoming a luti. (El-Rouayheb, 2005, pp. 14-24) For example, the Hanbalite jurist Ibn al-Jawzi (d. 1200) is reputed to have said that "He who claims that he experiences no desire when looking at beautiful boys or youths is a liar, and if we could believe him he would be an animal, and not a human being." (Monroe, 1997, p. 117).

Nevertheless, the act of liwat ("sodomy," meaning anal intercourse) is proscribed, and men are advised to be even more wary of attraction to beautiful boys than to beautiful women, through religious injunctions exhorting them to resist this temptation.

Likewise, the imam and legal scholar Sufyan al-Thawri (d. 783 CE) is said to have fled the baths one day, asserting, regarding sexual temptation, that "If every woman has one devil accompanying her, then a handsome lad has seventeen." [1] As a result, love for youths in Islam, far from being the path to perdition the Christians made of it, was an understandable passion which, if kept in check, raised one up to the heavens. Male love became a punishable offense (in life) only if one consummated it - and was caught at it, which required witnesses of four men or eight women. If one was not caught at it, however, one would still be punished in the fires of hell. (Murray and Roscoe, 1997, passim)

Historically the punishment has been less severe compared to its Abrahamic counterparts: Judaism and Christianity. The Qur'an states that if a person commits the sin they can repent and save their life, though there are hadiths that later prescribe the death penalty if they persist on doing this fault.

See Homosexuality in the Qur'an

It seems that this is yet another progression leading up to prohibition as is seen with the prohibition of alcohol and gambling. Early Islamic cultures, especially ones where homosexuality was entrenched into their Pagan culture were renowned for their cultivation of a homosexual aesthetic.

Ibn Hazm, Ibn Daud, Muhammad Ibn Abbad Al Mutamid, Abu Nuwas, and many others wrote extensively and openly of love between men. However, in order for the transgression to be proven, at least four men must bear witness against the accused, thus making it very difficult to persecute those who did not remain celibate in the privacy of their homes.

Homosexuality in the Sharia

File:Turkish - Dancing Kocek - Late 19th c - wiki.jpg
Dancing Köçek, a common object of masculine affections in the Ottoman empire. Photograph, late 19th c. Private collection.

While there is a consensus that same-sex intercourse is in violation of Islamic law, there are differences of opinion within Islamic scholarship about punishment, reformation, and what standards of proof are required before physical punishment becomes lawful.

In Sunni Islam there are eight madhhabs, or legal schools, of which only four still exist: Hanafi, Shafi'i, Hanbali, and Maliki. The main Shia school is called Ja'fari, but there are Zaidi and Ismai'ili also. More recently, some groups have rejected this tradition in favor of greater ijtihad, or individual interpretation. Of these schools, according to Michael Mumisa of the Birmingham-based Al Mahdi institute:

  • The Hanafi school does not consider same-sex intercourse to constitute adultery, and therefore leaves punishment up to the judge's discretion. Most early scholars of this school specifically ruled out the death penalty; others allow it for a second offence.
  • Imam Shafi'i considers same-sex intercourse as analogous to other zina. Thus, a married person found to have committed same-sex intercourse is punished as an adulterer (stoned to death), and an unmarried person is punished as a fornicator (flogged).
  • The Maliki school says that anyone (married or unmarried) found to have committed same-sex intercourse should be punished as an adulterer.
  • Within the Ja'fari schools, Sayyid al-Khoi says that anyone (married or unmarried) found to have committed same-sex intercourse should be punished as an adulterer.

Interpretations

It is important to note that the punishment for adultery requires four witnesses. By analogy, all schools require four witnesses to the act of same-sex sexual penetration for the punishment to be applied. Although, some Muslims believe that if objective proof can be provided (such as through DNA testing, photography, etc.), that a punishment can still be applied, even without without four witnesses to the act.

The former regulations also make others believe, that the prior process' goal, (which requires bringing forward at least 4 witnesses of good character who can testify to the act of sexual penetration), [2] and/or a guilty plea by the suspects themselves, [3] was to eventually abolish the physical penalties relating to acts of homosexual relations, that were already present within some religious scriptures and/or societies around the world, when Islamic teachings first arose. For example, some have interpreted certain verses within the Vendidad and Old Testament, as to prescribing capital punishment for those who commit homosexual acts as well. [4] [5] According to the prior view, the Hadith based principles are so rigorous in their search for evidence, that they create the near impossibility of being able to reach a verdict that goes against the suspect in any manner. [6]

According to the modern Islamic scholar Yusuf al-Qaradawi:

"The jurists of Islam have held different opinions concerning the punishment for this abominable practice. Should it be the same as the punishment for zina, or should both the active and passive participants be put to death? While such punishments may seem cruel, they have been suggested to maintain the purity of the Islamic society and to keep it clean of perverted elements." ― The Lawful and the Prohibited in Islam, p. 165 .

Homosexuality in modern Muslim countries' laws

Same-sex intercourse officially carries the death penalty in six Muslim nations: Saudi Arabia, Iran, Mauritania, Sudan, Somalia and Yemen.[7] It formerly carried the death penalty in Afghanistan under the Taliban. The legal situation in the United Arab Emirates is unclear. In many Muslim nations, such as Bahrain, Qatar, Algeria, and the Maldives, homosexuality is punished with jail time, fines, or corporal punishment. In some Muslim-majority nations, such as Turkey, Jordan, Egypt, or Mali, same-sex intercourse is not specifically forbidden by law. In Egypt openly gay men have been prosecuted under general public morality laws.(See Cairo 52.)

In Saudi Arabia, the maximum punishment for homosexuality is public execution, but the government will use other punishments -- e.g., fines, jail time, and whipping -- as alternatives, unless it feels that homosexuals are challenging state authority by engaging in LGBT social movements. [8] Iran is perhaps the nation to execute the largest number of its citizens for homosexuality. Since the 1979 Islamic revolution in Iran, the Iranian government has executed more than 4000 people charged with homosexual acts. In Afghanistan after the fall of the Taliban homosexuality went from a capital crime to one that it punished with fines and prison sentence.

Most international human rights organizations, such as Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International, condemn laws that make homosexual relations between consenting adults a crime. Since 1994 the United Nations Human Rights Committee has also ruled that such laws violated the right to privacy guaranteed in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. However, most Muslim nations (except for Turkey, which has been ruled by secular law since 1923 and recently has modernized its laws in order to meet the requirements of entry to the European Union) insist that such laws are necessary to preserve Islamic morality and virtue. Of the nations with a majority of Muslim inhabitants, only Lebanon has an internal effort to legalize homosexuality.[9]

Some Muslims have expressed criticism of the legal sanctions used against homosexuality. Reasons given by Muslims condemning the executions include the fact that some legal schools (e.g., Hanafi) regard it as unjustified, the argument that the death penalty is not specified for it in the Qur'an, the idea that the punishment is unduly harsh, and opposition to the idea that the state's laws should be based on religion. The introduction of the AIDS pandemic in the Muslim world has also promoted more discussion about the legal status of homosexuality, as the legal sanctions against homosexuality have made it difficult to initiate any educational programs directed at high risk groups.

While executions and other criminal sanctions curtail any public gay rights movement, it is impractical to give criminal sanctions to all homosexuals living in a Muslim country, and it is common knowledge (e.g. to visiting foreigners) that some young men will experiment with homosexual relations as an outlet to sexual desires born out of a natural love for the same sex. These discreet and casual homosexual relations allow men to engage in premarital sex with a low risk of facing the social or legal sanctions that would occur if they involved in adultery or fornication with a woman, where it is more likely to be found out about, as a result of a pregnancy or the woman hoping to nail the man into marriage. Most of these men do not consider themselves to be gay or bisexual as these are sexual orientations. Muslim minds do not use these labels but rather the definitions mentioned previously.

A related problem to full enforcement of the laws against homosexuality is that because men are encouraged to developed close friendships with other men, and women are encouraged to develop close friendships with other women, homosexual love is encouraged, and while lust is not encouraged, both male to male and female to female sexual relationships have increased in recent years.

Since Islamic law requires a certain number of male to the homosexual act to testify in front of jurists, and Islam does place a strong value on the right to privacy in the home, thus homosexual relations that occur in private are theoretically outside the bounds of the law, unless it is brought out in the open as is the case if lewdness, theft, blackmail, murder, etc is also involved.

Homosexuality in the Qur'an

The Qur'an specifically mentions that same-sex intercourse is forbidden. The Abdullah Yusuf Ali translation of the Qur'an states, in Al-A'raf:

"We also sent Lut: He said to his people: Do ye commit lewdness such as no people in creation (ever) committed before you? For ye practice your lusts on men in preference to women: ye are indeed a people transgressing beyond bounds. And his people gave no answer but this: they said, "Drive them out of your city: these are indeed men who want to be clean and pure!"" (Qur'an 7:80-82)

Ash-Shu'ara (starting at 165):

"Of all the creatures in the world, will ye approach males, And leave those whom Allah has created for you to be your mates? Nay, ye are a people transgressing (all limits)! They said: "If thou desist not, O Lut! thou wilt assuredly be cast out!" He said: "I do detest your doings:" "O my Lord! deliver me and my family from such things as they do!" So We delivered him and his family,- all Except an old woman who lingered behind. But the rest We destroyed utterly. We rained down on them a shower (of brimstone): and evil was the shower on those who were admonished (but heeded not)! Verily in this is a Sign: but most of them do not believe. And verily thy Lord is He, the Exalted in Might, Most Merciful." (Qur'an 26:165-175)

An-Naml (starting at 55):

"Would ye really approach men in your lusts rather than women? Nay, ye are a people (grossly) ignorant! But his people gave no other answer but this: They said, "Drive out the followers of Lut from your city: these are indeed men who want to be clean and pure!" But We saved him and his family, except his wife; her We destined to be of those who lagged behind. And We rained down on them a shower (of brimstone): and evil was the shower on those who were admonished (but heeded not)!" (Qur'an 27:55-58)

Al-Ankabut (starting at 28):

"And (remember) Lut: behold, he said to his people: "Ye do commit lewdness, such as no people in Creation (ever) committed before you. Do ye indeed approach men, and cut off the highway? - and practise wickedness (even) in your councils?" But his people gave no answer but this: they said: "Bring us the Wrath of Allah if thou tellest the truth." (Qur'an 29:28-29)

An-Nisa, starting at 15-15:

"If any of your women are guilty of lewdness, Take the evidence of four (Reliable) witnesses from amongst you against them; and if they testify, confine them to houses until death do claim them, or Allah ordain for them some (other) way. If two men among you are guilty of lewdness, punish them both. If they repent and amend, Leave them alone; for Allah is Oft-returning, Most Merciful." (Qur'an 4:15-16)

See also Khalil el-Moumni

Liberal Islamic stances on homosexuality

Some self-described liberal Muslims, such as the members of the Al-Fatiha Foundation, accept and consider homosexuality as natural, either regarding these verses as obsolete in the context of modern society, or pointing out that the Qu'ran speaks out against homosexual lust, and is silent on homosexual love. However, this position remains highly controversial even amongst liberal movements within Islam, and is considered completely beyond the pale by mainstream Islam [10].


See also

References

  1. ^ Mukhtar, M. H. Tarbiyat-e-Aulad aur Islam [The Upbringing of Children in Islam]. dar-ut-Tasneef, Jamiat ul-Uloom Il-Islamiyyah allama Banuri Town Karachi. English translation by Rafiq Abdur Rahman. Transl. esp. Chapter 11: Responsibility for Sexual Education
  • Khaled El-Rouayheb, Before Homosexuality in the Arab-Islamic World, 1500-1800 Chicago, 2005
  • J.W. Wright, Homoeroticism in Classical Arabic Literature New York, 1997
  • Arno Schmitt and Jehoeda Sofer (eds.), Sexuality and Eroticism Among Males in Moslem Societies Harrington Park Press 1992
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