International: Muslim academic claims homosexuality can be compatible with Islam
“If you ask them privately, the vast majority of my generation of Muslims are deeply homophobic. I think it is particularly entrenched because so many Muslim societies are rooted in traditional ideas of the family and patriarchy.”
On the story of the destruction of Sodom, which appears in both the Koran and the Bible, he said: “It is often said to illustrate God’s disapproval of homosexuality. But on closer inspection it is about his disapproval of the rape of young boys. There is a big difference.”
De Sondy claims that one Muslim saint was said to have had a gay relationship: “In the 16th-century Punjab, there lived a Sufi [Muslim mystic] saint and poet called Shah Hussain. He fell in love with a Hindu boy. They lived together and are buried in the same tomb. But some people want to rewrite history, saying the boy was in fact a girl.”
In May, a survey suggested that UK Muslims have significantly less tolerance for homosexuality than their French and German counterparts.
The poll, part of the the Gallup Coexist Index 2009, found that not one of the 1,001 British Muslims interviewed believed homosexual acts were morally acceptable.
Fifty-eight per cent of the general British public said they thought homosexuality was not morally wrong, compared with 68 per cent of Germans.
French respondents were the most liberal, with 78 per cent of the general public saying it was not morally wrong. According to the survey, the opinions of Christians differed little from the views of the general public.
In comparison to British Muslims, 35 per cent of French Muslims and 19 per cent of German Muslims did not have moral objections to homosexual acts.
The survey also showed that British Muslims hold more conservative opinions towards abortion, viewing pornography, suicide and sex outside marriage than European Muslims, with markedly lower rates of thinking such issues are morally acceptable.
By Naufal Khan
15 July 2009
Source: Indianspice via The Inner Circle
Related News
- 8th CSBR Sexuality Institute - Call for Applications!
- ‘It’s a Good Thing’: Military Chief on Virginity Testing of Female Recruits
- Indonesia's highest Islamic clerical body issues fatwa proposing death penalty for people caught having gay sex
- Making Law and Justice Work for Women
- It is too simple to reduce religious motives to mere pretexts for violence – New report
Related Actions
- On May 28, International Day of Action for Women’s Health, Women’s Rights Defenders Mobilize Worldwide Calling for the Inclusion of Women’s Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights in the Post-2015 Development Agenda
- WLUML Stands With Nigerian LGBT People, And All Persecuted For Their Sexuality Worldwide
- STATEMENT FROM ORGANIZATIONS AND ASSOCIATIONS IN SOLIDARITY WITH FEMALE EGYPTIAN ACTIVISTS
- Universality Of Human Rights At Stake! Act Now To Oppose Russian Resolution On Traditional Values!
- Rights Must Be At the Center of the Family Planning Summit: Civil Society Declaration
Relevant Resources
- Women's Organisations in the West Asia Region: A Needs Assessment
- THE DUE DILIGENCE PRINCIPLE AND THE ROLE OF THE STATE: DISCRIMINATION AGAINST WOMEN IN FAMILY AND CULTURAL LIFE
- Compilation Of Inputs From Women’s Rights Advocates On The Occasion Of The 59th Commission On The Status Of Women
- WLUML Gazette, 15th Edition - January 2015
- Remembering