To my Queer brothers and siblings

I am a cis gendered straight muslim, I feel so sorry seeing our Queer muslim siblings are treated.

You guys have to deal with Islamophobia + homophobia from both outside and inside of Muslim communities.

I am amazed at how you guys hold onto your faith despite the rejection, hostility, judgement, misunderstandings and what not.

It's just so much, you guys are some of the most bravest people on earth.

Your existence is no a contradiction and don't let nobody has the right to question you.

Sending prayers from the bottom of my heart.

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Okay so I'd like to start this off with saying that I mean no harm by any of this and I'm so sorry if it's offensive in any way.

Do let me know if it is.

I'm just genuinely curious.

So I come from a very religious Muslim family, and I'm queer, the thing is as soon as I saw how the lgbtq+ community is treated in Islam and in Muslim communities, I stopped labelling myself as a Muslim and following the religion.

So I just want to ask, how are you guys still doing it?

And why?

Again, genuinely asking to educate myself on the topic because I truly can't understand, thought I'd ask here directly.

Thanks in advance!

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and here’s why.

Yes, we can understand the story as referring to people who practised sodomy, but if you carefully and more deeply look into the whole narrative, these people are described in the Qur’an as people who were immoral at every level.

They did not honour guests.

In fact, they made it a point that whichever foreigner fell within their grasp they would sexually assault them.

The idea that anyone that comes as a guest, or that comes seeking your hospitality, you would sexually assault them was as outrageous and morally repugnant.

As you can get within the cultural values of the many Near Eastern cultures of that time.

And one of the things that was rather interesting about them is, that when you think of something like Homosexuality, what percentage of the population is actually Homosexual?

But with these people it wasn’t that there was a percentage of them that were, but ALL of them, made a point to sodomise the foreigner to their culture.

In other words, they had an ethic of aggression, an ethic of transgression.

They did not respect people.

They did not honour people.

They are constantly described as people who are haughty and arrogant, with very little regard to anyone outside their own society.

So to reduce the problem of the people of Lut to ‘well they were Homosexual”, well what does that exactly mean?

These are people that made a point, not a percentage that were Homosexual, and acting upon something that was within their nature, but EVERYONE in that society made it a point to violate the other.

There is a difference between Homosexuality and sodomy, as a form of degrading and subjugating the other.

So in a lot of sexual cases you find that the offender makes it a point to sodomise the victim, and in every case, when you get into the psychology of the offender, it is not that they sodomise the victim because they’re Homosexual.

They sodomised the victim to degrade the victim to tell the victim, see, I am subjugating you, thoroughly and completely.

I am violating every privacy you have, and when you approach the story of Lut from that morally critical insight, then it cannot be simply reduced to an issue of Homosexuality.

There is much more involved here.

Look, they tell Lut:

“ Have we not forbidden you from receiving any visitors?”

Well now that you have visitors we must violate them.

That isn’t an issue of Homosexuality, that is an issue of a people who are criminals, and in the same way the Qur’an condemns those who are highway robbers, who victimise the defenceless, as Muslim scholars would say those who are ‘ghayr alnaas’ truly defenceless, and the Qur’an is extremely resolute saying that this is corruption on earth and that these are people that must be punished, very severely.

And so it reminds me a lot of what the people of Lut were doing.

Everything tells us that they were victimising the defenceless, degrading and humiliating the other, and so the story of Lut doesn’t provide an answer to the whole issue of Homosexuality.

It is quite disingenuous when we simply try to tell the story that it is just about Homosexuality.

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Grand Mufti of Zambia, Sheikh Assadullah Mwale, speaks about how people are stereotyped according to their vulnerabilities and their differences.

Nevertheless, he says: "You were created the way you are’

(2min 43s)

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If we actually read the Quran, it’s clear it tries to protect the most vulnerable in society.

The first forty Surahs revealed all focus on spirituality, kindness, wealth redistribution, and taking care of the most vulnerable like orphans.

Clearly, Islam works to protect marriages by prohibiting cheating - zina.

It also condemned the people of Lut for leaving their wives to r-ape foreigners.

But one thing it focused on was the children who might become worse off if their parents are not married.

Perhaps their dad might not take care of them and provide leaving the mother in a destitute situation.

Considering how misgynistic Arabia was, it makes sense why Islam gave explicit rights.

The power dynamic between two people of the same gender is not the same as the power dynamic between a cis man and cis woman.

Plus this relationship MAKES BABIES! WHO will suffer at the hand of their parents ill choices.

That said, I find that Muslim societies have a heavy witch hunting culture for queer people.

I find this especially true for Arabs, particular those who immigrate to Europe.

If sexuality is only regulated in terms of crime in Islam, that’s where you need four witnesses to be prosecuted, why are so many Muslims obsessed with figuring out who’s gay and who’s not?

Why are their private lives being forcefully looked into and policed? If anything, straight Muslims who have gfs/bfs might be seen with hesitation, but still are not ostracized or literally takfired.

Personally, it seems like straight Muslims who support this are just finding new ways to take the attention off of them and their regulations and trying to impose them onto queer people.

Being queer is such a non issue in the Quran, or Islam, but oppressive misogynistic Muslims/Muslim clerics seem to have a great time with it.

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I mean this post in the most respectful way possible.

i just genuinely need advice, i do not mean to come off in a negative light.

i’ve been considering converting to islam for several months now, and i’ve already started learning about the religion, which i’m growing very fond of.

However, i have an issue.

i’m queer.

As in most religions, a lot if them aren’t the most fond of people whoare are a part of the lgbtqia+ community, and with that knowledge it’s one of my fears in terms of converting, because I don’t want to hide/suppress who i am.

But I also don’t want to sin.

It's hard for me because i really am loving islam but i can’t erase who i am, that’s not how it works and it wouldn’t be fair for me to do for my sake. i don’t have anyone to open up to about this because every muslim i know irl is severally homophobic.

i’m conflicted because i can’t change who I am in regards of this.

I don’t believe i’m this way for no reason.

I was made this way because it’s who i was meant to be along with other queer people. they say we’re all made in God’s image, which leads me to believe i was made this way for a reason.

I need advice or some form of guidance on what to do, i’m a minor which makes this difficult to me because every person i’ve talked to has tried to tell me to change my “ways” while i can.

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Hi everyone!

Does anyone know if there is much of a Queer Muslim scene in Edinburgh?

Or even a queer POC scene?

I’m from London possibly looking to move. I don’t know if there is another city quite as diverse as London, let alone one with many Queer Muslims.

Please let me know if you have any information or advice.

Even a suggestion of other places with a queer Muslim/POC scene (I’m still in the brainstorming stage of moving, nothing has been decided yet so I am open to any suggestions)

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First thing, yeah, I know, it’s a sin and stuff, but, like, I had a question.

I recently learned that cutting ties with family without valid excuses is haram?

Is them being very homophobic and my dad a bit abusive good?

Because I want to continue my life happily without them talking to me about kids and wives and stuff.

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Hi, I need your help to come out to my Muslim (and very homophobic) parents.

I'm a lesbian, 27 yo, in a 3-year relationship and financially stable.

I am currently living with my family, but my gf and I have signed a lease for an apartment.

All the process is behind my family's back, and thinking about when I will move out gives me a lot of anxiety.

That's why I'm asking for your help. If you could share tips on how to come out, how to deal with the anxiety or share your experiences, I can know what's waiting for me.

I'm not close to my family and I know they won't accept me, but I struggle with the idea of hurting them.

Thanks y'all!

To clarify: I want to come out because I want to be authentic to who I am.

I always suppressed my feelings and desires to avoid conflict with my parents.

I'm tired of it, I want to be true to myself. And about my partner, we both are aware of the situation, she gets it and supports me no matter what.

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How do I support my queer Muslim friend

I hope this alright for me to post in here, but I am currently about to enter my final year of uni and have become good mates with a guy who came out to me as gay last year.

He is from a Muslim family and is absolutely terrified of what his sexuality could mean for him and his family.

He’s opened up to me about being scared of uni being the last year he has to actually be himself before he has to go back to living a lie. I am well aware that he is really stuck between a rock and a hard place, but I have no idea what I can say to make this better.

I have made it known that my door is always open to him, even at short notice, but I don’t know what else I can say or do to help. Any thoughts would be really appreciated.

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I was reading up on male advocacy and came across instances of epistemic violence.

The term was originally created by a certain group. What I came across was how the r\*pe of men by women in the US is not actually legally considered as r\*pe and instead has to be worded as ''mtp'', because US law has made it such that r\*pe automatically entails that the man was the perpetrator.

Pro-male advocates people say this is due to legal changes i.e. epistemic violence led by certain groups.

Men don't even know they are being abused and how they are, in many other ways, because they lack the terminology or words to even discuss what they are experiencing.

I think the concept of epistemic violence applies perfectly for LGBT muslims.

We don't even know we're being abused because the epistemology/knowledge of these things has been controlled by oppressive patriarchial heteronormative regimes that seek to meet their own agendas.

It's being framed as ''word of god'' and ''divine justice'' to gaslight and invalidate our experiences in a similar manner, though it uses the appeal to a greater authority to shut counter-arguments down.

I don't know much about epistemic violence myself yet, much less how this would apply to LGBT muslims, but I'm interested in hearing what the community thinks of this.

I'd appreciate any detailed responses on it.

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