Muslims and

Homosexuality
Tensil Toes
DIAM
Motivation
Mother Teresa

• Being unwanted, unloved, uncared

for, forgotten by everybody, I think
that is a much greater hunger, a
much greater poverty than the
person who has nothing to eat.
Scientific Consensus
Scientific Research
• The American Medical Association (AMA) released a
report in 1994-DEC which calls for "nonjudgmental
recognition of sexual orientation by physicians." They
suggest that psychotherapy be directed help homosexuals
"become comfortable with their sexual orientation.“

• The Academy of Pediatrics and the Council on Child

and Adolescent Health have also stated that
homosexuality is not a choice and cannot be changed.

• The American Psychological Association released a

Statement on Homosexuality in 1994-JUL. Their first two
paragraphs are:

The research on homosexuality is very clear. Homosexuality

is neither mental illness nor moral depravity.
Reparative Therapy
• In 1999, the American Academy of Pediatrics,
American Counseling Association, American
Association of School Administrators,
American Federation of Teachers, American
Psychological Association, American School
Health Association, Interfaith Alliance
Foundation, National Association of School
Psychologists, National Association of Social
Workers and National Education Association
jointly issued a document titled: "Just the facts
about sexual orientation." 

• condemned reparative therapy as potentially

harmful and of little or no effectiveness
Rabbi Gershom Barnard

• I must say that, in my lifetime, medical

opinion has changed from treating
homosexuals with hormones, to treating
them with psychoanalysis, to treating
them with behavioral conditioning, to
saying that there is no treatment, indeed,
that there is nothing to treat. As a non-
psychiatrist, the only rational and
responsible thing for me to do is to accept
the current prevailing psychiatric view of
homosexuality.
Dr. Qazi Rahman

• Dr Qazi Rahman, a lecturer in cognitive

biology at Queen Mary, University of
London, said that he believed that these
brain differences were laid down early in
foetal development.
• "As far as I'm concerned there is no
argument any more - if you are gay, you
are born gay," he said.
Al Razi (865-925 AD)

• A medieval medical monograph entitled "Treatise

on the Hidden Illness" and attributed to Ar-Razi
(865-925) is claimed as the first detailed medical
work to address the "hidden illness" of ubnah, or
passive homosexuality.

• The treatise ascribes a genetic origin to the

illness, the male or female properties of a child
being determined by the degree of "forcefulness"
of the male sperm in "transforming" the female
"sperm" at conception.

• Bruce W. Dunne, "Homosexuality in the Middle

East: An Agenda for Historical Research," Arab
Positive Developments across the
Muslim World, India and Nepal
Pakistan and Muslim communities on
the other hand
International Humanist and
Ethical Union: Homosexuality
in Pakistan
• Families may tolerate a gay son or daughter, as long
as this does not clash with their duty: the
requirement to marry and procreate.

• Police will usually blackmail a known homosexual

and extort money for their own personal gain.

• Gay men from poor backgrounds will .. join the Hijra

subculture. Lesbians .. will be easily …married off….
Many turn to prostitution to subsist. … and safe sex
is an unfamiliar concept

• this individual will be shunned by neighbors, friends

and extended family. They will almost certainly lose
their job or a place at an educational institution …
Suicide would be an option
Excommunication

• She and her elderly parents were

effectively excommunicated from the
Richmond Mosque which her parents
helped build and which she had
attended since her youth.
• Although overall HIV prevalence is low in
Pakistan, there is growing evidence of substantial
high risk groups which could contribute to local
concentrated epidemics.

• STI survey of high risk groups in Lahore and

Karachi March-July 2004  concentrated
epidemic among men who have sex with men
(MSM) in Karachi.

• 4% percent of 409 MSMs sampled were HIV

positive. There were alarmingly high syphilis
rates among Hijras in Karachi(60%) and Lahore
(33%). The survey also found very low condom
use among these groups, particularly among MSM
July 22, 2008.

• Dr Syed Ali, Aga Khan University, Karachi:

HIV among homosexual and bisexual
Pakistani men is reaching alarming
proportions
• fear of God…the moral approach only
serves to drive the behaviour underground
• Male sex workers … charging (50 to 100
rupees) per client, … Introducing condoms
is a challenge, as clients can often simply
find another prostitute who will assent to
unsafe sex.
Clearing Misconceptions

• Pedophilia
• Wasted Lives
• Anal intercourse
 Kingdom in the Closet
May 2007

• ..... reported that he's had sex with Saudi men whose wives
were pregnant or menstruating; when those circumstances
changed, most of the men stopped calling.

• An Iranian "trick", …. "will pick up Playboy, never Playgirl.

He will turn to photos of women's rear ends….he will point
to the woman and point at you. He does not ask if you like
her; he asks if you will be her."
Ayatollah Al-Udhma
Sheikh Muhammad Fazil
Lankarani
• Based on the widely held opinion of
Shiite scholars this act (anal sex) is
strongly Makrooh (undesirable, what
is not Haram to do, but it is better to
avoid).  If wife is consenting to it, it is
permissible but it would be
extremely undesirable.
Ahle Hadith scholar Waheed-
uz-Zaman
Misconception
• Many gay men do not have anal sex. And while
many people stereotypically view anal stimulation
as a homosexual male act, anal sex is a sexual
behavior, not tied to a group of people. Physical,
emotional, social, and sexual attractions, not
behaviors, are key factors in a person's
understanding of his or her sexual orientation.

• Much of the pornography available, marketed

toward people of any sexual orientation, provides
extreme and stylized examples of fantasies. As a
result, it's easy to assume that these images are
the "right" way to have sex. Anal sex is portrayed
as quite normal in porn imagery, but, in reality, it
occurs much less frequently than other sexual
behaviors.
Towards Scriptural Exegesis
The 1963 Quaker statement

• Homosexual affection may of course

be an emotion which some find
aesthetically disgusting, but one
cannot base Christian morality on a
capacity for disgust.
Rashid Rida (1865 – 1935)

• shari'a consists of `ibadat (worship) and

mu'amalat (social relations). Human
reason has little scope in the former and
Muslims should adhere to the dictates of
the Qur'an and hadith. The laws governing
mu'amalat should conform to Islamic
ethics but on specific points may be
continually reassessed according to
changing conditions of different
generations and societies
Qur’an 7:80

• And (We sent) Lut when he said to

his people: What! Do you commit an
indecency which any one in the world
has not done before you? (7:80;
29:28)
Qur’an 29:29

• What! Do you come to the males and

commit robbery on the highway, and
you commit evil deeds in your
assemblies? But nothing was the
answer of his people except that
they said: Bring on us Allah's
punishment, if you are one of the
truthful.
Traditional Scholarly views
Jalal ud Din Suyuti (1445 –
1505 AD)
• Tradition from bin Abbas: What made them (the people of
Lut) have sex with men other than women that they had
fruits in their houses and on the road and they were
inflicted by drought and lack of fruits, then some of them
said: If you prevented those fruits of the road from the
travelers that pass here, then you will have preserved
them.

• They asked how? They said: make it your tradition, that if

you take a stranger in your country that you penetrate him
(have anal sex with him being the passive partner), and
make him pay four Dirham. People will not come to your
place if you did that. Then this is what made them do this
abomination that no one had done before. (Tafsir Dur Al
Manthur)

From Hussein’s monograph

Ibn Hazm (994 - 1064 AD)
• One should not stone the people who do the work of the people of
Lut unless they were unbelievers.

• Burn each one that cheats with the weights, because Allah burnt
the people of Shuaib, and kill people that kill the camel of
another, as God did to the people of Saleh.

• Hadith: “ the blood of the muslims is not permitted to be spilled

except in three: Kufr after Iman, and Zina after marriage and
killing another person” ; the person who commits this act is not
one of those.

• There is no Correct evidence in killing such a person. There is also

no correct evidence from any of the Sahaba as well.

From Hussein’s monograph

Imam Abu Hanifa (699-767
AD)
• Liwat (anal intercourse between men) is not as
Zina in terms of legislations, nor in the offense,
and therefore the punishment should not be
same for Zina and Liwat because of the lack of
equality in need (attraction); In Liwat, even
though the active partner likes it, the passive
partner does not by nature, and that is different
from Zina, where the attraction happens on both
sides (the active and the passive).

• (Tafsir al Kabir, 24:2)

From Hussein’s monograph
Khaled El Rouayheb
(p. 127, 137-139 )

• Even the otherwise severe Ibn Hajar al Haytami conceded that

kissing, fondling, and intercrural intercourse (mufakhadhah) are
minor sins (saghair).

• Even if the minor sins were committed repeatedly and willfully

(ma al israr), they would be compensated for by supererogatory
works, even if the perpetrator did not repent.

• Some scholars believed that the "venial faults" (lamam)

mentioned in the following Quranic verse: " Those who shun great
sins and iniquities, all but venial faults, verily thy Lord is of ample
forgiveness" (53:32), referred specifically to non-penetrative
sexual acts.
Khaled El Rouayheb
(p. 127, 137-139 )

• The Egyptian jurist Shihab al Din Ahmad al Ramli

(d. 1550) was asked whether it was permissible
for a lover to kiss an unrelated woman or boy if,
in line with accepted medical theory, he feared
that he would die if his passion remain frustrated.

• Ramli answered that kissing the object of one's

passion in such a situation was not only
permissible but actually a duty and that it was
incumbent on the beloved woman or boy to allow
this.
Khaled El Rouayheb
(p. 124)

• Hanafi Mufti of Aleppo Al Kawakibi (d.

1685): If, however, he commits liwat with
his male slave, or female slave, or wife,
then he is by consensus not liable to hadd,
since there are those that deem it
permissible on the basis of the Exalted
[23:6 and 70:30]: “Except for their wives
or what their right hands possess”
Khaled El Rouayheb

• The Rector of Al Azhar from 1758 to 1767, Shaykh

Muhammad al Hafni of Al Azhar actually
summarized the contrasting opinion of the
scholars at that time:
• It has been said: liwat is not permissible in
paradise because of its filthiness; and it has been
said: it is permissible, and the mentioned reason
has been countered by pointing out that there is
no filth or reproduction in Paradise.
Contemporary Scholarly views
Siti Musdah Mulia

• Homosexuals and homosexuality are

natural and created by God, thus
permissible within Islam......”There is
no difference between lesbians and
non-lesbians. In the eyes of God,
people are valued based on their
piety,”
Abdel Nour Brado: Secretary
Islamic Commisison of Spain
• Brado, defended gay rights,
considering it a “shame to persecute
gays in the Muslim world”, claiming
“gays are born gays and have no
choice about it”.
Imam Khaleel Mohammad
• "We know that God, for all the talk of perfect
creation, has made hermaphrodites, has made
people who are outwardly physically male, yet
with the inner reproductive systems of females.
Why should we see it any different for gays?"
Imam Zaki Badawi
(1922 –2006)

• A handful of Muslims are believed to be among the

hundreds of gay men and women who have taken out civil
partnerships in the past month. The country's other top
Muslim, Dr Zaki Badawi has urged gay Muslims to take
advantage of their financial benefits so long as they are not
sexually active.

• If the civil contract allows for two sisters or

brothers to be covered by its rules I would advise Muslims
to enter into such a contract.
Implied Cases for Muslim Same Sex
Unions
Khuntha Mushkil
• The Hanbalis differed in his marriage. Kharqi
mentioned that the khuntha decides according to
what he says. If he said that he is a man and that
he desires women, then he can do it. If he said
that he is a woman and he desires men, then he
can do it. This is because only he can decide and
no one other than him can decide this. So, his
word is accepted as the word of the woman is
accepted when she says that she has
menstruation or the period. He, the Khuntha may
know himself according to the desires as he sees
which of the two sexes he desires.

• From Hussein’s monograph

The purpose of Marriage

• More pivotal for the preservation of marital relations than

bearing children a child seems to be that the couple are
both healthy enough to engage in physical and emotional
intimacy and in sexual intercourse
In the Shii lexicon the term nikah is equivalent to wat,
which means sexual intercourse….... Hence the main
purpose of marriage is already embedded in the
terminology.

• In situations (including leprosy), a wife may not request

dissolution, Jabb (being amputated of penis) , unna
(asynodia), and khisa (castrated) are exceptions to the
above rule because in their presence the primary purpose
of marriage, namely sexual intercourse, is denied.
Maslaha and Darurah
• One has to bear in mind that Islam provides
facilities to those who are subject to hardships
and therefore Islamic law takes cognizance of
needs and necessities which are genuine and
legitimate. To satisfy such needs and necessities
the believer is allowed to overstep even the clear
text of law but he must know his responsibility to
God if he does so unscrupulously.

• Need whether of a public or private nature is

treated as necessity.

• Islamic jurisprudence and the rule of necessity

and need / by Mohammad Muslehuddin, New
Delhi : Kitab Bhavan, 1982. p. 31, 58 - 63
Rules of Jurisprudence

• What is not expressly forbidden is

allowed.
• General rules always allow for
exceptions.
• Necessity trumps prohibition.
• Recognition of sexual need
• Accommodation of intersexuals
• Major harm versus minor harm
Further Readings
 Dr. Khalid Sohail
http://www.drsohail.com/Poetry/Masloob/masloob.htm
Concluding Thought
Rabbi Harold Schulweis

• We have little control over natural

catastrophes: earthquakes, floods,
hurricanes, tornadoes. But there are
catastrophes over which we have control
because we have created them. The curse
upon the gay person we have pronounced.
This tragedy we have imposed on our
children is not the will of God. It is our
doing. The blessing and curse, life and
death given us is our choice. We are not
coerced to silence.