1.
The internalists (whose view is reflected in the following analysis)
hold that these attitudes and legal findings are basically the product of an organic evolution within Islam (allowing
of course some initial input from the Pentateuch).
2.
By contrast, the externalist approach, currently championed most
vigorously by Joseph Massad of Columbia University, maintains that the intrusion of Western attitudes, both anti- and
pro-homosexual, has played a major role.
In
addition to this problem, which goes specifically to the issue of sexuality,
one must reckon with a much broader issue - the origins of Islam.
It is a truism that Islam is not monolithic. Some Muslims are Sunni and some
are Shi’a. Some, like the Wahhabis, are hard-liners, while others take a more
liberal stance. Nonetheless, the Islamic world observes a general agreement on
a number of established points marking the origins of the faith. The basic beliefs
includes the following assertions: That the historical Muhammad was born
near Mecca ca. 570 CE of the Arab tribe of Quraysh; that at about the age of
forty he began to receive the revelations that make up the Qur’an; that he made
his hijra, or flight to Medina in the year 622; that he reconquered Mecca in
630; and he had won all of Arabia to his beliefs by his death in 632.
Almost universally honored in Islamic countries, this traditional view has
also attracted the adhesion (generally speaking) of many scholars in the West,
including such different figures as Karen Armstrong, Fred Donner, John
Esposito, and Hans Küng.
Nonetheless, all these details of the standard account have been challenged by
the historical-critical approach to the Qur'an and the origins of Islam, which
applies the method of textual analysis perfected for the Hebrew Bible by Julius
Wellhausen more than a hundred
years ago. Currently this revisionist approach,
which is gaining ground, is championed by such scholars as Christoph
Luxenberg, Ibn Warraq, and Karl-Heinz Ohlig. These two schools of
interpretation - the traditionalist and the revisionist - concerning the
origins of Islam have very little in common. Indeed, they are radically
opposed. Regrettably, a resolution of this fundamental disagreement does not
seem likely, certainly not in the near future.
Nonetheless, a project headquartered in Berlin offers hope. The Corpus
Coranicum is a research project undertaken by the Berlin-Brandenburg
Academy of Sciences and Humanities that is intended to develop a better
contextual understanding of the Holy Qur’an. Begun in 2007, the initial
three-year database is led by Angelika Neuwirth, Professor of Semitic
and Arabic Studies at the Free University of Berlin. The project is currently
funded until 2025, but could well take longer to complete. Even when complete, however,
the Corpus Coranicum will focus primarily on textual issues, without
seeking to solve theological disagreements. (1)
ISLAM AND HOMOSEXUAL BEHAVIOR
By law seven Islamic countries today stipulate the death penalty for male homosexual
behavior: Iran, Mauritania, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, United Arab Emirates, Yemen,
and Nigeria (capital punishment applies to the twelve northern provinces that
observe sharia law).
Other evidence points in a different direction. A well known example is the homosexuality
once practiced quite openly in the Egyptian Siwa Oasis. (2) Today, the
traditional practice of Basha Bazi (“boy play”) still survives In parts
of Muslim Central Asia and Afghanistan. A bacha, typically an adolescent
of twelve to sixteen, is a dancer trained in the performance of erotic songs
and suggestive dancing. Wearing resplendent clothes and makeup, the dancing
boys are appreciated for their androgynous beauty but are also available for
sexual services. The boys are generally taken, sometimes by force from the
lower classes. Each one is generally attached to one wealthy man, their owner.
Once their beard begins to grow the boys are dismissed. Occasionally a boy will
marry his lover's daughter when he comes of age, but most must endure a humbler
fate.
Soviet rule had considerable success in eliminating the practice in Central
Asia, but it thrives in northern Afghanistan, where many men keep the boys as
status symbols. In that country the authorities are attempting to crack down on
the practice as "un-Islamic and immoral," but such efforts are
impeded by the fact that many of the men are powerful and well-armed military
commanders. In early 2010 the American PBS television program Frontline
aired a documentary about the Afghan boy-love practice by Najibullah
Quraishi. (3)
How can these two things be reconciled - the death penalty and the cult of
dancing boys? The answer is that adult-adult homosexual relationships have
always been forbidden in Islamic law, without exception. By contrast, Islam has
seen, at some times and places, a de facto toleration of
pederasty, a type of relationship in which one of the participants is a boy.
Nonetheless, the status of pederasty is itself precarious and has been coming
under increasing restriction through most of the Islamic world.
Today, the most severe anti-homosexual policy is found in the Islamic Republic
of Iran, which is well known for its executions of homosexual men. (4) However,
there is a strange exception to this policy - an exception of a sort. Since the
mid-1980s the Iranian government has legalized the practice of medically
approved sex-reassignment surgery (“sex-change operation”) and the subsequent
changing of all legal documents. The basis for this policy stems from a fatwa
by the leader of Iran's Islamic Revolution, Ayatolla Ruhollah Khomeini,
declaring sex changes permissible for "diagnosed" transsexuals. Some
Iranian gay and bisexual men are being pressured to undergo a sex change
operation and live as women in order to avoid legal and social sanctions.
LEGAL AND HISTORICAL ASPECTS
Islamic Sharia law stems from both the Qur'an and hadiths. Islamic legal
scholars expand upon the principles they detect therein, which are regarded as
the laws of Allah. In this tradition homosexual conduct is not only a sin, but
a “crime against God.” There are some differences in interpretation among the
four mainstream legal schools, but they all agree that homosexual behavior must
be severely sanctioned. In the Hanafi school of thought, the homosexual
is first punished through harsh beating; if he or she repeats the act, the
death penalty is to be applied. In the Shafi`i school of thought, the
homosexual receives the same punishment as adultery (if he or she is married)
or fornication (if not married). This means that if the person accused of
homosexual behavior is married, he or she is stoned to death; if single, he or
she is whipped 100 times. In this way the Shafi`i approach compares the
punishment applied in the case of homosexuality with that of adultery and
fornication, while the Hanafi tradition differentiates between the two
acts because in homosexuality, anal sex--prohibited, regardless of orientation
- typically occurs, while in adultery and fornication, penis-vagina contact
(reproductive parts) are involved. Some scholars based on the Qur'an and
various hadith hold the opinion that the homosexual should be thrown from a
high building or stoned to death as punishment, while others believe that they
should receive a life sentence. Another view that in the case of two males, the
active partner is to be lashed a hundred times if he is unmarried, and killed
if he is married; whereas the passive partner must be executed regardless of
his marital status.
Some apologists have attempted to blame the importation of Western disapproval
of homosexuality for these harsh measures. This claim is preposterous.
As with the Hebrew Bible and the New Testament, whenever the Qur’an explicitly
mentions homosexuality it is condemnatory.
Central to many of these imprecations is the story of Lot (Lut) and
Sodom, as narrated in the book of Genesis. However, the Muslim interpretation
of the story more clearly focuses on its same-sex aspect than does the original
telling:
“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 practise 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!’ But we
saved him and his family, except his wife: she was of those who legged behind.
And we rained down on them a shower (of brimstone): Then see what was the end
of those who indulged in sin and crime!” (Qur’an 7:80).
"’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. Then afterward We
destroyed the others. We rained down on them a shower (of brimstone): and evil
was the shower on those who were admonished (but heeded not)!” (Qur’an
26:165).
“(We also sent) Lut (as a messenger): behold, He said to his people, ‘Do ye
do what is shameful though ye see (its iniquity)? 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!’
Then We saved him and his household save his wife; We destined her to be of
those who stayed 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 27:54).”
“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 practice 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.’ He said: ‘O my Lord! help Thou
me against people who do mischief!’ When Our Messengers came to Abraham with
the good news, they said: ‘We are indeed going to destroy the people of this
township: for truly they are (addicted to) crime.’” (Qur’an 29:28).
There is also this more general commandment. “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 4:16).
Although the Qur’an is ambiguous about the exact punishment for same-sex
conduct, the death penalty may be inferred (see also 26:165-173).
An uncertain theme in the Qur’an is that of the Ghilman, adolescent boys
who serve the faithful in the afterlife. For example, “round about them will
serve boys of perpetual freshness” (56:17; see also 52:24 and 76:19). While at
first sight these young men would appear to be counterparts of the maidens (houris),
mainstream Muslim opinion holds that they are merely servants; they do not
bestow sexual favors.
The Hadith are much more explicit about what should be done. Here are a few
examples:
Narrated by Ibn Abbas: “The Prophet cursed effeminate men; those men who
are in the similitude (assume the manners of women) and those women who assume
the manners of men, and he said, ‘Turn them out of your houses.’ The Prophet
turned out such-and-such man, and 'Umar turned out such-and-such woman.’”
(Sahih Bukhari 7:72:774; repeated at 8:82:820).
Narrated by Abdullah ibn Abbas: “The Prophet said: If you find anyone doing
as Lot's people did, kill the one who does it, and the one to whom it is done.”
(Abu Dawud 38:4447).
Narrated by Abdullah ibn Abbas: “If a man who is not married is seized
committing sodomy, he will be stoned to death."
Narrated by Abu Sa'id al-Khudri: “The Prophet said: A man should not look at
the private parts of another man, and a woman should not look at the private
parts of another woman. A man should not lie with another man without wearing
lower garment under one cover; and a woman should not be lie with another woman
without wearing lower garment under one cover.” (Abu Dawud 31:4007).
Narrated by Abu Hurayrah: “The Prophet said: A man should not lie with
another man and a woman should not lie with another woman without covering
their private parts except a child or a father.” (Abu Dawud 31:4008).
“Whoever is found conducting himself in the manner of the people of Lot,
kill the doer and the receiver.” (Tirmidhi 1:152).
Narrated by
Jaabir: "The Prophet said: 'There is nothing I fear for my ummah
[commmunity] more than the deed of the people of Lot.'" (Tirmidhi
1:457).
Nor were these admonitions purely theoretical. The Qur’anic condemnation of
homosexuality was naturally adopted by Muhammad’s later successors. Abu Bakr,
the father of Aisha, had a wall thrown down upon suspected sodomites, a
punishment that is being reprised in the Middle East today. Ali, the fourth caliph,
had sodomites burned.
What then of the seemingly flourishing pederastic subculture of the Islamic
Middle Ages. Is this simply a myth? No it is not, but the phenomenon is mainly
a matter of particular sectors, often those that stand apart from the Sunni
mainstream. More generally, the de facto toleration of pederasty is
linked to the Islamic tendency to the seclusion of women, leading to their
removal from public life. Another factor, though one that is hard to assess, is
survival of the traditions of Greek pederasty. This trend may account for the
use of the wine boy (saqi) as a symbol of homoerotic passion. Persia may
also have made a contribution. Certainly in Islamic times Persian poetry has
served as a major vehicle for declarations of pederastic attraction. Even in
that realm, though, the practice was not without its critics, such as the poet Sanai
of Ghazni who mocked the pederastic practices of his time, embodied in the
doings of the Khvaja of Herat, who is depicted as taking his catamite
into a mosque for a quick erotic encounter:
Not finding shelter he became perturbed,
The mosque, he reasoned, would be undisturbed.
But he is discovered by a devout man, who, in his revulsion, echoes a
traditional attack on same-sex relations:
"These sinful ways of yours," —that was his shout—
Have ruined all the crops and caused the drought!
This exchange is interesting for its evocation of the motif, traceable back to Justinian
in the sixth century CE, namely that homosexual acts bring on natural
disasters.
Some of the poems discuss the contrasting merits of truly beardless boys and
downy-cheeked youths. One the beard had begun to grow, however, the individual
was off limits, however attractive he might have seemed previously.
The connection with Sufism is ambiguous. Such attractions are commonly regarded
as chaste, finding their place in Islamic mysticism in a meditation known in
Arabic as nazar ill’al-murd, "contemplation of the beardless,"
or Shahed-bazi, "witness play" in Persian. This fascination is
rationalized as an act of worship intended to help one ascend to the absolute
beauty that is God through the relative beauty that is a boy (quite possibly a
reminiscence of Plato).
To be sure, not all Sufi adepts followed the teachings to the letter. Some
observers suspected the motives of dervishes who professed to love only the
appearance of the boys. For their part, conservative Muslim theologians
condemned the custom of contemplating the beauty of young boys. Their
suspicions may have been justified, as some dervishes boasted of enjoying far
more than "glances", or even kisses. Thus Ibn Taymiyya
(1263-1328) complained: "They kiss a slave boy and claim to have seen
God!"
In contradiction to these currents, mainstream hatred of homosexuality has
continued in Islam down to the present. Even among “moderate” Muslims residing
in Western countries, homosexuality is generally condemned as something that is
vile and unacceptable. For example, a Gallup survey carried out in early 2009
found that British Muslims have zero tolerance for homosexual behavior. (5) Not
a single British Muslim interviewed for the survey was willing to grant that
homosexual acts were morally acceptable. According to a Zogby International
poll of American Muslims taken in November and December of 2001, a massive 71
percent opposed "allowing gays and lesbians to marry legally." (6) Another
worrying statistic to be found among Muslims in the UK: although they comprise
just 2% of the total British population, they commit 25% of all anti-homosexual
crimes (gay bashing).
So, with the rise of Islam in the the United Kingdom, Western Europe and other
non-Islamic countries, we witness an appalling return to the primitive moral
concepts of seventh-century Arabia, with Muslim gangs roaming the streets of
England and the Netherlands, carrying out violent attacks on gays. For their
part, mosques labeled as “moderate” calling for the murder of homosexuals at
the hands of their congregation.
Even in secular Indonesia, we see that owing to pressure from the growing
conservative Muslim communities some local jurisdictions are now adopting
Islamic legal principles, criminalizing homosexual behavior. In India, with its
Hindu majority, attempts to abrogate the old British sodomy law so as to
decriminalize homosexuality are being hindered by Muslim clerics, who assert
that homosexuality is an offence under Sharia Law and “haram”
(prohibited in Islam). Bizarrely, these self-righteous South Asian
representatives of an intruder culture claim that decriminalization of
homosexual behavior is somehow an attack on Indian religious and moral values.
As we have seen with the career of Mohandas Ghandhi, Indian
steadfastness has had a worldwide effect. What would these fundamentalist Muslims
know about Indian religious and moral values?
In fact, intolerant pronouncements can be found emanating from all sorts of
Muslim organizations, government and apologists. Here are three contemporary
examples, one from a Muslim expert in the United State; the second active in
Canada; and the third in Pakistan.
“Homosexuality is a moral disorder. It is a moral disease, a sin and
corruption.”
Homosexuality “is utterly contrary to every natural law of human and animal
life.”
“Homosexuality is unlawful in Islam. It is neither accepted by the state nor by
the Islamic Society. Qu’ran clearly states that it is unjust, unnatural,
transgression, ignorant, criminal and corrupt. [...] Muslim jurists agree that,
if proven of guilt, both of them should be killed.
With the
widespread acceptance of such expressions of hatred it is little wonder that
life can be grim - and short - for male homosexuals in Muslim countries.
REFERENCES
1. For
details see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corpus_Coranicum
2. For
details see Siwa Oasis: http://www.sexarchive.info/BIB/EOH/s.htm#42
3. See
www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/dancingboys
See also http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bacch%C3%A1
4. From
1979, the year of the revolution, to 1990, there have been over 100 executions
on homosexual charges, according to the Boroumand Foundation (See http://www.iranrights.org/english/newsletter-4.php).
For more details see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LGBT_rights_in_Iran
5. See
http://www.gallup.com/poll/1651/gay-lesbian-rights.aspx
6. See http://www.zogby.com/americanmuslims2004.pdf
BIBLIOGRAPHY
1. Books
Afary,
Janet. Sexual Politics in Modern Iran. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press,
2009.
El-Rouayheb, Khaled, Before Homosexuality in the Arab–Islamic World, 1500–1800.
Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2009.
Habib, Samar. Arabo-Islamic Texts on Female Homosexuality, 850-1789 A. D.
Youngstown, NY: Teneo Press, 2009.
----, Female Homosexuality in the Middle East: Histories and Representations.
London: Routledge, 2009.
----. Islam and Homosexuality. 2 vols. New York: Praeger, 2009.
Massad, Joseph, Desiring Arabs. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2007.
Murray, Stephen O., and Will Roscoe (eds.). Islamic Homosexualities: Culture,
History, and Literature. New York: NYU Press, 1997.
Patanè, Vincenzo. "Homosexuality in the Middle East and North Africa"
in: Aldrich, Robert (ed.). Gay Life and Culture: A World History. New York:
Universe, 2006, pp. 271-301.
Rowson, Everett K., and J. W. Wright (eds.). Homoeroticism in Classical Arabic
Literature. New York: Columbia University Press, 1997.
Schmitt, Arno. Bio-Bibliography of Male-male Sexuality and Eroticism in Muslim
Societies. Berlin:
Verlag rosa Winkel, 1985.
Schmitt, Arno, and Gianni de Martino. Kleine Schriften zu zwischenmännlicher Sexualität
und Erotik in der muslimischen Gesellschaft. Berlin: Selbstverlag,
1985.
Schmitt, Arno, and Jehoeda Sofer (eds.). Sexuality and Eroticism Among Males in
Moslem Societies. Binghamton, NY: Harrington Park Press, 1992.
Whitaker, Brian. Unspeakable Love: Gay and Lesbian Life in the Middle East.
Berkeley: University of California Press. 2006.
2. Web sites:
Homosexuality and
Islam: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LGBT_topics_and_Islam
Pederasty in the
Middle East and Central Asia:
http://wapedia.mobi/en/Pederasty_in_the_Middle_East_and_Central_Asia