Taking The "Ism " Out Of "Islam"

Gay Muslim Outs Himself to Muslim Scholars at Conference

The article link goes to a UK Gay News story about a gay Muslim man who came out to an audience of Muslim scholars at the International Consultation on Islam and HIV/AIDS. Suhail AbualSameed, who is weirdly given no other credentials other than “gay Muslim”, discussed the ill-treatment he receives from the larger Muslim community because of his sexuality, and it appears that his disclosure was well-received at the conference. The article also mentions some of the legal restrictions against homosexuality in some primarily Islamic countries, some of which even go up to the death penalty.

The article struck me because even though it’s so, so easy to ignore stories like this that have seemingly no effect on my life in the U.S., it’s hard to deny that this is a Big Deal. Even though I try to avoid thinking about isms in more than/less than terms, it’s difficult for me not to think of these other countries as simply more homophobic than the U.S. Particularly with Islam, the homophobia I think transcends being at a cultural level as it is within other religions. Once there are death penalty laws, I think it’s safe to say that one has reached the zenith of homophobia as an institution. I mentioned the assumptions I make about Christians in a previous post, and I think I make some of the same homophobia-emitting presumptions about Islam as a whole. I have an easier time saying disparaging things about Christianity’s treatment of gays because I primarily view it in terms of the white U.S. majority. I’m a little more uneasy about my Islam assumptions because I’m afraid I might be conflating it with ethnicity or nationalities that are different than my own. Am I viewing my conceptions of homophobia through a lens of racism or xenophobia? I don’t know, but it’s not the most pleasant thought.

So, separate from my own reaction, I cannot imagine a news item like this getting much attention in the U.S. because it intersects with issues that are largely outside the interests, I think, of most people. I feel like we don’t really have any cultural schema for “gay Muslim”, and it sounds like there might not be one in AbualSameed’s culture as well. I would hope that most people in the U.S. would be angered by the draconian anti-gay laws of other countries, but I’m afraid I’m just being overly optimistic. It might also be interesting to note that the conference took place in Johannesburg, and South Africa is one of only five countries that allow universal same-gender marriages. The general disapproval of same-gender marriage in the U.S. certainly doesn’t make us look great in terms of institutional acceptance.