Islam, Homosexuality and Gay Muslims: Bridging the Gap between Faith and Sexuality

Abstract

The debate concerning homosexuality in Islam is imbued with rancour and prejudice borne out of an Islamic discourse that nurtures and promotes the condemnation of homosexuality. The negative social representation of homosexuality that this evokes contrasts with the growing social acceptance of homosexuality in Britain. This discord in opinion is refl ected in a recent Islamic interfaith relations poll (Independent, 8 May 2009), which found that compared to 58% of the general public not a single British Muslim believed that homosexuality was morally acceptable. 1 On an institutional level the Muslim Council of Britain (MCB), an umbrella body promoting consensus and unity on Muslim affairs in the UK, has repeatedly rejected talks with gay rights organisations and rebuffed proposals to tackle homophobia within the Muslim community (Tatchell 2006). The sociocultural and religious environment means that it is not conducive for gay Muslims to disclose their sexual identity to their peers, friends or family. As a largely ‘hidden population’ an exploration into the lives of British minority ethnic (BME) gay and lesbians remains a critically underdeveloped area of investigation. Only a small number of research studies exist on Muslim (Yip 2004a; Siraj 2006; Jaspal and Siraj 2011) and South Asian gay men (Jaspal 2012a; McKeown et al. 2010; Minwalla et al. 2005; Bhugra 1997). A revealing example of the marginalisation of BME lesbian voices is that with the exception of studies on Muslim lesbians (Siraj forthcoming, 2012; 2011), a collection of Black and Asian lesbian personal narratives (MasonJohn 1995) and Kawale’s (2003) study on LGB South Asians, research on this population continues to evade wider sociological interest.