Alternative realities: queer Muslims and the Qur’an

ABSTRACT

The interplay between Islam, Muslim lives and traditional/mainstream interpretations of the Qur’an have contributed to the marginalization of non-heterosexual Muslims. Queer Muslims face ridicule and rejection from friends and family and Muslim religious scholars openly question the morality and validity of their same-sex attraction. Yet, despite this, the source of this condemnation, the Qur’an, remains an instrumental source of support and guidance for Queer Muslims. The present study explores the entanglements of sexuality, spirituality and self-empowerment. Based on a structured interview with a gay Muslim man, an academic who is involved in Queer readings of the Qur’an, this paper explores how he resolves the now oft-mentioned “conflict” between Islam and homosexuality and how his scholarship serves to advance an alternative understanding and interpretation of the Qur’an. While his work is not endorsed, supported or recognized by mainstream Muslim scholars, it offers Queer Muslims the potential to be optimistic at the possibility of change. Reading the Qur’an while being sensitive to Queer lives means that contemporary interpretations, especially in relation to sexuality, can be reconstituted/reconstructed, making orthodox/“traditional” readings less rigid and impermeable. Using religious scholarship to “deviate” from and question heteronormative interpretations of the Holy text, the aim of Queer readings of the Qur’an is to embolden Queer Muslims to help them reclaim and exercise agency and power.

KEYWORDS:

• Homosexuality
• Muslim
• queer lives
• Qur’an
• Islam

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes on contributor

Dr Asifa Siraj is an Independent Researcher based in Scotland (UK). Her research interests are based on Islam, gender and sexual identities and she has published in these areas through an exploration of the lives of heterosexual and gay/lesbian Muslims in Britain. She is currently engaged in research that focuses on the intersections of faith, sexuality and gender in the lives of British Muslim lesbians.

Notes

1 Geissinger, “Islam and Discourses of Same-Sex Desire.”

2 Yip, “Queering Religious Texts,” 56.

3 Yip, “Queering Religious Texts.”

4 Ibid.

5 See Hendricks, “Islamic Texts”; Kugle, Homosexuality in Islam; Musić, “Queer Visions of Islam.”

6 Hendricks, “Islamic Texts,” 32.

7 Habib, “Queer-friendly Islamic hermeneutics,” 33.

8 Hendricks, “Islamic Texts,” 33.

9 Jamal, “The story of Lot.”

10 Habib, “Queer-friendly Islamic hermeneutics.”

11 Ali, Sexual Ethics and Islam.

12 Yamani, “Introduction.”

13 Karmi, “Woman, Islam and Patriarchalism,” 83.

14 Musić, “Queer Visions of Islam.”

15 Safi, “Introduction,” 1.

16 Cornwall, Controversies in Queer Theology.

17 Geissinger, “Islam and Discourses of Same-Sex Desire,” 83.

18 Habib, “Queer-Friendly Islamic Hermeneutics.”

19 “Sexuality, Diversity and Ethics,” 205.

20 Yip, “Queering Religious Texts,” 51.

21 Yip, “Coming home from the wilderness.”

22 Ibid.

23 Used interchangeably as it appears in the text.

24 Yip, “Coming home from the wilderness,” 41.

25 Zanghellini, “Neither Homophobic nor (Hetero)sexually Pure”; “Sexuality, Diversity and Ethics.”

26 Zanghellini, “Neither Homophobic nor (Hetero)sexually Pure.”

27 Musić, “Queer Visions of Islam.”

28 Shannahan, “Textual Queerings.”

29 Zanghellini, “Neither Homophobic nor (Hetero)sexually Pure,” 274–5.

30 Musić, “Queer Visions of Islam,” 334.

31 Kugle, Homosexuality in Islam, 56.

32 Musić, “Queer Visions of Islam.”

33 Geissinger, “Islam and Discourses of Same-Sex Desire,” 83.

34 Kugle, Homosexuality in Islam, 3.

35 Cornwall, Controversies in Queer Theology, 4.

36 Bryman, Social Research Methods.

37 Ibrahim, Kamsani and Champe, “Understanding the Islamic Concept of Usrah.”

38 Hendricks, “Islamic Texts,” 32.

39 Siraj, “British Muslim Lesbians.”

40 See Hendricks, “Islamic Texts.”

41 The Pleading Woman, Verse 58 in the Qur’an.

42 Musić, “Queer Visions of Islam.”

43 Shannahan, “Textual Queerings,” 108.

44 Shannahan, “Textual Queerings.”

45 Hendricks, “Islamic Texts.”

46 Musić, “Queer Visions of Islam,” 342.

47 Yip, “Queering Religious Texts.”

48 Geissinger, “Islam and Discourses of Same-Sex Desire,” 83.