Bisexual Indonesian Men’s Experiences of Islam, the Quran and Allah: A Mixed-Methods Analysis of Spiritual Resistance

Abstract

Many Muslim men with same-sex sexualities experience tensions between their sexual/religious identities. However, few inquiries address how bisexual Muslim men grow and develop amidst socioreligious persecution. Therefore, the present study utilized a mixed-methods design and the Transformative Intersectional Psychology (TIP) framework to explore the spiritual resistance of 35 bisexual, Indonesian Muslim men. Participants completed online religious attitudes and experiences measures as well as open-ended questions regarding their religious/spiritual lives. Although 70% of participants reported that they felt unsupported by the Muslim community in the past year, 49% of participants described Islam in positive terms. Moreover, participants’ largely constructed their religious and spiritual experiences outside of LGBT + Muslim affirming organizations due to the pervasive LGBTQ + hostility in Indonesia. The present study helps build a stronger theoretical foundation for understanding both the positive and negative aspects of religiosity and spirituality in bisexual Muslims’ lives from a transformative and intersectional perspective.

Keywords:

• bisexual
• Islam
• positive psychology
• religion
• spirituality

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1 The Indonesia Council of Ulama (Majlis Ulama Indonesia, MUI) is a government-funded organization authorized to establish Islamic law in Indonesia, acting as the “arbiter of mainstream Islam in Indonesia” (Schäfer, 2019, pp. 248; Usman, 2018). MUI members are not democratically elected and yet the MUI establishes enforceable laws and policies for Indonesia (Schäfer, 2019).

2 Hudud are punishments mandated by Allah and are therefore prohibited in perpetuity (Munir, 2011).

3 Ta’zir are punishments mandated by a judge or government and may therefore be decriminalized at the arbiter’s discretion (Munir, 2011).

4 The Indonesia Council of Ulama initiated the 2008 anti-pornography law in 2001 with a related fatwa (Schäfer, 2019).

5 The Ahmadiyya Muslim Community, or the Jama’at, is an often persecuted modern sect of Islam that was established in India in the 19^{^th} century (Evans, 2017). The Indonesia Council of Ulama issued a fatwa in 2005 that declared the Ahmadiyya as non-Muslim and demanded that the Indonesian government prohibit Ahmadiyya teachings and congregations (Schäfer, 2019). The fatwa lead to the Minister of Religious Affairs, the Attorney General and the Minister of Interior issuing a joint decree to regulate the “deviance” of the Ahmadiyya and ban Ahmadiyya congregations (Schäfer, 2019, p. 249).

6 Sexual orientation was unnoted for Ghorbani et al.’s (2014) sample.

7 Sexual orientation was unnoted for Wilde & Josephs’ (1997) sample.

8 Two participants stated that they did not know how they felt about Islam (e.g., “don’t know”) and 11% of participants omitted the question.

9 While the term bisexual did not emerge in participants’ narratives, all participants self-identified as bisexual in the demographic portion of the survey. Given Fatwa 57’s uniform penalization of all sexual minority persons, bisexual individuals may not view themselves as separate or distinct from the LGB Indonesian community. This larger socioreligious context may explain participants’ own self-referencing as LGB/gay rather than bisexual.

Additional information

Funding

This article is a part of a larger project, the LGBTQ Muslim Experience Study (Chana Etengoff, PI), and has generously been supported by Eastern Michigan University’s Equality Knowledge Grant.

Notes on contributors

Chana Etengoff

Chana Etengoff, Ph.D. is an Assistant Professor of Psychology and director of the Intersectional Development Lab at the Derner School of Psychology at Adelphi University. Dr. Etengoff and her team study how cultural, gender and sexual minority groups resolve conflicts and develop. Dr. Etengoff’s work is informed by the theoretical stance that human development is a transformative process embedded in relational, sociopolitical and historical contexts. Currently, Dr. Etengoff is serving as the PI for her ongoing LGBTQ + Muslim Experience study.

Eric M. Rodriguez

Eric M. Rodriguez, Ph.D. is an Associate Professor of Psychology in the Social Science Department at the New York City College of Technology. Drawing on his ongoing interest in the Psychology of Religion, Dr. Rodriguez’s current research – encompassing over forty peer-reviewed articles and book chapters as well as dozens of conference presentations and invited lectures – focuses on identity conflict and integration as they relate to religiosity/spirituality, sexual orientation and identity development. Currently, Dr. Rodriguez is serving as the co-PI for the ongoing LGBTQ + Muslim Experience study.

Felix Kurniawan

Felix Kurniawan is a graduate student at Johns Hopkins University. He is presently studying research administration with a focus in clinical research. Currently, he works as a clinical research director at a private clinic and is also involved in the Muslim LGBTQ + study along with Dr. Etengoff and Dr. Rodriguez.

Elizabeth Uribe

Elizabeth Uribe is a clinical psychology doctoral student at the Derner School of Psychology at Adelphi University and senior member of Dr. Etengoff’s Intersectional Development Lab. Ms. Uribe’s research interests include gender and emotions and her clinical work focuses on adolescents and young adults with depression and anxiety.