Islam and Homosexuality

Homosexuality is considered a sin in Islam and punishable under Islamic law, which is derived from the Quran and Hadith (accounts of Muhammad's life). Homosexual acts and relationships are forbidden in many Islamic countries, though surveys show increasing acceptance among Muslim populations in Western countries.

In Islamic law

The four Sunni schools of jurisprudence all agree that practicing homosexuality is an egregious crime that merits an especially harsh punishment, although the exact punishment varies. In the Hanafi school, homosexuals are first to be beaten harshly and then executed if they persist in their behavior. In the Shafi'i school, they are punished in the same manner as one who engages in illegal intercourse (zina), receiving 100 lashes if unmarried or being stoned to death if married. Some scholars, referencing the practices of the four Rightly-Guided (Rashidun) Caliphs, hold that homosexuals should be thrown from tall buildings,^[1] while others believe that the punishment for homosexual acts should be life imprisonment or stoning.^[2] One opinion holds that "passive" participants in homosexual acts should be executed in all circumstances, while the "active" participant may escape execution if unmarried and instead receive 100 lashes.^[3] Opinions also vary on whether the means of execution should be stoning or beheading. The Quran itself mentions more vaguely that two men guilty of lewdness should be punished, and left alone if they repent and improve (Quran 4:16), while other verses narrate Allah's punishment upon the people of Lot.

In the Muslim world

Some modern academics place the blame for Islamic hostility towards homosexuality on "the adoption of European Victorian attitudes by the new Westernized elite."^[4] However, the Islamic tradition has long drawn its views on homosexuality from accounts of Muhammad's perspective, which are found in various hadith.

Sunan Abu Dawood indicates that Muhammad instructed: "If you find anyone doing as Lot's people did, kill the one who does it, and the one to whom it is done.”^[5] In Bukhari, he curses effeminate men and masculine women and orders his followers to "Turn them out of your houses."^[6] This attitude on homosexuality was adopted by Muhammad's successors: Abu Bakr, the first Rashidun caliph, had a homosexual burned at the stake, and the fourth, Muhammad’s son-in-law Ali, ordered that homosexuals be stoned (he also had at least one thrown from the minaret of a mosque).^[7] While individual and societal perspectives have varied through time, these foundational texts and events have exerted significant influence on Islamic thought regarding homosexuality.

Saudi scholar Shaykh Muhammed Salih Al-Munajjid blamed "the spread of homosexuality" on the rise of diseases such as AIDS.^[8] Among the 3% of the world's Muslims living in "more-developed regions",^[9] homosexuality is generally considered unacceptable, although there have been some trends toward more socially liberal views. In a Gallup survey conducted in early 2009, no British Muslims expressed the view that homosexuality was morally acceptable.^[10][11] Later, in a 2016 Ipsos-MORI review of poll data, 52% of British Muslims thought homosexuality should be illegal in Britain, with 18% saying it should be legal. This number rose to 28% among respondents aged 18-24.^[12]

A Zogby International poll of American Muslims taken in 2001 found that 71% opposed "allowing gays and lesbians to marry legally."^[13] However, a 2017 Pew Research Center survey found that 52% of American Muslims believed society should be accepting of homosexuality, up from 39% in 2011 and 27% in 2007.^[14]

In Indonesia, owing to pressure from the conservative Islamic population, some local authorities have been given permission to draw on Islamic law in the treatment of homosexuality.^[15] Attempts to legalize homosexuality in India have been opposed by Islamic clerics, who have cited its impermissibility in Islamic law and called it immoral.^[16] In September 2018, the Indian Supreme Court legalised homosexual intercourse, overturning a 2013 judgement which had upheld a colonial-era law.^[17]

Treatment of homosexuals

Religious and governmental authorities in much of the Muslim world maintain that LGBT individuals should be either executed or subjected to harsh punishment. The following excerpt is taken from a 2007 Saudi Ministry of Education textbook:

As of 2009, homosexual relationships, acts, or behavior were forbidden in approximately 36 Muslim-majority countries, with punishments ranging from fines to life imprisonment.^[18][19] In ten of those countries -- Iran, Mauritania, Nigeria, Pakistan, Saudi-Arabia, Somalia, Sudan, United Arab Emirates, Yemen, and some states in Malaysia -- homosexuality is punishable by death.^[20]

According to Iranian gay and lesbian rights group Homan, the Iranian government has executed an estimated 4,000 homosexuals since the Islamic revolution of 1979.^[19] In Muslim-majority nations that have legalized homosexuality, members of the LGBT community often fall victim to vigilante violence. In Iraq, for instance, where no official laws criminalize homosexuality, vigilante squads throughout the country routinely target suspected homosexuals for murder, at one point reportedly killing 68 gay and transgender men in the space of four months. These vigilante executions have been carried out in torturous and humiliating ways, such as gluing victims' anuses shut and inducing fatal diarrhea.^[21][22]

Turkey is host to widespread vigilante violence against homosexuals, with 11 being killed in the first half of 2009.^[23][24]

Articles

The following are summaries of other articles discussing Islam's relationship with homosexuality.

Islamic Writing and Homosexuality

The Qur'an, Hadith, and Islamic scholars scholars have all commented extensively on homosexuality.

The People of Lot

The story of Lot (لوط, Lūṭ) from the Hebrew Bible is also found in the Qur'an, with some differences. The Qur'anic version links the destruction of Sodom specifically to the homosexual activities of its inhabitants. The Qur'an also states that the people of Lot were the first to experience homosexuality, whereas archeological research has revealed that homosexuality was practiced in ancient cultures as early as 7000 BC. The story of Seth and Horus is one of many examples of stories describing homosexual relationships which appear before the time of Lot and Abraham.

External Links

• Muhammad and the homosexual - By James M. Arlandson

• How Islam Views Homosexuality - 15 Fatwas from Islam-Online

References