Islam and Homosexuality

The four Sunni schools of jurisprudence all agree that practicing homosexuality is an egregious crime that earns an especially harsh punishment, although the schools vary regarding what exactly this punishment should be. In the Hanafi school, the practicing homosexual is to be beat harshly and then executed if they persist. In the Shafi'i school, the practicing homosexual is punished in the same manner as one who engages in illegal intercourse (zina) - that is, they are lashed 100 times if unmarried and stoned to death if married. Some scholars, referencing the practices of the four Rightly-Guided (Rashidun) Caliphs, hold that the practicing homosexual should be thrown off of a tall building.^[1] Others, referencing the Quran, maintain that the homosexual should be imprisoned until they die. Still others, also referencing the Quran, maintain that practicing homosexuals should in all cases be stoned to death.^[2] Yet another view is that while the passive party in the male homosexual act should be killed in all cases, the active party escapes execution if unmarried and is to be lashed 100 times.^[3] Some scholars also suggest that homosexual, when executed, should be beheaded rather than stoned.

Some modern academics have argued that the blame for the Islamic hostility towards homosexuality is due to "the adoption of European Victorian attitudes by the new Westernized elite."^[4] For more than a thousand years, however, the Islamic tradition has drawn its views on homosexuality from the accounts of Muhammad's perspective found in the hadith, for Muhammad is described in the Quran (the word of Allah) as 'the perfect example' (uswa hasana) for all of humankind. 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] He also condemned the mere “appearance” of homosexuality, when he cursed effeminate men and masculine women and ordered his followers to "Turn them out of your houses."^[6] This ruling on homosexuals was naturally adopted by his later successors. The father of Aisha and Muhammad’s first successor, Abu Bakr, had a homosexual burned at the stake. The fourth Rightly-Guided Caliph, Muhammad’s son-in-law Ali, ordered homosexuals to be stoned, and even had one thrown from the minaret of a mosque.^[7] These events pre-date any sort of Western influence on Islamic thought and have since shaped the Islamic perspective on homosexuals in religious contexts. This said, the individual and even societal perspectives of Muslims, irrespective of the views and practices of the Islamic establishment, have, of course, varied through time.

According to Saudi scholar Shaykh Muhammed Salih Al-Munajjid: "The spread of homosexuality has caused man diseases which neither the east nor the west can deny exist because of them. Even if the only result of this perversion was AIDS – which attacks the immune system in humans – that would be enough."^[8] Even among the 3% of the world's Muslims living in "more-developed regions",^[9] however, homosexuality is generally held to be unacceptable. A Gallup survey carried out in early 2009, for instance, found that British Muslims have zero tolerance for homosexuality - not a single British Muslim interviewed believed that homosexual acts were morally acceptable.^[10][11] According to a Zogby International poll of American Muslims taken in November and December of 2001, 71% opposed "allowing gays and lesbians to marry legally."^[12] Additionally, while Muslims comprise 2% of the total British population, they commit 25% of all anti-Homosexual crimes.^[13][14] Western mosques described as moderate have put out statements speaking approvingly of the murder of homosexuals - this is perhaps less surprising in light of the fact that laws demanding the execution of homosexuals have, without interruption, been a part of Islamic orthodoxy.^[15]

In Indonesia, due to growing pressure from the conservative Islamic population, some local authorities were given permission to use Islamic laws, criminalizing homosexuality.^[16] Attempts to legalize homosexuality in India have been stifled by Islamic clerics who maintain that "Homosexuality is an offence under Sharia Law and haram (prohibited) in Islam," and that "Legalization of homosexuality is an attack on Indian religious and moral values."^[17]

Treatment of homosexuals

The following are excerpts on homosexuality, taken from the Saudi Ministry of Education Textbooks for Islamic Studies:

Whereas the admission of LGBT rights is now mainstream in western societies, religious and governmental authorities in much of the Muslim world maintain that LGBT persons should either be executed to subjected to harsh punishment.

Exact figures are hard to determine, due to the political turmoil in many Muslim-majority states, but as of 2009 homosexual relationships, acts or behavior are forbidden in approximately thirty-six Islamic countries including Afghanistan, Algeria, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Brunei, Djibouti, Egypt, Eritrea, Gambia, Guinea, Guinea Bissau, Indonesia, Iran, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Malaysia, Maldives, Mauritania, Morocco, Nigeria, Oman, Pakistan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, Tanzania, Tunisia, Turkmenistan, the United Arab Emirates, Uzbekistan and Yemen, with punishments including anything from a fine up to life imprisonment.^[18][19] Ten of those countries out of the thirty-six impose the death penalty for homosexuals, these are: Iran, Mauritania, Nigeria, Pakistan, Saudi-Arabia, Somalia, Sudan, United Arab Emirates, Yemen and some states in Malaysia.^[20]

According to the Iranian gay and lesbian rights group Homan, the Iranian government has put to death an estimated 4,000 homosexuals since the Islamic revolution of 1979.^[19] Where Muslim majority nations have legalized homosexuality, members of the LGBT community often fall victim to vigilantes who take Islamic law into their own hand. Iraq, for instance, despite not having any official laws discriminating against same-sex relationships, is at the same time host to death squads which operate throughout the country killing gays and lesbians (as well as effeminate men and masculine women suspected of homosexuality) on sight, killing, in one case, sixty-eight gay and trans-gendered men in the space of four months. These vigilante executions have often been carried out in torturous and humiliating ways, such as by having the victims' anuses glued shut, followed by induced and ultimately fatal diarrhea.^[21][22]

In Turkey, there is widespread persecution and violence against homosexuals and non-Muslim minorities, with eleven gays being killed in the first half of 2009 .^[23] A survey released in November of 2009 found that 67% of Turks "would continue acting in accordance with their religious beliefs if the Parliament passed a law that contradicted religious laws" where as a minority, 26%, "would obey the country’s law in this case".^[24]

The following are summaries of other pages discussing Islam, in relation to Homosexuality:

Islamic Writing and Homosexuality

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

The People of Lot

The story of Lot (لوط, Lūṭ) from the Hebrew Bible, is also to be found in the Qur'an, albeit with a few differences. Amongst other things, the Qur'anic rendition 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. Archeological research, by contrast, has revealed that homosexuality was practiced in ancient cultures well before the time of Lot and Abraham (1948–2123 BC). The ancient Egyptians, for instance, who existed in 6000 BC, as well as the Chinese and Indian cultures which existed 7000 years BC practiced homosexuality. The story of Seth and Horus is one of many examples stories appearing before the time of Lot and Abraham which describe homosexual relationships.

• Muhammad and the homosexual - By James M. Arlandson

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