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March 6, 2015 - Sargon of Akkad - Carl Benjamin
37:13
Progressive Islam
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Time Text
Friday afternoon.
It's been quite stressful.
A lot of things have been quite stressful.
I want something relaxing and fun to talk about while I drink my beer.
I can't even remember the last time I had a beer.
Anyway, what do I have around here?
Why the idea that Islam promotes intolerance of the LGBTQIA plus community is a lie?
Perfect.
So this was written by someone called Andrew Hernan, who I'm sure knows a lot about Islam.
Andrew says that he is not a Muslim himself.
However, as a person both intellectually and emotionally invested in religion, he aims to express what he has learned through his extensive research on Islam in Muslim-majority regions.
Okay.
I mean, I did a bit of research as well, and I didn't quite come to the same conclusion as Andrew, but we'll follow through his reasoning.
He is aware of an LGBTQIA-friendly mosque.
I don't even know what that acronym stands for.
I don't even know what it means.
Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transsexual, queer, which somehow is different probably.
IA.
Intersectional, maybe?
And atheist?
I'm pretty sure that wouldn't make sense, but honestly, I just don't know.
And I can't be bothered to look it up, to be honest.
But it would not surprise me, for a second, if that did include atheists.
But yeah, it provides services for Muslim individuals of diverse relationships, including same gender and mixed faith.
So Andrew starts out strong.
There is a pervading myth amongst some Muslims and non-Muslims alike that Islam promotes intolerance against women and LGBTQIA plus individuals.
Why would Muslims and non-Muslims think that?
I mean, I don't know.
I'm not a Muslim or someone who really cares about the Quran, but I do have Google.
But this myth, however, is a dangerous one, as it often prevents non-Muslim feminists from more actively engaging Muslim communities.
Yeah, it probably does.
I imagine there are plenty of lesbian, gay, queer, transsexual Muslims who are just dying to get out of their local mosque, only to find the local Imam chases them out with a fucking stick for being heathen sinners.
Consequently, though, instead of expanding and empowering the feminist community, well-intentioned non-Muslim feminists sometimes alienate potential Muslim allies and reproduce anti-Muslim prejudices.
I like where this is going.
A feminist-Muslim alliance.
And this creates a divide between feminist and Muslim communities.
I cannot believe these two religions can't get along.
I am going to try and take this a bit more seriously.
I really did do quite a lot of research in preparation for this video, but I did it before I sat down with the beer and decided to narrate it.
But anyway, so, why the myth?
So, narrowly citing the Quran and various hadiths, some Muslims argue that Islam is cis-sexist, requires patriarchy, and forbids homosexuality.
Well, they would, wouldn't they?
I mean, in their minds, the Quran is God's literal word transcribed onto a book.
So, if it says gays are bad, then they would probably interpret that as meaning that God meant gays are bad, and therefore the religion of Islam doesn't permit homosexuality.
But that's not very progressive, and many other Muslims maintain that Islam demands compassion, acceptance, and love.
Coincidentally, very few of those Muslims actually live in the Middle East.
Arguing that an omniscient God created humanity, including the vast diversity within it, they insist that we should not discriminate against one another.
What are you talking about?
Religions in general, not just Islam, religions are about discriminating constantly, willfully, with very clearly demarc boundaries.
But as such, San Franciscanites Muslims say that Islam does not promote intolerance.
People say that Islam promotes intolerance, which is brilliant.
That is exactly how that works.
So if I understand what they're saying there, it's not that the religion slash ideology of Islam promotes intolerance.
It's that the nasty Muslims who follow it promote intolerance.
But what do I know?
I'm just a Kathir.
I've rejected Islam for the same reasons that I've rejected Zeus.
Oh, and Islam isn't the only religion this happens to.
Believers of other faiths do the same thing.
For example, Christians have used the Bible to advance sexism, patriarchy, and homophobia.
As if any such thing would be in the Bible, the bedrock of Christianity.
No, it is the Christians who have come to that conclusion on their own.
Completely unrelated to the religion.
This is amazing.
The dogmatic insistence, God forbid a religion would be dogmatic, of oppressive perspectives prevents some communities, judging here, whether they're Christian, Muslim, and so on, from acknowledging problematic religious interpretation, problematic to the religion of feminism.
And by golly, those religions are going to have to change, because they'll be damned if feminism's going to change.
And of course, they use these interpretations to validate their own prejudices against gender and sexual minority, which is exactly the sort of thing I would expect a progressive to write about Islam.
The problem with this, as you've probably already guessed, is that this minimizes the perspective of religious allies.
Because by God, feminists are fighting a war.
And if there's one type of people they would like to have on their side, it's religious people, because they've been so fucking successful.
They have conquered the earth with their religions.
So, you know, feminism needs them on board.
But as a result, less informed feminists risk regurgitating problematic interpretations.
I, again, I can't help but stress that feminism needs the a pope or a, you know, a mater, a mope.
And, of course, a major reason why some Westerners insist, despite many Muslim communities arguing the contrary, they're everywhere, these Muslim communities that are arguing this, is that Islam is intolerant because of pervasive Islamophobia.
Round of applause for the progressive for finally getting that in there.
I knew somehow it was down to my own hatred of Muslims that was the reason that I thought Muslims hated the gays.
It wasn't anything to do with the fact that I heard Muslims going on about how much they hate gays.
It was only a matter of time until we got to privilege.
Because generally, which is the best term, because this way, if someone brings up an example, you can say, well, I just said generally.
I mean, not every single one.
And then if they bring up another example, you say, no, no, two examples don't make a trend.
And then if you bring up three, they say, well, that's still not that many.
And you bring up hundreds and hundreds and they say, well, yeah, but there are still apparently more, even if they're not actually providing you sources.
But generally, North American and European societies privilege Christianity.
Which I find ironic because if you look at, say, Northern European societies, they seem to actually privilege atheism.
I mean, if you look at my home country, for example, you'll see that only 22% of people in the country actually believe in God.
24% are kind of wishy-washy.
There's probably some spirit or life force that they're clearly not going to end up laying down their lives over, and 54% are like, this is bullshit.
I mean, even the treacherous and backwards French think mostly that there probably isn't a god as described in the Bible.
So, you know, privileging Christianity isn't really an accurate statement.
Obviously, the author of this piece is American, so we'll talk about America.
And apparently, since the first Cult War, and especially since 9-11, if you can believe it, American attitudes towards Muslims have been increasingly hostile.
Indeed, America's money-hungry, imperialistic culture validated the enslavement of black people, genocidal manifest destiny, and the colonization of countries like the Philippines.
Similarly, it now validates anti-Muslim oppression.
Okay, it's kind of hard to argue against that, but I really want to because of the person making the argument.
I'm not saying that that's logically sound, but I am saying the person who made this is such a cunt that I would rather be on the side of the imperialistic, oppressive American government than I would them.
And that says, that is an impressive achievement, to be honest.
Well done, progressives.
You are so intolerable, just so unbelievably undesirable to spend any space on the earth with, that I would rather deal with the American government than you.
So many pundits and politicians alike point to domestic and foreign Islamic terrorism as evidence of the religion's supposed danger and non-conformity to Western values.
However, when Christian terrorism occurs, these same pundits rarely blame Christianity.
Well, no, that's an interesting point, because what's very, very, very interesting about Christianity in Islam is there's a very distinct differentiation.
Islam was definitely meant conceived as a religion that rules over others, whereas Christianity was definitely conceived to be a religion to help those being ruled over by the Romans, in the case of the Christians, and over the Romans in the case of the Muslims.
When I say the Romans, I mean the recently conquered provinces of the Roman Empire.
But the thing is, I can't really think of Christians who are committing terrorism for Christianity.
I can think of ones like the IRA who are doing it for political reasons, to, you know, drive the British out of Northern Ireland and all that sort of thing.
But I can't really think of any who are doing it to advance the goals of Christianity.
I mean, if we just have a quick look at the just terrorist attacks listed on YouTube, and we can see that jihadism is quite a popular one.
Jihadism, jihadism, Tamil separatism, which is a nationalist issue.
Jihadism, jihadism, chasm, church inception, nationalist issue.
Sikh extremism.
Well, that's great.
That is another religion that is not Islam that has religious extremists.
And they got 329 kills there.
That's impressive.
But the point is, it seems to be jihadism or nationalism.
With jihadism really, really dominating the scales here.
Just looking, Islamism and jihadism, I don't know what the difference there is.
I can't see any Christian terrorism here.
Anti-Castroism, oh, okay.
Neo-fascism?
That's true.
Although that could be considered Christian, surely.
Well, again, was he actually doing it for Christ?
I think he was just doing it for the ethnic purity of Norway, wasn't he, Brevik?
But yeah, so this is the problem that I really have with the argument, oh, well, they don't chalk up Christian terrorism to Christians.
Well, I mean, they don't really seem to be doing it for Christians, but I mean, there is an awful lot of jihadism here.
So, I mean, you know, I know.
I know.
Sounding like one of those stormfront guys now, but anyway, getting back to it.
Our host suddenly gets all American-centric and says, We are taught that it is acceptable to oppress Islam.
And we are taught that Christianity is the appropriate religion to follow.
I don't think they're taught that in China.
I think they have problems with Islam in China, but I don't think they're taught that Christianity is the right religion.
They might be.
I haven't actually looked.
I know there are Christians in China, but I don't think it's the majority religion.
I think Chinese animistic sort of spirit worship is the predominant religion there.
But I mean, I can hardly blame Andrew.
He's probably rather privileged.
So anyway, what does this myth do?
Islamophobia promotes problematic interpretations of Islam amongst many non-Muslims.
As a result, many, including non-Muslim feminists and allies, misunderstand Muslim experiences.
They are clearly not listening and believing.
The limited and violent portrayal of Islam in the media has led many feminists to perceive Islam as anti-woman and anti-LGBTQIA plus, which I really don't think it's actually to do with the terrorism that's brought that on.
I really think it's rather to do with the burqa.
I honestly think it's the peaceful portrayal of women in other countries and say, people's experiences there.
A friend of mine, his dad, he lived out in Saudi Arabia for two years.
And it is literally as you would expect.
There are, it's as you've heard, there are police of vice and virtue, and they will arrest women who are out of the house without a male escort.
And women can't drive, they have to be covered.
It's almost a cliché how oppressive it is to women there.
And so it's one of those things where you think, yeah, it's not really the terrorism.
At least for me anyway, it's not really the terrorism.
And I don't think it is for many other people.
I mean, if Islamic terrorism was giving people a poor view of Islam, why would so many Western women be joining the Islamic State?
It just beggars belief, doesn't it?
Why would women go and join the terrorist organization that's bound to oppress them?
Except the jihadi brides aren't oppressed, apparently, according to The Guardian.
They join ISIS for the same reasons men do.
The jihadi bride narrative is inherently sexist.
It fails to acknowledge the agency of Muslim women, either in conflict or preventing terrorism.
I mean, yeah, exactly.
There's one thing I don't want to do is downplay women's contributions to terrorism.
That would be dreadfully sexist.
Apparently, the thing that's luring them are the promise of women-only malls, which I don't think that's the same reason that men are being attracted to ISIS, so women can have women-only malls.
But apparently a big part of it is rubbing their fancy Islamic State driving licenses in the face of Saudi women, which is something they couldn't have done in Britain, apparently.
And believe it or not, the reason these women are going to the Islamic State is not because they have been lured there by promises of natullah and pictures of kittens as CNN would have you believe.
It is apparently for the same reasons.
One, because they believe Islam is under attack.
Two, because they want to contribute to the building of a new society and the establishment of a caliphate.
And three, because they believe in their individual duty to migrate to the Islamic State and a sense of sisterhood amongst those who do.
This is of course being interpreted by feminists at The Guardian as women going and joining as active fighters, which they might do.
Jesus.
Or they might be carted off and used as sex slaves.
I don't know.
I'm not a girl who's joined the Islamic State.
So yeah, so while apparently, you know, women are going out to join the Islamic State to create a progressive utopia, feminists in the West for some reason perceive Islam as anti-woman and anti-LGBTQIA.
Plus, while these feminists might have intentions to advocate for individuals they perceive to be oppressed, they are building a resistance and movement based on stereotypes originally developed to promote a racist and capitalist agenda.
God damn that capitalist agenda.
Yazidi women and girls recount horrors of ISIS sexual slavery.
I don't know how this got in here.
This is not very progressive, and so it must not be true.
You know what, this just hasn't been racist enough for me so far.
But thankfully this article goes on to point out the racist double standard.
Christianity, a religion practiced mostly by those racialized as white, presumably that means all of South America, was glorified, of course.
Of course.
Nothing to do with it being the religion that had been practiced in Europe for 1,500 years, something like that.
But Islam, a religion practiced mostly by those racialized as non-white, was heavily demonized.
I mean, you can instantly see the problem with that.
I mean, it's not like Muslims ever attacked Europe or anything.
So, you know, it was just the fact that Europeans are white devils and they hate brown people.
See, this is a response to the French ban on headscarves.
So Muslim women, or any women presumably, can't wear a headscarf in public because, I don't know, it's Islamic.
But this was, of course, women not knowing best for themselves and feminists knowing better.
Because many non-Muslim feminists, however, came out in support of the ban.
Interpreting Islam as patriarchal, why would they interpret Islam as patriarchal?
They explained away Muslims' responses and examples of internalized oppression.
As if a feminist would ever deny a person's agency based on the idea of internalized oppression.
I am shocked beyond reason.
Instead of perceiving them as feminists, many condescendingly suggested that these Muslim women were incapable of breaking their own submission to men.
Just wow, I mean, it's not like that contradicts what feminists say in other circles to other people or anything.
It's not like there's any consistency with any of this.
Who the fuck do I listen to when I'm trying to get the real authentic canonical feminism?
Of course, there were and are cases of Muslims who veil not by choice, but because domineering fathers and husbands require it.
And there are few Muslim women who support the headscarf ban.
So what are you going to do?
Well, the answer is obfuscation and distraction.
Because nonetheless, fixating upon cases while dismissing others devalues many Muslim feminist perspectives.
And by God, if there's one thing we don't want to devalue, it is a Muslim feminist perspective.
Apparently, when feminism is interpreted monolithically, sometimes even well-intentioned feminists risk reproducing Islamophobic and consequently white supremacist perspectives.
Because there is no way that you could be Islamophobic without being white supremacist.
You fucking disgusting bigots.
Anyway, by perceiving Muslims as the victims of Islamic patriarchy, yeah, no, no, no, no, I'm gonna finish this sentence.
Many fail to embrace people's whole identity and person.
Of course they do.
Of fucking course.
They're sat there going, no, no, no, no, what are you talking about?
Patriarchy, Islamic patriarchy.
There is only a patriarchy in the West where white men are oppressing white women.
Don't be fucking stupid.
Men of colour would never oppress their women.
Hang on, hang on.
Hang on.
Feminists.
I thought we were talking about queer rights and Islam.
I mean, I'm not saying that we are.
I can see that you've well and truly moved the topic onto women's oppression, but I thought we were talking about homosexual rights, which is gender non-specific and something that Islam is probably not too keen on.
I think Islam likes women a lot more than it likes gays, doesn't it?
I mean, I'm no expert, and neither Zandra, apparently, so why don't we consult some?
Here are a few translations of a few verses from the Quran that deal with homosexuality specifically.
Let's just read the first one, Jeremy.
He also sent lut, which is the Arabic way of saying lot for all you Christians.
And he said to his people, do ye commit lewdness, such as no people in creation have ever committed before you.
For ye practice your lusts on men in preference to women.
Ye are indeed a people transgressing beyond bounds.
Okay, that seems kind of cut and dried.
That's a transgression to fuck a man.
And his people gave no answer but this.
They said, drive them out of your city.
These are indeed men who want to be clean and pure.
So fucking men isn't clean and pure according to Islam.
And we rained down on them a shower of brimstone, then see what was the end of those who indulged in sin and crime.
So we can see from the Quranic account of the destruction of Sodom that God wasn't especially forgiving to the homosexuals.
Okay, what about this one?
Of all the creatures in the world, will ye approach males?
And leave those whom Allah has created for you to be your mates.
Nay, ye are people transgressing all limits.
They said, if thou desist not, O Lut, thou wilt assuredly be cast out.
It's not especially tolerant.
What about this?
If two men among you are guilty of lewdness, punish them both.
If they repent and amend, leave them alone.
I don't really know what kind of amendment you can have for having gay sex.
I mean, you can't unfuck someone.
But Allah is oft-returning and most merciful, which that is merciful.
That is.
Of no effect is the repentance of those who continue to do evil until death faces one of them.
And he says, now I have repented indeed, nor of those who die rejecting faith, for we have.
We prepared a punishment most grievous.
Doesn't seem especially progressive to me, but I'm no expert in these matters.
Maybe we should ask someone who knows.
Because the perceptions of Islam and the true values are so different.
There's an enormous gap.
Before I became Muslim, I had the same perceptions as everybody else.
However, when I looked beyond the headlines and the prejudices, I found a religion that makes sense, that is beautiful, that contains the same ethical values as Christianity or Judaism.
Did you know, for example, that Jesus is a prophet of Islam?
Moses, so is Moses and Abraham.
There's a whole chapter on Mary in the Quran.
Prophet Muhammad was a woman's rights champion, a social reformer, an environmentalist.
We don't know all of this.
Absolutely, you're looking puzzled.
We don't know this.
This is just not known.
I think the true values of Islam are the best hidden secret and it's time we pull the veil on it and come out and show the positive values.
When I tell any of these things that I've just mentioned to my producer on television, you know what he says?
My God, Islam needs PR.
Well, she's not wrong.
Islam definitely needs better PR, especially when you get PR like, sick Islamic terrorists push man off building for being gay, then stone lifeless body.
Which seems like a bit of a waste of effort, really, after you've pushed them for building.
But this is the sort of PR Islam is getting when it comes to the gays.
And yeah, I know what you're thinking.
These are extremists.
These are absolutely the sort of people who would stone the lifeless body of a gay man after they've pushed him off a building.
And I agree with you, they are.
I wouldn't want people judging me as a white atheist by the standards of progressive white atheists because then they'd think I was crazy.
Maybe it's worth asking some regular Muslims what they think of homosexuality.
Asking Hina about what she watches on television reveals one strongly held conservative opinion.
Do you watch Big Brother?
Yeah.
Always?
Yeah, fantastic.
And what do you think of the people on this one?
Oh, I don't know.
Shabell's like, oh, I've got him.
You know, he's gay.
And that's nothing.
Obviously, that's not even more religion or nothing.
You see, that's a big problem, isn't it?
Because they say one in ten people are gay in British society.
I mean, what do you say to them?
I personally think, aren't they just lost cause, aren't they?
There's something that's not normal with them because, you know, God created Adam and Eve, not Adam and Steve.
Wait, wait, wait.
That sounds awfully familiar.
One man, one woman, Adam and Eve, not Adam and Steve.
She didn't even need to modify that rhetoric.
But okay, let's ask someone else, because maybe she's just a particularly conservative Muslim.
What I would like to ask Asif is, at the end of the day, you choose to identify yourself as, sorry, excuse me, you identify yourself as gay.
Why do you then choose, because it is a choice, why do you then choose to be a Muslim when it says explicitly within Islam, within Judeo-Christian tradition, that that is prohibited?
It's the choice of men.
I would just like to say that sexual orientation is not a choice.
It's not a choice, actually.
It's a choice for you to be Muslim.
So why would you Muslim?
No, no, no, don't get involved in this.
Why would you choose to be a Muslim?
Why would you choose to be a Muslim?
In the Quran, it says that that is prohibited.
It's the choice.
At the end of the day, you can choose to be a Muslim.
You can't say in the Quran that it's prohibited.
What is prohibited is the act.
I can give you that.
I am not here to talk about that one axe.
Let Arsif speak, please.
Let Arsif speak.
In response to your question.
I am not here to talk about that one act.
What I'm here to talk about is love.
Love between two men, two women.
be okay and accepted to be gay in Islam that is not it's a loaded question but I'm sorry You either be gay or you be Muslim.
Fucking hell.
She seems to know what she's talking about, but how can we be sure, how do we know that this is reflective of Muslims as a community?
I mean, where would we check?
I guess we'd check Muslim communities, wouldn't we?
And I guess we'd check ones in the West because, you know, they're more likely to be progressive.
I would have thought, anyway.
How about this wonderful bit of good news?
Police covered up violent campaign to London Area Islamic.
Police have been accused of covering up a campaign of abuse, threats and violence aimed at Islamicizing an area of London.
Well, that's um, that's brilliant.
And before any of you stormfront twats coming on, oh, it's because they're fucking packies or whatever.
No, it's because they are ideologically driven, which is the entire thrust of what I'm trying to defeat on my channel.
But anyway, let's see how they treated gay people under the Islamic Caliphate of Lundinistan.
So Tower Hamlet's gay community has become the particular target of extremists.
Homophobic crimes in the borough have risen by 80% since 2007-8 and by 21% over the last year, which would have been 2010 to 2011.
A period in which there was a slight drop in London as a whole.
So what then am bucking the trend there?
Last year, a mob of 30 young Muslims stormed a local gay pub, beating and abusing patrons.
Many of the customers of the pub told the Sunday Telegraph that they have been attacked and harassed by local Muslim youths.
Why would they do that if Islam is just so tolerant towards gay people?
Maybe these were racist attacks and they were like, you white devil, get out of our Islamic Caliphate of London.
The thing is, two years later, it's still happening.
London Muslim patrols wanted by police for gay hate attack.
And that's a wonderful picture there.
Islam versus the gays.
Police have issued an appeal after a man was subjected to a stream of homophobic abuse in the street by a Muslim patrol.
I'm getting a bit bothered by these Muslim patrols.
For contravening strict Sharia law.
Don't you know this is a Muslim area?
The victim is asked by a Muslim patrol?
Get out of here.
You're walking through a Muslim area dressed like a fag mate.
You need to get out of here.
It's the most British way to tell someone that they're transgressing Muslim principles.
During the exchange, an accomplice's voice can be heard repeating homosexual, which is the gayest chant I've ever heard.
But okay, joking aside, it does seem that Islam, or at least Muslims, like the article said, is they're not thrilled about the gays.
I mean, they don't seem too partial to them.
The Quran doesn't seem especially partial to them.
Neither do the people following the rules set down in the Quran.
So you know what?
Enough dealing with laymen.
Let's go to the experts.
Here's a website called Islam Question and Answer.
General Supervisors, Sheikh Muhammad Sali Almun Ajid.
So I don't see why these people don't look like a credible source.
So why does Islam forbid lesbianism and homosexuality?
Could you please tell me why homosexuality is a sin in Islam?
I know it's a great sin, but my question is why?
I haven't been able to find the real reason why.
So if you could tell me also what Allah says in the Quran or the Hadith about it, please let me know as soon as possible.
So the answer is they, the gays and lesbians, go both against the natural disposition, fitrah, which Allah has created in mankind, and also in animals, whereby the male is inclined towards the female and vice versa.
Whoever goes against that goes against the natural disposition of mankind, the fitrah.
I can't help but feel that the fact that you have to repeat your answer is kind of a subtle method of indoctrination.
But not only that, it kind of sounds like you're saying if you don't like women, you're not a real man.
They also say that 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.
It also causes the breakup of the family and leads people to give up their work and study because they are preoccupied with these perversions.
Well, now, I have to say, this is where Islam and feminism really kind of diverge from one another.
Because if there's one thing feminism's just fine with, it's the breakup of the family.
Because after all, it was narrated that Ibn Abbas said, the Prophet, peace and blessings of Allah be upon him, said, whoever you find doing the deed in the people of Lut, kill the one who does it and to whom the one it is done.
After all, Allah knows best.
Okay, this seems fairly clear, but I mean, maybe we need to check with actual religious teachers of Islam.
Let's see what we've got.
Dutch court clears anti-gay Imam.
A Dutch court has cleared a Muslim cleric of charges of discrimination after he denounced homosexuality as a contagious disease.
Good grief, I'm surprised they didn't start talking about the gayer gender.
But the important bit here is that the court ruled that the Imam could not be convicted because of his constitutional right to religious freedom.
And apparently, part of the religious ordinance of Islam includes hating gay people.
And that's not me saying that, that's the Dutch courts saying that.
And obviously, gay rights campaigners were disappointed by the ruling.
But you know what?
Who is this guy?
He's just some small-time no-account Imam in the Netherlands.
No one knows who this fucker is.
Let's find, we need someone credible.
That is the issue.
We need credibility.
So I'm going to have a quick look around and see what I can find.
So, I mean, how about this guy, Dr. Zakir Naik of the Islamic Research Foundation?
And this is a fan page for him with 677,000 likes.
So, I mean, he seems to, he would, he looks credible to me.
I'm not an expert on Islamic scholars, but I mean, he looks pretty credible.
He's an Indian public speaker on the subject of Islam and comparative religion.
He founded the president of the Islamic Research Foundation, and he's been doing it for 24 years, so I guess he's pretty experienced.
I mean, just taking a look at the reception, awards, titles, and honours, he's received honours such as the Islamic Personality of 2013, the Distinguished International Personality Award, the Saraja Award for Voluntary Work, the Insignia of the Commander of the National Order of the Republic of the Gambia, the Honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters, and the King Faisal International Prize.
And it is claimed that he is an acknowledged authority on Islam, so he seems credible.
Let's see what he has to say on this.
Okay, that seems fairly cut and dried, doesn't it?
According to Dr. Zakir Naik, homosexuality in the Quran is prohibited completely, and he is a world-renowned expert on the Quran and Islam, and is the president of a non-profit Islamic research foundation.
I guess I'll take his word for it.
The question doesn't really appear in the Quran at least to be, you know, is it okay to be homosexual?
It really seems to be, how is it that that person should be executed for being homosexual?
Some people apparently advocated that they should be burned to death.
Others suggested that they should be thrown from a tall building, followed by stoning, which suddenly explains the Islamic State's execution of the gay man.
And some thought that they should just be stoned to death in the old-fashioned way.
So should a website like gay Muslim dating exist?
On the one hand, you've got Western converts to Islam and progressives in San Francisco who say yes, absolutely, this is totally within the realms of Islam.
And on the other hand, you have almost every natural-born Muslim on earth who's telling you that no, this is absolutely forbidden.
So when at the end of his article, Andrew writes, Islam rejects oppression instead privileging the implicit equality of all mankind, feminism does the same, in this sense, the two unnatural partners.
I have to wonder, what the fuck are you talking about, Andrew?
I just don't see how this relates to reality in any way.
It seems to be that you have got a desperate ideological desire to match up feminism and Islam and they really don't seem to go together.
And it just becomes all the more ridiculous when he says the goals of Islam and feminism are to create cultures of acceptance.
As such, both Muslim and feminist communities can and should embrace each other.
Only then can they each achieve the inclusivity for which they both so actively pursue.
I genuinely worry about your holidays and the advice you're giving out really, Andrew, to people who may travel to the Middle East.
I mean just a quick look at the Wikipedia article for this shows us that today in most of the Islamic world homosexuality is not socially or legally accepted.
In some of these countries, Afghanistan, Brunei, Iran, Mauritania, Nigeria, Saudi Arabia, Sudan and Yemen, homosexual activity carries the death penalty.
And just in others such as Somalia that it's illegal.
I guess we should just be thankful that same-sex intercourse is legal in 22 Muslim-majority nations.
But realistically, man, how really do you think they're going to feel about gay people in that country?
Even if it's not technically illegal, I don't think they're going to be thrilled about it.
But fear not, gay people who desperately want to convert to Islam, I have found a solution.
You can, of course, have a sex change, live as a woman for a couple of years, and then convert to Islam.
Muslim men are apparently not very good at spotting transsexuals, but your local mosque might be a little bit funny about it, and you might have to pray with the men.
I have no idea why.
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