You know you asked me a question here in one of your comments. (whether gay muslims in EU can have a effect in the bled)

And since I love procastrination, it took me till today to answer your question ;)

I once found an article about moslim women authors and the way their books are seen in the west and send it to her asking for her opinion and she kindly read it and gave me a feed back.

I like what she writes and the way she thinks very much, plus she seems to be a very nice person :)

The post Adel linked to also contains a link to this interesting article in Tel Quel about homosexuality in Morocco, which includes several interviews. For those who are interested and can read French, bien entendu.

Najia did it

You mention the treatment of homosexuals in Egypt. The New York Times had an excellent article a few weeks ago on the rounding up and torture of gays by police in one Egyptian town. Unfortunately the piece is only available to subscribers of the Times, but I quoted part of it here. It is a tragic story. More than that, as I point out in my post, the real story is the sick, sadistic individuals who inhabit the Egyptian police. Cowards in uniform. I think we all know there are many more examples of violence by the Egyptian police, having nothing to do with “gay rights” but rather, human rights, revealed by courageous bloggers who put videos of police brutality on their blogs for all the world to see.

@Ibn Kafka — “… from what I know only major sins, like shirk and ridda’, exclude the person in question from the fold of islam [and homosexuality not].” It would be interesting if we could get a religious ruling on this—is homosexuality on the same level as adultery as Adel claims, to be seen as “sex outside of marriage” and nothing more, perhaps in some contexts even to be praised and laughed off as the sign of a healthy appetite?—or do we believe Hashmat whom I quote in the main post—that even to tolerate homosexuality means one is no longer Muslim? Islam wants the modern world to see it as the religion of tolerance, can it live up to that? And how to reconcile a tolerant image with the hadith I’ve been told about, that says “kill them wherever you find them” for gays, or words to that effect?

About the influence of Catholicism, coming from that tradition myself, I would say that it has the weirdest ideas of human sexuality of any religion! Islam has no “original sin” and never treats sexuality as shameful in itself, but Catholicism often does.

@Adel — Does someone want to take a stab at summarizing this article in English (assuming it adds to the debate)?

@Yahia — I don’t care if it’s on topic, I like it! “Have a religion, but don’t believe in priests.” I always thought that religion would cause fewer problems here on earth, if we each remember that our belief and what to do about it is between us and God (so we mustn’t judge others).

@Kenza, Massir, BO18 — When I returned from Morocco, my mother had Irshad Manji’s book on her reading table. (She goes through 3-4 books a week, and she is fascinated by views of Islam, both positive and critical.) Tonight is the first I’ve learned that Manji is a lesbian, which may explain some of her animus to Islam (as BO18 said in his first comment) “rooted in a kind of vengeance.” I haven’t read the book myself, but I worry that it may play into the hands of neo-conservatives who love to talk about “Islamofascism” and see Islam as intolerant. Moroccan author Laila Lalami raised similar points in an article in The Nation where she reviews Manji’s book and a book by another female critic of Islam, Hirsi Ali. Lalami’s article is worth reading for her perspective on Muslim women caught between Islamic extremists on the one hand, and intemperate Western critics on the other. For a view of what Islam can be in modern times, I much prefer the book by Reza Aslan, No god but God. An Iranian raised in the U.S., Aslan is an excellent champion of a progressive Islam that can thrive on the free flow of ideas.

One of the reasons I no longer go to Mass!

Your english is perfect, no worries. ( if your teacher says otherwise, just slap him/her)

About Irshad Manji. One of the most interesting voices in this field ( reform of islam)
She can be, as you said, very prejudiced when it comes to Israel vs. Arab world.
But every person has his or her flaws. And I regard this as one of her flaws.
But the other things she says do appeal to me.

I’m impressed that she’s one of the few critics who actually try to talk to the masses instead of to fellow critics.
Unfortunately she doesn’t really elaborate on homosexuality in most of her writings.
But when she speaks at a forum or whatever, homosexuality is one of the main subjects. Mainly because of her critics who try to pin her down on just that.
So if you ever have the chance to see her speak, go!

I would like to thank you very much.

Tonight, it was my midterm oral evaluation. I had 95%. You helped me.

1/ As I often read your blog, I practise my english.

2/ We had to choose a subjet, and discuss it for 15 minutes. Guess what? I talked about your blog, and of course about this note. The teacher found it veru interesting.

Biiiiiiiiiiiiig Kissssssssssses.

@ Kenza:
I read this book last summer. I didn’t like it.
The beginning of the book was interesting. Then, she began to talk about israel. You know me, i have nothing against Israel, and many of my friends are jewish, and even some of them are israeli. But, she was only saying every thing is very good in Israel, and every thing is bad with muslims. She had no arguments. I was really disappointed with that book.
She didn’t write anything about homosexuality (as I remember).

(I’m only level 10 in english, so please excuse all my mistakes!).

“Il faut avoir une religion, et ne pas croire aux prêtres; comme il faut avoir du régime, et ne pas croire aux médecins.”
Voltaire