Comments on: Eye on Backbiting Muslims

By: Daniel

Daniel — Tue, 05 Jun 2007 05:42:34 +0000

Any bits on the gender of the writers? That’s a real hard one. When I studied at SOAS Muslim women picked the story of Aisha / Mohammad which can be read from a strong pro woman point. Would love to read a reminder on your blog, if you have time. Cross posted you. D.

By: Obaid

Obaid — Tue, 27 Mar 2007 09:15:38 +0000

Wats the world coming to… Now considering myself to be the BROADMINDED muslim that i am, there are somethings that are black, some that are white.

By: sonia

sonia — Mon, 26 Mar 2007 10:37:25 +0000

SSA is a term they seem to have appropriated - that they prefer to ‘gay’ or ‘homosexual’ i think..it stands for Same Sex Attraction. Best go see what they say about the significance of using that terminology.

RL = real life!

By: Fugstar

Fugstar — Fri, 23 Mar 2007 12:14:47 +0000

SSA, RL? I dont understand what they mean…

I think there’s always a bit of a mistake generally made in western based disco like this, that its the ‘moderns’ who have the sexuality political correctness right in the first place.

Whether its the muslims of asia or the christians of africa, there is established opinion on this that hold a lot more sway than the political correctness in the west gives credit to.

Id like to see more stuff on the theme of advice for Muslimimams, parents and friends, who care and beleive in their scriptures to deal with such scenarios with wisdom.

By: Suroor

Suroor — Fri, 23 Mar 2007 05:29:00 +0000

Ooo! This was sad!

By: sonia

sonia — Thu, 22 Mar 2007 15:29:40 +0000

it wasn’t about them being men, it isn’t really even about their views - but the way they have written about individuals whose sexuality they disapprove of, and whose religious and moral justification of that sexuality they disagree with. we’re all entitled to our views. if this guy rashed wants to be an abstaining SSA person - good for him! if he lost his RL job tomorrow I don’t think i’d be gloating. It’s the religious views i.e. disapproval permeating so much into our psyches that we lose common human empathy. That’s just depressing, that is.

By: Fugstar

Fugstar — Mon, 19 Mar 2007 18:25:46 +0000

i suppose an aggregated blog on gay muslims is a step towards understanding the phenomena…

A platform to ask questions and seek an autonomous understanding, rather than the one thats manufactured and dished out on a plate for us to consume.

sonia, would it make much difference if that blog was made by women of the same opinion?

By: sonia

sonia — Thu, 01 Mar 2007 12:25:31 +0000

and the other thing that is interesting re: which end of the ‘bipolar’ criticism you end up receiving: where you are perceived to be and the influence that is perceived to have on you. if you’re in the ‘West’ somewhere everyone thinks oooh la la its only cos you’re there you’re saying ‘it’. Well one aspect of that might be true - i.e you might physically be able to say something without fear of retribution or social ostracization -to some extent. But that’s not always the case. Personally I found it was much easier and acceptable to be critical of ‘religious dogma’ and critique of religion in general - growing up in Kuwait . My peer groups generally got where I was coming from, even if they themselves might be more comfortable with following tenets of religion. In part, that’s obviously due to not having to worry about being ‘defensive’ of their religion in front of ‘the Other’ so much - when you’re in a majority Muslim place, the ‘minority being demonised’ issue doesn’t obviously come up - but rather a questioning of dominant power. Of course the other interesting aspect of being in Kuwait was sitting right next to Saudi Arabia one was fully aware of ‘how lucky one was to have what freedoms one did have’ . Especially obviously if you were female, and people could empathasize why feminists in particular had issues with religious dogma supported by patriarchal establishments.

By: sonia

sonia — Thu, 01 Mar 2007 11:17:02 +0000

I’ve updated the links - in my impatience to link to the Eye on Gay Muslims crew i linked inadvertently to their post on Ayaan Hirsi Ali ( which could be the focus of a whole different post) but wasn’t what I was trying to link to in my post here - it was about Dr. Ghazala Anwar.

By: sonia

sonia — Thu, 01 Mar 2007 11:15:44 +0000

The really big problem is of course if you happen to have grown up as a Muslim and then have questions on what is being ‘fed to you’ - {which in itself - to my mind, is not very mindful of the ‘no compulsion in religion’} you can’t ask them very openly, or express the difficulties you are having. Oh no! Thou shall not Question! says the family, say the neighbours, say the Establishment. But sorry that’s rubbish, if there was anything valuable within Islam - it was the edict to think for yourself, use your brain, and not follow things blindly - e.g. not following the ways of your ‘fathers’ [patriarchy noted] blindly. Seems to me if you’re going to try and follow that with some insight, you’re going to come up against people who prefer the status quo. It’s every individual’s right to think for themselves - and if people really think their religion, say Islam, is against that, well that’s their problem.