Monday, June 25, 2012

Homosexuality in Islam - part 2: Muslim and Gay


No doubt many Muslims will argue, after reading my previous post, that gays' unnatural inclination is a fault of the society in which the find themselves, and that it is simply the misfortune of their not being brought up in a society governed by the dictates of Sharia that has led to their “unnatural” desires. My Muslim friend certainly does.
This “peccatum contra naturam” argument has been used, of course, by all the monotheistic religions to stigmatise gays and lesbians over the centuries. It has no scientific justification. Scientific study after scientific study has shown that homosexual behaviour is widespread in nature. It is not “unnatural”, but a totally normal part of life. In fact, “no species has been found in which homosexual behaviour has not been shown to exist, with the exception of species that never have sex at all, such as sea urchins and aphis.” ("1,500 Animal Species Practice Homosexuality". News-medical.net. 2006-10-23. http://www.news-medical.net/?id=20718.) I am happy to provide many more references to these studies, should Muslim readers desire, but this book should suffice for the timebeing: Bruce Bagemihl,Biological Exuberance: Animal Homosexuality and Natural Diversity, St. Martin's Press, 1999; ISBN 0312192398
To argue, therefore, that it is societal influence that creates an atmosphere where homosexual behaviour is allowed to become widespread is unsustainable. People do not choose to be gay. Unhappy adolescents do not choose to be the way they are. They don’t enjoy the jibes at school.  Sin against nature is the bigoted and ignorant propaganda used by those who follow the teachings of Islam (and those of the more extreme Christian and Jewish fundamentalists) to justify and explain the various vicious ahadith and relevant qu’ranic  (and biblical) verses.  Many gay adolescents commit suicide when they are rejected by their families (again, I ask my readers to ask for studies if they require).  (Although, of course, Islam's creed of predestination would allow the parents to say that that was their time to die anyway...) Islam doesn’t help or cure these individuals. They would be gay wherever they lived. They would simply have to deny their true nature with all the concomitant psychological problems that that entails. They would, quite simply, be more likely to be suicidal in a religious society which denigrates and despises them. Neither is the argument that if we all turned gay “there would be no more children” a reason for denying those who are their basic rights (yes- the right to a sex life is a right) since such a suggestion is plainly ludicrous
If a greedy, hypocritical, sex-obsessed, ruthless, anti-Semitic, homophobic war lord genuinely thought God wanted us to reject some of our fellow men and women for the simple fact that they were born with sexual inclinations different from the majority, then we should perhaps feel sorry for him – the fact that a billion or more people should choose to worship his God, however, should make any right thinking person weep with despair.

11 comments:

  1. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  2. Anthropologist is needed here..i dont mind about whether it is natural or not....i want beneficial and consequences to be well explained about matter of socialization and humanities

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    1. No sure I understand your point, Anon.
      Surely if the argument used by homphobes that gay sex is "unnatural" is proved to be false then this is entirely relevant.
      Why should gays need to prove the benefits of their actions? In any case, I'd have thought the benefit of allowing two consenting adults to enjoy a sex life is obvious. If one denies such release to people then one needs only look towards the Catholic church and the appalling scandal of priests abusing children to see the consequences.

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    2. i want to have broader view from experts (anthropologist)..regarding wheather gay will be affected our civilization of society or not...i am not disagree with you...but if you can do so..that will be wonderful...

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  3. Lots of things are "natural" - that doesn't make them good, moral or something we should allow in a decent society.
    It may be "natural" to kill the offspring of a rival - as we see in nature all the time - are you suggesting we should allow that because it is natural?
    Isbit

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    1. Hi Isbit,
      No, but if an action hurts no one and, on the contrary,gives pleasure to the participants and brings them together in a loving union, what justification is there (other than blindly following the dictates of a 1,400 year old book)for outlawing it and hounding those who practice it?

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    2. we dont blindly follow Quran it is a word of god and we accept everything it and all those were only for the good for the human race. Islam does not force anybody to follow it, if you dont believe dont follow and dont intrept those who follow it
      TO YOU BE YOUR WAY AND TO ME MINE [Quran 109:6]

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  4. at 1st,,i was rejecting weed because they just simply publish in the newspaper that those thing is natural...that is..no other clue at all..then i watch a doc. about many good thing coming from that plant..especially in medical field..so now...i will advocate for legalize marijuana...yeah...

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    1. who knows maybe one day,,,i will change my mind about gay,,,that they should be respected...just like how i misjudge the marijuana...that is my point

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  5. This is one of those areas where science can do some richly deserved damage to religion. If it can be proved that they have no choice in being gay it won't look good for the Abrahamic god, and perhaps make life easier for gay people.

    Martin

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  6. We all know: there is no Sharia society without gay men. Apart from homosexuality we find a lot of other “unnatural desires" in a non Sharia-Society
    like the use of penicillin if somebody gets ill (instead of accepting Allah´s graceful will to influence the outcome of the disease) and scores of other examples. Why do Muslims not trust in Allah more than in Penicillin as a classical product of infidels?
    You can kill homosexuals but you can not kill homosexuality: many tried, all failed.
    I do not have to be a prophet to know:
    Homosexuality existed long before Islam and it still will exist long after Islam disappeared.

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