The following is an extract published by Canada’s National Post on January 3, 2010. Click on the link below to read the article in full.
Junaid Bin Jahangir was such a devout Muslim that when he arrived in Canada he ate only yogurt for two days until he was sure which food followed halal dietary rules.
The university student prayed five times a day, and joined a local mosque.
Then one day, at age 27, he started to wonder why he had never been with a girl. "Why don't I like women that way?" he asked, and it led him to a counselling office, where he sat, sobbing, with the realization that he was gay -- a pariah to his community.
Mainstream Islamic leaders say gay men should be shunned and some around the world are killed each year.
Mr. Jahangir's world imploded; work on his PhD ground to a halt.
But out of that despair, Mr. Jahangir began to work on another project: Understanding the teachings of Islam on homosexuality. From his office at the University of Alberta, he contacted experts, read everything he could on the subject and studied the scriptures intensely for two years, rebuilding his own identity in the process. His work is starting to be recognized internationally.
Now he argues Muslims misinterpret the Qur'an if they consider the ban on homosexuality to be as firm as bans on alcohol or pork. The common story from which most Muslims draw their teaching is about violent homosexual rape, he says, and it's time to rethink the possibility of consensual, supportive relationships.
Although his PhD in economics is still incomplete, Mr. Jahangir was asked to contribute a chapter to a new anthology on homosexuality compiled by a noted Australian academic. The book, Islam and Homosexuality, edited by Samar Habib and published by Praeger Publishers, appeared recently in bookstores.
But he remains fearful of talking about the subject. He doesn't want his face shown in photographs, and when he agreed to do a presentation at the University of Alberta in the run-up to the book launch, organizers asked campus security and a local newspaper to attend in case someone wanted to cause trouble.
The meeting went well, and it appeared that some Muslim students attended, judging by the half-dozen head scarves among the crowd. But he still complains no Imams or professors with the university Islamic Studies department will speak with him or about the topic. The silence is so deep it's frustrating, he says.
"The apathy is unbelievable. How many more marriages do we want to fail as we pretend this doesn't exist?
"Gay youth are committing suicide," he says. "The 13- or 14-year-old girls, they are the ones who need this. [If they believe they are lesbian], what do they do? Get married and follow through the motions? What joy do they have in their lives?
"Let's at least talk about the issue because it affects us all."
Mr. Jahangir wrote his views in an opinion piece (Hope exists for LGBT Muslims) published in the Gateway, the University of Alberta student newspaper.
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Reader's Comments
Nor is there any evidence that tolerance of homosexuality would lead to extinction of human race. In fact, Japan, for example, enjoyed one of the fastest growths in the world of population, economy, creativity and technology despite its gay-tolerant tradition. Greece even went a step further by promoting homosexual relationships. Have the Japanese and the Greeks become extinct? Both countries had turned out to be respective leaders of the East and the West. Japan had become the leader of the East in innovation, technology and economic development. Greece had become the leader of Western philosophy. Even today Westerners still regard the classics of Greek philosophers highly. So, even for Singapore which is concerned about the low birth rate, tolerance of homosexuals should not and never be seen as a peril.
It is a shame that so many zealots have bastardized religion. Shooting abortion doctors, all this killing in the name of religion. It is sad. I know the difference between right and wrong I don't need a book of fables written over 2,000 years ago to tell me.
Save your HOLIER than THOU attitude. AND silence the mouth if fair words stick to your tongue and choke thy throat.
Only God can judge.
But who knows the judgement of the God?
Don't use God as a tool put your own judgement on others!
Let's be frank. This is more about the religion that the issue of homosexuality. And if people were Muslim enough they'd understand that God destroyed Lot's tribe.
God did not ask people to murder, alienate, shun or even castrate them.
Plus, Lot's tribe was not gay. They were bi. *snicker*
And the modern religious scholars, are just pseudo-prophets thinking they are the holy bunch, has the right to tell people what can do and what shouldn't do. And without deep questioning and searching spirit, most follow. :/
Plus, $80 translates to about MYR320 without shipping costs, so good luck getting a Malaysian to spend that much on a book.
In addition to that, there's of course the Home Ministry banning the book,the postal workers taking it for themselves and canvassing it as contraband, etc.
Regardless, Junaid Bin Jahangir is a pioneer and deserves our esteem and attention. Islam and homosexuality are not polar opposites that cannot coexist.
Make the right decision and avoid hurting others along the way. God is Almighty, God is Great and I am sure He understands and will accept the truth as long as you are honest with yourself.
However, I cannot help but notice that Mr Jahangir's indignation at the apparent insensitivity within Muslim societies is quite hypocritical.
"The apathy is unbelievable. How many more marriages do we want to fail as we pretend this doesn't exist?...Gay youth are committing suicide... The 13- or 14-year-old girls, they are the ones who need this."
Until Mr Jahangir's sexual orientation became clear to him, it would seem that he had conveniently turned a blind eye to the mental health of gay youngsters and the predicament of young lesbians.
No Mr Jahangir, do not fool yourself. Young homosexual Muslim persons would certainly benefit from more leniency in the Qu'ran's interpretation of homosexuality, if you achieved that much. But you're doing this first and foremost for yourself.
- Sex outside marriage is prohibited as mention in Quran, and which is punishable to death. Then, in terms of marriage, Quran have only mentioned about the marriage between a male and a female but never about same sex marriage. So, how can he justify his points, by saying that peoples have miss-interpreted the Quran, when no where in Quran did mentioned that it is ok to be gay. So, how two men can have a legal intercourse when they can't get married?
So, what I think is, if you are gay, so you are gay. You don't have to messing up more by manipulating facts in Quran just to suit ur life situation. So, just live with it, that's what you are, do whatever u think is right as long as you don't harm others.
Sorry, Im not trying to be an asshole here, but just trying to share a different angle of thoughts.
So, this is a real life situation (the head of security had me arrested and charged with threatening the guard).
Commentators above make the distinction about non-consensual sex. I haven't read the Quran, but I think it's also a mistake made in the west too.
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