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| Vigil for the Orland shooting victims AP Photo/David Goldman citylab.com |
Today we are going to continue our discussion of the Orlando shooting with a look at the importance of Queer Muslim spaces. The terrible event brought the Muslim Gay and Lesbian people into the spotlight. It sounds like a contradiction, Muslim LGBT people but it is not. Tanvi Misra's recent CityLab article, "The Importance of Queer Muslim Spaces," highlights the complexity and contradictions of being both Muslim and being Gay or Lesbian. Can one be both queer and Muslim? It may seem like a simple yes or no question but if you dig deeper, the answer may not be so clear. No religion has the market on homophobia. What is easier to understand that the toxic mix of gun violence, undiagnosed mental illness, and warped ideology has made it possible for the shooting at Pulse to happen. However, what is like to be both queer and Muslim? We being with the experience of Qais Munhazim, a 31-year-old Ph.D who related his reaction to the Orlando shooting and what it means for him to be both Muslim and a homosexual.
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| Poland Gay Pride Parade afterellen.com |
It was so painful for me to see that this was happening in a community so close to me...This was so close to home...This [was an attack on] the LGBTQ family that I consider my family.
Too upset to go back to bed, he remained awake to follow the developments, silently hoping the perpetrator was Muslim. When it was revealed that the killer was indeed Muslim, Mr. Munhazim began to cry. Ms. Misra writes, "...He knew the incident would now become much messier and painful than it already.."
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| "Safe spaces for Gay Muslim to Pray" theatlantic.com |
The tragic event event placed Mr Munhazim and other American LGBTQ Muslims in the epicenter "...of a clash of civilizations and identities." He told Ms. Misra,
And here I am-a part of the Muslim community and the LGBTQ community...I can't detach myself from either of my identities.
The succeeding days have put these contradictions in the white-hot glare of the spotlight. Can one be a member of both the LGBTQ and Muslim community? Even when LGBTQ Muslims do not feel the two are mutually exclusive, they exist in a space that does feel the opposite. There are very few space they can coexist, be accepted, and whole.
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| The Gold Coast West Hollywood, California yelp.com |
The the LGBTQ population at large, gay bars and nightclubs are places of refuge from the prejudice and violence unfortunately so common in their lives. Richard Kim writes of his first experience in a gay bar, the Crowbar in New York City. He fondly describes it as a place where,
...you'd go to buy drugs. It smelled like mildew, using, cheap vodka, and Designer Imposters body spray... (http://www.thenation.org)
The Crowbar eventually fell victim to gentrification but for Mr. Kim,
...Gay bars are like therapy for people who can't afford therapy; temples for people who lost their religion, or whose religion lost them; vacations for people who can't go on vacation; homes for folk without families; sancuarties against aggression... (Ibid)
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| Muslim women at prayer theatlantic.com |
Consider the experience of Ify Okoye, a nurse from Baltimore, Maryland shared her experience as black, queer, hijab. The headscarf she wears means there is no hiding her religious devotion anywhere, including LGBT spaces. Ms. Okoye told Tanvi Misra,
For Muslims who outwardly present as being Muslim, it's a little awkward...We're visibly different in that space.
Yet, in strictly religious settings, i.e. Mosques, one seldom sees outward signs of queerness. Ms. Misra writes, "When Munhazim cam out about his sexual orientation, for example, he was told to leave the Minneapolis mosque he attended." Qais Munhazim relates,
Somebody who was there knew that I was out...he told me to leave because I am making the space impure and I'm bringing sin to a scared space.
He recently attempted to return to the Mosque but his greetings went unreturned and people averted their eyes. Mr. Munhazim recalls,
It was so sad because I went to the mosque not feel alone, but I was actually more lonely there.
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| Poster for the 2016 LGBTQ Muslim Retreat issuu.com |
One place nearly every queer Muslim person Tanvi Misra spoke to mentioned the annual LGBTQ Muslim Retreat (http://www.lgbtmuslimretreat.org). This year, the treat was held over Memorial Day weekend in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and brought together a diverse group of over 100 people who shared about their experiences with Islam. Ms. Okoye told Ms. Misra, In other spaces
...we're always having to justify, we're always on the defensive. It's almost like you have to put on your armor to do battle...But at this retreat, there's no hiding, explaining, or justifying who you are.
Qais Munhazim added,
I wait impatiently for those three days to feel alive.
Yasmin Ahmed, the co-founder of the Muslim Alliance for Sexual and Gender Diversity (http://www.muslimalliance.org), the organization behind the retreat, continued,
While transformative for many, the retreat as a concept and practice is not new...The LGBTQ Muslim community has a long legacy of organizing and building community both in and outside the U.S.-of creating the spaces and sanctuaries that the current systems don't provide us.
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| Iftar k4pblog.org |
To be able to say, 'Actually, we exist. We are not a contradiction'...If we contradict your narrative, there's something wrong with your narrative, not us.
The shooting in Orlando changed all that, "...no indoor or outdoor 'third space' seemed safe. thus, it becomes more urgent to make a space for LGBTQ Muslims, who are overburdened with Islamophobia, racism, homophobia, and transphobia, leaving them vulnerable to violent attacks on all fronts. Bilal Qureshi put it best in his June 13, 2016 opinion piece for the New York Times:
...What I do know is that there will be more dark days to come if we don't build the psychological, political and spiritual space within out communities to embrace the remixes that possible only in this country. (http://www.nytimes.com)
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