Gay Muslims made homeless by family violence

•August 10, 2010 • Leave a Comment BBC Website Feature by Poonam Taneja / 11 January 2010BBC Website Feature by Poonam Taneja / 11 January 2010 I think I’d be vulnerable if people knew about me – I’ve heard a lot of remarks in the past about people saying that gay people should die for religious reasons. Ali. East london. ________________________________________________________ A UK charity is dealing with an increasing number of young gay Muslims becoming homeless after fleeing forced marriages and so-called honour violence. During a weekly drop-in group held by the Albert Kennedy Trust in London, Suni, a 20-year-old London student, helps himself to a warm mince pie and a steaming cup of coffee.In 2008, during a holiday to Pakistan to visit relatives, his parents suspected the truth about his sexuality. They believed marriage would “cure” him of what they considered to be a psychological disorder. Name ‘blackened’ “They told me I’m going to be forced into marriage and they’re looking for a girl and I’ll be married in two to three months and I won’t be able to come back to London,” Suni said. When he refused, he was imprisoned in his family’s ancestral home in a remote village of Pakistan and subjected to regular beatings and abuse as he had brought “shame” on the strict Muslim family. “I stayed there for three months and he was always beating me. He was telling me I had blackened our family name and he was saying it’s a sin. I know it was just for honour.” Suni managed to escape and return to the UK, penniless and homeless. Relatives and friends were reluctant to help him due to fear of violent reprisals from his family. After a night spent in a police cell, he was put in touch with the trust, which helped find him safe accommodation. ‘Gay demons’ Trust worker Annie Southerst said in the past six months there has been an increase in the number of Muslims coming to them for help. ”They face threats of physical violence, actual violence and restriction of liberties,” she said. ”We’ve had people chased out of the house with knives and we have had issues around young people who had exorcisms planned to get rid of the gay demons, I suppose. “They come to us because they’re homeless, or in danger of being homeless imminently. We sort out emergency accommodation for them. ”But the biggest loss they face is the loss of their families. ”I can’t imagine what it must be like to suddenly in your late teens, early 20s suddenly not to have a family anymore.” Using laws introduced by the government in November 2008, the charity has taken out four Forced Marriage Protection orders in the past few months. The orders were introduced after ministers dropped plans to make forcing someone to marry a crime. More than 80 have been imposed so far. Breaching one is contempt of court and can carry a two-year jail term. Fazal Mahmood runs a support group for South Asian and Middle Eastern gay men, called Himat, which means strength in Urdu. ”I’ve got about 150 people on my mail out list. “About 80%… have been coerced into marriage or been forced into marriage or are being forced into marriage,” he said. Mr Mahmood says homosexuality is considered a taboo issue within close-knit Muslim communities in areas such as London, Bradford and Manchester. “I’m proud to be a Muslim, I’m proud to be South Asian, Pakistani and I’m proud to be gay as well. “Unfortunately a lot of parents don’t see that. All they see is ‘what is my community going to feel like when they find out my son or daughter is gay?’.” Keeping quiet In fact he advises young gay Muslims not to come out to their families. ”Once you’ve told your family and friends about your sexuality, the next unfortunate step for your family to do is ask you to leave.” Ali, 21, lives in east London with his large Bangladeshi family, and has decided to keep his sexuality a secret. ”When they do find out, they’re basically going to go against it. ”My relationship with them is not going to be the same, the respect they have for me is going to be different and I’m going to miss that relationship,” he said. He is also worried about the repercussions within the local community if they discover he is gay. “You see people being killed for being gay and stuff. I think I’d be vulnerable if people knew about me.”I’ve heard a lot of remarks in the past about people saying that gay people should die for religious reasons.” Police protection A special government unit tackles the issue of forced marriages. Every year it deals with around 1,600 cases of forced marriage. Three-quarters of all calls are from people of South Asian origin. Department head Olaf Henricson-Bell said gay and lesbian youngsters were particularly vulnerable. ”A few weeks ago, an individual got in touch with the unit to say he’d been taken to Pakistan, forced to marry against his will, brought back to the UK then denounced by both his new wife and his family for his sexuality. “He’d been subject to physical and other abuse. When he rang us he was scared to leave the home and we had to secure police protection.”Forced marriage by its nature is an underground practice and the cases often go unreported. ”The individuals involved may be reluctant to mention sexuality when they ring us or when they bring their case to the attention of the authorities,” he said. The unit plans to work with the trust to produce a training programme for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender organisations working with young people at risk of being forced into marriage. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/8446458.stm Posted in BBC News Tags: BBC, Britain’s Islamic Republic, Coming Out, forced marriages, gay muslims, honour violence, LGBT, Pakistan, shame, strict muslim family Iran set to execute 18-year-old on false charge of sodomy •August 7, 2010 • Leave a Comment An 18-year-old Iranian is facing imminent execution on charges of homosexuality, even though he has no legal representation. Ebrahim Hamidi, who is not gay, was sentenced to death for lavat, or sodomy, on the basis of “judge’s knowledge”, a legal loophole that allows for subjective judicial rulings where there is no conclusive evidence. Hamidi had been represented by human rights lawyer Mohammad Mostafaei, who has since been forced to flee Iran after bringing to international attention the case of another of his clients, Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani, a 43-year-old Iranian mother of two who has been sentenced to death by stoning for adultery. Mostafaei was due to arrive in Norway yesterday to begin a life in exile while continuing his campaigns on behalf of his clients, including Hamidi. At the same time, human rights activist Peter Tatchell has written to the foreign secretary, William Hague, urging him to contact the chief justice of Iran and ask that the execution be halted. “Ebrahim’s case is evidence that innocent heterosexual people can be sentenced to death on false charges of homosexuality [in Iran],” said Tatchell, co-founder of the London-based gay rights group OutRage. Hamidi was arrested two years ago in the suburbs of the western city of Tabriz in the East Azerbaijan province after a fight with members of another family. Three of his friends were also involved in the incident and were subsequently arrested. Later, the four were accused of homosexual assault on a man and of attempting to abuse him sexually. A person convicted of homosexuality in Iran can be lashed, hanged or stoned to death. The law includes a variety of penalties for different acts: 99 lashes if two unrelated males sleep “unnecessarily” under the same blanket – even without any sexual contact. A boy raped by an adult man would also be lashed if the court decided that he had “enjoyed” the experience. After three days in detention, Hamidi confessed to the crime, allegedly under torture. The other three were cleared of all charges when promised by officials that they would be freed if they testified against Hamidi. However, last month Hamidi’s alleged victim admitted that he had been under pressure from his parents to make false accusations. Nevertheless the local judiciary has insisted that Hamidi should be executed. Mostafaei initially wrote an open letter about Hamidi’s case to highlight the execution of juvenile offenders. But two weeks ago Mostafaei’s wife, Fereshteh Halimi, was arrested and had been kept in solitary confinement in Tehran’s notorious Evin prison without charge until late last night, when the Observer understood that she was released. Mostafaei fled to Turkey, where he was promptly arrested for entering the country illegally. On Friday, however, the Turkish authorities released him after EU diplomats intervened on his behalf. As he left, Mostafaei had repeated his fears for his wife’s safety. “They’ve taken her in as a hostage; it’s kidnapping,” he told the Observer. “Just look at what is happening to my wife and realise the flaws and failings of the Iranian legal system, especially towards Ebrahim Hamidi and Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani, who are awaiting execution on basis of false accusations,” he added. Mostafaei, whose office in Tehran is now sealed off, is credited with saving at least 50 people from execution during his career, among them many juvenile offenders. A recent client, Ali Mahin-Torabi, 21, was released in July after Mostafaei’s efforts commuted his death sentence. With Mostafaei exiled, activists are worried for Hamidi. “It’s shocking that although Hamidi’s accuser admitted in a recorded testimony that he had lied, he is still facing execution,” Mostafaei said. http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/aug/08/iran-mohammad-mostafaei-rights-lawyer Posted in News Reports Tags: Ebrahim Hamidi, IRAN, Mohammad Mostafaei, OutRage, Peter Tatchell What’s it like being a gay Muslim? •August 7, 2010 • Leave a Comment * by Homa Khaleeli * The Guardian, Wednesday 29 July 2009 EastEnders’ current romantic storyline featuring a gay Muslim character has caused a stir. But what is it really like to be gay within Britain’s Muslim communities? Pav Akhtar is not usually a fan of soaps. But the 30-year-old local councillor and Unison worker has been paying special attention since EastEnders introduced its first gay Muslim character. Akhtar, the chair of Imaan, an organisation for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender Muslims, advised the BBC on the storyline in the hope that the character of Syed Masood would help tackle the double discrimination of homophobia and Islamophobia that many gay Muslims face. The Muslim theologian Amanullah De Sondy said recently that the vast majority of Muslims were “deeply homophobic”, and a survey carried out this summer among British Muslims reported that 0% of those questioned thought homosexuality was “morally acceptable”. Yet, so far, the taboo-busting EastEnders storyline has not sparked the expected deluge of complaints – in fact, the soap’s first gay Muslim kiss attracted a healthy 7.9 million viewers. But what is it like being gay and Muslim in the UK today? Javaid, 34 It’s good that a soap opera is tackling this. The EastEnders storyline may cause a bit of outrage, but anything that gets people talking can only be a good thing. I don’t think we should sweep everything under the carpet – people should be challenged. My family are liberal Muslims and I think coming out to them has been no different than if I was Jewish or Christian. But although I am out to my immediate family, I’m not out to my community, so I don’t want to identify myself fully. I couldn’t reconcile my sexuality with their teachings, and so I lost my faith. I was religious up to my mid-teens, but once I started to understand my sexuality, I became confused. My understanding was that in Islam homosexuality was seen in the same way as adultery. That sends a message that being gay is something to be ashamed of and not socially acceptable. It was really upsetting and I would pray to Allah to turn me straight. At that point, if I could have done anything to make myself straight I would have done. When my parents found out, my father did not really understand. But he tried hard to learn. The debate about lowering the age of consent was going on at the time, and he would cut out articles and videotape TV programmes to show me when I came home. He even went to a gay bookshop and bought a book about being the parent of a gay son. It really meant a lot to me. My mum was very different. She is a practising Muslim and has been to hajj twice. She cried for about three days when I told her. That was 15 years ago and I still can’t talk to her openly about it. I want to, but I can’t do it yet. Farzana Fiaz, 37 Journalist I don’t know about this report that said 0% of British Muslims believed being gay was acceptable. That has not been my experience or the experience of my friends. But I think Muslims do find the concept of having an identity based around sexuality an alien concept. I’m out to all of my friends and most people who know me, but despite being chair of an organisation for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender Muslims, I have never identified myself in interviews before because I have tried to be respectful of my family’s religious and cultural sensibilities. But recently I was outed by a relative to family members both in the UK and in Pakistan. Now I realise I don’t want to give anyone that kind of power over me again. I was brought up with a narrow interpretation of Islam from a traditional, working-class Pakistani perspective and believed, like everyone else, that being gay was wrong. I suppose this is still the dominant Muslim interpretation, but it’s not the only one. It was a very difficult time when I realised I was mostly gay in my early 20s; that it wasn’t just a passing phase. I had something of a nervous breakdown: I couldn’t stop crying for days, I had nightmares, I couldn’t sleep alone, I thought I was going to hell for feeling the way I did. I didn’t know any gay Muslims, or gay Asians even, so I couldn’t discuss the religious side with anyone. Eventually I saw a meeting advertised in the Pink Paper looking for gay Muslims for a support group. Through Imaan, I listened to scholars and open-minded imams, and discovered that, like many things in the Qu’ran, there can be different interpretations about homosexuality. When an Arabic paper picked up the story of our first conference, an extremist group issued a fatwa against us. The police sent 40 riot officers to protect us. After 9/11, we experienced Islamophobia including from within the gay community – at Gay Pride, some of the crowd heckled us, and even a Pride steward referred to us as terrorists. True, most of the threats we had at Imaan came from Muslims, but they were also more generally from men. I started telling my mum I was gay about 10 years ago. It took her about 10 years to accept and I’d have to reiterate it when the issue of marriage came up. When I told her the truth, she told me to pray and ask God to forgive me, but she would never disown me. Now she says maybe I know more about it – she left school at 16 in Pakistan, while I studied Arabic at university and researched the subject a lot, so she does take my opinion seriously. Ibrahim, 40s Charity worker I think things are getting worse for gay Muslims because of the more extreme interpretations of Islam around today. The Muslim community is more homophobic – at least towards those who are out and comfortable. People have become brainwashed and no longer want to think about the true meaning of Islam. I’ve seen Muslim men sent to the US for electric shock treatment to “cure” them of their homosexuality; I know of gay men who have been murdered in “honour killings” – in fact, the police often contact our sexual health organisation if there is an unexplained death of a young Muslim man to check if he is on our database. I have even heard parents tell their children they would rather they were suicide bombers than gay. Because of this attitude there are lots of men who outwardly lead an Islamic lifestyle, who are married and go to prayers on a Friday, but then go and pick up men for sex. They don’t see that they’re gay . I’ve worked with rabbis and imams and the one thing they agree on is that gay men should either marry women or abstain. But abstinence is not an option to most human beings and I always ask, “Would you marry your daughter to someone you knew was gay? Do you think they would be happy with him?” The nikah (Islamic marriage service) is not gender-specific, so why not just let gay Muslim men marry each other? Many Muslims think gay culture is about promiscuous sex, drugs and drinking. But being a gay Muslim can mean committing to one relationship. If gay Muslims marry each other, it would discourage double lives and promiscuity. The imams I have said this to agree with me, but say they can’t say that in public. My family know I’m gay; we don’t talk about it, but they have always known – probably before I did. My mother told me to be myself. But I was bullied very badly at school. It was continuous – homophobic and racist – and it stopped me completing my education. I used to pray to Allah to ask him to make me straight; I even visited the shrines of Sufi saints. Then I spoke to scholars, imams and academics and I learned that there’s no word for homosexuality in the Qur’an, but it does teach you to respect the diversity in the world and be honest – which is what I am doing. So now I’m looking for a partner for life, who will accept me and my religion. Pav Akhtar, 30, Union worker and local councillor I really welcome the gay character in EastEnders because I want people to engage in the discussion. The Masoods are brilliant – even if they are caricatures, like all other soap opera characters. I grew up in a household where no sexuality was discussed – it didn’t exist. That’s true of many British Asian families. You feel like you’re not supposed to have any sexual feelings – we had to switch channels if anyone was kissing on TV. It was a working-class Asian family, and I went to the mosque five times a week and was very attached to my faith. My sisters and brothers are very supportive – I took my partner to Pakistan to visit my family there last year, and that was fine. My mother knows, but I have never actually discussed it with her, although I have introduced her to my “friends”. With parents it’s not just a cultural taboo, but their concern that without marriage and a family you will be alone. http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2009/jul/29/gay-muslims-britain Posted in News Reports Tags: bi, breeding homophobia, charity worker, Coming Out, EastEnders, fatwa, gay, gay muslims, Homa Khaleeli, honour killings, Imaan, Islamic rhetoric about homosexuality, lesbian, LGBT, nikah, Pakistan, Pink Paper, The Guardian, transgender, UK Muslims Why are Islamic nutters in nightdresses so obsessed with gays? •August 6, 2010 • Leave a Comment Douglas Murray is a bestselling author and award-winning journalist based in London. He has written for numerous publications including the Telegraph, Spectator, Wall Street Journal and Sunday Times. He is a columnist for Standpoint magazine and the Director of the Centre for Social Cohesion, a Westminster think-tank which studies radicalisation and extremism in Britain. If anyone missed Channel 4’s Dispatches the other night, can I very much recommend it? “Britain’s Islamic Republic” is available here and is vital viewing. Andrew Gilligan’s programme will be shocking even for those of you who, like me, thought they couldn’t be shocked by this sort of thing any more. One interesting addition, if I may, which Brett at Harry’s Place also points out here. Though there has been a lot of press coverage of the documentary, there has been far too little outrage about the opening sequences showing the East London Mosque (yes, that one, favoured by Boris Johnson and Prince Charles) as the venue for events at which the most virulent anti-gay and anti-women perverts preach. I know that’s no surprise, but stay with me a moment. One preacher, an evidently lunatic semi-literate called Abdul Karim Hattin, is shown playing what he calls “a game” called “spot the fag”. For this tittersome “game” he uses a slide to show a picture of Elton John beside one of the dead rapper “2-pac” (Tupac Shakur). This confuses me a lot. I think the point this unfunny bigot is trying to make is that you can somehow recognise Elton John as gay because of the way he looks. But surely there is some mistake. In the photo Elton John is wearing a respectable casual red top. Tupac on the other hand is topless, rather conspicuously ripped, and his naked torso glistening with sweat. Now I don’t want to spoil this “game”, but to my, not untrained, eyes I’d have identified “2-pac” as gay in this gay identity-parade. But as it turns out, Mr Hattin also thinks (though for baffling reasons) that Tupac’s image was somehow gay. I’m not sure I go along with this. In any case, Mad-as-a-Hattin is saying all this whilst wearing what looks to me distinctly like an elderly lady’s nightdress. This is not the first time that I have wondered about the weirdly homosexual-obsession of onstensibly homophobic Muslim preachers. The picture of “2-pac” stays up just a little too long. It is almost as though Hattin could not resist the temptation to share the photo of this glistening black male body with his Muslim “brothers” for as long as possible. Which as always, says more about him than it does about anyone else. And as I’ll never fail to say: only in a mosque. Only in a mosque in Britain could routine hatred like this pass by unnoticed and largely unobjected to. Blog by Douglas Murray /Daily Telegraph http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/douglasmurray/100028369/why-are-islamic-nutters-in-nightdresses-so-obsessed-with-gays/ Posted in News Reports Tags: Abdul Karim Hattin, Britain’s Islamic Republic, Centre for Social Cohesian, Daily Telegraph, Elton John, homophobic Muslim preachers, homosexual-obsession Halal-only School meals •August 6, 2010 • 6 Comments This is the kind of news report I find disturbing. Do what you wish, we live in a democracy, but refrain from thrusting ” your ideals ” upon us, so we have no choice. If all school meals went vegetarian or kosker – there would be UPROAR. ______________________________________ RESIDENTS across Harrow have vented their anger about proposals to have halal-only menus in primary schools in the borough – following the revelation in the Observer last month. The newspaper revealed exclusively how Harrow Council has employed a catering company to only prepare Halal meat – to serve youngsters in Harrow. Primary schools are free to opt in to the programme or look elsewhere for their meals but readers are angry that the council has even put the scheme forward. Sheila Murphy, of Athelstone Road, Harrow Weald, said: “I am appalled at Harrow Council’s decision to serve only Halal meat in the borough’s schools. “The Farm Animal Welfare Council (FAWC) has lobbied the government in the past to get the Kosher and Halal method of slaughter banned. “The Halal method, in which animals are slaughtered by a single slit to the throat, is the only way of killing livestock allowed under Islam but this method is deemed cruel by some animal-lovers, who object to the slow death it involves. “Harrow Council’s decision is also taking away the choice of children and their parents over what meat they eat and I urge Harrow residents to make their views known to Harrow Council and get this decision overturned.” The decision to go with catering company Harrison’s was taken by the council after the same company was hired to provide Halal only menus to Harrow’s high schools four years ago. That decision was made by a consortium of high schools, not the council, but it has since approached Harrison’s specifically asking them to provide Halal meat only meals because of alleged preparation constraints in kitchens. Allen Roff, who is part of a campaign group called the Indegenious Opression League, slammed the decision adding: “One of our campaigns is to see that the other various religions and Atheists are not compelled to eat Halal or any other religious meals in Harrow schools. “We think if Muslims cannot eat other meat than Halal, then they should bring in packed lunches. “You cannot force ones religious ideals on others such as Christian’s, Hindus, Sikhs, Atheists and others. “We will be campaigning to make all schools and parents aware.” But chief co-ordinator of the Harrow Pakistani Society, Mohammad Rizvi, thinks the issue has been blown out of proportion. He said: “For Muslim children the only option they have is to eat is Halal, it is part of their religion. “Whereas it isn’t a problem for children of other faiths to eat Halal. “This isn’t about Islamification or pandering to Muslim’s it’s just common sense. “If you go into any restaurant you will find that a lot of the meat is Halal anyway, it doesn’t taste any different or better it is just part of our religion.” Aug 3rd 2010 by David Baker http://www.harrowobserver.co.uk/west-london-news/local-harrow-news/2010/08/03/anger-over-halal-only-menus-in-schools-116451-26987078/ Posted in News Reports Tags: Harrow Council, Harrow Pakistani Society, The Halal method HALAL-lujah! •August 5, 2010 • Leave a Comment Welcome to the SUICIDE-BUMMERS blog. It’s a bit gay, welcomes rants and holds court on things like how an an English Breakfast in Camden now has to be Halal. Wot no bleedin’ pork sausage? Where’s the rasher? But that’s not all. This blog will also show how I can’t go to an Islamic country without being criminalised, how Britain is doffing it’s cap to Muslims without encouraging integration but above all not challenging Islamic rhetoric about homosexuality, in a country deemed to be Christian liberal or secular in matters of the bedroom. UK Muslims judge my given sexual orientation, ranking it with murder, punishable by death . . . ( mind you the Jehovahs Witnesses hold almost similar views ), another dysfunctional, controlling, judgeMENTAL religion. I will not be adding things 5 times a day but may point out how a medieval religious viewpoint is breeding homophobia and physical attacks on gayers in Muslim dominated parts of 21st Century Britain. I live in a Muslim dominated area with immigrants from different countries holding differing strands of Islam. Some refuse to even look at me in my block, while other Muslims chat merrily away to me and offer warm eye contact. Not all Muslims hold extreme views but if they knew I was a bummer, all eyes except mine, would be drawn to the floor in the lift with vile contempt. I came out when homosexuality was decriminalised in the UK, so I know what it was like then to be despised and sidelined. Maybe this is how Muslims feel in Britain today but I refuse to hide in the shadows again by another dominating religion and it’s homophobic followers. Islamist teaching breeds homophobia simply by nature of religion at birth. Catholics say British first, Catholic second. A Muslim feels Muslim first, british second, even if born here. The Muslim theologian Amanullah De Sondy said recently that the vast majority of Muslims were “deeply homophobic”, and a survey carried out this summer among British Muslims reported that 0% of those questioned thought homosexuality was “morally acceptable”. This energy and moral superiority must be contested. I hold no hate for Islam but I do hold rage against the muslim machine and it’s unforgiving righteous doctrine. I understand a lot of women feel this way too for some reason. But that’s their story . . . . . . this is mine. http://suicidebummer.wordpress.com/