Parvez Sharma engages in some fashionable moral equivalence here — neither Judaism nor Christianity are today calling for the killing of gays — and ignores the fact that Muhammad himself called for the killing of homosexuals, but his words here nonetheless represent a tremendous advance over the denial and deception that usually dominate the mainstream media’s treatment of Islam and jihad.
“Gay Muslim: Islam Is No Religion of Peace,” by Parvez Sharma, Daily Beast, June 16, 2016:
…The same defensive, apologist Muslims are called upon every time something like this happens. I, too, have been called several times, but have so far refused the TV parts because I am not sure what I have to say is palatable. Mateen, the homophobic gay Muslim, is not a new phenomenon. The Muslim religious elite is directly responsible for inspiring the guilt and self-hatred that this man must have felt, needlessly struggling with his sexuality. And then he became a mass murderer, whose actions can never be condoned.
What I do know is this. As a devout gay Muslim I am not going to make a claim that “Islam is a religion of peace.”
Growing up in a small Indian town with a large Muslim population, I heard young men talking about jihad in Kashmir and Palestine. I have even heard such matters discussed in hushed whispers at Manhattan’s 96th St. mosque, where I sometimes go and pray on Fridays and where subjugation of women is discussed in the open without the blink of an eye. The mosque was built largely with Saudi money, and its Imams often come equipped with the perversions of Wahhabi ideology.
A few weeks after September 11th, its Imam at the time, Sheik Muhammad Gemeaha resigned and left hastily for his native Egypt. He was quoted in The New York Times as having said amongst much else including the familiar deriding of “homosexuality” “‘only the Jews’ were capable of destroying the World Trade Center” and added that ‘’if it became known to the American people, they would have done to Jews what Hitler did.”
Calling Islam a religion of peace is dangerous and reductive. Like the other two monotheisms that precede it, it has blood on its hands. It’s time we Muslims start looking inward at our own communities so that the bloodshed can stop. I’m convinced that Mateen’s attitude is not fringe. It can be found everywhere from Mecca to my own mosque in New York City.
The vast canon of Islam that emerged after the Prophet Muhammad’s life has enough sanction for violence, if you know what you are looking for. And there is no lack of homophobic condemnation either. The Quran itself remains vague on the matter, lazily regurgitating the Old and New Testament’s story of the Nation of Lot. And for the majority of 1.6 billion Muslims, many of them plagued by poverty and illiteracy, the debates going on amongst the Western Muslim pundits, will make no sense. What they listen to is Khutba (Friday sermon) after Khutba that talks about homosexuality as a sin amongst other matters of religious import….

cs says
Very strange, but his guy seems to have participated in a Al Jazeera thing, on Islamophobia.
there is a very good video response to it:
gravenimage says
Thanks for posting this, cs–I wish I could say it surprises.
linnte says
Dispute his use of the *Cu++* word, this is exactly how I feel. Thanks cs. This is a powerful production and I wish those swear words weren’t in it so my Facebook grandkids wouldn’t have to hear them. Because they need to hear this!
Idania says
Even all practicing muslims recognize that islam is not a religion of peace, but Obama and his Media would not. That is incredible. Christianity and Judaism do not condone homosexuality but it does not tell its followers to kill them.
Charli Main says
Mohammed of Islam, the cross dressing homosexual ordering the murder of other homosexuals to divert attention away from himself.
Face_The_Truth says
Homosexuality, bi-sexuality, and cross-dressing are abnormal human behaviors for the mere fact that only 2-4% of any given population demonstrate these abnormal sexual behaviors.
Something is considered normal if it is practiced by almost all of any given population.
For instance, only 6-8% of any population develop cancers, which are abnormality of cellular mechanism.
Normalcy doesn’t necessarily make room for abnormality, rather abnormality needs to be sensitive and respectful to normalcy.
So, Christianity provides various tools to people who manifest homosexual, bi-sexual, and cross-dressing behaviors in order to avoid or reduce those abnormal behaviors in any Christian society.
Islam, however, provides harsh treatments or punishments of those people who show homosexual, bi-sexual, and cross-dressing behaviors unless those people who manifest homosexual, bi-sexual, and cross-dressing behaviors wage Islamic Jihad against non-believers of Allah and Allah’s final messenger!
Islam’s founder Muhammad ibn Abd’Allah was a bastard by birth circumstance alone as he was born out of his mother being raped by an Arab bedouin long after his father died and as his biological mother did not re-marry at or before the time of birth.
Muhammad ibn Abd’Allah followed old Jewish traditions of punishments for homosexuality, bi-sexuality, and cross-dressing.
Today’s Jews have almost fully accepted homosexual, bi-sexual, and cross-dressing behaviors; but, world’s Muslims have not for the basic interest of preserving original Islamic ideology.
billybob says
Your comment appears to be uninformed. The word you are looking for is “deviant behaviour”, not “abnormal behaviors”. Human behaviours fall on a graph with a “Normal curve”, that being a Gaussian curve. Behaviours that land on either end of the curve are called “deviant”, because they deviate from the mathematical norm. In in the mathematical sense then can you call them abnormal behaviour. Without that qualification, you statement implies a moral judgement that you would be unwise to make.
As far as human sexual behaviour, it seems the more we make academic studies of it the less we can say about what is “normal”. It seems humans are endlessly inventive.
JMB says
I trust that this reply is not too far out of context; What is normal in sexual relations and context? I think we all have a pretty good idea, but the psychiatrists manual is full of descriptions of abnormal and deviant behaviour, also I am sure police have to deal with all sorts of sexual perverts with a huge increase in arrests for mobile phone camera “peeping-tom” type of offences as well as Muslim gropers.
Homosexuality is no longer listed as a mental illness in the DSM (Psychiatrists manual) But private clinics still treat many homosexuals who just want to be normal, they hate being gay.
The whole situation regarding homosexuality in our society has been aggravated by making it legal, it has now been possible for that noisy minority, and gays are a minority, to come out and promote their lifestyle to a quite frightening extent. Yes, this will be totally offensive to the Islamic world, especially those Muslims who have invaded our western society. If they want the benefits of our society they should accept the laws of our society even those laws they (and also myself) don’t like, this also includes family law, OR go back to where they came from. Again, the Orlando massacre was a crime waiting to happen.
Another aspect de-criminalising of homosexuality that no one seems to mention is that the 98% of population who are “straight”, especially our young people no longer have the assurance of general protection of the law from this perverted evil.
Here in NSW before it was removed from the statute books homosexuality was described as “The abominable practice of sodomy…” Abominable, it certainly is.
linnte says
I guess it is just not my JOB to decide if homosexuality is normal or natural. It’s not my business what people do in their lives, as long as their doings don’t harm me. I am not their judge. God is. Unlike Islamic doctrine, I choose to have tolerance for something that doesn’t affect me or my family, neighbors, friends, relatives or the relatives of their relatives. I don’t care if my male dog decides to hump my grandsons male dog either. And I don’t give a rat’s batootie how much someone masturbates either, as long as it’s not done in front of me et al.
Homosexuality, like a camp fire, has been around since written history. It has always been considered deviant behavior, but do homosexuals deserve death or even persecution? No by me they don’t.
JMB says
This reply is to Iinnte.
Homosexuality when it was decriminalised should have been kept within the private confines of consenting adults, it should never have been allowed to be promoted. Yes, I agree with you that it has always been around.
I have a homosexual in my close family, he was always a bit different, but always a totally kind and loving person, brilliant in his artistic profession but equally happy to roll up his sleeves and do a hard days work. I could never even think of hating him. I would be devastated if he was killed as a result of a hate crime.
Again, it is the disgusting promotion and celebration of homosexuality that needs to be condemned, this includes their bars, nightclubs and pride parades. My cousin knows that I consider homosexual acts as unnatural and abominable, but we still love each other as members of our extended fami;ly
gravenimage says
JMB is on a different thread spouting apologia for Muslims violently abusing women, as well:
https://www.jihadwatch.org/2016/08/australia-muslim-pol-to-wife-im-gonna-rape-your-mum-and-your-fing-dad-i-swear-on-the-koran/comment-page-1#comment-1511343
linnte says
He disgusts me.
Guest says
As are many animals. Groups of young males excluded from the tribe (eg Gorillas) do homosexual acts. Perfectly normal.
Face_The_Truth says
Perfectly normal to whom???
Of course, a group of male rapists can claim serially raping vulnerable females in a given population is a normal human behavior.
Of course, a group of male gorillas can feel sodomizing vulnerable male or female gorillas is a normal behavior.
Of course, a group of motorists can claim beating red-lights in not-so-busy intersections is a perfectly normal human behavior.
What American Psychiatric Association says about homo-sexual, bi-sexual and cross-dressing behaviors is homo-sexual, bi-sexual and cross-dressing behaviors are not treatable human diseases; but, the APA declaration does not mean to say that, 95% of all hetero-sexual humans must not only embrace, but also practice homo-sexuality, bi-sexuality and cross-dressing.
gravenimage says
Gay Muslim: Islam is no religion of peace
…………………..
So true. The question is why Parvez Sharma does not leave this violent creed.
Guest says
Quite!
maghan says
Interesting comment. When someone is noted for his/her racist beliefs, such persons are condemned and commanded to change their ways–or even punished. Suppose such persons say “we were just raised that way. We cannot change. Having racist feelings is instinctual with us”. Would that work with modern society? Hardly. Yet homosexuals are praised for accepting themselves as they are.
OK, homosexuals are now seen as just different, but what about pedophiles who just watch kid-porn on the internet? Or what about anorexia? Should the anorexic model be seen as just someone with a different view of body morphology?
gravenimage says
What happens between consenting adults–even if you find it personally repugnant–is quite different from raping children.
gravenimage says
Parvez Sharma, of course, is the filmmaker of “A Sinner in Mecca”, a film account of his going on the Hadj. In it, he famously asks, “do I belong in this religion that condemns me?”
But he also says, “Islam is who I am”.
In fact, he denounces Muslim apostates. Here’s what he had to say about the brave Ayaan Hirsi Ali:
“Here’s the difference between someone like [author and spokeswoman] Ayaan Hirsi Ali and me. She has turned her back on Islam and is out to attack it, and gets a lot of mileage out of doing that, especially from the right wing in this country.”
In reality, she is incredibly courageous to speak out about the threat of Islam.
Sharma gets regular death threats from pious Muslims, yet he responds to this question during an interview:
“You also catch flack from Islamophobes, so essentially you’re walking this tightrope between extremists and haters of all stripes.
“It really is precarious. The very Muslims I’m seeking acceptance from are attacking me because I’m a gay man and because I made this film. As a Muslim, you are taught from a very young age that you do not mess with Mecca, and I’m doing exactly that.”
Notice he never says that the “Islamophobes”–unlike his own coreligionists–are not threatening his life.
http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/movies/moviesnow/la-et-mn-gay-muslim-parvez-sharma-s-a-sinner-in-mecca-20150911-story.html
Dum Spiro says
For some reason, Professor Kreeft came to mind:
Why the simultaneous rise of homosexuality and Islam?
https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/why-the-simultaneous-rise-of-homosexuality-and-islam-an-interview-with-pete
A conversation with Peter Kreeft
http://www.peterkreeft.com/topics-more/interview_boston-college.htm
A bumper sticker I saw also came to mind: “Know Jesus, know peace. No Jesus, no peace.”
That we may know true peace…
–Spero
gravenimage says
I’m sorry–whatever you think of homosexuality, the idea that gay activists are “fighting” to impose acceptance of gay rights in just the same way that Muslims are fighting to impose Islamic hegemony–i.e., by mass murdering us in the streets–is simply not the case.
And Peter Kreeft is *no* Anti-Jihadist–instead, he lauds Islam as “energizing and liberating”:
http://www.peterkreeft.com/topics-more/religions_islam.htm
He also says he sees “commonalities” between Islamic and Catholic piety. He says we “we can learn from truly devout adherents of Islam”. He says that the horrors of Islam “ought to serve as a lesson to contemporary Catholics”.
He says that secularism should not be preferred to polygamy and the horrors of child rape.
He dismisses violent Jihad and oppression of Jews and Christians as “not necessarily germane to the religious lives of Muslims”.
Whether it is germane to *the victims* he does not bother to say.
Here are Kreeft and Robert Spencer in debate:
http://www.thomasmorecollege.edu/blog/2010/11/08/peter-kreeft-and-robert-spencer-engage-in-lively-debate-on-islam/
george whyte says
hes on this video
sidney penny says
“Growing up in a small Indian town with a large Muslim population,”
It is not uncommon for Indians ( especially Hindus) in India and elsewhere to engages in fashionable moral equivalence.
Hindu Indians are known to say:
“All religions are the same”
“Many paths to God”
“All religions teach peace”
and other such rubbish.
They say all this especially if they are Hindu Indians talking to Muslim Indians.
Hindu Indians in India and elsewhere find it difficult to do what Robert Spencer does.
vlparker says
A devout gay muslim? Dumb as dirt.
abad says
I’d like to know something.
If a Muslim male (they are not men) has sex with a male goat, is it still homosexuality?
Likewise, if a Muslim male (they are not men) has sex with a female goat – is it heterosexuality?
Inquiring minds want to know.
Charli Main says
Either way, its bestiality. Bestiality is approved and condoned in Islam provided certain ” rules” are observed. ie the animal is killed after the act and the meat is not eaten by the villagers where the act took place.
Every sick, twisted and perverted act known to humanity is approved by Mohammed´s sock puppet ” Allah”
There is no punishment for having intercourse with a dead woman or animal.
Al Khabib Al Sherbini 2—-521.
maghan says
Khomeni said that it would be OK to sell the animal to another village. He also said it would a tender act of love to have sex with a toddler–despite her screams during the act.
common sense says
So in the world of Islam its ok to be gay as long as you meet the conditions of violent Jihad and kill for Allah.
Guest says
OK, I’m going to get technical here, because there is a lot of misinformation about so called ‘sodomy’ among some contributors here.
DO NOT read this if you are soooo disgusted with the idea of anal sex.
Homosexuality and anal sex are not abnormal at all.
1. Animals do it. Groups of young male gorillas, for instance are excluded from their ‘tribe’ when they reach adulthood. Homosexuality among them is normal.
2. Heterosexual men often enjoy anal stimulation, because the prostate is immensely sensitive. It’s called ‘pegging’. It can give so much pleasure that if more men knew about it they would want to try it, with a loving female partner. These men are not gay.
3. Women can enjoy receiving anal penetration too.
If it all happens between consenting adults practising safe sex, it’s not ‘abnormal’, it’s not ‘disgusting’ (yes, one has a good wash and uses condoms) and if you don’t like the idea here’s a great hint: don’t do it and stop worrying about other people doing it.
I visit jihadwatch because I don’t want islam to take away our freedoms, not because I want to live in some so called ‘Christian’ straightjacket.
maghan says
Sick and disgusting behaviors. Not so for you, I see. OK, how about sexual necrophilia? Or fisting? I have also read about some males having females “sit on their faces then ‘golden showered'”. Is that OK and on the same level of that male–reported in the news–who enjoyed eating feces of females?
Guest says
If it’s done among consenting adults practising safe sex. Corpses can’t consent, so no. Feces can’t be safe, so not a good idea.
Guest says
Maghan, what exactly do you find so difficult to understand about ‘consenting adults practising safe sex’?
gravenimage says
Right, Guest.
JMB says
Sorry Guest, I can not agree with any of the perversions you have mentioned.
I am a great believer in our civilisation that was built on protestant Christian ideals.
I see our freedoms and beliefs being destroyed by both PC, sexual feedoms and Islam.
PS, have you ever visited a sexually transmitted disease clinic? They are not very pretty places.Sick is the only word I can use.
Guest says
How do you mean ‘not agree with’? If you don’t want to do those things, don’t do them.
About the clinic: I mentioned the importance of safe sex between consenting adults in my ‘technical post’.
I wrote my technical comment to show the world that not only highly conservative people are concerned about islam.
LR says
Guest,
Just a correction here… I think it’s important to define it as ‘safer sex’.
Re: Clinics. One of the best things a parent can do with their pubescent kid for sex education, or whatever age is appropriate for that family, is to take them into a clinic, and look through all the brochures of STD’s, with a counselor.
LR says
In regards to gay people in Islam,
It’s interesting that there is a gay Imam in DC.
It might take a long time, and there will unfortunately be more suffering and death, but I wonder if the more women, gays, and ‘reformed Muslims’ experience freedoms in the West, they will eventually put a lid on the 7th century minded Islamic cretins. Islam might eventually be dragged into the 20th century at least.
gravenimage says
Alas, I would not count on it. It is more likely that Imam Daayiee Abdullah will be shut down–even violently.
LR says
graven,
Always in the realm of possibility, of course. But if the Muslim gay population keeps finding refuge in the West, things will eventually change. Maybe not much in my lifetime, but eventually. People hate going backwards.
vivienne Leijonhufvu (@goldaleijonhufv) says
The first reference to the love of two men for one another is written in the Talmud/Torah, I won’t bother to quot chapter and verse other than same reference appears in the Jehovah Witnesses Bible and Oxford English King James version. David and Jonathan loved one another Jonathan more so than David – both men had wives and sired children. Mohammed conveniently left out this story from the people’s of the Book writings long before the rise of ISLAM. Cross dressing can be seen as an entertainment Danny La Rue is an excellent example. Any one who has read Psychology and worked in Gynealogocal research will be aware the % of those humans born with sexual ambiguity is higher than commonly supposed. Therefore I defy anyone either Christian Jewish and in particular Muslim to persecute the LGBT community. It is cruel and unforgivable and just goes to show the ignorance and intolerance of the majority.
Guest says
“Cross dressing can be seen as an entertainment ” including in all early Shakespeare productions :). Vivienne, we seem to be outnumbered here, just for having a more liberal view of things. Keep on posting though, readers can see that islam isn’t just a highly conservative concern.
gravenimage says
Quite true.
Vicky says
Western societies have come a long way into accepting homosexuality without persecution. I think this is VERY GOOD. I myself do not understand it, but I realize that homosexuals do not choose to be so, in fact sometimes it can be a big struggle for them. And it is SO CRUEL to punish, persecute, deride, insult or mistreat them in any way – specially for something they did not choose and cannot help. We’ve come a long way since the brilliant English/Irish writer Oscar Wilde was convicted and thrown into jail for a relationship with a male friend – and became a broken man with his health shattered and having to spend his remaining time of life in exile in France, shunned by most of his friends. Most LGBTIQ people are good, honest, loving people who only ask to live their own lives undisturbed, just as everyone else and with the same rights. It’s been shown that their lifestyle does no-one any harm, even when they adopt children, who grow up to be happy individuals blessed by having a good home and loving parents. If you believe that homosexuality is morally wrong, remember Jesus’ parable of the wheat and the tares. In the story the owner of the field tells his workers not to pull up the tares because they could also destroy the good wheat at the same time. They should let them both grow together until the harvest – then the wheat could be harvested and the tares thrown away. My reading of this is that the good of these good people is so much more important to society than what may be perceived as bad, that we should embrace all the good that they contribute and leave the judgment to the God who is kind, merciful, loving and just.
Ecosse1314 says
First and foremost Wilde was born in Ireland and is classed as an Irish playwriter. His family were of anglo-irish stock but were active in the home-rule movement.
Secondly Wilde had an abnormal interest in young boys …so please do not make him into some kind of a martyr.
Guest says
Vicky, I’m afraid Ecosse may be right about Wilde not being the greatest example re consenting adults. Read this article and look for the word ‘paedophile’. https://www.theguardian.com/books/2003/oct/25/biography.highereducation1.
But none of the many gay men I know are paedophiles. They live in long-term, loving relationships – just like any married couple I know.
Angemon says
I’m getting mixed messages here. It’s a vast “canon” but “emerged after muhammad’s life”, the implication being that it was added (made up) afterwards . But it’s canonical. And there are “enough” sanctions for violence but only if one knows what he’s looking for, as if it’s written on code or hidden.