The Straight Struggle

In the West there now seems to be a general consensus that homosexual behavior is normal and acceptable and to say otherwise is unprogressive, hateful, barbaric and deviant! To publicly make any statement indicating beliefs to the contrary is liable to cost a politician his seat, an athlete his endorsements, a CEO his job, businesses their clients, relationships at work and even ones personal friends...i.e it is "politically incorrect". Many years of struggles and strategies to battle against negative portrayals of homosexuals and lesbians such as a steady diet of pro-homosexual films, television shows, books, and stories has paid off in a big way. The consistent and constant effort to portray homosexuals as productive and useful members of society who contribute to its advancement and progression of culture is highlighted by the fact that many idealized cultural and popular figures were and are themselves homosexuals and this has been very effective, especially in contrast to the exaggerated and silly portrayals that were so long the common fare. The use of the very sweet "non-offensive" term "gay" over many years as opposed to the offensive epithets that were long popularly used in the English language served to smooth out the aversion that people once had about the subject or those who participated. Linking the fight for "gay" rights to that of the plight of blacks and women and other discriminated minorities in the US for example, was a prize winning strategy. A popular "artist" who is famous for his anti-woman and anti-gay "lyrics" probably lost a top award he was nominated for perhaps more so for the anti-gay aspect of his work since so many of his ilk commonly express their wishes to do violence or sexually abuse women and they win awards all the time!

The watchfulness, dogged persistence and determination of homosexuals has led to their designation as a legitimate community and "alternative lifestyle" which is catered to by any "politically correct" business or organization. In some places, entire school curriculums have been changed to present homosexuality as a legitimate alternative lifestyle and laws have been put in the books offering special protections against the infringement of homosexual rights. Where not that long ago it used to be the death knell to the career or marketability of an athlete or public personality to be known or even suspected as being homosexual or lesbian and people would have cringed at the thought of "discovery", they now cringe at the thought of being labeled as cowardly for not coming out in the open! Corporations openly appeal to the homosexual and lesbian communities in advertisements that are clearly aimed at them and some of the most popular television shows feature homosexuals or homosexual themes. Companies often withdraw their advertisements and endorsements from television or radio shows or any entities that are identified as "anti-gay" by gay rights groups. Such openly "anti-gay" entities face ostracization and castigation as regressive and against civil liberties. The Boy Scouts of America, one of the last holdouts against the full acceptance of open homosexuals into its leadership ranks, is under pressure tactic after pressure tactic to loosen its traditional stance. One wonders how long they can hold out in the face of the policies of the military establishments of the "Great Powers"!

Even religious groups that were traditionally anti-homosexual have been cowed and beaten back as regressive and repressive and have even gone so far as to embrace whom they once condemned as being fuel for the Hellfire! Indeed, there are several churches with homosexual and lesbian clergy who perform marriages between like members and they are well established. At least one European nation has made such marriages absolutely legal and accepted and some states in the US recognize "gay unions" granting the full social benefits afforded to heterosexual married couples to the partners of such unions. It is thus ironic to say the least, that no states recognize the legitimacy of polygyny - the marriage of one man to multiple wives and a practice that goes back millennia before Islam. Thus, for example, an American Muslim abroad who may be Islamicly married to more than one wife cannot even get this second, third or fourth wife into the country as a "spouse" if she is not already an American citizen, and even if she was, there would be no recognition of rights she may have as a married woman!

Where homosexuality was once ridiculed, joked about and only talked about in hushed tones, people are now open and even aggressive in their advocacy of homosexuality and lesbianism or the right of others to be so. Major entertainment stars have "come out" openly, particularly after the deaths from AIDS of many people in the "artistic" community. This had a major effect in changing the public attitude which is so influenced by popular culture and steeped in the "idol worship" of personalities in the entertainment world. The AIDS related death of the Hollywood movie idol Rock Hudson more than a decade ago, once the heartthrob of females worldwide and the epitome of masculinity, sent a shockwave throughout the entertainment world and elsewhere because it shattered the stereotype and shook the ideal so long held by the public of what a "he-man" was. He had been hiding his homosexuality for decades! Homosexuality is so widespread that people have accepted it and come to the view it as just another pattern of human behavior and even genetically encoded in people. Even those who speak against it and who are termed as "homophobic" are being told that their vehemence against it is a manifestation of their own latent homosexuality!

When the AIDS epidemic was at first seemingly limited to homosexuals who were first associated with the disease and with whom many people did not sympathize, the outcry and demand for a cure was somewhat muted. But when entertainment and sports idols and other public and well-known personalities started to become ill and die after being found HIV positive (due to promiscuity as well as in some cases reportedly being given tainted blood) attention to the disease became much more pointed and serious. This was further magnified when people from all walks of life started to come down with the disease and started dying from it. Homosexuals started more to be viewed as sympathetic individuals rather than objects of condemnation. The AIDS epidemic has now been confirmed as the greatest disease epidemic in human history and has claimed the lives of millions of people and millions more are HIV positive.

Homosexual advocacy groups have proliferated and have a major presence on the Internet as this writer was so starkly reminded of when I did a web search for a word I could not find in the dictionary and the result was dozens of homosexual and pornographic sites. Needless to say, I learned the meaning of the word! In another perhaps humorous incident this very Foundation was formally asked through a letter sent on corporate stationery by a supposedly legitimate established and widely circulated European magazine, to provide information on the Islamic position on "touching" yes, "touching" and I was asked to write the piece. It seemed quite legitimate even if unusual and their statement about who and what they were gave no indication of any objectionable agenda so our response was, "Well, okay, perhaps it is another chance for da'wah"! It turned out that the magazine was a gay advocacy pictorial magazine that just needed side bars to go with their very graphic photos and we learned this after receiving a copy in the mail! Needless to say, we learned a lesson.

The Prophet Muhammad already told us of the signs of the approach of the Last Day such as Illegal sexual intercourse becoming widespread and the number of men decreasing, whilst the number of women will increase until for every man there will be 50 women, as well as the spread of diseases when people engage in lewdness. We have also been foretold that the Muslims would follow those who preceded them hand span by hand span and step by step until if they enter the lizard's hole they would follow them into it! In another graphic statement the Prophet of Islam is reported to have said, "If one of them was to have sex with his mother you would do it"!

Does it sound extreme? Should we as Muslims be naive enough to believe that the situation described above will have no effect upon Islam and Muslims, especially those living in such environments? Then perhaps you didn't know about the reports of Muslim Gay Associations that have popped up and who are calling for the establishment of "Gay Mosques" in Canada and the US?! Or what about the group that established a web site and chat room and whose president gave a copy of the Qur'aan to the first openly gay Representative of the U.S. Congress? How about the ever increasing boldness of homosexual advocacy and "human rights" groups encouraging homosexuals who are suppressed in Muslim countries to come out and put pressure on the various governments in the Muslim world not only to drop "antiquated and repressive" measures and social strictures now present but to educate and nurture this segment of society up to now considered taboo. If one does not believe that it could be an issue in the Muslim world then they should open up their eyes and only need to read the recent reports of a night club in the Arabian Gulf that openly advertised through thousands of fliers a "transvestite night" at a club that had imported a transvestite DJ from Britain as a special host! You can believe only non-Muslim "foreigners" were in attendance if you like. It was shut down by authorities, alhamdulillah, but to even conceive that such a bold step could be taken in a Muslim country says a lot.

Muslims are the ones constantly characterized as backward, repressive, euphemistically called "fundamentalists" (interpreted extremist), anti-woman, anti-freedom, anti-human rights and even anti-culture (see the outcry against the destruction of Buddhist statues and the relative whimper at the destruction of hundreds of mosques and Muslim lives)! So we expect to be railed against in some publication, website or fought in some way as this is par for the course. This writer will never forget when a Muslim brother at a local masjid in a major US city took it upon himself to compose, print, distribute and post hundreds of anti-homosexual flyers using the harshest of terms denigrating homosexuality and warning against its practice and the wrath of Allah upon those who do it and he put the name and number of the masjid as a reference. These flyers were quickly picked up by homosexual advocacy groups and their main local publication. The flyers were vehemently condemned of course and the phone number of the masjid was published in their paper with the result being the masjid getting deluged with not just calls and complaints...but bomb threats! The publication was contacted by the masjid authorities and informed that the flyer was an individual member's act and not an official policy of the masjid and as such the attack that was launched against it in the paper should be retracted. They refused. They wanted more than the apology they didn't get and were certainly not interested in giving one nor in taking any responsibility for stoking the fires of hate among their members against the little mosque. So you see in the end, it was the Muslims who were put on the defensive and not the other way around and the much vaunted freedom of expression and tolerance proved once again only applicable if one is NOT Muslim!