LGBT and Muslim? A New Report Busts Stereotypes

[rug]

Community leaders say, ‘Let’s talk, but maybe not at the mosque’

November 2, 2011
By Peter Montgomery

Just as the Arab spring has upended conventional understanding of Arab and Muslim societies, so a new report on the issues faced by LGBT Muslims challenges the stereotype of Muslim communities in the U.S. and abroad as monolithically closed to conversations about sexuality.

The report, the “Muslim LGBT Inclusion Project,” was just published by Intersections International—a New York-based nonprofit whose mandate, says founding director Rev. Robert Chase, is to bring together people who differ, honor those differences, and find ways to work together for reconciliation, justice, and peace.

The report builds on interviews with Muslim community leaders, several scholarly articles, as well as facilitated discussions among more than 50 people in six cities. Chase, who co-facilitated five of the six group discussions, says those conversations revealed a remarkable openness. “It was just fascinating,” he says:

"I went in looking to do an assessment, and came out being inspired with real hope for our whole world. One part of our world that is so often demonized as being insensitive and rigid and uncompromising and out of touch with nuances of human history proved to be just the opposite: engaged, sensitive, curious, imaginative."

He concluded, “if this is the demonized community, then our future is a lot brighter than what we’ve been led to believe.” Chase acknowledges that the group participants skewed progressive, but the prevalence of progressive-oriented Muslim community leaders may itself be news to many Americans.

http://www.religiondispatches.org/archive/atheologies/5344/lgbt_and_muslim_a_new_report_busts_stereotypes/