Jezebel 
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New York, 12:46 AM
Mon Nov 9
22 posts in the last 24 hours
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09/18/09
I'm certainly not saying that the persecution of gay people in the ME is right, but what we would see as stereotypical "gay" behavior between men wouldn't raise an eyebrow in many Muslim countries. If we look at it from that angle, I could begin to see how one might argue that Western influence has increased homophobia in these countries.
09/19/09
Absolutely. There is something about viewing this issue through the lens of a Westerner that turns everything on its head. Men are more touchy feely with each other in public as are women with each other. That I witnessed myself in Abu Dhabi and Doha. Behavior that would get your ass beat down in 90 percent of this country is people openly practiced there.
09/18/09
There's a lot more to this but I'm having trouble articulating it.
09/18/09
This is quite easy to believe. However, I'm reluctant to chalk it all up to repressive Victorian attitudes about sexuality; this reading of the Lot story ties into "literal" translations of religious texts. The literal reading of religious texts is the cornerstone to fundamentalisms, and, cross-culturally, fundamentalisms rise in response to modernity. The influence of British culture, both in terms of repressive ideas about sexuality and in the introduction of Western modernity to various Islamic cultures likely gave rise to this religious interpretation.
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09/18/09
Fundamentalist religion has been a political and social tool for subjugation repeatedly in history. This rigid interpretation of Islam is no different. Islamic law, values and ethics, as interpreted in the 7th and 8th centuries, provided the foundation for the Renaissance. Same Quran, different interpretations.
My heart breaks for the men and women who are so persecuted.
09/18/09
It depends on what you mean by Islam.
If you mean the books themselves, I agree: all the three major monos are pretty much equally bad.
If however you mean how these religions are practiced today (whether measuring by what the extreme ends believe or some mean/median) Islam is more inherently dangerous and violent than Judaism or Christianity from my perspective as a member of the LGBTIQ community.
Go to an average Christian or Jewish majority country and I might be condemned, shunned, and subject to harassment. My particular way of having sex might even be criminalized. Now go to your average majority Muslim country and the violence and discrimination may be the same or worse.... however if I get caught having sex with my partner, we could be imprisoned, flogged publicly, or even executed.
Sorry, but that is !=.
09/18/09
On the one hand, I like that the moniker points to the diversity of people included under it. On the other hand, it's just not easily sayable, and I feel like there are only more sexual permutations that we'll want to include as we go on.
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09/18/09
Man, I crack myself up.
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Politics, oil, tribalism, isolationism - you can't separate this stuff out from why interpretations of Islam have shifted so radically over the last 100 or so years.
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Two books I recommend if you're really interested: Producing Desire: Changing Sexual Discourse in the Ottoman Middle East, 1500-1900 by Dror Ze'evi and Before Homosexuality in the Arab-Islamic World, 1500-1800 by Khaled El-Rouayheb.
09/19/09
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08/07/09
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08/07/09
I can put people in their proper historical place, but I always put Jimmy Stewart on the shortlist of dead stars I would love to have dinner with (as well as Bette Davis, though I wouldn't serve any liquor) and now that I know he would probably hate me..well it kind of sucks. But maybe all of that time in hell will have softened him up some.
08/07/09