Breaking the Silence with Dignity, Respect

From Tonight in South Africa

Breaking the silence with dignity, respect

November 1, 2007

  By Janet Smith

The film, Jihad For Love, is a mere seven weeks old, yet its gay Muslimdirector-producer, Parvez Sharma, knew he would instantly be labelled achampion for human rights - and, agonisingly for him, an antagonist toIslam. It was inevitable.

Sharma says his disappointment "is the herd mentality within our MuslimUmmah, when so many of us feel compelled to criticise a work we've noteven seen - and in this climate of Islamophobia, it is understandablethat we are all, as Muslims, feeling vulnerable".

He refers to the incendiary response of some Muslims on the Al-Arabiyawebsite to Jihad For Love, which depicts lesbians and gay men indifferent states of mind and liberation in Turkey, Pakistan, Iran, SAand India, and says he "invites all of us to try and engage in thelarger Jihad that the Prophet (sallalahu alaihi wassalam) asked of us,and debate among ourselves about what is that we can do to make sureall Muslims have the same rights in the eyes of Allah".

Of course, there have been what he describes as "beautiful reactions"from straight and some devout Muslims in the West. One Iranian woman"told me she was surprised to see that it was a poem to Islam". Andwhen he set out to make Jihad, Sharma knew a blunt dichotomy wouldunfold, yet his emotional drive was not only in exposing what it is tobe gay and Muslim, but what it is to be Muslim.

"To make this film, keeping my deep respect and belief in my faithparamount," he says, was his biggest challenge. "Sharing some of thestories of condemnation, of isolation, of pain, would make it easy toissue a blanket critique of Islam. I knew that as a Muslim I could notallow myself to fall into the trap of being an apologist and join thebandwagon of Islamophobes… I had to be a defender of the faith and, atthe same time, engage in a critique of what I knew was wrong inorthodox Islam's condemnation of homosexuality."

Sharma grew up in India where Islam provided the critical shades of hislife. By 17, his outlook was forthright enough to allow him to see hissexuality as a positive thing. After studying film and TV at one ofIndia's largest Islamic universities, being a journalist seemed anatural journey, and he was inspired to make a film about homosexualityin the Muslim world after September 11 "when I knew that I needed tohave the second and bigger coming out in my life - as a Muslim" .

"All of the discussions around Islam post-9/11 were, and continue tobe, extremely problematic. I was isolated and targeted as a Muslim man,and in that experience I was no different from thousands of Muslimslike myself who face racial profiling on a scale that has not been seenfor a long time.

"Many Muslims today face that fundamental choice: Who will define ourIslam for us? Will it be the largely ignorant Western media or will itbe the violent extremists in our own religion? I knew this film gave methe opportunity to have Islam's story told by its most unlikelystorytellers - gay and lesbian Muslims. Picking up the camera todocument these lives was, I knew, an act that the Prophet Muhammadwould approve of as an act of courage that befits a true Muslim.

"And it was also necessary to point out to Muslims that their limitedunderstanding of the immensity of our Holy Quran was not enough andthat we were commanded as Muslims to continue in our process oflifelong learning and engaging with God's word.

"With Jihad I knew I was enabling a community that had been silencedfor too long to finally come out and claim Islam as much as every otherMuslim. The subjects in this film and indeed the film maker are comingout as Muslims first, and gay or lesbian second."

From a religious perspective, the Qu'ran seemingly opposes the practiceof homosexuality, so how does Sharma reconcile his sexuality with hisreligion?

"The Qu'ran is the literal word of God and, as a Muslim, I believe thatto the core of my being. However, the Qu'ran does not talk abouthomosexuality at all. What it talks about is the story of the fate ofQaum-e-Lut or the Nation of Lot. That story has nothing to do withconsensual homosexual relations. It is about male-to-male rape andhospitality. Many Muslims understand this already and many more needto.

"The holy Qu'ran does not condemn homosexuality and the Hadith of ourbeloved Prophet have been misinterpreted for centuries by men. I do notbuy the argument that the Qur'an talks about homosexuality in the waywe know it today. It simply does not."