From the Press-Telegram in Long Beach, CA
Gay Muslims struggle to reconcile faith, sexuality
By Phillip Zonkel, Staff writer
Article Launched: 08/07/2008
Salman Husainy was distraught.
The gay Pakistani native, who grew up in Central California, was struggling to reconcile his Muslim faith - which is an integral part of his life - with his sexuality, which is condemned by his faith.
At the same time, the then 18-year-old was pressured by family expectations to marry, have kids and pass on the family name.
"I tried to suppress it as much as I could. I wanted to make my family happy. But it didn't work," says the 33-year-old Long Beach resident. "I felt like I was suffocating inside."
Husainy found solace away from home when he attended the University of California at Irvine. He was able to think independently of his family and faith and ready to confront himself, he says.
Through friends and a local gay-support group, Husainy says he met other gay Pakistanis and Muslim people who were experiencing, or had experienced, similar conflicted emotions.
Within a year or so, Husainy reconciled his faith and sexuality, he says.
"I discovered I could be Muslim and gay and proud of who I am," he says. "All of these identities can be interrelated. I didn't have to give up any of them and live life in neatly packaged boxes."
Husainy's struggle isn't isolated, according to a new film.
"A Jihad for Love," which opened Friday at Laemmle's Sunset 5 theater in West Hollywood, is possibly the world's first feature documentary on gay Muslims. It introduces viewers to Muslims who share their internal strife of uniting their faith with their sexuality.
The movie was filmed in 12 countries, including Iran, Pakistan, Turkey, France, India and South Africa, and in nine languages, by director Parvez Sharma, 34, a gay Muslim filmmaker born and raised in India who now resides in New York City.
The movie was filmed in 12 countries, including Iran, Pakistan, Turkey, France, India and South Africa, and in nine languages, by director Parvez Sharma, 34, a gay Muslim filmmaker born and raised in India who now resides in New York City.
Since Sharma didn't receive permission to shoot in several countries, he shot many interviews posing as a tourist filming innocuous footage.
Viewers hear poignant stories from a gay imam in South Africa, an Egyptian man who spent at least a year in prison - and says he was raped - for being gay before fleeing to Paris, and four young men who fled for their lives from Iran and are living as refugees in Turkey.
Gay people can be executed in at least six Muslim countries: Iran, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Sudan, Mauritania and the northern part of Nigeria, according to the 2008 report "State-Sponsored Homophobia" from the International Gay and Lesbian Association.
In Egypt, Pakistan, India and Bangladesh, gay people can be condemned to prison, where the sentence can last from one month to life, according to the IGLA report.
In Western media, a "jihad" has been narrowly equated with a "holy war," but its deeper meaning is "an inner struggle."
In "A Jihad for Love," Sharma challenges those myopic perspectives, he says.
"A very loud minority has hijacked my religion and its pulpits," Sharma says during a phone interview from his New York City residence. "To see Islam depicted every day as a faith of violence is very frustrating to me.
"This film is an intensely political act. I wanted to talk about Islam from a different point of view," Sharma says.
Despite strong emotions on each side of this potentially volatile issue, Sharma deliberately avoids attacking Islam in the film.
"If you want to create change, you can't be angry. You have to work with respect for the faith," he says. "I confront the theology with humanity.
"This film takes the traditional gay documentary about coming out and turns it upside-down," Sharma says. "It's not about coming out as a gay person. It's about coming out as a Muslim, as a person of faith."
That journey toward reconciliation mirrored the experiences of Husainy and other gay Muslims living in the Los Angeles area, who have been supported in their coming out by Satrang, a social, cultural and support group for South Asian gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people.
Formed in the mid-1980 s, the organization was co-founded by Mushtaque Jivani, a gay Pakistani Muslim who recognized the need to combat the isolation, confusion and alienation endured by gay Muslims.
More than 20 years later, Jivani says gay Muslims, particularly Pakistanis and Indians, in the L.A. area have achieved impressive strides in their struggle for acceptance. On Oct. 11, National Coming Out Day, Satrang participated in a march in the heart of Little India in Artesia.
"What I thought 20 years ago isn't true now," says the 59-year-old Long Beach resident. "I thought we would be outcasts forever, but now we are part of mainstream society."
Husainy's Muslim parents also have accepted their son's homosexuality and have a "wonderful relationship" with his Indian boyfriend, Husainy says. They frequently talk with him on the phone and have embraced him as a part of the family, he says.
"It was wonderful to get their acceptance," Husainy says. "At the end, did I break my family's expectations? No, I shared a part of me that they didn't know, and they've come to terms with it.
"I'm still the son they wanted me to be," Husainy says. "I'm honorable and successful."
Gay Muslims struggle to reconcile faith, sexuality
By Phillip Zonkel, Staff writer
Article Launched: 08/07/2008
Salman Husainy was distraught.
The gay Pakistani native, who grew up in Central California, was struggling to reconcile his Muslim faith - which is an integral part of his life - with his sexuality, which is condemned by his faith.
At the same time, the then 18-year-old was pressured by family expectations to marry, have kids and pass on the family name.
"I tried to suppress it as much as I could. I wanted to make my family happy. But it didn't work," says the 33-year-old Long Beach resident. "I felt like I was suffocating inside."
Husainy found solace away from home when he attended the University of California at Irvine. He was able to think independently of his family and faith and ready to confront himself, he says.
Through friends and a local gay-support group, Husainy says he met other gay Pakistanis and Muslim people who were experiencing, or had experienced, similar conflicted emotions.
Within a year or so, Husainy reconciled his faith and sexuality, he says.
"I discovered I could be Muslim and gay and proud of who I am," he says. "All of these identities can be interrelated. I didn't have to give up any of them and live life in neatly packaged boxes."
Husainy's struggle isn't isolated, according to a new film.
"A Jihad for Love," which opened Friday at Laemmle's Sunset 5 theater in West Hollywood, is possibly the world's first feature documentary on gay Muslims. It introduces viewers to Muslims who share their internal strife of uniting their faith with their sexuality.
The movie was filmed in 12 countries, including Iran, Pakistan, Turkey, France, India and South Africa, and in nine languages, by director Parvez Sharma, 34, a gay Muslim filmmaker born and raised in India who now resides in New York City.
The movie was filmed in 12 countries, including Iran, Pakistan, Turkey, France, India and South Africa, and in nine languages, by director Parvez Sharma, 34, a gay Muslim filmmaker born and raised in India who now resides in New York City.
Since Sharma didn't receive permission to shoot in several countries, he shot many interviews posing as a tourist filming innocuous footage.
Viewers hear poignant stories from a gay imam in South Africa, an Egyptian man who spent at least a year in prison - and says he was raped - for being gay before fleeing to Paris, and four young men who fled for their lives from Iran and are living as refugees in Turkey.
Gay people can be executed in at least six Muslim countries: Iran, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Sudan, Mauritania and the northern part of Nigeria, according to the 2008 report "State-Sponsored Homophobia" from the International Gay and Lesbian Association.
In Egypt, Pakistan, India and Bangladesh, gay people can be condemned to prison, where the sentence can last from one month to life, according to the IGLA report.
In Western media, a "jihad" has been narrowly equated with a "holy war," but its deeper meaning is "an inner struggle."
In "A Jihad for Love," Sharma challenges those myopic perspectives, he says.
"A very loud minority has hijacked my religion and its pulpits," Sharma says during a phone interview from his New York City residence. "To see Islam depicted every day as a faith of violence is very frustrating to me.
"This film is an intensely political act. I wanted to talk about Islam from a different point of view," Sharma says.
Despite strong emotions on each side of this potentially volatile issue, Sharma deliberately avoids attacking Islam in the film.
"If you want to create change, you can't be angry. You have to work with respect for the faith," he says. "I confront the theology with humanity.
"This film takes the traditional gay documentary about coming out and turns it upside-down," Sharma says. "It's not about coming out as a gay person. It's about coming out as a Muslim, as a person of faith."
That journey toward reconciliation mirrored the experiences of Husainy and other gay Muslims living in the Los Angeles area, who have been supported in their coming out by Satrang, a social, cultural and support group for South Asian gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people.
Formed in the mid-1980 s, the organization was co-founded by Mushtaque Jivani, a gay Pakistani Muslim who recognized the need to combat the isolation, confusion and alienation endured by gay Muslims.
More than 20 years later, Jivani says gay Muslims, particularly Pakistanis and Indians, in the L.A. area have achieved impressive strides in their struggle for acceptance. On Oct. 11, National Coming Out Day, Satrang participated in a march in the heart of Little India in Artesia.
"What I thought 20 years ago isn't true now," says the 59-year-old Long Beach resident. "I thought we would be outcasts forever, but now we are part of mainstream society."
Husainy's Muslim parents also have accepted their son's homosexuality and have a "wonderful relationship" with his Indian boyfriend, Husainy says. They frequently talk with him on the phone and have embraced him as a part of the family, he says.
"It was wonderful to get their acceptance," Husainy says. "At the end, did I break my family's expectations? No, I shared a part of me that they didn't know, and they've come to terms with it.
"I'm still the son they wanted me to be," Husainy says. "I'm honorable and successful."
1 comment:
assalaam alaikum,
Husainy's Muslim parents also have accepted their son's homosexuality and have a "wonderful relationship" with his Indian boyfriend, Husainy says. They frequently talk with him on the phone and have embraced him as a part of the family, he says.
"It was wonderful to get their acceptance," Husainy says. "At the end, did I break my family's expectations? No, I shared a part of me that they didn't know, and they've come to terms with it.
"I'm still the son they wanted me to be," Husainy says. "I'm honorable and successful."
subhanallah!
alhamduli'llah!
allahu akbar!
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