infinite number of interpretations are possible!
vedas n upanishads can loosely be interpreted as great scriptures of
universal equality.  dalits can worship sri raman and they can fight for the
temple entry and hindu baptism.  this has double edged effect. on one
hand religion inducts the 'outsiders' expanding its boundary and maintains
its 'divinity' and on the other hand, 'outsiders' invade the 'divine' space
of untouchability.

..........and islam is a very tough coice for queers to reclaim.


On 11/1/07, ahmed rafeek j <ahmedrafeekj@gmai...> wrote:
>
>
> Dear all,
> An article on Parvez Sharma, the Indian born queer Muslim , the
> director of 'Jihad for Love'. His views are very interesting as they
> reinterprets the conventional views on Islam as well challenge the
> west's stereo type of Muslim and Gay.
>
> Regards
> Ahmed Rafeek
>
> Breaking the silence with dignity, respect
> Janet Smith, November 1, 2007, Tonight : Your entertainment guide from
> Independent News and Media
>
> Source:
> http://www.tonight.co.za/index.php?fSectionId=354&fArticleId=4107744
>
>
> The film, Jihad For Love, is a mere seven weeks old, yet its gay
> Muslim director-producer, Parvez Sharma, knew he would instantly be
> labelled a champion for human rights - and, agonisingly for him, an
> antagonist to Islam. It was inevitable.
>
> Sharma says his disappointment "is the herd mentality within our
> Muslim Ummah, when so many of us feel compelled to criticise a work
> we've not even seen - and in this climate of Islamophobia, it is
> understandable that we are all, as Muslims, feeling vulnerable".
>
> He refers to the incendiary response of some Muslims on the
> Al-Arabiya website to Jihad For Love, which depicts lesbians and gay
> men in different states of mind and liberation in Turkey, Pakistan,
> Iran, SA and India, and says he "invites all of us to try and engage
> in the larger Jihad that the Prophet (sallalahu alaihi wassalam) asked
> of us, and debate among ourselves about what is that we can do to make
> sure all 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". And
> when he set out to make Jihad, Sharma knew a blunt dichotomy would
> unfold, yet his emotional drive was not only in exposing what it is to
> be gay and Muslim, but what it is to be Muslim.
>
> "To make this film, keeping my deep respect and belief in my faith
> paramount," he says, was his biggest challenge. "Sharing some of the
> stories of condemnation, of isolation, of pain, would make it easy to
> issue a blanket critique of Islam. I knew that as a Muslim I could not
> allow myself to fall into the trap of being an apologist and join the
> bandwagon of Islamophobes… I had to be a defender of the faith and, at
> the same time, engage in a critique of what I knew was wrong in
> orthodox Islam's condemnation of homosexuality."
>
> Sharma grew up in India where Islam provided the critical shades of
> his life. By 17, his outlook was forthright enough to allow him to see
> his sexuality as a positive thing. After studying film and TV at one
> of India's largest Islamic universities, being a journalist seemed a
> natural journey, and he was inspired to make a film about
> homosexuality in the Muslim world after September 11 "when I knew that
> I needed to have the second and bigger coming out in my life - as a
> Muslim" .
>
> "All of the discussions around Islam post-9/11 were, and continue to
> be, extremely problematic. I was isolated and targeted as a Muslim
> man, and in that experience I was no different from thousands of
> Muslims like myself who face racial profiling on a scale that has not
> been seen for a long time.
>
> "Many Muslims today face that fundamental choice: Who will define our
> Islam for us? Will it be the largely ignorant Western media or will it
> be the violent extremists in our own religion? I knew this film gave
> me the opportunity to have Islam's story told by its most unlikely
> storytellers - gay and lesbian Muslims. Picking up the camera to
> document these lives was, I knew, an act that the Prophet Muhammad
> would approve of as an act of courage that befits a true Muslim.
>
> "And it was also necessary to point out to Muslims that their limited
> understanding of the immensity of our Holy Quran was not enough and
> that we were commanded as Muslims to continue in our process of
> lifelong learning and engaging with God's word.
>
> "With Jihad I knew I was enabling a community that had been silenced
> for too long to finally come out and claim Islam as much as every
> other Muslim. The subjects in this film and indeed the film maker are
> coming out as Muslims first, and gay or lesbian second."
>
> From a religious perspective, the Qu'ran seemingly opposes the
> practice of homosexuality, so how does Sharma reconcile his sexuality
> with his religion?
>
> "The Qu'ran is the literal word of God and, as a Muslim, I believe
> that to the core of my being. However, the Qu'ran does not talk about
> homosexuality at all. What it talks about is the story of the fate of
> Qaum-e-Lut or the Nation of Lot. That story has nothing to do with
> consensual homosexual relations. It is about male-to-male rape and
> hospitality. Many Muslims understand this already and many more need
> to.
>
> "The holy Qu'ran does not condemn homosexuality and the Hadith of our
> beloved Prophet have been misinterpreted for centuries by men. I do
> not buy the argument that the Qur'an talks about homosexuality in the
> way we know it today. It simply does not."
>
> >
>

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