Although research into attitudes towards homosexuality in the general population points to demographic variables, such as age and level of education, as key determinants of the nature of attitudes, this has not been the case in my own work with British Muslims. In my research into attitudes concerning homosexuality among samples of first and second-generation British Muslims of Pakistani descent, I found that attitudes tend to be largely negative. However, qualitative interview data can provide more nuanced understandings of what Muslims think and why they might hold these views. These data suggest that there are low levels of acceptance of homosexuality in Muslim communities in the UK. Furthermore, 47% of the British Muslim respondents indicated that they did not believe that it was acceptable for a gay person to become a teacher. Conversely, only 5% of the general public thought homosexuality should be illegal. The results found that 18% of the British Muslim respondents agreed that homosexuality should be legal in Britain while the majority (52%) disagreed. In the UK, none of the Muslim respondents viewed homosexuality as morally acceptable (versus 58% of the general public who did).Įarlier this year, a survey commissioned by Channel 4 was conducted among a random sample of 1,081 individuals who self-identified as Muslim. In Germany, 19% of Muslims viewed it as morally acceptable (versus 68% of the general public). In France, 35% of Muslims viewed homosexuality as “morally acceptable” (versus 78% of the general public). In 2009, a Gallup survey revealed negative attitudes towards homosexuality among European Muslims. Theological and legal condemnations of homosexuality can engender perceptions at a social level that homosexuality is wrong and that it should not be permitted.
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Many scholars also cite the Ahadith (statements attributed to the Prophet Muhammed) that are condemnatory of homosexuality.
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They tend to draw on the story of Lot in the Koran (also in the Old Testament) which recounts the destruction of the tribe of Lot allegedly due to their engagement in homosexual acts as “evidence” for God’s condemnation of homosexuality. Most Islamic scholars are in agreement that homosexuality is incompatible with Islamic theology.
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But in others, such as Jordan and Turkey, homosexuality is not considered a crime. In most Muslim countries, homosexuality is illegal and in some countries, including Iran and Saudi Arabia, it is punishable by death. It is difficult to define the “Islamic position” on homosexuality, as a monolithic phenomenon, simply because Islam is a very diverse faith group with some 1.6 billion followers on six continents. Since the massacre there has been a lot of speculation about Islam and homosexuality and there are fears that one man’s despicable act of terrorism could fan the flames of Islamophobia and other forms of social exclusion, leading to discord and unrest in an era of elevated Islamophobia. And, in an important sense, this was also a terror attack, since its aim was to spread fear in the LGBT community. The Orlando shooting was a hate crime against gay people – even if, once it emerged that the attacker had been a Muslim, many people claimed this as a terrorist attack rather than a hate crime.