desifemslash:

All these posts about how ‘the majority of muslims are tolerant and peaceloving’ ‘this isn’t Islam, don’t blame us for this’…I don’t even know what to think about you…you’re right about how this isn’t Islam…but…I’m laughing, what kind of a bubble do you live in? Where is this wonderful, progressive, gay loving muslim community you all seem to be living in? Like, please tell me, I’d love to be part of it. 

Yeah, the attacker wasn’t motivated by religion, you’re right, he was motivated by the homophobia present in society, especially in his own community. So yeah, this isn’t about Islam itself, it’s about the dehumanization and hatred of LGBT people that is deeply entrenched and encouraged in most muslim communities.

The islamophobic, racist bigots talking about how this isn’t about homophobia, its about islamic extremism are fucked up. But all these fucks on my facebook feed talking about how peaceful Islam is and how these white westerners always blame us for everything…like, I’ve know you for eight years, Ahmad, you’re homophobic as fuck, sit the fuck down. 

Instead of critiquing our own community, we’re still vomiting out the same line about how peaceful Islam is. Like, you right, it is. But why are you pretending like most of us don’t grow up hearing hate speech against LGBT people by religious figures and parents and teachers and fucking everyone about how being gay is against Islam. Instead of pretending the Islam taught in most muslim communities isn’t explicitly homophobic and promotes violence and hatred and discrimination against LGBT people, let’s at least fucking acknowledge it.

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Hi! My name is Mouzima, I am one of the mods on this blog. Personally, i believe that Islam itself does not promote “violence, hatred, and discrimination” against the LGBTQ+ people, when the people in Islamic community do something as awful as the Orlando shooting, Muslims do not possess the privilege of just ignoring it, because it effects every single Muslim. I live in a small town in New Zealand, and only today about 3 people have asked me if i have heard about the Orlando shooting, simply because I am a Muslim. And we all have to collectively say “no, my Islam is not like that”. I know we say that after every tragedy committed by a Muslim person. Because it affects all of us, and if we weren’t always put into a box, we wouldn’t need to say that. So please, understand that nobody likes to be labeled as a terrorist, especially not an entire religious community, simply for the actions of a individual or minor group, especially when the majority is telling you a different story.

What we need to address is the internalized homophobia in the Muslim community.  It is predominately the religious figures and imams who perceive homosexuality as such to be adultery, therefore they use evidence of adultery and it punishments, from the Quran, to condemn homosexuality and label it as a sin. The Quran doesn’t speak of homosexuality, whether it be positive or negative. But it clearly speaks of love and peace. So when something tragic like the Orlando Shooting happens, Muslim come forward and say violence is not what Islam teachers us. But we as a community need to realize that homophobia is so deeply internalized in our community, that even if we don’t say Islam promotes violence, when someone, like an imam, says that gay people are going to hell for being sinners, it is a form of violence. Thinking someone’s existence is a sin, is violence perpetrated onto that person, even if it’s not physical. And that sort of violence easily nest insides the minds of people like you and me, until some radical comes along and physically perpetrates that violence on other people. And then Muslims, out of anybody else, wonders how can a religion based on peace, breed this sort of hatred. 

But its not the religion, its the people. People like you and me who are unknowingly breeding this radical ideology, that some people don’t deserve to live, or have a happy fulfilling life. So we as a community need to address the internalized homophobia and understand that every homophobic person, fuels the fire to the radicals. My Islam, subhan’Allah, is peaceful, and so are most of the people, but if you think a person is going to hell for simply being gay, you are perpetrating violence onto an entire group of people. And you share the same values as the Orlando shooter. 

Peace and love starts at home, it starts at the mosque, it starts at our schools. We need to be more open.