I will continue on my last post, the journey of discovering the world : LGBT rights. I just want to share with you why I decided to talk about such issue, as I stated before my dear friend N and reading Bareed Masta3jil , but the immediate reason was the meeting with LGBT rights advocate in Jackson, Mississpi .
I noticed that my visit program does not have any scheduled meeting with LGBT advocates, I do not know , but I am a skeptical person, I thought that they US department of State and the contractors thought that we are good Arab and Muslims who do not want to see culturally insensitive topics like LGBT rights, so I asked a very good soul we met, Jed Oppenheim to fix us a meeting with LGBT advocate .
We met Ashley Jackson from the Mississippi safe schools coalition , she talked about her work in ensuring safe places for LGBT persons in schools, she told as many sad stories of persons been bullied for been LGBT or even if people think they are.
The stories were just about small tiny basic rights like attending the prom with your partner, being able to dress whatever they want and the end of stories like committing suicide was just horrible and I could stop myself from writing a supporting post. I found similarities between the situation of LGBT persons in the south of the US in the very conservative states and the situation in the Middle East and North Africa.
In addition to that , Ashley shared with us very interesting ideas like the struggle of LGBT persons to assert their identities as believers belonging to various faiths, I was always inspired by persons that we just think they do not belong to our strict dogma , but they have a flexible and inclusive perception of their faiths, I shared with them some progressive Islamic ideas about LGBT and I still can remember the reaction of my very liberal Saudi friend , when she just spoke in Arabic in my face saying " are you really speaking of homosexuality in Islam?"
Yes I spoke about homosexuality and Islam , although they might sound oxymoron, but there are individuals in the billions of Muslims who thing that we can have whatever sexual orientation and whatever gender identity and still be deemed a pious Muslim.
Allah will never punish you for your fate , you do not shape your destiny
5 comments:
This is true and not true at the same time..
Allah will not punish someone for his fate provided he/she do not go on further..
A poor person will not be judged as a rich person.. however, he/she shall be judged if they stole - and not out of dire need.
Do you get me ya Fatma?
Some stuff are just not measured this way.. Allah is merciful, but once he said something is Haram, so it is Haram.. it doesn't have other interpretation.
I may be like you, would defend people's freedom anyway, just because this is the only way I can secure my own freedom... though sometimes I doubt that. By reading the harassments that happen to Muslims everywhere.. however, lets say it is the only way..
But to defend a certain groups' right in particular is not right.. at all.
i am not aiming ti say the truth ya eman, that not a fact sheet, it is just my ideas and i know that it might 50 % wrong,
like you i belive that Allah is merciful and i just support somebody's right because i feel his \her pain nit because he \ she has the ultimate rights
and as i said in post that there is ones in billions who say a different saying regarding the LGBT, it might be wrong or right
i do not even say it is what i belief in , i am still in the journey of discovering but i believe that رحمتي وسعت كل شئ i am just pointing out an alternative voice
i will add to say, everything is subject to interpretation ya eman, that my belief the text is no more scared when we add our human understanding to it , and that the difference between Fiqh and Sharia, Fiqh is human and it changes with the time and circumstances
Interesting ya Fatma, I would like to discuss that further with you when you come back from USA.
Interesting ya Fatma, I would like to discuss that further with you after you come back from USA...
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