Despite the presence of queer Muslim groups for over two decades in Canada, the discourse on LGBTQ Muslims remains stalled.
In May 2022, Western University removed an Instagram image that showed two Muslim women in hijab in a kissing embrace. The university responded to a petition that received about 39,625 signatures which called out the depiction of hijab as “disrespectful,” “sexualizing,” and “fetishizing.”
The image was showcased on the International Day Against Homophobia, Transphobia, and Biphobia on May 17, before being removed a day later on May 18.
As a corporation, the university followed its interest. It responded to the petitioners that drew on jargon like “colonist mindset” and “ethnocentrism” that is popular in social justice activist circles. In the absence of a countervailing narrative from LGBTQ Muslims, the university’s decision was to be expected.
Studying LGBTQ Muslims in Canada
There is recent academic work on LGBTQ Muslims in Canada that explores intersectional lives of LGBTQ Muslims and which shows that religious belief is not a main determinant of acceptance. This is apart from the various theses that have been submitted by students at the undergraduate and graduate levels.
Yet, academic publications do not necessarily change the ground reality of LGBTQ Muslims. What is missing are social justice Muslim activists who can broach conversations in Muslim communities instead of engaging in lateral violence, where personalities and egos clash and dissuade LGBTQ Muslims from making meaningful progress.
My own academic work on Islam and same-sex unions culminated with a book in 2016, several papers during 2010-2018, and a Tedx talk in 2019.
My activism work between 2005 and 2019 consisted of community workshops, broaching conversations with academics, Imams, and leaders like Dr. Shabir Ally, pushing academically against reparative therapy, volunteering for Alberta’s conversion therapy working group, maintaining media visibility, challenging homophobia in Muslim spaces on campus, hosting a conference on campus, and creating a private group space for LGBTQ Muslims.
Lateral violence from closeted LGBTQ Muslims
Since then, I have withdrawn from such work. This is to focus on my own neglected academic career, to avoid being a gatekeeper, and to make way for the younger generation to express their concerns themselves.
But it is equally due to lateral violence that emanates from closeted LGBTQ Muslims. I distinctly recall a young man whom I facilitated towards a private LGBTQ Muslim space and to Ramadan Iftar dinner for LGBTQ Muslims. He was apparently facing inner shame and problems with family acceptance.
And I did not have a recipe to fix his life. Nobody does. He deflected his angst by labelling my work as “disingenuous” and as “inflicting violence on queer Muslim bodies.”
In August 2022, the premier Muslim LGBTQ organization in Canada announced “permanent closure” after citing “deep ruptures and fissures that exist in our communities” in March.
Such lateral violence and hyperbole also come from keyboard LGBTQ Muslim activists that indulge in weaponized victimhood and purity politics. This uncompromising activism has been called out by former President Obama, queer activists like Frances Lee, and writers like Irshad Manji.
Weaponized victimhood cuts through communities. Hindutvists that threaten academics studying Hindu supremacism in Canada project themselves as perpetual victims of Hinduphobia.
Similarly, Muslims who try to homogenize Islam, assume a monopoly position on its contours, and oppose LGBTQ Muslim accommodation view themselves as victims of Islamophobia.
Indeed, the petition against Western University contains the words “Specifically targeting Islam.” But the image of hijab or a beard cannot be appropriated by conservative Muslims.
For instance, New Age Islam in Delhi used cartoon images of an Arab gay couple in traditional Arabic attire and Muslim girls wearing hijabs in loving embrace for my article on lateral violence. While the images seem out of place in a serious article, the point is that at least the Muslim readership in Delhi did not raise concerns on such a depiction.
Additionally, if one Googles, there are videos of Muslim hijab wearing pole dancers, ballet dancers, hip hop dancers, and so on. It is up to Muslim women to decide what hijab means to them.
Thus, the meaning of the hijab cannot be appropriated by petitioners who take offense that lesbian Muslim women choose to break the binary between spirituality and sexuality.
Moreover, when the petitioners decide to police Muslim morality in Canada, they only show that they can flex their muscles with a group that does not have much public visibility.
In contrast, such petitioners would find it an uphill task to start campaigns against Muslim men who wear skimpy posing trunks in body building contests, which far outdo the modesty concerns on a kissing embrace between women.
Petitioners who are offended by one thing or another will always exist, as will corporations that are driven by the profit motive rather than principles. Foisting rainbow flags and pasting rainbow stickers is performative activism. The same corporations would have stayed a mile away from Pride protests and events in the 1980s when only principled people stood by a community overwhelmed by the AIDS epidemic.
The need for more LGBTQ Muslim voices
This brings us back to the main issue of why LGBTQ Muslim discourse seems to have stalled in Canada. It is simply due to the absence of strong LGBTQ Muslim voices that defy the hegemonic Muslim public discourse.
This absence has to do with the fact that those who dare to speak out face lateral violence from their own.
Speaking out then becomes a thankless job, as closeted Muslims consumed by guilt and shame bring down openly out voices that are often alone. It seems that engaging in lateral violence becomes a purification ritual for closet cases to cleanse themselves from sin.
Past LGBTQ activists from the days of Delwin Vriend in Alberta openly asserted their truth and were visibly out to face their oppressors for meaningful change. However, many LGBTQ Muslims in Canada choose to remain in the corrosive closet even in 2023.
This does not mean that every LGBTQ Muslim should be out. But it does mean that without visibility by a certain percentage of LGBTQ Muslims, the discourse on LGBTQ Muslims in Canada will remain stalled.
The status quo then is of ghettoization, where a few LGBTQ Muslims meet secretly away from the scrutiny of the mainstream Muslim communities. And many prefer it that way due to inner guilt and shame. To reiterate, they do not wish to reconcile their spirituality and sexuality.
Partly, it is due to finding limited acceptance or facing judgment in mainstream gay spaces. But more significantly, it seems as if they feel that they don’t deserve an equal standing within Muslim communities.
In essence, even in 2023, internalized homophobia stalls LGBTQ Muslim acceptance in Muslim spaces in Canada.
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