Gayness and Homosexuality 

Wa `alaykum as-Salam:

In Islam […] How do we look upon gays… what is the Islamic viewpoint? do we respect them for them being gay because they choose to be gay?

The people of Sodom and Gomorrah were not held in any respect by God but rather were destroyed, as all three Abrahamic faiths say.

Psychologists say that gays is a genes thing… that it is inherited or its something we were born as? what does Islam say about this? Why are people gay according to Islam?

Islam recognizes various genetically-based sexualities other than the norm such as hermaphroditism/androgyny (khunutha) = having the sexual organs of both the male and the female. There are rules that apply for the role of such individuals in the society just as for others.

Islam also recognizes “epicenes” belonging to one sex physically but having characteristics of the other, or of neither; e.g. effeminate men or manly women.

What Islam rejects is the social normalization of these categories and their invasion of universally shared values pertaining to the couple and the family.

“Gay advocacy” in the West is an attempt to equalize between all statuses as morally indifferent, equally valid under the law, equally worthy of respect, and equally deserving of benefit and entitled to a place in the sun whether in subtle ways or as exhibitionistic and aggressive proselytism in the public space including schools. And the supposed keepers of faith are all caving in to the chime of “gay rights.” Islam provides the only unchanging moral compass that is being lost slowly but surely by all the other communities, as conservative as they try to be over the values they once cherished.

Less than ten years ago the student gay and lesbian coalition at Columbia University in New York applied for permission to use Earl Hall to hold its annual party. Earl Hall is the home of all the religious offices in the University: the Muslim Student Association, the Catholic Campus Ministry, and the several Jewish and Protestant Ministries, capped by an “Earth” ecological group and the campus community services. Why was such a party bringing its foul breath to a religious building? Ostensibly because the space could be gotten for nothing or next to nothing, and “no other space seemed available”! But in reality it was defiance. ALL the groups voted to allow the party EXCEPT for the MSA. Later, one of the rabbis privately conceded to the Muslim representative: “We know you cast the right vote and that we were cowards.” So the wine-bibbing mixed-sex lesbian and gay party took place.

The morning after, the Muslims got on all fours to wipe the place clean from the alcohol to hold Jumu`a prayer…

In late 2000 the state of Vermont in the USA passed legislation recognizing the validity of same-sex marriages in its jurisdiction despite its heavily Catholic constituency. Nebraska reacted with its own version of the DOMA [Defense of Marriage Acts] – the most strongly worded proposal yet. Nebraskan Christian groups (non-Catholics) voted in block on this issue. The text of the Nebraska proposition (416) which passed [by a 70% majority] is as follows:

“Only marriage between a man and a woman shall be valid or recognized in Nebraska. The uniting of two persons of the same sex in a civil union, domestic partnerships, or other similar same-sex relationships shall not be valid or recognized in Nebraska.”

Similarly, Islam does not recognize such relations as anything valid. Yet Islam grants every person under the sun dignity and liberty as long as they do not exercise them at the expense of the dignity and liberty of the society at large including unnatural acts whether between couples of the same sex or between unmarried men and women as in the case of fornication and adultery.

Hajj Gibril