O Muslims, This Is Not an Exaggeration
Over the years, I have noticed that certain Muslims demonstrate an impressive level of naivety. They have no clue what’s really going on in the world around them. This is not always a bad thing. Secluding oneself from the corruption of the outside world to such a degree that one is ignorant of what’s happening can be a virtue. It can help protect one’s Imaan.
Ignorance becomes a vice, however, when other people’s Imaan is at stake. For example, if parents are ignorant of the amount of harmful content that can be accessed through the internet and they give their 6 year-old unrestricted access to a smartphone this ignorance is blameworthy negligence.
Unfortunately, this is how some figures in the Muslim community behave. They are extremely naive about many realities that directly threaten the Imaan of the wider Muslim community. I know because I have talked with some of these figures over the years and found their attitudes, in certain respects, downright negligent.
A prime example is the 2016 Pulse Nightclub shooting, where a Muslim gunman attacked a gay club in Orlando. What was significant about this event was that it forced the American Muslim community to take a public position on the question of LGBT. Prior to that, hardly any Muslim figure had taken a public stand on the issue, which is crazy. It’s crazy because the cultural mainstream in the West had been grappling with the question of homosexuality and gay rights for over a decade prior to that. Jewish and Christian groups had been engaged in an extensive public debate for years and, by 2016, had developed a large body of literature and thought dedicated to the moral, social, and theological implications of LGBT.
And it’s not like any of this was a surprise. I distinctly remember conversations I had had pre-2016 with a variety of community leaders, advising them to come out with principled statements on the moral, political, and social dimensions of LGBT in light of Islamic ethics. But I always got the same answer:
Daniel, you’re exaggerating. LGBT is not a big issue for Muslims. Muslims know it’s haram. So there is no need for us to rock the boat by coming out against LGBT. It doesn’t really matter if the kuffar are engaged in these sexual behaviors. It’s not our fight.
Shaytaans Promise
مَّ لَآتِيَنَّهُم مِّن بَيْنِ أَيْدِيهِمْ وَمِنْ خَلْفِهِمْ وَعَنْ أَيْمَانِهِمْ وَعَن شَمَائِلِهِمْ ۖ…
“Then I will come at them from between their hands and from behind them and from their right and from their left…” (Surat Al-A`raf, 17)
This is Shaytan doing his best to take us with him to Jahannum
Now, polls show that over half of the American Muslim community thinks there is nothing immoral about gay marriage and that Muslims should support LGBT rights. American Muslims are, overall, now more pro-gay than certain Christian denominations. Furthermore, Western culture continues to be queerified such that now mandatory LGBT sex-ed curricula are being introduced at schools and businesses are being forced by law to serve gay marriages and other LGBT practices despite religious commitments.
Despite these major internal and external factors, some prominent Muslim preachers continue to insist that Muslims must remain politically neutral and not take a public stand voicing opposition to the LGBT intrusion. Obviously, there are also some who are brazen (and stupid) enough to suggest that Muslims jump on the bandwagon and support LGBT rights. But let’s ignore this latter group. Those advocating political neutrality are irresponsibly naive.
But the naivety doesn’t stop with LGBT. Feminism and feminist attitudes are another major area.
Today we find advocates for homosexuality claiming that this act is not ‘unnatural’, as it has been observed amongst animals as well. If the criteria for defining the morals and ethics of humanity is based on conformity with actions of animals, then we truly are a lost cause. How many strange and odd practices are found in the animal kingdom? Will we venture and assert that they too are ‘natural’? It has been observed that a female mantis will bite off the head of its mate during intercourse. Other unnatural acts range from necrophilia to Apophallation! Is all this now ‘natural’ simply because animals do it?
If we do accept homosexuality as a natural inclination, will we also accept as natural all other bizarre inclinations experienced by people such as necrophilia, paedophilia, bestiality and incest?
There is a reason why Qawm Lut were destroyed and why Allah describes the story of their destruction in great detail in the Quran — so that we would take heed and act accordingly. But that lack of awareness is only part of the problem.
Almighty Allah makes mention of the people of Lut (Alayhis Salaam),
وَلُوطًا إِذْ قَالَ لِقَوْمِهِ أَتَأْتُونَ الْفَاحِشَةَ مَا سَبَقَكُمْ بِهَا مِنْ أَحَدٍ مِنَ الْعَالَمِينَ. إِنَّكُمْ لَتَأْتُونَ الرِّجَالَ شَهْوَةً مِنْ دُونِ النِّسَاءِ بَلْ أَنْتُمْ قَوْمٌ مُسْرِفُونَ
Translation: “And (We had sent) Lut when he said to his people, Do you commit such immorality as no one has preceded you with from among the worlds? Indeed, you approach men with desire, instead of women. Rather, you are a transgressing people.
