A Jihad for Love

Well, last night I went and saw "A Jihad for Love". It was one of the most amazing films I've seen all year. The director did an amazing job with the content of the film and the cinematography. Parvez Sharma joined us last night at the screening and an interesting discussion followed.

The film takes a very intense look at the global intersections between Islam and homosexuality. Parvez encountered twelve different countries and many different personal stories of hidden lives, guilt, abuse, and yes, hope.

"In Western media, the concept of ‘jihad’ is often narrowly equated with holy war. But Jihad also has a deeper meaning, its literal Arabic being ‘struggle’ or ‘to strive in the path of God’. In this film we meet several characters engaged in their personal Jihad’s for love. The people in this film have a lot to teach us about love. Their pursuit of love has brought them into conflicts with their countries, families, and even themselves. Such is the quandary of being both homosexual and Muslim, a combination so taboo that very little about it has been documented.

As a result, the majority of gay and lesbian Muslims must travel a twisting, lonely and often dangerous road. The majority of Muslims believe that homosexuality is forbidden by the Qur’an and many scholars quote Hadith (sayings attributed to the Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him) to directly condemn homosexuality. Islam, already the second largest religion in the world is also the fastest growing. 50 nations have a Muslim majority. In a few of those nations laws interpreted from alleged Qur’anic prohibitions of male homosexuality (lesbianism is allegedly absent from the Qur’an) are enforced by religious, tribal or military authorities to monitor, entrap, imprison, torture and even execute homosexuals. Even for those who migrate to Europe or North America and adopt Western personae of "gay" or "queer," the relative freedoms of new homelands are mitigated by persistent racial profiling and intensified state surveillance after the attacks of 9/11 and train bombings in Madrid and London.

As a result, many gay and lesbian Muslims end up renouncing their religion completely. But the real-life characters of A "Jihad for Love" aren't willing to abandon a faith they cherish and that sustains them. Instead, they struggle to reconcile their ardent belief with the innate reality of their being. The international chorus of gay and lesbian Muslims brought together by "A Jihad for Love" doesn't seek to vilify or reject Islam, but rather negotiate a new relationship to it. In doing so, the film's extraordinary characters attempt to point the way for all Muslims to move beyond the hostile, war-torn present, toward a more hopeful future. As one can imagine, it was a difficult decision for the subjects to participate in the film due to the violence they could face. It took the filmmaker six years to finish this film and he like those who have stepped forward to tell their stories feel that they are Islam’s most unlikely storytellers. All of them feel that this film is too important for over a billion Muslims-and all the non-Muslims in the world-for them to say no. They are willing to take the risk in their quest to lay equal claim to their profoundly held faith.

A Jihad for Love’s characters each have vastly different personal takes on Islam, some observing a rigorously orthodox regimen, others leading highly secular lifestyles while remaining spiritually devout. As the camera attentively captures their stories, the film’s gay and lesbian characters emerge in all their human complexity, giving the viewer an honest rendering of their lives while complicating our assumptions about a monolithic Muslim community. Crucially, this film speaks with a Muslim voice, unlike other documentaries about sexual politics in Islam made by Western directors. In the hope of opening a dialogue that has been mostly non-existent in Islam’s recent history, and defining jihad as a “struggle” rather than a “war,” the film presents the struggle for love."

This film shed a new light on my faith and my sexuality. While I empathized with many of the real life characters in their struggle to embrace their sexuality and be loyal to their faith, I realized that my struggle was merely a light scuffle and their's a full out battle. I have never been afraid for my life, or would even be brave enough to have to defend my life because of my sexuality. I understand the struggle between faith and sexuality, its a constant battle. For a long time I felt guilty for the way that God created me. I felt like there was something that I must have done, or God knew that I would do, to have been created with this struggle inside of me. Growing up in a Christian home, going to a Christian school, and wanting to be a pastor caused a lot of guilt. I felt like I had to choose between my sexuality (yet I didn't know that's what it was at the time, or what even that looked like, was I straight? was I gay? was I bisexual?) and my faith. Even when I identified myself and liking boys, I still felt a huge tension between sexuality and faith. You didn't want to tempt your brother or cause him to stumble. I felt like I had to choose one or the other, so I chose faith, and in doing so repressed my feelings and exploration of sexuality. But if this is who God has created you as than how can you supress that? It is willed by God. God wants the very best of you, and that is how He created you.

I can't imagine being in a Muslim country where the "act" of homosexuality is punishable by death. There is this one scene in the film where a man named Imam Muhsin Hendricks, goes to a religious authority to talk to him about Islam and him as a gay man. The religious authority says that in Muslim countries that this is a crime its not a question of if they are going to kill you or not, the debate would be on exactly how they would go about killing you.

I don't understand why I am fortunate to live in a place where I might get the occasional stare walking down the street hand in hand with my girlfriend, instead of always looking over my shoulder to see who might see me lovingly brush her hair out of her eyes. I don't understand how loving someone can be punishable by death? And why the 'religious' have to feel so threatened by this. Does this in anyway harm their 'salvation'?

I whole heartedly back this movie.