Eye on ‘Gay Muslims’ (I am repelled as I type those scare quotes) is a site written by a chap called Rashid Eldin who tells gay Muslims that there is no place for them in Islam, calls the estimable organisation Imaan‘s ‘Europride‘ event a “parade of perversion” and also recomends lectures by Yasir Qadhi.

Here is Qadhi talking about homosexuality.

It’s a long video and mainly it is concerned with Qadhi’s backwards views on women, but scroll through to 32 minutes where Qadhi starts to reminisce about the good old 80s when it was OK to abuse gays – and how society has “regressed” since then as you can’t attack homosexuality without being thought a homophobe. Funny that.

Anyway, back to Eye on ‘Gay Muslims’ – it also recommends this article by (again) Yasir Qadhi where he is directing advice to a Muslim who thinks they might also be gay.

I advise you to seek counseling, and to go to people who will understand your situation and who can direct you in a more specific manner. I understand as well that if you go to many of the typical imams of the masjids, they would not sympathize with your situation at all and would probably make matters worse for you. I understand that you cannot go to such people. But you will find sympathetic ears to listen to your problem, insha’Allah.

And remember that marriage is a solution, so you should seriously consider it. The Prophet Lut ‘alayhis salam told his people, “These are my daughters, they are more pure for you.” Some scholars say that when he said “daughters”, he is also implying the women of the town and not just his own daughters. So he’s telling the men of his community who were guilty of this crime to go and marry women, for they are better and purer for them. Marriage is a solution, because sensuality and sexuality is something that can be satisfied – rather it should be satisfied – by the opposite gender within the confines of marriage.

Has Qadhi no concept of the damage he will be doing to vulnerable young people who have no choice about their sexuality but whom Qadhi is instructing to enter into loveless shams of marriages? And has he absolutely no consideration for the wife of that marriage whose husband would be unable to love her as a husband should? Potentially, also, his advice will be destroying the lives of any children from that marriage if and when their father decides to stop living a lie and to be honest with the people closest to him.

Eye on ‘Gay Muslims” own Rashid Eldin has also commented on Osama Saeed’s blog recommending Straightway, an organisation which tries to “cure” gay Muslims. The idea that a young person struggling with an important facet of their personality – their sexuality – should be told to suppress it is horrifically bad advice which can only lead to personal and psychological problems in the future.

So, Osama Saeed, will you live up to the SNP’s value statement and reject discrimination and prejudice of all kinds – and that is the party for which you are a parliamentary candidate – by renouncing your endorsement of Eye on ‘Gay Muslims’, or will you continue to stand with a collection of individuals who do not think that homosexuals deserve happy and balanced psychological, emotional and personal lives?

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The Scottish Islamic Foundation, a hard-line Islamist outfit run by two former Muslim Association of Britain spokesmen, was today taken to task by the Scottish Herald newspaper over its half-baked plans to hold a conference in the Gulf to promote Scotland.

The article quoted Omar Shaikh, a board member of the Islamic Finance Council UK, who warned that the SIF’s planned event threatened to be “shallow, incoherent and patchy” and Frank McAverty, a Labour MSP, who said that “the SIF has to demonstrate its independence from key figures associated with the SNP.” He added “I hope this expo will not be used for partisan politicking to promote the SNP, its leadership and candidates.”

The Scottish Islamic Foundation responded by attacking McAverty for being partisan, accusing him of trying to manufacture a “party political knockabout” and adding that “the SIF has no view, and can have no view, on the various parties”.

Unusually, the SIF’s statement on McAverty was signed by Asif Ahmed, the low-profile SIF’s chairman, rather than the group’s usual public face, Osama Saeed. This is probably for the best: Osama Saeed, a former researcher for SNP leader Alex Salmond, also happens to the SNP’s candidate for Glasgow Central in the next general election.

I have always attempted to square this circle by drawing a line between those who say we are all sinners and homosexuality is a sin like any other judged by their god on judgment day (generally speaking, the Anglican answer) and those who say that it is a sin worse than all others (Fred “God Hates Fags” Phelps, for example) and homosexuals deserve punishment in this world.

There is another way – and it is significantly more intellectually satisfying: to argue that religions can accept homosexuality. Dr Amanullah De Sondy does so today in the Sunday Times.

One of Scotland’s leading Muslim academics is challenging his religion’s orthodox opinion on homosexuality by suggesting Islam is compatible with a gay lifestyle.

Dr Amanullah De Sondy says there is evidence in Islamic history to support his claim but said conservative Muslims refuse to acknowledge it as they are “deeply homophobic”.

Rather than spend our time working out exactly what kinds of homophobia can be tolerated in modern British society, we should join De Sondy in making the positive case for accepting homosexuality.

The 29-year-old said his opponents often cite the story, which appears in both the Koran and the Bible, of God sending angels to destroy the sinful inhabitants of the valley of Sodom.

“It is often said to illustrate God’s disapproval of homosexuality. But on closer inspection it is about his disapproval of the rape of young boys. There is a big difference,” he said.

Intolerance is not necessarily part of Muslim tradition, De Sondy argues, pointing to examples of people living openly in same-sex relationships.

“In the 16th-century Punjab, there lived a Sufi [uslim mystic] saint and poet called Shah Hussain. He fell in love with a Hindu boy. They lived together and are buried in the same tomb. But some people want to rewrite history, saying the boy was in fact a girl.”

Then, inevitably, the Sunday Times goes to a couple of self-appointed Muslim “community leaders” for The Traditional View™.

Bashir Maan, a former councillor and a prominent member of the Glasgow Central Mosque, said many Muslims would be upset by De Sondy’s comments.

“Where is he getting his knowledge from?” he said. “Islam condemns homosexuality. He is quoting the saint out of context. He loved that boy but it wasn’t for sexual purposes, he just liked that boy as we all have our likes and dislikes.”

Maan also criticised De Sondy for asserting that many Muslims were homophobic.

“As one of the leaders in Scotland said some time ago, we don’t hate homosexuals —, we hate homosexuality.

“So it’s not that Muslims are homophobic, they just do not like lewdness. They do not like homosexuality. These people, homosexuals, they are human beings. They should be, I think, not hated, but we should try to put them off such practices.”

Apart from the fact that I consider homophobic the direct equation of homosexuality and lewdness, I am particularly troubled by the pathetic attempt to delegitimise De Sondy’s views by saying they would cause “upset”. Contradict if you will, but complaining about hurt feelings is a coward’s defence and one that is used far too much by self-appointed Muslim “community leaders” to suppress reformist and progressive Muslim voices.

The Sunday Times moves on to the views of the Scottish Islamic Foundation.

A spokesman for the Scottish-Islamic Foundation agreed that homosexuality is incompatible with Islam, adding: “The view of mainstream Muslim scholars and individuals is that it is against Islamic teachings.

“Like with everything, though, people are free to choose how to live their own lives.”

It is sad to see the Scottish Islamic Foundation backing away from its previous uncompromising defence of liberal values – as reported here. Both Maan and the Scottish Islamic Foundation’s spokesman are defending a deeply conservative position without bothering to formulate coherent arguments; they simply state it has always been that way in Islam.

Quite apart from the fact that De Sondy has shown this not to be the case, this is not as good an argument as they clearly believe. For many centuries, Islamic scholarship tolerated slavery; certainly it is (as it is in the Bible) accepted in the Qur’an. People who make the argument that homosexuality always has been and always will be completely unacceptable in Islam should also make their case for why slavery is a different matter – which went from being accepted to illegal.

De Sondy makes an important argument for the acceptability of homosexuality in Islam and the “community leaders” also interviewed by the Sunday Times can only answer with intellectual dishonesty and unthinking conservatism. Sad but unsurprising.