Description
Book Synopsis-- With a foreword from Jan Jaap de Ruiter. Translation and Afterword by Adi S. Bharat. -- In
Homosexuality, Transidentity, and Islam: A Study of Scripture Confronting the Politics of Gender and Sexuality, Ludovic-Mohamed Zahed systematically analyses the entirety of Islamic scriptural sources that relate to the question of gender and sexuality in relation to their historical contexts. Through an approach that is certainly more politically engaged than that of most Islamic thinkers of our time, he clarifies key theological concepts that may seem esoteric to the uninitiated. In doing so, he makes a compelling case for the compatibility of sexual and gender diversity within Islam. Zahed also examines the historical and contemporary socio-political impacts of inclusive and exclusive (or, quite simply, homophobic, transphobic, and misogynistic) interpretations of scripture. This important study dynamically examines the connections between scripture, interpretation, and the politics of gender and sexuality.
Table of ContentsForeword Introduction I - The Qur'anic Ethics of "Nature": Gender, Sexuality, and Diversity 1a. Human Nature: Mirroring the Will of God 1b. Condemnation of "immoral" practices II - Distressing Qur'anic Verses? 2a. The Original Sodomy: Forbidding Ritual Rape 2b. The Absence of Female Homosexuality in the Qur'an 2c. Positive Identification of Gender Minorities in the Qur'an III - The Prophet: A Living Incarnation of Qur'anic Ethics 3a. Was the Prophet Homophobic and Transphobic? 3b. The Status of Mukhanathun: "Effeminate," Trans, or Gay Men? 3c. The First "Sodomite": Neither Gay nor Trans, but a Rapist IV - Islamic Apocrypha Advocating the Stoning of "Sodomites" 4a. The Sectarian Ideology of Fatwas Associating "Sodomy" With Apostasy 4b. A Former Mukhannath's Internalized Homophobia and Misogyny 4c. What the Different Islamic Schools of Thought Advocate V - Post-colonial Orientalisms VI - "Abnormals": from cultural diversity to dogmatic uniformity VII - Towards a Structural Reevaluation of Cultural Values VIII - Panarabist Literary and Identity Censorship IX - Orientalist Shi'ism and Literary Homo-eroticism X - Homonationalism and Performative Sexual Categorization XI - A "Crisis" of Categories, Geopolitics or Civilization Conclusion Afterword Bibliography Index
