Muslim Preachers and the New American Boogeyman

a reaction to the open letter.

Yesterday dozens of imams, shaykhs, teachers, and public speakers on Islam co-signed an anxiety-riddled open letter condemning the influence of the LGBTQ agenda on “Islam” and Muslim communities. The timing of this letter is suspicious— we’re one week away from Pride month (which coincides with the Pulse Nightclub massacre against queer people wrought by Muslim hands in 2016), and in the midst of this new wave of culture wars. You can’t get on social media, turn on the news, or knock on the door of a constituent without hearing about right-wing paranoia regarding books in schools, drag queen story hours, trans people in sports, or abortion rights. It is clear by the timing of the letter that a substantial bloc of Muslims are looking to re-align themselves with the American religious right, a relationship that was temporarily severed by 9/11 anti-Muslim backlash and Bush’s War on Terror.

As someone who came of age around 9/11, I remember what it felt like to have all eyes on me. I remember how it felt to be under constant scrutiny, to be harassed by classmates, to hear non-stop anti-Muslim rhetoric on TV, to be constantly on the defensive with my non-Muslims family members. I remember worrying that maybe everything I knew about myself, my family, my community was an elaborate lie; that the media was right about me. It was scary. My whole identity formation throughout my teens and early 20’s was forged through oppositions— figuring out and proving what I was not. Not a terrorist. Not a terrorist sympathizer. Not oppressed. Not an oppressor. Not Muslim like that. This anxiety also shaped what was allowed to be discussed in mosques. We focussed so much on self-preservation as a religious minority in America, that I worry it stunted our growth as a community.

But at the same time, I also realized that I wasn’t American like that. The blind patriotism. The easy us-versus-them. Reactive. Paranoid. Un-nuanced.

Without launching into a whole spiritual autobiography, I will simply say that as an empathetic person, it was not difficult for me to identify the mechanisms of hate and intolerance operative in my own oppression. And when I found those same mechanisms in my mosque, in my community, and indeed in my own self, getting answers to hard questions about gender and sexuality and God was for me a matter of faith or unfaith. I am so grateful to Allah that I am still Muslim; if I had felt forced to believe in the narrow interpretation of my religion I was brought up with, I might not be.

In 2023, it seems that the Muslim boogeyman in the America of my adolescence and young adulthood has been replaced with the queer/trans boogeyman. It’s hard for me to stand idlely by and just watch. I can’t say with certainty, but I think I know what trans kids must be feeling right now— under constant scrutiny, defensiveness, cognitive dissonance, fear, anxiety, families further fractured by emboldened transphobia. As a Muslim, been there, done that.

Just as quickly as the Muslim boogeyman receded into the background of American consciousness (likely temporarily), the pick-me Muslims have rushed to join the coalition against the new supposed threat in it’s place: women’s, queer, and trans rights.

I have been careful not to address Muslims in general, only a select group. Because the fact of the matter is that while many, if not most, American mosques stagnated in their ability to nurture safe, nuanced, diverse, stimulating, life-giving community, plenty of awe-inspiring Muslims all over the country found ways to do the hard work anyway. Young Muslims have options now that they didn’t have before, which scares the establishment. Whereas once upon a time when a queer Muslim left home for college in a new city, he might have left Islam altogether because he was taught his faith was incompatible with the truth he knew of himself; now he has the option to join in community with other queer Muslims and maintain his faith and practice. Or the girl who stopped going to the masjid because her abuser roams freely and her community didn't believe her-- she has resources now to restore her faith. There are halaqas to join, books to read, and folks to pray with and march beside. All made possible by Muslims who decided to create a world better than the one given to them, who were willing to stand on shaky ground, and trusted in the unraveling of what they thought they knew… because anything true should hold up to interrogation. God alone is the Truth, Everlasting, and All-Wise.

This new reality is forcing mainstream Muslim leadership to face their own self-determined obsolescence. And you can almost hear and feel the desperate clinging and clawing in the open letter. This isn’t something I rejoice in. It’s sad. They are part of my ummah too. And I admit, I’m often swayed by Omar Suleiman’s gentleness and charm. So I understand the letdown people feel when they see a name like his on a letter like this.

What is most sad to me about the open letter— aside from its alignment with the American right wing, the thinly veiled paranoia, and anxious clinging— is that people I do respect clearly haven’t been listening, or reading… like, at all. With as many memoirs, scholarly books, and blogs that have been written, films made, lives taken, lives saved, there is still no serious engagement with any of the ideas put forth by feminist/womanist and queer scholars of sharp intellect, devout faith, and strong commitment to the Muslim community. The letter is decidedly abstract. LGBTQ is an abstraction, a set of ideas and practices, lumped together more broadly with women’s issues. No humanity is given to the people written about.

When we Muslims were berated in the decade following 9/11 to denounce terrorism, or accused of not doing enough to denounce terrorism, all the while we were screaming it from the rooftops to deaf ears, it felt dizzying. It felt like gaslighting. We knew our truth but too many didn’t actually care to hear us. There was a willful ignorance of some in order to keep their worldview intact.

I see willful ignorance here too. Rather than faithfully engage the feminist readings of Quran or scholarship showing the historical contingency and subjectivity of ideas presented as eternal, and rather than really listening to queer Muslims’ stories in all their pain and joy, too many choose willful ignorance to keep their worldview intact. And not just worldview, how one’s world is organized and structured.

But returning to the Muslim preacher’s self-imposed obsolescence. The letter seems too little, too late. Why was it written? Who is it for? So many of us have already built our alternative communities. Is it for their congregations? They already know the mainstream position on these things, and if they didn’t, they could easily assume. What could the cosigners hope the letter does? Is the hope that LGBTQ organizations stop pestering mosques and Muslim preachers about working together to fight injustice? Is the hope that such a letter will shut queer Muslims and feminist Muslims up? I pray that those struggling with their faith, like I once did, are able to easily find the community they want and deserve before it's too late.

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If you’re interested, here is my line-by-line, off-the-cuff reaction to reading the letter. Enjoy.

“Public discourse on sexuality over the past few decades has presented challenges to faith communities.”

This is valid. Challenges have been presented.

“Today, Islamic sexual and gender ethics are at odds with certain recently popular societal views, causing tension for Muslims between their religious beliefs and societal expectations.”

What are these recently popular views? Don’t be so vague. Spell it out. What in particular is at odds with what? And, causing tension for whom? Sexual and gender diversity has been ever-present throughout our history.

“At the same time, public disapproval of LGBTQ practices, beliefs, and advocacy is increasingly met with charges of intolerance and unwarranted accusations of bigotry.”

What would compel anyone to publicly disapprove of LGBTQ anything? What’s behind that? Why do you want to be so public in your disapproval? Is it hard keeping your bigotry private, closeted? Also, what are LGBTQ practices and beliefs? Are you talking about sex? What kind of sex? Is L sex the same as G sex? Do you care about B or T people in heterosexual relationships/marriages? If you are indeed being charged with accusations of bigotry, does that hurt your feelings? Do you think it hurts more than compulsory heterosexuality, or being forced to choose between different facets of your identity/being?

More troubling still, there is an increasing push to promote LGBTQ-centric values among children through legislation and regulations, disregarding parental consent and denying both parents and children the opportunity to express conscientious objection.

Oof, this is just a right-wing dog whistle. THE CHILDREN! But glad we’re finally talking about consent. Let’s pick that up and do some more with it!

“Such policies subvert the agency of Muslim parents to teach their children their religiously grounded sexual ethics.”

A. You learned the words subvert and agency from feminists/womanists lol. B. If only any of us learned sexual ethics. Most in need of learning sexual ethics, of course, are the predators amongst us.

“Islam’s Position on Gender and Sexuality”

Who is Islam? Does Islam think, or talk, or do? Or do humans? I don’t deny that there is an Islam, but it’s intellectually dishonest to suggest that there is one Islamic position on “sexuality and gender.” This obscures the reality that various “positions,” rulings etc were (and are) interpreted and codified by living, breathing, feeling people. Well-intentioned, good, smart, pious people mostly, who were products of their time and place. Just like we are.

“By a decree from God, sexual relations are permitted within the bounds of marriage, and marriage can only occur between a man and a woman.

I hear this. but previously accepted marriage norms such as men’s marriage to multiple women, marriage to slaves, temporary marriages, and concubinage are no longer the accepted norm even if, technically speaking, they are permissible.

“God defined humanity as consisting of males and females and declared that He “… created [humans] from a male and a female and made [them] into peoples and tribes so that you may come to know one another”

God also created day and night, but we know that dawn and dusk also exist as in-betweens even if not explicitly mentioned.

“Further, God calls on humanity to respect His wisdom in creation (see, e.g., Quran, al-Nisā’: 119). As such, as a general rule, Islam strictly prohibits medical procedures intended to change the sex of healthy individuals, regardless of whether such procedures are termed gender ‘affirming’ or ‘confirming.’”

More gender-affirming surgeries are performed in Iran than anywhere else in the world. Though not a perfect system by any means, their clergy have found such surgeries to be compatible with shariah. But back to here and now… clearly the author of this letter does not take mental health seriously. Because for so many, such surgeries are a lifeline for people who feel very much unhealthy in their bodies.

Mental health is at a crisis level in our community, this letter is more evidence of how much more work we have ahead of us.

Allah knows best.

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Love you.