ISLAM IS NOT CLEAN OF HOMOSEXUALITY AS SOME CLAIM,

[iris89]

ISLAM IS NOT CLEAN OF HOMOSEXUALITY AS SOME CLAIM, LEARN THE TRUTH:

They try to hide the fact that members of Islam are running one of the largest, if not the largest, homosexual sites on the web by falsely claiming a homosexual web site briefly mentioned in a post on homosexuality and making a big thing out of nothing is a form of lying.

Let's look first at what was said,
<<<" I never back things that Almighty God (YHWH) disapproves of like gay marriages, the acceptance of gay men, and lesbians such as Bishop Fred Hiltz of Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island does. You should well know that these things violate Romans 1:21-27, "because that, knowing God, they glorified him not as God, neither gave thanks; but became vain in their reasonings, and their senseless heart was darkened. 22 Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools, 23 and changed the glory of the incorruptible God for the likeness of an image of corruptible man, and of birds, and four-footed beasts, and creeping things. 24 Wherefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts unto uncleanness, that their bodies should be dishonored among themselves: 25 for that they exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshipped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed for ever. Amen. 26 For this cause God gave them up unto vile passions: for their women changed the natural use into that which is against nature: 27 and likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another, men with men working unseemliness, and receiving in themselves that recompense of their error which was due." (ASV). Nor do I agree with the Muslims at GayEgypt of which the "The Middle East Times" says "GayEgypt.com has emerged as a key source of information and communication for the gay community in Egypt." It's a shame that the Muslim community as well as the apostate (counterfeit) Christian community tolerate such wrong doing.">>>

Clearly shows that homosexuality was being addressing, a wrong, per Romans 1:19-28, "because that which is known of God is manifest in them; for God manifested it unto them. 20 For the invisible things of him since the creation of the world are clearly seen, being perceived through the things that are made, even his everlasting power and divinity; that they may be without excuse: 21 because that, knowing God, they glorified him not as God, neither gave thanks; but became vain in their reasonings, and their senseless heart was darkened. 22 Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools, 23 and changed the glory of the incorruptible God for the likeness of an image of corruptible man, and of birds, and four-footed beasts, and creeping things. 24 Wherefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts unto uncleanness, that their bodies should be dishonored among themselves: 25 for that they exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshipped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed for ever. Amen. 26 For this cause God gave them up unto vile passions: for their women changed the natural use into that which is against nature. 27 and likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another, men with men working unseemliness, and receiving in themselves that recompense of their error which was due. 28 And even as they refused to have God in their knowledge, God gave them up unto a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not fitting;" :" (ASV), but just to distort reality the posting of this item against homosexuality brought the following lying false accusation.

<<<"Porn site on a religious form? Why?">>>.

This is AN OUTRIGHT LIE as are all false accusations.

First, let's consider what porn is:

"PORN, noun: creative activity (writing or pictures or films etc.) of no literary or artistic value other than to stimulate sexual desire [source - One Look Dictionary, www.onelook.com/?w=porn&ls=a ]"

"Pornography, sometimes shortened to porn or porno, is, in its broadest state, the explicit representation of the human body or sexual activity with the goal of sexual arousal and/or sexual relief. It is similar to erotica, which is the use of sexually-arousing imagery used mainly for artistic purpose. Over the past few decades, an immense industry for the production and consumption of pornography has grown, due to emergence of the VCR, the DVD, and the Internet, as well as the emergence of more tolerant social attitudes.

In general, "erotica" refers to portrayals of sexually arousing material that hold or aspire to artistic or historical merit, whereas "pornography" often connotes the prurient depiction of sexual acts, with little or no artistic value. The line between "erotica" and the term "pornography" (which is frequently considered a pejorative term) is often highly subjective. In practice, pornography can be defined merely as erotica that certain people perceive as "obscene." The definition of what one considers obscene can differ between persons, cultures and eras. This leaves legal actions by those who oppose pornography open to wide interpretation. It also provides lucrative employment for armies of lawyers, on several "sides."
Pornography may use any of a variety of media - printed literature, photos, sculpture, drawing, painting, animation, sound recording, film, video, or video game. However, when sexual acts are performed for a live audience, by definition it is not pornography, as the term applies to the depiction or reproduction of the act, rather than the act itself.[source - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pornography ]"

Obviously the mention of a homosexual site with respect its wrong is definitely not a portrayal of anything to arouse "erotic" responses in any one. So the accusation was nothing but AN OUTRIGHT LIE.

Second, No where on the GayEgypt site was there any "erotic" material, and the "roughest" item was only an obviously Arab man with a bare but not in any "erotic" pose that would qualify as porn. Everything was much more tame than many beaches in France.

Third, Here is what others said of the site - clearly identifying it as a homosexual site being run by members of Islam and not a porn site:


[1] Global Gayz...Gay Egypt
Today, there is only one site -- www.gayegypt.com -- left, and it is run from ... Being gay and Muslim is another conundrum for most Egyptian homosexuals. ...
www.globalgayz.com/g-egypt2.html - 69k - Cached - Similar pages

[2] [PDF]
Internet Filtering in Iran in 2004-2005 1
File Format: PDF/Adobe Acrobat - View as HTML
Our first run of testing found blocking of 39% of sex education sites, compared with ... gayegypt.com, gay.ru, and gaytoday.badpuppy.com) as ...
[source - www.cambridge-security.net/pdf/ONI-iran-country-study.pdf]

[3] Cultural Struggle Finds Symbol in Gay Cairo
Internet sites such as GayEgypt.com had taken to describing "handsome youths" ... Gay Muslim groups in several countries have established support groups and ...
[source - www.sodomylaws.org/world/egypt/egnews49.htm]

[4] FEBRUARY 2002 - FRENCH PRESIDENT CHIRAC DENOUNCES EGYPT'S GAY ...
Already GayEgypt.com and its' satellite site Arab-Men.com are spreading the .... it was alleged that they had run an apartment for homosexual prostitution. ...
[source - www.gayegypt.com/january2002.html]

[5] Dissecting Leftism -- Large font site
Muslim against Muslim: "The latest reliable report confirms that on ...... of Terror," while the website GayEgypt.com has dubbed him the "Dr. Goebbels of ...
[source - jonjayray.blogspot.com/2005_07_01_archive.html]

[6] Prisoners of Sex
"When a Muslim dies, there is a required 30 minutes of prayer," she wrote to ... A Web site called GayEgypt.com called on Egypt's homosexuals to wear red on ...
[source - www.whrnet.org/fundamentalisms/docs/issue-prisoners-0612.html]

[7] Popular Pakistani Cross-dresser Pushing Boundaries [Archive ...
- [ Translate this page ]
Do you or others, specially our Muslim members, would like to find out if this behavior is .... Again, they run this site, they deserve to decide. ...
[source - sci.rutgers.edu/forum/archive/index.php/t-63125.html

[[Notice all those sites mention "gay" the euphemism for homosexual, not porn.]]

Fourth, Email from GayEgypt site administrator:

<<<"Many thanks for your email. re GayEgypt.com it's in large part an information site but it contains a very few photographs and a few stories which might be described as pornographic, certainly it's a website for adults 18+ only.

Please find the following links regarding essays on the Prophet Muhammad and early Islam from a Queer persepctive. The Quran, Gay Sex and the Gang Rape at Sodom. www.gayegypt.com/wasmqueer1.html The prophet marries his former slave Zaid www.gayegypt.com/wasmqueer2.html Ali becomes Muhammad's sleeping partner www.gayegypt.com/wasmqueer3.html The Quraish suspect a relationship between the Prophet and his uncle www.gayegypt.com/wasmqueer4.html The Prophet Muhammad and his relationships with older women. www.gayegypt.com/wasmqueer5.html Why early Islam needed queer relationships. www.gayegypt.com/earlyislam.html Hope that helps. Best wishes Ali Asali for GayEgypt.com .">>>

It is unquestionably a site run by members of Islam as who else would be concerned about what the Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) did that might be considered "gay", but Muslim "gays."

Falsely accusing one writing against homosexuality of posting porn when what was posted was a homosexual site quite in keeping with what was being written about. Of course the accusation is NOTHING BUT AN OUTRIGHT LIE.

Why do members of Islam so lie? Simple, to cover up the salient fact that members of Islam are running one of the largest homosexual sites in the world - they can not stand the truth, but must un-justly denounce the messenger or bringer of fact.

Here is proof that GayEgypt.com is a homosexual site not a porn site using links sent to me by web site administrator,

Email from GayEgypt site administrator:

<<<"Many thanks for your email. re GayEgypt.com it's in large part an information site but it contains a very few photographs and a few stories which might be described as pornographic, certainly it's a website for adults 18+ only.

Please find the following links regarding essays on the Prophet Muhammad and early Islam from a Queer persepctive. The Quran, Gay Sex and the Gang Rape at Sodom. www.gayegypt.com/wasmqueer1.html The prophet marries his former slave Zaid www.gayegypt.com/wasmqueer2.html Ali becomes Muhammad's sleeping partner www.gayegypt.com/wasmqueer3.html The Quraish suspect a relationship between the Prophet and his uncle www.gayegypt.com/wasmqueer4.html The Prophet Muhammad and his relationships with older women. www.gayegypt.com/wasmqueer5.html Why early Islam needed queer relationships. www.gayegypt.com/earlyislam.html Hope that helps. Best wishes Ali Asali for GayEgypt.com .">>>

Next will be presented as separate post some of the things said by GayEgypt with all 'rough' graphics stripped out.

First item of four of some of the things said by GayEgypt with all 'rough' graphics stripped out.

[1] THE PROPHET MUHAMMAD HAS A ""GAY" PARTNERSHIP WITH HIS FORMER MAN SLAVE - ZAID



There are four bases for believing that Muhammad may have had
homoerotic relationships ( possibly "platonic" ) which were either
tolerated or accepted by his contemporaries. This chapter deals with
the first.

Perhaps the closest of Muhammad's many close male relationships, one
which predated Ali's birth, was his love for his own slave Zaid.

Khadija, the Prophet's first wife, was already forty and
independently wealthy at the time of their marriage and though
beloved by the Prophet, was well past her youth. He was some fifteen
years her junior. It was moreover Khadija, not Muhammad, who first
proposed. The offer came secretly through her trusted slave Maisara
and her beloved quickly accepted. It was a marriage to a woman of
considerable wealth and influence. A wise decision for it gave him
the time, connections and influence he needed to pursue his destiny.



And as if the circumstance of the wedding were not unusual enough in
itself, Khadija presented Muhammad with a handsome sixteen year old,
Zaid, as a wedding gift. These two young men soon became virtually
inseparable - something akin to other famous heroic homoerotic
relationships such as that of the Greek fighters Achillees and
Patroclus.

Zaid had been captured hundreds of miles to the north in or near
present day Iraq and had been bought by Khadijah's nephew in the
slave-market at Ukaz and later gifted to her.

It was some time after Khadijah in turn gifted Zaid to Muhammad that
Zaid's family discovered him at Mecca. They approached the Prophet
to beg for his return and if necessary to pay whatever ransom he
might demand. Clearly they really loved him for they had travelled a
long and dangerous route across the Arabian desert to find him.

But when asked by Muhammad, what he wanted to do, Zaid announced to
his astonished family that there was no one with whom he would
rather be than Muhammad.

"I would not choose any man in preference to Muhammad. He is to me
both a father and a mother."

His real father, who had travelled hundreds of miles to rescue his
son, thought his boy had lost his sanity.

"You mean you will chose slavery above freedom, and above your
father and your uncle and your family ?"

But Zaid insisted he wanted to remain with Muhammad who now
intervened to terminate the painful quarrel. Walking with Zaid to
the Kaaba, even then the most sacred spot in Mecca, he announced
loudly, so that all could hear, that

"All who hear this, bear witness, that Zayd is now my son. He is my
heir and I am his."

But there is another even more astonishing twist to the story of
their relationship. When the prophet was in his fifties, Muhammad
decided to marry Zaid's wife Zainab bint Jahash. But his decision
seems to have been motivated by Zaid's own unhappinness with the
marriage and not by any Caligula like obsession with another man's
wife. Zaid was always much more close to Muhammad than to his wife
Zainab, and had only married her reluctantly.

Nevertheless, if it is really true that Muhammad had earlier
pronounced Zaid to be his son in front of the Kaaba, he was now
marrying his daughter-in-law - an unthinkable scandal even in
pre-Islamic Arabia. This would never have been accepted by his
followers.

A more credible explanation is that Muhammad, in that moment of
great emotional turmoil when Zaid had, perhaps against Muhammad's
own expectations, chosen him over his own family, decided to make a
very public declaration of his love for Zaid. It is probable that he
never mentioned the word "son" in the declaration but only that Zaid
would be his heir and he Zaid's - in effect announcing that they
were just as close as man and wife. Later, however, Muhammad's
biographers chose to cover this up by declaring that Muhammad had
actually adopted Zaid as his "son."



In later years, Zaid's loyalty and bravery was to prove invaluable
to both the Prophet and the success of Islam, especailly after the
death of Muhammad's wife, Khadija, and his influential Uncle, Abu
Talib.

On one ocassion he accompanied Muhammad by foot across the desert to
Taif, an impressive achievement for the Prophet who was by then
fifty and well past his peak of fitness. But there was a cool
reception for the tired party. Crowds pelted the unwelcome new
preacher with stones and Zaid had to grab and shield the Prophet
with his own body.

Soon afterwards Zaid became the first general to be appointed in
Muhammad's new army of Islam and died bravely leading a small force
against a vast Byzantime army at the battle of Moota in the year 8AH
(630). Muhammad's youngest wife Aisha was sure that had he not died
the Prophet would have appointed his former slaveboy as his
successor.

The wife of one of the Prophet's companions related that Muhammad's
appearance, on hearing the news of Zaid's death, changed completely
and that "a veil of sadness" descended. The Prophet's only
consolation was that his beloved Zaid had died a martyr and he told
those who came to console him not to worry.

“I see Zaid on a golden bed in Paradise."

It is intriguing that in the Quran ( The Believers 023.005 - 023.006
) we read that Allah asks men to guard their modesty from all except
their wives and their slaves. A sexual relationship with a slave
such as Zaid would not have been seen as a sin like adultery as it
posed no threat to a marriage. However, we might speculate that once
Muhammad declared Zaid as his heir and implicitly freeing him from
slavery, then any sexual relationship would have had to have been
either terminated or in the unlikely event of it continuing, then it
would have had to have been well hidden from wider society.




RETURN TO A QUEER HISTORY OF EARLY ISLAM - CONENTS PAGE

Second item of four of some of the things said by GayEgypt with all 'rough' graphics stripped out.

[2] MUHAMMAD'S COUSIN ALI IS HIS CONSTANT COMPANION AND SLEEPING PARTNER.

Two unknown lovers (left) are from a work typical of the Islamic
Mughal Empire. Ali probably shared a bed with the Prophet from his
late teens but there is no evidence of sexual intimacy, though it's
a little naive to imagine nothing ever happened. As one historian
wrote " [Muhammad] often made [Ali] sleep by his side, and Ali
enjoyed the warmth of Muhammad's body and inhaled the holy fragrance
of his breath." Indeed, there is not one of Muhammad's fifteen wives
who continuously shared the same living quarters with the prophet
for as long as Ali. From his youth, until the prophet's death, Ali
was always living either in the prophet's home or in an adjacent
apartment.

This chapter looks at the second reason we have for thinking that
the Prophet Muhammad may have been queer. It is his relationship
with young men and in particular his bond with Ali which was
arguably the most important in the Prophet's life. It was certainly
more intense and longer lasting than any of his ten marriages.

( This relationship takes place years after the Prophet Muhammad's
marriage to his man slave Zaid - see previous chapter. )

The prophet surrounded himself mostly, though there were a few
notable exceptions, with young male converts. Indeed, most of them
were much younger than him; men in their teens and early twenties.
This is intriguing. More mature men would have given his movement
much greater respect by virtue of their seniority. But by courting
almost exclusively the companionship of younger men Muhammad
deepened the suspicions of their parents and elder kinsmen. He also
embarrassed and alienated the city elders and even many of his own
companions in both Mecca and Yathrib [ Medina ].

For instance, late in his life, Muhammad was often seen in the
company of Usama ibn Zaid, his former servant's son. Sometimes they
even shared a camel together, Usama mounted behind. But Muhammad's
companions were astonished when he appointed this teenager ( he was
then just eighteen years old ) to head an expedition against Syria
in 10AH ( 632AD ). The planned campaign was considered so difficult
that only the original muhajirin and ansar were employed and these
veteran soldiers were severely critical of the Prophet for placing
them under the command of an inexperienced and beardless youth.
Muhammad responded that

"Your criticism of his leadership is just like your earlier
criticism of his father's appointment to command. Yet it was God who
gave his father all the qualities necessary to command and he was
one of my dearest and closest companions. His son is also someone I
love dearly." [ Ibn Kathir ]

Not surprisingly little is written about what happened to the
expedition beyond the claim that it returned with a few prisoners
taken from a Red Sea port.

There are also many examples from more everyday events. In one
instance ten years before, when the fifty two year old Messenger of
God first arrived in Yathrib, after his narrow and arduous escape
from his assassins in Mecca, he chose to place both himself and his

See Page Two:

[iris89]

Page Two:

baggage in the care of a young man - Khalid ibn Zaid. This seems to
have frustrated many of his older followers who insisted he stay
with them. Muhammad struggled a little to justify his decision,
responding somewhat feebly that "A man should never be separated
from his baggage."

A few weeks earlier, it was a group of Meccan elders who had plotted
Muhammad's murder. Not only had Muhammad been denouncing their gods
but several of them had "lost" younger members of their families to
Muhammad's new faith.

The sheiks hired cutthroats to burst into Muhammad's appartment late
one night. The assassins discovered his twenty three year old
beloved cousin, Ali, lying on the prophet's bed. Muhammad himself
had disappeared just a few hours earlier.

Historians claim that Ali was sleeping in the Prophet's bed as part
of a deliberate ploy to buy time. Muhammad's enemies, who were known
to be observing the house, would be deceived. They would, it was
hoped, peer in through a window and see Ali and assume, naturally
enough, that it was Muhammad asleep.

Though this could be an explanation, it is surprising that Muhammad
should have chosen a man less than half his age to play his double,
especially as it would have put his nephew at risk. As a relative
and as Muhammad's most trusted follower, Ali might easily have been
killed by less discriminating assassins. Especially since his
father, Muhammad's uncle Abu Talib, had recently died and therefore
any threat of retribution would have been greatly reduced.

As a decoy Abu Talib's youngest son was also a poor choice. Ali was
a strikingly handsome youth who would not easily have been mistaken
for the middle aged prophet. He was muscular and broad shouldered
with a straight nose and a beautifully formed mouth. The prophet
himself confessed that

"Looking upon Ali is worship," [ Ibn Asakir on the authority of
Caliph Abubakr ] and that "Ali would appear [even] to the dwellers
of paradise as a morning star." [Sawai'q muhari'qa.]

But let us return to the scene which greeted the assassins. The idea
that Ali was lying in Muhammad's bed as a "decoy" seems a little far
fetched. Moreover it ignores the fact that Muhammad frequently
shared a bed with Ali. As one historian wrote -

"He [Muhammad] often made [Ali] sleep by his side, and Ali enjoyed
the warmth of Muhammad's body and inhaled the holy fragrance of his
breath."

Indeed, there is not one of Muhammad's ten wives who continuously
shared the same living quarters with the prophet for as long as Ali.
From his youth, until the prophet's death, Ali was always living
either in the prophet's home or in an adjacent apartment.

Enjoying such a close and continuous proximity to the Prophet and
quickly aquiring an authority above those much older than himself,
Ali soon provoked jealousy and anger among some of the Prophet's
companions. On several ocassions Muhammad had to warn his followers
against any inclination to conspire against the young man.

Just after completing what was to be his final pilgrimmage in 632,
at a place called Ghadir Khumm on the road between Mecca and Medina,
Muhammad addressed an assembled crowd of many thousands. Holding
Ali's hand and raising it high, he declared that "Anyone whose
Guardian I have been has Ali as his Guardian. Oh God protect anyone
who protects him and opose anyone who opposes him. Ali is of me and
I am of him," and according to one source [ Ibn Abu Bukayr ] even
told his listeners that "No one settles debts on my behalf except
myself or Ali." Clearly the Prophet wanted to make everyone aware
not only that there was no one he trusted as much as Ali, but that
he and Ali were so close spiritually that he thought of Ali and
himself as a single spirit occupying two bodies.

When, only a few months later, Muhammad died, it was in the arms of
Ali. It was Ali who emerged from under a blanket, which covered them
both, to announce that the Prophet was dead.

It is not surprising that some of Muhammad's followers suspected
that there was more to this relationship than mere bonds of
friendship and cousinly kinship. One such instance occurred during
the siege of Tayef which occupied a strategic position some sixty
miles to the south east of Mecca.

Ali was returning from an expedition into the surrounding
countryside. Muhammad greeted him effusively and they both
dissappeared into Muhammad's quarters. The prophet didn't allow
anyone to enter and as hour succeeded hour, those outside began to
wonder what was happening and murmur among themselves. When Muhammad
finally emerged they challenged him, but the prophet explained to
his somewhat incredulous listeners that

"God himself had inspired Ali with Divine Secrets, and that it was
for this reason that he was engaged in confidential discourse so
long."

Muhammad managed a more convincing eloquence when he confessed his
love for his younger cousin.

"Ali and I, fourteen thousand years before the creation of mankind,
were one light. When Allah created Adam, he split this light into
two, one of which I am and the other is Ali." [Salman]

This romantic vision of the past and present is fascinatingly
similar to that described a thousand years earlier by Plato when he
attempted to explain the origin of homosexuality. In Plato's
Symposium the reason for the power of all love, heterosexual and
homosexual, is the need to be reunited with one's "other half." At
the beginning of mankind each person was composed of two halfs -
either male-male, female-female or male-female - until the gods cut
them all into two; thereby creating the powerful desire to be
reunited, manifesting itself in either heterosexual or homoerotic
desire.

Though Muhammad adored Ali as his "other half," he did not try to
stop his beloved when Ali asked his permission to marry a woman.
It's not clear, however, whether Ali's desire to tie the knot was
motivated more by his love for his bride to be or his love for
Muhammad, for when he finally married, of all the possible partners
he might have chosen, he chose Fatima, the Prophet's daughter. The
balance of probability is that the marriage was born out of
formality rather than infatuation, and was designed as a ritualistic
cement for Muhammad's and Ali's long-standing, but still passionate,
partnership.

The marriage, though it involved close relatives, did not offend
Quraishi values and similarly the discreet homoerotic union between
Muhammad and his beloved cousin Ali did not bring either the Prophet
or Ali [who later became Caliph] into any disrepute.

RETURN TO A QUEER HISTORY OF EARLY ISLAM - CONTENTS PAGE

Third item of four of some of the things said by GayEgypt with all 'rough' graphics stripped out.

[3] THE QURAISH SUSPECTED A RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN THE PROPHET AND HIS OWN UNCLE.

The third reason we have for supposing that the Prophet Muhammad was
queer is the unusual fondness of his uncle Abu Talib [ who never
converted to Islam ] for the prophet which seems to have been
regarded by others in the Quraish as homoerotic.

Though there is no evidence of any physical relationship, Muhammad
was more than willing to rely continuously on his Uncle's protection
and seems to have held a great and strong affection for him. Nothing
surprising in that.

But when the Meccan elders challenged Abu Talib, who by virtue of
kinship acted as Muhammad's protector, and requested him to
relinquish his protection of his nephew who so mocked their religion
and practices, they offered him another man "as a son" - who they
claimed was the most handsome man of all the Quraish. In other words
Mecca's sheikhs who had for years been in daily contact with Abu
Talib, himself a senior and respected elder among the Quraish, felt
they had a chance of convincing the man to turn a blind eye to his
own nephew's assassination in return for the gift of the city's most
handsome young man !

There seems a strong hint here that this was an attachment which
others, rightly or wrongly, thought was homoerotic. Otherwise, why
did they make Abu Talib such an offer ? There's no indication,
however, that Muhammad reciprocated in any physical way. But Abu
Talib's high status in Mecca and the deference, atleast until his
death, which Muhammad's enemies showed the man in respecting his
publicly proclaimed protection of the Prophet, suggests that a
"homoerotic" inclination, even if well-known, was no hindrance to
social status. And this may explain how the Prophet himself was
later able to win so much deep respect and admiration, despite his
sexual orientation.

RETURN TO THE QUEER HISTORY OF EARLY ISLAM - CONTENTS PAGE

Fourth item of four of some of the things said by GayEgypt with all 'rough' graphics stripped out.

[4] WHY EARLY ISLAM NEEDED QUEER RELATIONSHIPS.

EXPLAINING THE EARLY ISLAMIC TOLERANCE OF SAME-SEX SEXUALITY - OR
HOW BOTH "QUEER"* RELATIONSHIPS AND "QUEER"* MEN WERE VITAL TO
ISLAM'S EARLY SURVIVAL

There were few laws to protect the individual in sixth century
Arabia from assault, theft, abduction or other crimes. Free men
depended on their relatives, and slaves on their slave masters for
protection.

Unfortunately the followers of Islam, by rejecting the traditional
Meccan polytheist religion, often found themselves alone. Father was
divided from son, brother from brother, nephew from uncle. Those
Muhajirin ( emmigrants ) who followed the Prophet to Medina found
themselves separated from their families spiritually by their new
faith and physically by the very real divide of the desert. The
distance between the two cities being some fourteen days by camel.

Many of the young Muhajirin could not look to older influential
family relatives for protection. For them it was essential to bond
closely with another man. And many of them announced publicly ties
of "brotherhood" with their chosen "companions". Even Muhammad, soon
after arriving in Medina, announced that Ali was to be considered as
his brother - even though he was infact a cousin. But he was an
exception. Most others made partnerships with men who were not
otherwise related by blood.

The new Islamic society born in Medina was, like the Spartans of
ancient Greece, a highly militaristic one. Not only was there a very
real threat of attack from the majority of Meccans who still
rejected Islam and who were suspicious about Muhammad's long term
aims, but the necessities of economic survival also required
Muhammad to launch piratic attacks against traders from Mecca and
other "unfriendly" tribes.

The size of Muhammad's military expeditions were small, generally
much smaller than those of his enemies. With hand to hand combat
always the crucial aspect of any battle, the loyalty of one's
immediate companions was vital. As with the outnumbered Spartans
whose army of three hundred gay lovers fought with legendary courage
and self-sacrifice against the Persian army at Thermopylae in 480BC,
there is considerable evidence that Muhammad's soldiers also fought
in pairs. With other Arabian tribal armies this might have meant two
brothers fighting together or perhaps a freed man alongside his
former master.

The battles of early Islam, however, witnessed brother opposing
brother, nephew battling uncle ( Ali ibn Abu Talib famously faced
his uncle Amr ibn Abd Wudd in a duel during the siege of Medina )
and sometimes slaves fighting their former masters. So, the only
real options were bonds built from either deep friendship or love.

It would be fanciful to assume that either of these types of bonding
existed entirely without the other. Certainly we know that the
camaraderie was intense and that Muhammad often gave instructions
for soldiers to be buried in pairs. According to Ibn Kathir "he
would join in the same grave two men who had been close friends."
The symbolism of such joint burials suggests that these friendships
were far stronger and deeper than the camaraderie of the modern
parade ground and it is difficult to refuse the notion that many of
these men could have been lovers.

This must have been especially true as Muhammad's armies were
comprised predominantly of youths and young men whose enthusiasm,
ocassionally bordering on the reckless, played a roll in both
Muhammad's military successes such as at Badr and in some costly
mistakes, such as at Uhud when many of the Muhajirin were too
impatient to attack.

It was an extremely youthful army by any historical standard. Boys
could become soldiers once they turned fifteen. The polytheist
Meccans were contemptuous of Muhammad's recruits, dismissing them as
"young gazelles." The Prophet's young soldiers in turn ridiculed
their Meccan opponents as "bald old women like camels bound for
sacrifice."

Any military man knows that at such a young age attachments with
other young men in the face of extreme danger often borders on the
homoerotic and almost inevitably on a friendship deeper than that of
most marital love. It seems likely that in such circumstances,
homoerotic relationships would have been tolerated as an accepted,
even indispensable aspect, of a tightly knit military society.

While such homoerotic relationships were vital to early Islam's
political and military survival, they did not preclude those
involved marrying women and setting up a family as soon as the
opportunity arose. In fact many such men may have been bisexual or
even heterosexual to the extent that they may have prefered women as
sexual partners given the freedom to chose. However there is also
evidence that individuals who we would now call "gay" and who showed
no signs of sexual attraction towards women, also played a
significant role in early Islam.

The prophet himself relied on eunuchs or mukhannathun, men who
lacked heterosexual desires, to guard his own harem. There is no
evidence that these men were usually castrated although this became
normal practise in later Islamic history. However it seems that at
the time of the Prophet most were considered to be mukhannathun by
nature. Muhammad himself told one man that it was not up to him or
any man, but to God, to decide who was and who was not a eunuch,
reminding him that " the ink is already dry. So be a eunuch for that
reason or leave it alone." [ ya Aba Horairata, jaffa al-qalam bimaa
anta laaq fa'akhtasi 'alaa dhalika au dhar ] ( Bukhari, LXII 8 ).

Muhammad gave such men a unique freedom. They were allowed into such
normally private spaces where another man's wife might be unveilled
but they were also allowed, like other men, to enter the "men only"
sections of the mosque.

This special place for eunuchs in society is recognized in the Quran
-

" Tell all believing women to lower their eyes, and maintain their
chastity. They should never reveal any part of their body, except as
absolutely necessary. They should cover their chests, and should
maintain this modesty in the presence of anyone other than their
....[ immediate family members ]..., children, other women and male
employees who lack the normal defining traits of men [ ie men who
lack heterosexual desires ]." ( Surah 24:31 )

Only if, as happened in one notorious instance, the mukhannath was
exposed as a pretender secretly harbouring heterosexual desires,
could he be deprived of such privileges. Ibn `Abd al-Barr, refering
to an account related by A`isha, the Prophet`s wife, declared that
"the Prophet did not prevent that mukhannath from being in the
company of his own wives until he heard him describing the daughter
of Ghaylaan and realized that he knew too much about women. Only
then did he issue instructions that the man be barred from being in
the company of his wives."

The mukhannathun were highly valued as household servants and as
arrangers of marriages. Since they were the only men allowed into
close proximity of women regardless of whether or not such women
were family members, they alone could act unhindered as messengers
carrying proposals from one private space to another.

They were also given the exclusive right of appointment to certain
prestigious positions banned to other men. We know, for instance,
that atleast as far back as the twelth century, that it was only
mukhannathun who were allowed to guard the prophet's grave. A
tradition that was maintained until the end of Ottoman rule in the
twentieth century.


All above provided to prove beyond doubt the nature of the site; to wit, a Muslim homosexual site.

Your Friend in Christ Iris89