Spanishleaf - Archive:)

Resources for LGBTQ+ Muslims

A few days ago, I came across a document I had created nearly a year ago when I was first beginning to seriously consider that I could be bisexual. In the document were a myriad of links and resources I had found that discussed being queerness and Muslim. I thought that these links and resources, which had taken me last year a while to compile, could inshAllah help any other Muslims who identify as queer, are questioning or are struggling to reconcile certain parts of their identity together. Some of these resources provide explicit reconciliation for LGBTQ+ Muslims, while others thoroughly explore several views of LGBTQ+ within Islam and the Muslim community, including views that are disagreeing, homophobic and/or hostile. InshAllah, I will add more as I find more. While I tried to look into these resources thoroughly, some of the longer ones were skimmed through at some parts. Anyone is welcomed to add more, and please, let me know if there are any problems found in this post and/or the resources listed below.

TW // Several of these resources either briefly mention or thoroughly discuss sexual violence, homophobia, transphobia, problematic age gaps, Islamophobia, assault, hate crimes, discrimination against the LGBTQ+ community, questionable/ambiguous age gaps and unbalanced power dynamics.

Platforms, Organizations and/or Guides That Contain a Multitude of Articles, Essays, Resources, Sermons, Stories of the Prophet (PBUH), Proofs from the Quran & Hadiths, or Groups for Muslims to Explore and Join:

Muslims for Progressive Values

Queer Jihad

Salaam Canada

I’m Muslim And I Might Not Be Straight

I’m Muslim And My Gender Doesn’t Fit Me

The Muslim Alliance for Sexual & Gender Diversity

Coming Home to Islam and to Self

Mecca Institute

Queer Muslim Resistance

Queer Muslim Reading Group

Resources Organized by Queer Muslim Resistance –> Highly, highly recommend this! The documents included in this folder explore films, books, podcasts, books, literature, accounts, poetry and many articles that are resources for queer Muslims.

What Imams/Scholars Have to Say:

There are 8 openly Gay imams in the world

A gay IMAM’S story: ‘the dialogue is open in Islam – 10 years ago it wasn’t’

Q&A: Islamic scholar Omar Suleiman on the Quran and homosexuality

Affirming mosques help gay Muslims RECONCILE Faith, sexuality

Essentialism and islamic theology of homosexuality: A critical reflection on an essentialist epistemology toward same-sex desires and acts in islam

Includes Evidence and/or References to the Quran and Hadiths:

Q&A: Islamic scholar Omar Suleiman on the Quran and homosexuality

Opinion | What Does Islam Say About Being Gay? (Published 2015)

Stances of Faiths on LGBTQ Issues: Islam - Sunni and Shi'a - HRC

Affirming mosques help gay Muslims RECONCILE Faith, sexuality

Essentialism and islamic theology of homosexuality: A critical reflection on an essentialist epistemology toward same-sex desires and acts in islam

Islamic Texts: A Source for Acceptance of Queer Individuals into Mainstream Muslim Society

The Qur’an, the Bible and homosexuality in Islam

A Muslim Non-Heteronormative Reading of the Story of Lot: Liberation Theology for LGBTIQ Muslims?

What’s wrong with being gay and Muslim?

Sexual Diversity in Islam

Homosexuality, Transidentity, and Islam

Queer Muslims (+ their experiences) and Community:

What’s wrong with being gay and Muslim?

Gay Muslims - How you can be LGBTQ+ and Muslim

What’s it like to be queer and Muslim? Let this photographer show you

Lut’s People: The struggle to be gay & Muslim in South Africa

As a trans Muslim, I used to feel vulnerable all the time. Then I found a community of people like me.

Persian poetry lovers

‘I feel caught in the middle’: queer Muslims on the LGBTQ lessons row

Just Me and Allah: A Queer Muslim Photo Project

How Queer Muslims are Rewriting Their Stories

Queer Muslim Heroes to Celebrate This Muslim Women’s Day

Queer Muslim Women Reflect On Navigating Their Faith and Sexuality

Queer Muslims Are Carving Out Their Space On TikTok

Why Samra Habib wrote a memoir about growing up as a queer Muslim woman — and it’s now a Canada Reads winner

Being a black, British, queer, non-binary Muslim isn’t a contradiction

Bangladesh opens first Islamic school for transgender Muslims

Affirming mosques help gay Muslims RECONCILE Faith, sexuality

Interview: Summayah Dawud talks about being a transgender Muslim woman

“It’s between me and Allah!”: Queer Muslims explain how they reconcile faith with love

Homosexuality, Transidentity, and Islam

Views Throughout History:

A historical look at attitudes to homosexuality in the Islamic world

Gay Sex Didn’t Scare Muslims in Islam’s Golden Age

Medieval Arab Lesbians and Lesbian-Like Women

The Amazing Way Islamic Middle Ages Celebrated Lesbian Loves

How homosexuality became a crime in the Middle East

Vanishing Source Materials and Medieval Arabic Lesbianism, by Boyda Johnstone

The Historical Context and Reception of the First Arabic-Lesbian Novel, I Am You, by Elham Mansour

Study examines the same-sex relationships of Medieval Arab Women

Persian poetry lovers

Sexual Diversity in Islam

The Qur’an, the Bible and homosexuality in Islam

Literature and Poetry:

A historical look at attitudes to homosexuality in the Islamic world

Gay Sex Didn’t Scare Muslims in Islam’s Golden Age

Study examines the same-sex relationships of Medieval Arab Women

How homosexuality became a crime in the Middle East

Vanishing Source Materials and Medieval Arabic Lesbianism, by Boyda Johnstone

Persian poetry lovers

For Queer Muslims, Islamic Poetry Represents Solace and Acceptance

Male-Male Love in Classical Arabic Poetry (Chapter 6) - The Cambridge History of Gay and Lesbian Literature

Persian Literature from Homoeroticism to Representations of the LGBT Community: an Introduction

The Amazing Way Islamic Middle Ages Celebrated Lesbian Loves

If I see explicit hate of any kind (from TERFs, or promoting transphobia, Islamophobia, homophobia, racism and/or discrimination of any kind), I will report and block.

Trees, like animals, can also experience albinism, though it is extremely rare.

Would anyone be willing to provide a comprehensive list of every day bills? Trying to budget at least theoretically before I leave home but I’m dumb and don’t want to be blind sided

My Digital book library

Hey so I have made a google drive with a bunch of books in it. Right now it is view only, but you should be able to download the books onto your computer. All I ask is don’t “link to” your own google drive cuz then i think it actually moves stuff and I spent a long time setting this up. Thanks.

Link to Drive: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1BTXUPcCniydI1CIT90oNJ75naQVcIDcz?usp=sharing

Link to suggestion list: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1iABw52vkkJAmTkCX-n6KnL3_dBpooI0gYaT9qdit6vg/edit?usp=sharing

afternoon and my desk

Something I need y’all youngins to understand growing up in the age of crypto and streaming is that digital ownership is not ownership. Digital ownership is renting.

If you have, say, House (2022) on Netflix. That new stop motion movie. You don’t own that movie. You pay to have access, to that movie, but you don’t physically own it. It isn’t yours to take with you or put in a blu ray player. You’re paying to maybe watch it.

The movie is something you can access so long as Netflix is active and you pay for access. If one of those things changes you no longer can see that movie. If the movie goes to a different streaming service it is gone. (You should buy any movie you want to see again or would be sad if it left streaming).

Same with digital video games. Silent Hills PT is a playable trailer that, because of the Kojima/Konami dispute, was pulled from PSN. You cannot download it anymore. A physical disc cannot be taken from you, it can always be put in your console and played. Having the physical game is owning it having the downloaded game is renting it.

You’re promised these things forever but you only have access to rented digital goods for as long as the site supports it. And eventually that will change. You can pop in a Mario 64 cartridge into your N64 anytime you want and play. You cannot download a digital copy of Halo 2 to an original xbox because that support has been shut down (and modern consoles don’t let you carry your entire library on your system storage). If you have a disc of Horizon Zero Dawn you can always play it. If you have a digital copy that will go away given enough time.

Same with digital card games. Magic the Gathering has had multiple online formats. When they close one to make another your entire collection is gone. They offer you the idea of collecting but it only means anything if the servers are active. Physical cards can always be used and can even be used in inventive ways like horde mode. That’s how commander/EDH got its start.

Spotify is great for music exploration but download music you like. Go to the library and check out cd’s to put on your computer or go to bandcamp and get albums DRM free. My family switched itunes email accounts in 2011 and its junked up 3 years of purchases requiring us to rebuy them.

As much as NFT bros want you to believe it digital ownership is NOT ownership. The concept of digital ownership relies on false scarcity (minting a limited number of NFT’s when more could have been made) and a few clever words to make you think the netflix library is YOUR movie library. Its really fucking convenient for big businesses who can squeeze every drop of money out of you without giving anything tangible in return.

Digital ownership is NOT ownership.

‘Man shouldn’t be able to see his own face – there’s nothing more sinister. Nature gave him the gift of not being able to see it, and of not being able to stare into his own eyes.

Only in the water of rivers and ponds could he look at his face. And the very posture he had to assume was symbolic. He had to bend over, stoop down, to commit the ignominy of beholding himself.

The inventor of the mirror poisoned the human heart.’

— Fernando Pessoa, The Book of Disquiet (1982)

My Digital book library

Hey so I have made a google drive with a bunch of books in it. Right now it is view only, but you should be able to download the books onto your computer. All I ask is don’t “link to” your own google drive cuz then i think it actually moves stuff and I spent a long time setting this up. Thanks.

Link to Drive: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1BTXUPcCniydI1CIT90oNJ75naQVcIDcz?usp=sharing

Link to suggestion list: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1iABw52vkkJAmTkCX-n6KnL3_dBpooI0gYaT9qdit6vg/edit?usp=sharing

So I've been meaning to start a german diary for a while now and I did it today after seeing this post (which is, funnily enough, a screenshot of a Tumblr post, which I couldn't find).

Drive w/ DBT (Dialectical Behavior Therapy) Books

I thought I’d share some DBT books that I’ve found in case anyone finds them useful! Click here for a small Drive folder of 8 books (will add more if I can find more or if anyone has recommendations!)

If you don’t know what DBT is: DBT stands for dialectical behavior therapy and was initially developed to treat borderline personality disorder (BPD), but has also been used for other mental illnesses. Personally, I’ve used DBT for anorexia, generalized anxiety disorder, depression, and OCD with therapists, so I know it’s at least used for those disorders. DBT was first developed by Marsha M. Linehan, a psychologist who has BPD herself, which I think is interesting and important since in my experience, it can be difficult to find clinicians who can actually relate to the experience of having a mental illness. One of the best things about DBT in my opinion is that you can do it yourself! My personal experience in DBT has mostly been as a patient in formal hospitalization or partial hospitalization settings, but it’s very adaptable, so I think it’s great if you are unable to access therapy or other resources.

There are four basic modules of DBT: mindfulness, which is based on accepting one’s present situation without judgement; distress tolerance, which focuses on developing skills to get through intense emotions or crises without resorting to self-destructive behavior; emotional regulation, which emphasizes recognizing and adjusting emotions; and interpersonal effectiveness, which focuses on communication skills with others. Personally, I find distress tolerance and emotional regulation the most helpful, but everyone’s different!