Faisal Alam, himself a rather amateur public speaker, behaved more like a CAIR apologist than an advocate of human rights during the first section of his talk. Alam went through a typical list of CAIR-esque talking points, including the derivation of the word "Islam" from the word "salaam," peace (thus Islam is a "religion of peace"), the relatively small number of radicals in Islam, and how conflicts in the Middle East, such as the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, have been "hijacked" (no pun intended) by Islamic religious radicals. The Hans Wehr Dictionary of Modern Written Arabic, however--the dictionary used in Arabic classes at CGU--makes very clear that "Islam" itself means "submission." As for radicals comprising a "small number," polls show that around 40% of British Muslims favor implementing Sharia law in Great Britain. And certainly the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is complex, but undoubtedly Grand Mufti al-Husseini played a large role in escalating it. Based on flimsy claims such as these, Alam tried to argue that there is no "clash of civilizations" between the West and radical Islam; rather laughably, he cited Pope Benedict XVI's visit to a Turkish mosque as proof that Islam and Christianity have "no conflict"--perhaps he would do better to read this pope's words rather than just stare at him in photographs.
CAIR's version of Islam was only an unnecessarily lengthy precursor to the main part of Alam's talk, though. Alam described the experience of growing up in a very religious Muslim home, becoming very committed to Islam himself, and then gradually discovering his homosexuality. Of his time during college, Alam says that he "exploded out of the closet where over the course of one summer I knew every gay bar in Boston." Alam quickly followed this thought with the hint, "If you guys are ever in Boston and want to know where to hang out, let me know and I'll tell you." That's right, the Queer Resource Center sponsors speakers who publicly encourage promiscuity. With no mention of drug-resistant staph infection or that syphilis is skyrocketing among the "gay" community in our own back yard. Just one more piece of evidence that the Queer Resource Center is a cynical organization that cares little for the welfare of homosexual students, so long as it can manipulate them as political pawns.
During the question and answer session, Alam asserted that the Islamic world only began to look down upon "LGBT" lifestyles after Victorian sexual mores were exported to the Middle East by colonial influence in the 19th century. Recalling the last line of this event's flier, I asked Alam, "Since we're talking about exporting western values, could you comment more on the 'war on terror' and how that's affecting LGBT people in the Middle East? Do you think, given the huge influence of fundamentalist evangelicals in the Bush administration, that this war is their attempt to export their beliefs and affect LGBT people in the Middle East?" Alam's emphatic response was, "Yes. Exactly." He then went on to mock ABc (Abstinence, Being faithful to one's spouse, and condoms as a last resort) prevention programs in Africa, apparently oblivious that Uganda, the most successful African nation in combating the spread of HIV, has benefited entirely from this approach.
So there you have it. The Queer Resource Center hosts a speaker who says that the Pope likes Islam, encourages youth to have promiscuous, risky gay sex, and thinks that Evangelicals started the war on terror to persecute "LGBT" Muslims. And this is the organization that we trust to help homosexual students?
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6 comments:
I normally don't ask this kind of a question, but doesn't anyone else find it odd that the Muslim LGBT movement has grown almost entirely in the West?
Sure seems like we're intolerant.
Why is it that LGBT activists never protest such gay-friendly regimes as Iran?
So these guys actually think that the war on terror is behind oppression of gays in the Muslim world?
I appreciate that you did not enjoy the talk. I understand that the speaker may not have been as dynamic as some would have hoped. But, you've made some pretty bold statements about the QRC and its agenda that are unfounded and you have completely distorted Faisal's words to suite you own purpose of soiling the QRC's name.
How does "hanging out in gay bars" insinuate promotion of promiscuous sex? Do all straight people who frequent bars have promiscuous sex? Have you ever been to a gay bar or does your information come from Queer as Folk and the Lword? matter of fact have you been to a bar? Or have any of your friends? Because by your reasoning, you all must be promiscuous.
As for religious involvement in the war on terror...the point is that the US is in the business of trying to make other people adopt our values ( which isn't really up for debate. Every country does it when they send people out to "help less fortunate people" or when war is waged) Programs like ABC completely disregard LGBT students. The ABCs simply were not intended to include LGBT people. How do Queer women benefit from condom usage? Or was this post meant only to address gay men? But wait, didn't you criticize condom use promotion in another post? hmmm....
I am offended that you stand on your heteronormative soapbox and make crass and erroneous assumption about the Queer community and the QRC.
You have accused the TSL of warping stories and twisting words to suit their own agenda...but really, isn't that what you do?
Charles, tolerance is a poor substitute for acceptance.
Daniel, no one thinks the only oppresion to the Queer community is the War on Terror. But it sure as hell doesn't help when people use it as an excuse to discriminate against Queer people.
p.s. The QRC does not only serve the needs of "homosexual" students. Do some research. LGBT does not stand for homosexual.
I'll let my friends reply to the parts where they are called out by name.
My response to the question that acceptance is not the same as tolerance is "so?"
You cannot force someone to accept something that is contra to their lifestyle.
And for the sake of clarity, I'm also pretty sure we all know what LGBT is.
1) Charles, if you have lived in a Muslim country, you would realize the code of silence and shame that comes with being know as gay then you would understand why LBGT community remains underground. Also, Muslim LBGT movement in the West is about speaking to their own community, who, like many immigrants, become more hard-line in response to dealing with culture shock.
2) Dan, all oppression is connected.
Please watch this video Staceyann Chin video. As I side note, I watch this video at least once a week since I have discovered it.
3) To second one of Charles's comments (at first, I think), we need to get over being acceptable by hateful people. It is very self-harming to seek the acceptance of those who hate or disrespect you. We need to learn from black women writers like Ntozake Shange, bell hooks, Alice Walker, and Toni Morrison who show the internal damage it causes when you seek the love of people who cannot or will not love us in return.
3) I cannot speak for the opening since I showed up late to the event, but I can speak Arabic as a beginning student of the language. Using any Arabic-English dictionary to understand a meaning of an Arabic words is misleading since the level of polysemy in Arabic is so great that you will obviously miss a meaning or too. Saalam means peace and Islam does mean submission. Islam and saalam must be related since they shared the same three consonant core, i.e. s-l-m. Given this connection, it become clear that in Islam, one has peace through submission to Allah. This understand is borne out in much of the verse of the Qu'ran, but that is a topic for another day.
4)I second the anon's statement that visiting a bar goes mean you had sex.
5) I am also offended when writers think that people can't listen to a speech for form their own opinions, just like they did. No matter what you may think of your fellow 5C students, the majority of them are not so stupid that they cannot think for themselves. This position that any sponsored speech you don't agree with is meant to brainwash others is unsupported and its implications elitist.
6)David, I was there for your question, and you have shading the truth. His critique of ABC is line with what I have heard from a number of African activist that it is have become a AB policy. No promoting the use of condoms is unrealistic when make people dying from AIDS are married women whose husbands have no interest in A or B. It is also somewhat disingenuous to critique him on not criticizing the Vatican when you expressly asked about "evangelicals and Bush administration." You get what you ask for.
7) The line about the "clash of civilizations" is Manichean world view which makes the situation worse. As long as the debate remains us vs. them, we will kill each other until we reach our mutual destruction. Terrorism is wrong, but we need to use the social and political problems in MENA countries that have led people to develop this destructive world view. Being in Morocco shortly after the most recent suicide bombing in Casa , I understand how hard it is for moderate Muslims to speak out when terrorist movements and their governments seek to silence them. From my experiences in France, radical movements develop in the West when society that seems indifferent to the social and political marginalization of the immigrant population.
You can say a lot about his imperfect presentation of Muslim-Christian relations, but I wanted to get some basic things clear.
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