Sexual Minority Politics: Thoughts on the Muslim Political Position

By Grace Mubashir, New Age Islam

18 January 2023

The Social Rhetoric That Goes By The Name Of Anti-Liberalism Turns Out To Be Mere Ideology In Today's Indian Context Which Cannot Shake The Power Of The Fascists. Fascists Have A History Of Promoting Ideological Exercises Aimed At The Socially Marginalized.

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Muslim minority politics needs to be prepared to go beyond the language of prosecution and confront sexual minority politics. A political solidarity that takes difference seriously needs to develop. The reduction of modernist criticism and criticism of liberalism to superficial moralism helps Islamophobes.

Both the sexual minority community and the Muslim minority community in India need to unite in the fight against oppression while maintaining their mutual differences of opinion. I do not think that Muslim politics in India is free from 'homophobia', nor that sexual minority politics is free from 'Islamophobia'.

In this regard, some moves by the secular new media are turning into a way to hide Islamophobia under the pretence of opposing homophobia.

We must consider the context of state agendas that criminalize minority individuals and communities. Ways of uniting different social/political groups by setting aside prejudices, through mutual dialogue, and maintaining disagreements and differences are constantly evolving at the national level. Such practical experiences broaden the political experience of various minority communities.

Good Life or Safe Life?

There are many views among Muslims on what constitutes a good life. Consider the example of a Tablighi Jamaat worker's approach to the good life not being very acceptable to Salafis in India. That is, feminism, not just mainstream LGBTIQ approaches, on the issue of what constitutes a good sex life is multi-faceted. Many reasons to disagree with the likes of secularism – as a majority view – can be found in Islamic thought and Islam gives this space of thought.

Muslims believe that alcohol is divinely forbidden as the basis of a good life. But the crucial issue is not that this prohibition does not apply to other individuals or communities on the issue of what to drink. Everyone's right to eat food safely without fear should be protected. In Islamic thought, a secure life is as important as a good life.

LGBTIQ politics on a peaceful life, safe from persecution and exclusion, has to be protected. Disagreements about the good life are not an obstacle to secularism and the like. It goes without saying that religious differences are not an obstacle when it comes to political unity. The right to a secure life is different from the different views that individuals or communities have about the good life.

The common minimum program on this issue is that while disagreeing with mainstream LGBTQ communities about the meaning of sexuality, it is possible for them to live safe and dignified lives just like anyone else.

Sexual Politics and Community: Trial or Solidarity?

Membership of the nation is something that must be proven by law through years of residence in the country (domicility), birth, and written documents such as your and your parents' birth certificates. That is citizenship. Membership in all nation-states that have adopted liberal democracy as their ideology is something that needs to be proven.

Is membership of the Muslim community such a thing? Faith is the determinant of one's life. Once one declares himself a believer, community membership comes naturally, even if no one else is convinced. Membership in the Muslim community is not the same as citizenship in the nation. It is never a land-based thing. This feature needs to be highlighted. It is necessary to highlight the broad political potential of the term 'Muslim'. Community life has to be understood in terms of 'faith' rather than 'legal' citizenship.

But the limitations that occur when the life of faith is seen as merely legalistic terms are vast. For example, in the case of a sexual act, trial under Islamic law, it is not enough to present four eyewitnesses before the court, there are several steps involved in proving it and making it punishable. Therefore, any discussion of any type of sexual activity by any individual is only valid if there are eyewitnesses. Therefore, prosecution is not the methodology of Muslim politics.

Based on this, a person, or a person's experience, cannot be dismissed on the basis of a mass trial, except on legal terms. It is not possible to accuse a person of any kind of sexual activity without the backing of law. In India, where there are no Islamic courts, the civil/criminal courts have to decide the matter.

There is an important problem here. All who call themselves Muslims are Muslims. She also belongs to the Muslim community. Another may argue on the basis of evidence that one does not become a Muslim. But no one has the right to expel another from Islam. There is always room for various interpretations. A community is what a person believes himself to be a member of.

Such differences of approach can be seen a lot in the community. An example is the Muslim party fights in Kerala. When the Solidarity Youth Movement was raising environmental issues in Kerala, a section of Salafis said that "fighting against shirk (in the sense of associating partners with God) is more important than fighting against environmental destruction in society". This argument is that adding partners to God is an issue that should be prioritized over environmental issues that affect everyone regardless of caste, religion and gender. Communal life is possible only by maintaining such interpretive differences.

Sexuality and the Modern Foundations of Religious Criticism

The Muslim critique of sexual politics needs to be viewed more critically in conjunction with the history of modernity. Moral criticism has historical characteristics. This is essential to understand such a political issue more clearly. Modernist criticism is not simple vigilante moralism.

Sexuality has only been a political identity for about 200 years. It has a deep connection with the modern nation-state. It is with the nation that the individual becomes the object of governance. That is how politics changes to target a person's life, such as how to register a person's birth, how to educate, what to do, when to retire. In earlier societies, neither religion nor politics were aimed at an individual. Sociologically, in pre-modern societies, the individual was seen as an act, not as a totality as in the modern state. The individual in classical Islamic thought is not the individual who is part of the disciplinary authority of modernity.

As the system of the nation-state became a worldwide phenomenon through European colonization, life and sexuality became the object of politics. Thus, religion is forced to address the individual as a totality. It is argued that Muslim social criticism should not be merely a moral concern with the authority of modernity. 'Moral panic' is a social habit of modernity.

In short, sexuality as an identity has only been understood for two hundred years. Sexual minorities have become a political issue in the world in the last fifty years. Discussion starts in Kerala in nineties. It has only been fifteen years that the Muslim community has been conducting studies and discussions about this. Then naturally there will be ambiguities in this regard. There will be a consensus by interacting with each other.

The Political Priority of Criticism of Liberalism

Democracy in India is possible through elections. The people who elect the majority become the government. It is generally believed that democracy is a reflection of the majority will of the people.

However, courts are institutions that prevent majoritarianism in a democracy. Courts that withhold the rights of individuals and minorities from majoritarianism are, in a sense, turning democracy into a liberal institution. This is the essence of liberal democracy. Democracy is protected from majoritarianism by the liberal institution of 'judiciary'. This is the essence of liberal democracy. Democracy without institutional liberalism turns into majoritarianism and fascism.

In today's Indian situation, democracy has turned into majoritarianism by subverting liberal institutions, and beyond that, it has become fascism, which is part of extremism. Muslim minorities who depend on the courts against fascism are fighting to protect institutional liberalism and thus democracy. Priorities matter in political struggle. Criticism of such an unrecognized liberalism turns out to be mere idealism that helps the fascists.

Another is cultural liberalism. Cultural liberalism, a part of extreme individualism, is the preserve of an elite few in India. Indians are one of the least individualistic societies in the world. The criticism that cultural liberalism fails to recognize minority issues or majoritarianism is valid.

Fascists, on the other hand, are cultural purists who oppose all forms of liberalism. Fascists who attack Muslim minorities on the basis of food, clothing, religion, customs and institutions have the backing of cultural nationalism.

Despite its temporary appeasement, cultural liberalism is an elitism whose only option is to either submit to cultural majoritarianism or end up under the knife of the fascists. It can also be seen that the collapse of cultural liberalism is helping fascists to power in the current situation. It is the moral tragedy of cultural liberalism.

The bottom line is that fascism succeeds under the guise of not-so-subtle anti-liberalism. The fact is that in the absence of such recognition the socio-political problems of fascism are trivialized and the political struggle becomes a mere cultural struggle.

The social rhetoric that goes by the name of anti-liberalism turns out to be mere ideology in today's Indian context which cannot shake the power of the fascists. Fascists have a history of promoting ideological exercises aimed at the socially marginalized. There are many debates in North Indian TV shows. But there are few Maulanas in Kerala who discuss the Islamic dimension of condoms to animal rights.

With difference Muslim community should come forward to accept the social life of sexual minorities. While having divergent opinion, it’s quite possible to unite for this purpose. Muslims, as a minority community should accept sexual minorities too.

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A regular columnist for NewAgeIslam.com, Mubashir V.P is a PhD scholar in Islamic Studies at Jamia Millia Islamia and freelance journalist.

URL:   https://newageislam.com/the-war-within-islam/sexual-minority-politics-muslim/d/128903

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