Do you think people are going to come out and say, "We need to undermine Islam and turn observant Muslims into cultural Muslims who live and talk the way we want to." Do you think people will say that out loud? Of course not.
When Lord Cromer was in charge of Egypt for the British over a century ago, he was VERY concerned about the plight of those poor Muslim women. So caring.
In Britain he was in charge of the movement AGAINST women's suffrage.
It's not a new game.
In Britain he was in charge of the movement AGAINST women's suffrage.
It's not a new game.
So today we have people who are VERY concerned about what those bad Muslims are doing to gays and to transgenders, because they are not motivated by anything other than care, just like Lord Cromer.
But isn't it interesting how those who are terribly concerned about Islam's views on these matters also--BY PURE COINCIDENCE--espouse a view of Islam that empties it of any moral or intellectual principles at all?
"Islam can be anything at all" these people say, coincidentally.
"Islam can be anything at all" these people say, coincidentally.
I'm sure Lord Cromer lay awake at night worrying about those poor Muslim women's rights while he planned how to keep women from voting back home. He was a very busy man, keeping his own women in line while making sure Muslim men were undermined in Egypt.
I'm sure it's just pure coincidence that the academics and activists who are most outraged by Muslims expressing--as mildly and rationally as possible--the traditional Muslim view on family and sexuality also support a movement called "Queer Islam" or "Queering Islam"
When you say you are going to “queer” Islam or any part of it, you are announcing a project of total destabilization and dissolution until all that remains is an identity without any moral or intellectual content.
“Queer theory” is NOT simply theory about or by LGBTQ people. No. It is an anti-rational political project meant to destroy the possibility of stable knowledge. “Queering” is not only LGBTQ related, though it started there.
"One feature common to all queer perspectives is critique of what is perceived as normative, destabilising the status of norms as 'given' or taken for granted... no position is safe or stable from a queer perspective." -Erica Li Lundqvist "Leaving Islam from a Queer Perspective"
Thomas Dowson: “Queer theory is very definitely not restricted to homosexual men and women, but to any one who feels their position (sexual, intellectual, or cultural) to be marginalized”
In this respect one should mentally replace “queer theory” and “queering” with “hyper-deconstruction”. That’s what it is—the bleeding edge of postmodernism. It is philosophical quackery.
They will say that if you oppose “queering” or “queer theory” in Islam it means you are targeting queer *people.* This is false. “Queering” means a hyper-anti-essentialism about everything e.g. disability or fatness.
Queer theory is not limited to establishing rights for LGBTQ people or to protect them from harm. It is a metaphysical and philosophical approach, not a civil rights program.
If people want to do “queer theory” that’s really their business. But when it comes to “queering Islam” what are you talking about? Oceans can’t be dry, and Islam cannot be queer.
“The Quran is teeming with queer potential” spouts a confused man who thinks the Mevlevis wear women’s skirts, in a TED-talk plugged by the queer-Muslim academic guru who wants to build a queer Islamic studies consortium.
Queer theory is coming for the whole thing. If you think queer theory, actually a total project of hyper-deconstruction, will stop at LGBTQ rights, you're dreaming. It's not "going to" happen. It's already happening.
Ask those pushing for the queering of Islam: what moral or intellectual principle from Islam is non negotiable in queer theory? (The only principle is that there are no principles.) Ask them.
Again, queer theory is not queer or a theory, but a *project* to destroy everyone’s ability to think in terms of norms. It is hyper skepticism about everything except their own right to do and say what they want.
Indeed "queer theory" wants to destroy all norms but itself, and then use the power of the state to enforce its desires. See "Toward a Queer Theory of the State". thepointmag.com
I am quite sure there are many sincere people who don't like to see marginalized and weak people mocked or insulted or ostracized. I'm with them. But people should pause and ask themselves "Wait, I'm I working for Lord Cromer?"
correction "Am I working for Lord Cromer?" There is no reason for Muslims to be anything less than incredibly kind and dignified with people who are gay or dealing with gender dysphoria. But that does not mean we change what we think is acceptable/unacceptable actions.
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