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11 / 10 / 2016 ↺

Masterlist of literature about/including LGBTQ+ Muslims

allahmademequeer:

(To be updated continuously. Please let me know if there’s anything I should add/remove!)

Note: While many of these are centered around Arab, desi (South Asian), or other “Islamic” cultures, it’s important to remember that not all people of these ethnicities are Muslim, and not all Muslims are POC.

Fiction

Books:

A Map of Home by Randa Jarrar (a book about growing up Egyptian-Palestinian in 1970s, protagonist is bisexual)

Bilal’s Bread: A Novel by Sulayman X (about a Kurdish-American refugee family and the secrets that one boy keeps) and Adventures of a Bird-Shit Foreigner (about a mixed-race Thai teenager who is kicked out of his family)

If You Could Be Mine and Tell Me Again What a Crush Should Feel Like by Sara Farizan (young adult books about Iranian/Iranian-American girls who like girls)

Loving You Wasn’t Enough by Fatima Warsame (romance with two college-aged Somali Muslim girls)

Moon at Nine by Deborah Ellis (young adult romance featuring teenage girls in 1980s Iran and the dire consequences of their relationship)

Sex and Desperate Hearts by S. Akshash (a collection of two short stories about gay Muslim men) 

Sex and Desperate Hearts: Short Fused (features Fatima Thompson, an activist who talks about coming out and living as a Muslim in America.  Includes continuation of stories from first book.)

The Writing on My Forehead by Nafisa Haji (Pakistani-American protagonist navigating family and culture, minor gay character)

The Taqwacores by Micheal Muhammad Knight (novel about an “Islamic punk” subculture, featuring queer characters)

The City of Devi by Manil Suri (Indian novel with a gay Muslim man as one of the main characters in a love triangle)

Two Gay Muslim Couples by Ali (about two pairs of gay men living in the Muslim world)

The When We Wake series by Karen Healey (protagonist’s best friend is Muslim and attracted to multiple genders)

Other:

150 days by KnightJJ (webcomic where an Arab Muslim finds a Chinese prince in the desert and proceeds to fall in love with him)

Non-fiction

General books:

Assorted memoirs by Abdellah Taia (the first openly gay Moroccan intellectual, covers issues of culture, identity, and East/West relations. Most are in the original French)

Bareed Mista3jil (stories of LGBTQ+ Lebanese women)

Gay Travels in the Muslim World by Michael Luongo (tells the stories of both Muslim and non-Muslim gay men in the Muslim world)

Homosexuality and Islam: Critical Reflection on Gay, Lesbian, and Transgender Muslims  by Scott Siraj Al-Haqq Kugle (scholarly work that challenges hetero/cissexist interpretations of scripture)

Hussein & the Nomad and Khalil & Majnun by Rahal Eks (memoirs from a gay Sufi man living in Morocco, exploring spirituality and love)

Illegal Citizens: Queer Lives in the Muslim World by Afdhere Jama (stories about queer people in countries where same-sex activity is forbidden)

Living Out Islam: Voices of Gay, Lesbian, and Transgender Muslims by Scott Siraj Al-Haqq Kugle (personal stories of LGBTQ+ Muslims)

Love, Inshallah and Salaam, Love by Nura Masnavi and Ayesha Mattu (queer-inclusive anthologies about the love lives of American Muslim women and men, respectively)

Progressive Muslims: On Justice, Gender, and Pluralism, compiled by Omid Safi (anthology of writings by various authors on progressive Islam)

Queer Jihad: LGBT Muslims on Coming Out, Activism, and the Faith by Afdhere Jama (a look at the lives of queer Muslims, mostly activists working towards ending homophobia)

Sex, Longing, and Not Belonging: A Gay Muslim’s  Quest for Love and Meaning by Balruddin Khan (memoir from a Pakistani gay man)

Wanting in Arabic: Poems by Trish Salah (poetry about trans and racial identity by an Arab author)

Shorter pieces:

“Brown and Queer in America” by Mona M. (about the intersection of brown culture and sexual identity)

Collection of articles on LGBTQ+ in the Middle East and North Africa (compiled by Muftah, which strives to provide a diverse voice in a Western-dominated media)

“Coming Out in the Muslim Community” by Ramy Eletreby (the author’s personal coming out story and how it affected his relationships with people)

“How to De-queer Your Apartment,” “A Very Queer Ramadan,” and “Not Your Tragic Queer Muslim Story” , “Yes, It’s Possible to be Queer and a Muslim at The Same Time,” “A Personal History of Islamophobia in America” by Lamya H. (”creative nonfiction”-type essays that delve into the author’s identity as a queer person and/or Muslim)

“Muslim, Queer, and Feminist: It’s as complicated as it sounds” by Aaminah Khan (reflection on the author’s journey to faith and intertwining of identities)

Scholarly works:

Assorted publications by Andrew Yip (studies about queer people of faith, many of which from 2004 to 2010 focus on Muslims)

“ Azima ila Hayati–An invitation in to my life: Narrative Conversations about Sexual Identity,” by Sekneh Hammoud-Becket (article about the concept of “the closet”, analysis here)

Before Homosexuality in the Arab-Islamic World, 1500-1800 by Khaled El-Rouayheb (explores the concept of homosexuality in pre-colonial times)

Desiring Arabs (Google Drive) by Joseph Massad (chronicles the Arabs’ change in attitudes towards their sexual desires, from the 1800s to the present)

Female Homosexuality in the Middle East: Histories and Representations by Samar Habib (traces the history of female homosexuality from the 9th century to today)

“Gay Imperialism: Gender and Sexuality Discourse in the ‘War on Terror’” (Google Drive) by Jin Haritaworn, Tamsila Tauqir, and Esra Erdem (relatively easy-to-read overview of gay imperialist politics and queer Muslim affairs)

“Gay Rights as Human Rights: Pinkwashing Homonationalism” by Maya Mikdashi (article on Western-imposed “rights” for queer Palestinians while they are occupied and denied other human rights)

“Homonationalism and the Death of the Radical Queer” by Haley O’Shaughnessy (discusses the gay rights’ movement search for inclusion rather than revolution, and how it is tied up with American homonationalism)

“Islamic Texts: A Source for Acceptance of Queer Individuals into Mainstream Muslim Society” (PDF) by Imam Muhsin Hendriks (overview of the arguments for a queer-supportive interpretation of Quran and Hadith)

Queer Beirut by Sofian Merabet (ethnographic study of queer lives in the Middle East)

“Queers of War: Normalizing Lesbians and Gays in the US War Machine” (PDF) by Hilary King (considers American sexual rights discourses in the broader context of imperialism)

“Seeking home: The lives of gay and transgender asylum seekers of the Middle East” by Nicole Crowder (article about Arabs cast out for their sexual/gender identities)

“Sodomized by Religion”: Fictional Representations of Queer Muslims in the West (PDF) by Ibrahim Abraham (analyzes the “hybrid identity” of queer Muslims as depicted in two films and two novels)

Terrorist Assemblages: Homonationalism in Queer Times by Jaspir Puar (examines the role of the white gay movement in reinforcing racist and Islamophobic attitudes)

Magazines/publications

Kaos GL (run by Turkish LGBT organization since 1994)

My.Kali (Jordan, online and in print bi-monthly)

Q-Magazine (Kosovo, bilingual: English and Albanian, sadly seems to be inactive but there are old issues available)

Roopban (Bengali, new magazine, contact on Facebook if you want a copy)

Totally Radical Muslims zine (pieces by queer and other marginalized Muslims)

Other

The Empire of Sexuality: An Interview with Joseph Massad (transcript where an academic challenges Western sexual identity politics & the imposition of the hetero-homo binary)

**Warning: The comments on all the web-based pieces are infuriating**

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