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Muslim clerics deplore homosexuality, lesbianism

LUCKNOW: Taking a firm view that homosexuality and lesbianism threatened to destroy the already crumbling family system in the country, Muslim religious leaders are unanimous that consensual sex of this form should not be legalised in a multi-religious society such as India’s.

The leading Islamic seminary, Darul Uloom - Deoband in Uttar Pradesh, the Jamaat-e-Islami Hind (JeI) and the All-India Muslim Personal Law Board (AIMPLB) have struck a common chord on this issue.

For them, the issue does not concern Islam alone as no other religion sanctions this form of sex.

“The time has come for all religious leaders to unite on this issue and jointly protest the government’s proposed move to legalise gay rights. A consensus should be evolved for challenging the Delhi High Court order in the Supreme Court,” said Maulana Syed Jalaluddin Umri, Amir (president) of Jamaat-e-Islami Hind.

Questioning the right to freedom for consensual sex (homosexuality and lesbianism), the JeI chief said it would destroy the family system as has been the case in Western societies where consensual sex has been legalised.

“Homosexuality does not jell with India’s ‘mizaaj’ [cultural ethos] and cannot be tolerated in our society. Moreover, medical evidence has also been found of homosexuals being carriers of HIV-AIDS,” the Maulana said from the Jamaat office in Delhi.

In Islam, homosexuality is treated as “gunaah” [sin], and is against the concept of a family as a unit. If the family is destroyed, the society gets disintegrated. This is the commonly-held view among Muslim clerics.

“Section 377 of the IPC should stay and nothing should be done by the government which legalised homosexuality,” said Maulana Abdul Rahim Qureishi, assistant secretary general and spokesperson of the AIMPLB while talking to The Hindu from Hyderabad.

He said it was the fallout, or even a manifestation of the promiscuity so prevalent in the West. “Consensual sex is one the reasons for the break-up of the family system in Western societies, mainly in Europe and the U.S.,” he added.

The Maulana did not rule out the possibility of the issue figuring in the one-day executive committee meeting of the Muslim Personal Law Board in Kozhikhode on July 12.

In Lucknow, the Naib (deputy) Imam of Aishbagh Idgah and AIMPLB member, Maulana Khalid Rasheed Firangi Mahali, said the Union government should ensure that no such law was framed in the country which legalised homosexuality. “No religion approves of unnatural form of sex; besides, the family cannot be expanded by indulging in homosexuality,” Maulana Rasheed said.

The Maulana described the Delhi High Court verdict as “disappointing” and said it should be challenged in the Supreme Court.

The Darul Uloom - Deoband had also voiced its concern over the prospect of gay laws being legalised.

Voicing the seminary’s view, the Deputy Rector, Maulana Abdul Khaliq Madrasi, had reportedly said: “Homosexuality is an offence under Shariat laws and prohibited in Islam.”

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