LGBTIQ and Islam: Islamic Feminist Reflections on the Statement “Navigating Differences”

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The Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him, is reported to have said something along the lines of, “The parable of believers in regard to mutual love, affection, and fellow-feeling is that of one body; when any limb of it is in pain, the whole body throbs for it with sleeplessness and fever.” This talk examines the vulnerabilities and pains of both sides of the LGBTIQ Muslim debate, attempting to find a solution that is authentically Islamic, compassionate, and acknowledging of difference. It examines the strengths and weaknesses of the Canadian Council of Imams and allies’ statement “Navigating Differences: Clarifying Sexual and Gender Ethics in Islam,” showing its importance in conceptual language that is more comprehensible in the broader Canadian context, and demonstrating why the LGBTIQ-affirming Muslim positionality is vital, using Islamic ethical-legal concepts and texts. It provides a constructive critique of the continuation of the colonial paradigm in some contemporary laws and discourses surrounding the LGBTIQ issue and “barbaric cultural practices,” drawing on the pre-modern Islamic tradition and its practices of pluralism and spiritual wayfaring to suggest a way forward. It thereby provides avenues for a deeper realization of the values of inclusion, equity, and diversity, and attempts to provide healing for the polarization that threatens the body of the Muslim community, and maybe also society at large.

The speaker

Nevin Reda is associate professor of Muslim Studies at Emmanuel College of Victoria University in the University of Toronto. Her research interests include the poetics and hermeneutics of Qurʾanic narrative structure, Hebrew Bible and Qurʾan, spiritually integrative approaches to the Qurʾan, Islamic feminist hermeneutics, and Islamic ethical-legal theory. Her publications include The al-Baqara Crescendo: Understanding the Qurʾan’ Style, Narrative, Structure and Running Themes(2017) and a co-edited volume (with Yasmin Amin), Islamic Interpretive Tradition and Gender Justice: Processes of Canonization, Subversion, and Change (2020). Her articles include “Reform of Uṣūl al-Fiqh and Marriage: A Spiritually Integrative Approach,” in Musawah’s new project, Justice and Beauty in Muslim Marriage: Towards Egalitarian Ethics and Laws (Oneworld, 2022) and “Christian Practical Theology and Islam: Disciplinary Intersections and Opportunities for Growth” (forthcoming in the International Journal of Practical Theology).

The respondent

Sara Abdel-Latif is Assistant Professor of Sufism and Qur'anic Interpretation at the Institute of Islamic Studies at McGill University in Tiohtià:ke/Montreal. She completed her PhD at U of T's Department of the Study of Religion in 2020, focusing on gender and asceticism in early Sufism. She is co-editor of a forthcoming volume on Sufism and the Body in Brill's Handbook of Sufi Studies. Sara is also co-founder of the Canadian Association for the Study of Islam and Muslims (CASIM), a new association that brings together Canadian researchers and fosters interdisciplinary scholarship on Islam.