The monograph carefully navigates the discussion on sexual orientation and Muslim identity through both an analysis of scholarly material written on the subject as well as the experiences of a group of discrete British and Malaysian Muslims who also identify as queer in a broad sense.
Shanon Shah’s The Making of a Gay Muslim is above all a study in the nuances of identity at the intersection of religion, sexuality, race / ethnicity and nationality.
But the general tendency is that people overall perceive certain identities to be static or derivative of an origin that a person had no hand in choosing or constructing while other identities are badges of individual or group demarcations that people willingly adopt as an accurate description of themselves and their worldview. Some people due to social, economic and/or political circumstances or personal choice or easy access to geographical mobility (or a combination of these factors) choose a nationality, religious or gender identity. In some instances, a person may also work towards transforming or altering a particular identity (changing one’s nationality, converting to another religion, or altering one’s expressed gender to align with one’s internal gender identity). People are accepted or excluded or killed or incarcerated on the basis of one or more identities. Identities always have a history and that history is dynamic. At times the names chosen appear to be bestowed to a person by virtue of birth without much choice (nationality, religion, or race) and at other times these names are certainly deliberatively adopted (political or ideological commitments). It is the way in which humans elect to name themselves. Download PDF: Mahomed, RV, The Making of a Gay Muslim
0 kommentar(er)
