Homosexuality and Islam

Homosexuality And Islam

LGBT topics and Islam are influenced by both the cultural-legal history of the nations with a large Muslim population, along with how specific passages in the Qur'an and statements attributed to the prophet Muhammad are interpreted. The mainstream interpretation of Qur'anic verses and hadith consider homosexuality and cross-dressing a sin. In this, Islam resembles socially conservative interpretations of other Abrahamic religions such as Judaism and Christianity.

The Qur'an cites the story of the "people of Lot" (also known as the people of Sodom and Gomorrah), destroyed by the wrath of God because they engaged in "lustful" carnal acts between men.

Scholars of Islam, such as Sheikh al-Islam Imam Malik, and Imam Shafi amongst others, ruled that Islam disallowed homosexual activity and ordained capital punishment for a person guilty of it. Homosexual activity is a crime in several Muslim-majority countries. In the Muslim-majority countries of Mauritania, Saudi Arabia, North Sudan and Yemen, homosexual activity is punished with the death penalty. In Nigeria and Somalia the death penalty is issued in some regions. The legal punishment for sodomy has varied among juristic schools: some prescribe capital punishment; while other prescribe a milder discretionary punishment such as imprisonment. In some secular Muslim-majority countries such as Indonesia, Jordan and Turkey this is not the case; and there are no civil laws against homosexual practice.

By contrast, homoerotic themes were present in poetry and other literature written by some Muslims from the medieval period onwards and which celebrated love between men.