Islam and teh gheys

Out of Place asks daring and timely questions about the silence at the heart of queer studies. Discussing ‘race’ alongside ‘queer’ often submerges raciality within queerness, leaving racialised groups silent and silenced–‘out of place’. Out of Place creates a space where queerness/raciality are brought together in creative tension to disturb these silences: to hear the invisible, to see the inaudible.

Out of Place takes the reader through an inspiring, illuminating and at times painful journey. The book explores queerness/raciality in the context of the ‘war on terror’; corporeal and social practices in and of space; relations between visibility and politics; and cultural, literary, linguistic and theoretical mechanisms of translation. The papers in Out of Place cut across academic theory, arts, activism, the media and everyday life. All the contributors to Out of Place address queerness/ raciality as a theoretical and political tool to analyse and challenge their own fields, epistemologies and ontologies. This groundbreaking and fascinating book is not just about what happens at the intersection of ‘queer’ and ‘race’, but also about how this intersection relates to and animates other aspects of life.

Uh-huh.

Unfortunately, one chapter in the book — Gay Imperialism: Gender and Sexuality Discourse in the ‘war on terror’, Jin Haritaworn, with Tamsila Tauqir and Esra Erdem — has caused the publisher, Raw Nerve (Centre for Women’s Studies, University of York), to issue an apology.

To (Mount Waverley’s finest) Peter Tatchell.

The apology can be read here, while the following is an extract from Haritaworn, Tauqir and Erdem’s essay:

Our article focuses on the situation in Britain, where ‘Muslim’ and ‘homophobic’ are increasingly treated as interchangeable signifiers. The central figure in this process is Peter Tatchell who has successfully claimed the role of the liberator of and expert about Muslim gays and lesbians. This highlights the problems of a single-issue politics of representation, which equates ‘gay’ with white and ‘ethnic minority’ with heterosexual. At the same time, the fact that Tatchell’s group Outrage passes as the emblem of queer and hence post-identity politics in Britain shows that the problem of Islamophobia is not reducible to the critique of identity. The active participation of right- as well as left-wing, feminist as well as gay, official as well as civil powers in the Islamophobia industry proves racism more clearly than ever to be a white problem, which crosses other social and political differences…

Tatchell’s high status in the queer scene, the wider left and the mainstream press render criticism of him dangerous. We have already mentioned the two most important critiques by Puar and Feinberg from the US [Puar, Jasbir (2006) ‘On Terror: Queerness, Secularism, and Affect’, Keynote Lecture at the Out of Place conference in Lancaster, 24/25 March, 2006; Puar, Jasbir (2007) Terrorist Assemblages: Homonationalism In Queer Times, Duke University Press, Durham; Feinberg, Leslie (2006) ‘Anti-Iran protest misdirects LGBT struggle’, Workers World (17 July 2006), (accessed 17 October, 2006)]. Unfortunately, white allies in Europe who are prepared to make similar critiques in their own name are rare. This may partly be why queer Muslim activists in Britain have so far been alone in bearing Tatchell’s caustic defence. He has especially targeted individuals who refused to assume their role as exceptional tokens. In this, he has employed tactics of intimidation and aggressive divide and rule among queer Muslims, progressive Muslims and the Inter Faith Community. In a typical reversal of actual power relations, Tatchell has attempted to discredit those who resist his patronage, by interpreting their resistance as an attack, and himself as their victim…

“I see” said the blind man.

But he didn’t.

About @ndy

I live in Melbourne, Australia. I like anarchy. I don't like nazis. I enjoy eating pizza and drinking beer. I barrack for the greatest football team on Earth: Collingwood Magpies. The 2024 premiership's a cakewalk for the good old Collingwood.
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3 Responses to Islam and teh gheys

  1. fahimkamran says:

    What Does “Islam” Mean?

    The word “Islam” itself means “Submission to Allah”. The religion of Islam is not named after a person as in the case of “Christianity” which was named after Jesus Christ, “Buddhism” after Gutama Buddha, “Marxism” after Karl Marx, and “Confucianism” after Confucius.

    Similarly, Islam is not named after a tribe like “Judaism” after the tribe of Judah and “Hinduism” after the Hindus. The Arabic word “Islam” means the submission or surrender of one’s will to the will of the only true god worthy of worship, “Allah” (known as God “the Father” in Christianity).

    Anyone who does indeed submit to the will of Allah as required by Islam is termed a “Muslim”, which means one who has submitted to the will of Allah. Many people in the West have developed the sad misinformed trend of calling Islam “Muhammadenism” and it’s followers “Muhammadins”. This is a totally foreign word to Muslims and unrecognized by them. No Muslim has ever called his religion “Muhammadenism” or called himself a “Muhammadin”.

    What Is The Basic Concept of Islam?

    Islam teaches us that this life is a life of worship. We are placed on this earth in order to worship Allah and obey His command. During this earthly life we are subjected to a series of trials. We have the option of enduring these trials and conforming to certain laws, and our reward will be great in the next life, or we may decline to endure these trials and choose to not conform to the law, then we will be made to regret it in the next life.

    Each person will be solely and completely responsible for their own final reward. We are also told that God has designed these laws to make this life a better, safer, and more tolerable one for us. If we elect to conform to them then we will see the result in this life even before moving on to the next.

    We are told that the earthly life is a life of faith and work, and the next life is one of reward and no work. We have been placed on this earth to worship God, fast, pray, be industrious, good, kind, respectful, and a source of uprightness and morality. We are told that God has no need of our worship. Our worship can not increase the kingdom of God nor add to His power, however, it is in our best interests both in this life and the next that we do.

    Unlike some other religions which claim that God entered in a covenant with a certain group of people and that this group is genetically better than all other human beings, or closer to God, Islam on the other hand teaches that no color, race, tribe, or lineage is better than any other. Islam teaches that all humans are equal in the sight of Allah and that the only thing that can distinguish them in His sight is their piety and worship.

    “O humankind! Verily! We have created you from a male and female, and have made you nations and tribes that you may know one another. Verily! the noblest among you in the sight of Allah is the most God-fearing. Verily! Allah is The Knower, The Aware”. The noble Qur’an, Al-Hujrat(49):13.

    Learn quran because it’s the best way to feel Islam: learn quran online.

  2. linq says:

    I’m sorry!!??

    ‘I see’ said the blindman – but he didn’t.

    Is this some type of fucking joke or what? It could be classed as humour – but actually it isn’t. I think you’d better check out what you think you are going on about when you treat limitations in ability in this way. Didn’t think this sort of thing still got written – how desperate.

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