I have read an article that may come back to haunt those quoted within it.
Last month’s Vancouver Outgames held a cultural festival, as the Gay Games and its imitators must do to pacify the faction of gay males and intellectuals who consider sport oppressive even at sporting events. This cultural festival included the Salaam Conference (PDF schedule mentioning that event), which Jeremy Hainsworth covered for Xtra.
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In the piece, optimistically entitled “Homosexuality and Islam not opposing forces,” Hainsworth defines homonationalism as referring “to queer people and organizations perpetuating ideas of white superiority within the queer community.” As I read it, Salaam Conference speakers allege there exists a Fifth Column of de facto white supremacists or neo-Nazis inside our diverse gay communities.
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“Homosexuality and Islam are often set up in communities and by the media as ‘opposing forces,’ says [Fatima] Jaffer.” Well, they are opposing forces! If you’re gay, Islam wants you dead. The only rational course of action for gay and lesbian Muslims is to leave the faith; if you need religion in your life, the United Church of Canada is a more welcoming place.
Far from being “homonationalist,” according to no less an authority than Ayaan Hirsi Ali the obligation of the gay and lesbian community is to help gay Muslims enter civil society, which I take to mean leaving Islam. Frankly, they’d be better off with the Mormons.
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“The failings of outsiders are seen as inadequacies of their entire race,” [Jaffer] adds, while “no matter how homophobic or racist white Canadians are, it’s never seen as reflective of their entire race.”
That’s why organizations such as Trikone, a group for queer South Asians, are so important, Jaffer says.
She says Trikone has two primary mandates: To tackle homophobia in ethnic and religious communities, while simultaneously attempting to counter racism in the queer community.
In doing this work, Jaffer says she’s been accused of diminishing homophobia by bringing up racism in the queer community. “We’ve been fighting homonationalists all along the way,” she says. “I was being seen as not being queer and patriotic, not being Canadian in the way that it’s being framed by the queer community.”
I contacted Jaffer via Facebook and asked “Can you give concrete evidence of the homophobia and racism you suggest is endemic among ‘white Canadians’?” She did not respond.
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[Jaffer] says there should not be a separation in being queer and Muslim.
No, there really should be. I’ll take Ali’s word on that over Jaffer’s any day.
I gather none of the vizmin Muslim speakers at Salaam recognized the irony of berating the white gay community for its racism even while doing so at a forum organized by a white male, Greg Laroque, as part of a white-run sporting event. I’d say they’re doing pretty well for themselves in the liberal democracies of Canada and the United States, whose constitutions vigorously protect the rights even of successful and entitled minorities to make fools of themselves.