"Remember when you were few and oppressed to the ground. And fear that people would carry you off my force. But God gave you shelter, aiding and strengthening you. And providing for your welfare that you might give thanks." Quran 8:26
This is a slightly different translation of the Quran that I normally cite, having drawn this from Scott Sirah al-Haqq Kugle's Homosexuality in Islam. Kugle's work is very interesting and I'll be using it this spring in my Dar al-Islam: Yemen course - so I'll have a lot more to say about this subject down the road. As Kugle reminds us, "Islam began as protest against a system of oppression." I think this is essential to remember because I think that the religion, as with most religions, eventually became in many ways instead an apparatus of oppression. Islam is certainly not alone in that. One has only to look at how Jesus, who not only charged us to love the poor and the oppressed and the immigrant but who was in many ways a revolutionary, albeit a peaceful one, is used to justify a cold status quo. Kugle continues, "The Qur'an encourages solidarity with the oppressed and this is an essential component of hits message. It is inseparable from the divine charge to act with justice and responsibility." Truthfully, if our faith is not about compassion and kindness and tolerance and fighting oppression and standing up for the weakest among us then what is it about? When we allow our faith to become a vehicle for oppressing women or hating followers of other religions or persecuting members of the LGBT community then we are no longer Muslims.
This is a slightly different translation of the Quran that I normally cite, having drawn this from Scott Sirah al-Haqq Kugle's Homosexuality in Islam. Kugle's work is very interesting and I'll be using it this spring in my Dar al-Islam: Yemen course - so I'll have a lot more to say about this subject down the road. As Kugle reminds us, "Islam began as protest against a system of oppression." I think this is essential to remember because I think that the religion, as with most religions, eventually became in many ways instead an apparatus of oppression. Islam is certainly not alone in that. One has only to look at how Jesus, who not only charged us to love the poor and the oppressed and the immigrant but who was in many ways a revolutionary, albeit a peaceful one, is used to justify a cold status quo. Kugle continues, "The Qur'an encourages solidarity with the oppressed and this is an essential component of hits message. It is inseparable from the divine charge to act with justice and responsibility." Truthfully, if our faith is not about compassion and kindness and tolerance and fighting oppression and standing up for the weakest among us then what is it about? When we allow our faith to become a vehicle for oppressing women or hating followers of other religions or persecuting members of the LGBT community then we are no longer Muslims.
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