Homosexualities Muslim Cultures And Modernity

No one can doubt that Muslim cultures and Muslim populations are under intense scrutiny in the west and worldwide. Moreover, queer politics has been increasingly drawn into this contemporary Islamophobia. This book presents a detailed interdisciplinary study of the issues surrounding homosexuality and Muslim cultures, drawing on sociological theories of modernity and modernization, evidence of Muslim homo-eroticism in historical and contemporary context, and contemporary political ideas of queer politics, multiculturalism and international development.

The book presents an original theoretical framework that describes the ways in which both queer and Muslim politics are caught up in a process of triangulation that asserts the superiority of western civilization. Using an intersectional framework, it also begins to map a way out of this oppositional understanding of homosexuality and Islam, both by drawing on the evidence of the complexity of lived experience for Queer Muslims and by challenging the euro-centric conceits of queer political and social theory.

Review: Momin's book is one of the best analysis of homosexuality and modern Muslim identity to appear recently. While the book is an in depth look at the current debates about Muslims and modernity, its theoretical tools are fundamental to understanding the complex notion of modernity. It reminded me of Timothy Mitchel's The Colonization of Egypt.

Momin's book is a comprehensive work, exhaustively researched, judicious in its assessment and sets forth a theoretical model that will alter the way we understand Muslim modernity. An outstanding work. Its implications go to the heart of the debate about what modernity means. - Walid Saleh, Professor of Islamic Studies, University of Toronto, Canada This book navigates deftly through the fraught relationship of Islam and homosexuality, pulling apart the quick equation of the West with the modern liberal embrace of gay rights and Islam with the opposite.

Offering both personal and theoretical reflections, this is the landmark study that sets the standard for scholarship on the nexus between gay and Muslim. - Barry Adam, Professor of Sociology, University of Windsor, Canada