The discussion was organized by Arus Pelangi, a non-governmental group.

Scholars said that condemnation of homosexuality by Muslims is based on narrow-minded interpretations of Islamic teaching.

Siti Musdah Mulia of the Indonesia Conference of Religions and Peace said:

“There is no difference between lesbians and non lesbians. In the eyes of God, people are valued based on their piety…And talking about piety is God’s prerogative to judge. The essence of the religion is to humanize humans, respect and dignify them.”

Another speaker at the discussion, Nurofiah of the Nahdlatul Ulama (NU), said that heterosexuality is a social construction that has ultimately led the majority to ban homosexuality.

Several conservative Muslims also spoke at the discussion, but they condemned homosexuals.

Deputy chairman of the Indonesian Ulema Council (MUI), Amir Syarifuddin said:

“It’s a sin. We will not consider homosexuals an enemy, but we will make them aware that what they are doing is wrong.”

A representative of Hizbut Thahir Indonesia (HTI) asked the attending homosexual participants to repent and force themselves to return to the right path.

However, according to Jakarta, Siti Musdah Mulia, said homosexuality is from God and should be considered natural.

A statement from the Interior Ministry about defending those values came after Morocco cut diplomatic ties with Iran and accused it of trying to spread Shiite Islam in the North African country.

Several independent media last week urged Morocco to grant more freedom of speech to gay activists. An Interior Ministry official, speaking only on condition of anonymity because of ministry rules, said Tuesday that the statement referred to the promotion of homosexuality.

“Certain media are taking a stand for certain ignominious behaviors, which is a provocation for the national public opinion,” the statement said on Saturday. “Any act contrary to moral or religious values will be repressed.”

Though they coincide, the twin moves against Shiite Islam and gay advocates did not appear to be related. Earlier this month, Rabat severed diplomatic relations with Iran, accusing the Shiite Muslim republic of trying to spread its faith in Morocco.

Rights groups have denounced the clampdown, saying it is an unusual step for Morocco – a nation mostly known for tolerance and openness within the Arab world.

Rights groups say about a dozen people have since been arrested in working class neighborhoods of northern Morocco towns on suspicion they had converted to Shiite Islam.

The Moroccan Association for Human Rights warned that “the war being waged by Morocco against belonging to the Shiite rite” is against the country’s strong move recently toward democracy and civil liberties.

Recent reports in the pro-government press accuse Iran of using Shiite Islam to undermine the stability of moderate Arab states. Several media quoted unidentified government officials as alleging Iran is trying to create a rift between moderate, pro-U.S. Arab states like Morocco or Saudi Arabia, and more hardline states like Syria.

Iran’s influence has been rising in the Arab world, and some in Morocco worry that Tehran could use Shiite Islam to promote its cause. Iran denies this. The Iranian Foreign Ministry has said it was surprised at Rabat’s decision to sever diplomatic ties.

On Saturday, authorities closed down the Iraqi school in Rabat, the capital. The closure was triggered by a complaint by parents complaining the school was promoting Shiite Islam, Moroccan media reported.

The school taught about 400 children, mostly Moroccans. The Education Ministry said in a statement that the school was closed because “the pedagogy … was contrary to the law” on private education in Morocco.

The National Fatwa Council forbade the practice of girls behaving or dressing like boys during a meeting Thursday in northern Malaysia, said Harussani Idris Zakaria, the mufti of northern Perak state, who attended the gathering.

Harussani said an increasing number of Malaysian girls behave like tomboys, and that some of them engage in homosexuality. Homosexuality is not explicitly banned in Malaysia, but it is effectively illegal under a law that prohibits sex acts “against the order of nature.”

Harussani said the council’s ruling was not legally binding because it has not been passed into law, but that tomboys should be banned because their actions are immoral.

“It doesn’t matter if it’s a law or not. When it’s wrong, it’s wrong. It is a sin,” Harussani told The Associated Press. “Tomboy (behavior) is forbidden in Islam.”

Under the edict, girls are forbidden to sport short hair and dress, walk and act like boys, Harussani said. Boys should also not act like girls, he said.

“They must respect God. God created them as boys, they must behave like boys. God created them as girls, they must act like girls,” he said.

Council chairman Abdul Shukor Husin said the ruling was prompted by recent cases of young women behaving like men and indulging in homosexuality, according to the national news agency Bernama. He did not elaborate.

Malaysian media have reported on recent incidents of school bullying among girls, which have been caught on film and circulated on the Internet. In one film, some girls are seen beating up another girl in a bathroom.

A well-known Malaysian Muslim actress caused an uproar last year when she shaved her head bald for a film. Harussani and other muftis urged Muslims not to watch the movie, arguing that the actress had violated Islam by making herself look like a man.

“Muallaf,” or “the convert,” is scheduled for release in Singapore next month, but no date has been set for its release in Malaysia.

Muslims make up some 60 per cent of Malaysia’s 27 million people, and are subject to Islamic laws and the council’s edicts, even if the rulings have not been enshrined in national or Shariah law.

It was not immediately clear what kind of punishment awaited those who violate the tomboy edict, or “fatwa.” Malays generally follow the council’s “fatwas” out of deference, but violators rarely get into trouble unless the edict is incorporated into national or Shariah law.

365gay talked to Sharma about the myth of the Muslim monolith, how hefound his “unlikely storytellers,” and the jihad – the struggle – to reconcile who you are with what you believe.

What compelled you to tell these stories?
I’m a gay Muslim myself – I think everything in my life moved me totell these stories.I was recently arrived in America in September 2001, when so much ofthe world changed forever, especially for Muslims. I remember inJanuary 2002 I was realizing very intensely that I needed to takeresponsibility for my own Islam. I knew that I needed to come out as a Muslim. And I also needed to come out as a gay man.

To be a Muslim first and gay second and lay claim to both, and to bring this discussion into the public arena, that was what we were seeking to do with this film.

What I find really interesting about you and about this film is that you seem to be struggling to find a path where you can be both a faithful Muslim and an out gay person. It seems to me that in the West that might be possible – do you think that’s possible in Islamic countries?
I think the history of Islam and homosexuality is a complex one. Islam has now been around for 1426 years. We often rush to pronounce all these general statements about Islam and how we should perceive it. One of the most problematic things is that in the West we consider Islam to be this violent monolith.

All I can say is that from my experience, filming in 12 countries, believing in Islam myself, Islam is very diverse, speaks in many different languages, and in many different profound ways.

You’ve talked elsewhere about how the West and Muslim countries see homosexuality very differently.
In the West, we traditionally apply those titles of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender very easily to sexual identity, and to almost construct political choices around these identities. In Muslim countries, those labels of affirmation aren’t applicable. The labels don’t apply very easily.

That touches on an op-ed you wrote in the Huffington Post about Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s visit to Columbia University.
I think President Ahmadinejad is very easy to turn into a monster. It is extremely unfortunate how he was treated at Columbia. What people need to understand is the statements he made are open to interpretation. There is a huge debate over what he actually said.

Did he mean that homosexuality does not exist like it does in the West? If so, I agree with him. It’s not the same construct.

If he is denying the existence of homosexuals, then I take strong exception to that and invite him to see the film, because I filmed them.

Islam is more diverse on the subject of homosexuality than a lot of non-Muslims realize. Because homosexuality has existed for as long as Islam has existed, in many of these cultures it has often been tolerated, and has sometimes been celebrated.

If you look at the history, you see examples of homosexuality being celebrated in the arts, in poetry, through the courts of the Ottoman in Turkey, through the courts of the Mughal in India, though differentphases of the Persian empire as it developed.

A lot of the hatred, a lot of the homophobia that exists in the Muslimworld today is inherited from Colonialism. Many of the laws thatremain in countries like Egypt or India are laws that were enacted bythe British or the French. And those laws remain.

There’s also sharia.
Yes. In the 20th century, there was a revival of extremist Islam. But most gay people living in Muslim societies today are not living under sharia law. They are also not engaging in western constructs of homosexuality in the same language. Pretty much they are allowed to be, as long as they’re not flaunting their sexuality or owning it in apublic way, by let’s say organizing a gay pride parade in Tehran.

I found in the film that the majority of people who have same-sex tendencies assume that being married in a heterosexual marriage is perfectly normal and something they’re required to do by society and by religion and by culture.

So you’re saying that if someone marries a person of the opposite sex,then they can have a same-sex lover as long as they don’t call themselves gay? And they won’t have any trouble?
Absolutely. I can say this with confidence. I have filmed this for six years and grew up in India, I know that the majority of people who areattracted to the same sex within these societies are within marriages.

But then you have someone like Maryam in your film, who’s clearly avery devout Muslim. She tried to be married and now feels this great conflict between loving someone of the same sex and also being Muslim.
You’re absolutely right. In the film, Maryam is a woman in partnership with another woman. Both of them have been married before. And theydidn’t have the choice to exercise any aspect of their sexualitybecause in patriarchal societies, sexuality, whether heterosexual or homosexual, is denied.

They’re in a completely patriarchal Arab society where coming outwould involve tremendous risks not just to themselves but also their families, so they chose to stay invisible. The conflict is profound.

They have not been able to negotiate a relationship with Islam that they are comfortable with. Maryam says in the film, “Sometimes I want to be punished.” Because maybe that is what will make me feel that Iat least tried to be good. Because what I am is clearly not good in the Islamic way.

That’s what I set out to document. How do you find a space withinyourself that allows you to be as devout to God as to your ownsexuality? And how can you find a place of equal comfort within yourself for these seemingly disparate things, love for God and love for someone of same sex?

Do you see this as being problematic? What is a solution for people like Maryam? What I think you are saying is that men can get marriedand have lovers on the side, so for them maybe it’s OK not to have thesocial construct of being gay. But maybe that doesn’t work for women in love with other women.
I don’t claim to offer any easy solutions. I don’t feel Islam, diverse as it is and representing such a huge swath of humanity as it does -more than a billion people – is going to have a blanket condoning of homosexuality in my lifetime.

What a film like this does is enables this unrepresented group of people, these most unlikely storytellers of Islam, to come out andstart a discussion, to start a learning process within their own communities – so that there can be benefits in the longer run for many that will follow.

These are amazing stories you’re telling. How did you wind up connecting with your subjects?
Finding people was a jihad, a struggle. Underground networks exist in most of the countries I went to – people know how to connect with each other, to their groups. So emails were sent out, phone calls were made.

Many times I would just end up in a particular country with a tourist visa and just camp there for the longest time just meeting people and take repeated trips to film with them.

One of the biggest challenges for me was to gain the trust of the subjects. I had to go with my extremely intrusive camera, entering personal aspects of their lives and expecting them to share this with me.

I first met Maryam when I started making this film in 2002. Only last year, 2006, did she finally agree to be filmed after many years of gaining her trust.

What helped tremendously was the commonality of our experience. That the Muslim camera was being wielded by a Muslim who knew what they had been though, who understood, who knew the culture. It is a film that was not mediated by Western eyes.

What’s next for you?
The end of making a film is just a beginning of the movement. When you spend six years of your life on something, you cannot just deliver the child and expect it to grow up.

To actually create change with the film, I am launching The Muslim Dialogue Project, which will tap into networks of people hungry for this film, and use it as a tool of education. There will also be a meeting at a secret location next year on homosexuality and prejudice in Muslim communities, with religious leaders, psychologists, doctors, queer people, to come up with skills and solutions to take back into their own communities. That’s the goal.

And religious leaders are open to this?
You’d be surprised. There is a vast number of Muslim religious leaders who understand the importance of this film and are keen to engage init, but have not been able to openly support it.

But the discussion has begun now and it’s not going to stop andeventually there will be people who can embrace the film publicly. The floodgates have opened.

Jihad for Love is showing at film festivals around the country. For more information, click here.