Alex Kvaskov, Assistant News Editor
Persecution is the biggest issue facing queer and trans Muslims, according to Ibtasem Hussein, collective member at the Centre for Women and Trans People and coordinator for Queer and Trans Muslims.
“In my opinion, it’s the whole ‘can’t be Muslim and queer.’ In the world, in my country, you would either be jailed or persecuted for being queer and it’s really deeply underground, where you have to choose between your identity and your safety and your family,” he says.
“It’s a dual life where two things are fighting against the other. I want to show that you can be both Muslim [and queer] or Muslim and trans and they can combine and you don’t necessarily have to choose one over the other,” he adds.
At York, QTM has been on the receiving end of criticism and backlash.
“We have some angry emails and we have some angry students coming up to us while we poster, telling us that it’s a binary, that you can’t combine (being queer and Muslim),” says Izraa Izzeddin, external coordinator at TBLGAY and co-coordinator at QTM.
“The most we can do about it is provide them with the basic knowledge that yes, of course, you can be (both). It’s not two opposite binaries where you have to choose one or the other,” adds Izzeddin.
“People are saying we don’t understand the culture, we don’t come from the culture, [and] this is not how it is in their culture, but they forget we are from that same culture.”
“I think they also see an attack on their worldview of what Islam is, so if you say queer Muslims exist, they take it as an attack on them and what they believe. I think it hits the conservative side really hard, especially if I’m postering right in front of their religious centre,” says Hussein.
Izzeddin says a person attended QTM’s event last week, saying he was very angry with the group’s posters, but not knowing why.
“He wanted to ask someone who was all of these things. He was telling us how angry he was with the posters, he asked his questions, he got his answers, and at the end, he thanked us for having something like this around campus. He was encouraging us at the end of the discussion,” says Izzeddin.
There may be potential for co-operation and dialogue with other religious group on campus in the future.
“I’ve thought about reaching out. During Islamic Awareness Week, there are moments when I want to be a part of it, but I don’t look the traditional way that I should. I hope sometime down the line we could work with the religious groups,” says Hussein.
Izzeddin notes that people appearing as stereotypical Muslim men and women have come in to support QTM. However, securing space for the group might be more difficult.
“There definitely needs to be more space for gender nonconforming people and people who have multiple identities, because it sucks when you have to go to one space to be one thing and go to another space to be another thing,” says Hussein.
Izzeddin says the group hasn’t yet looked at securing space, because it’s a new idea on campus and people are still angry. QTM wants to lessen the anger before they try to secure space.
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