Dear children,
This is a pretty sensitive subject but we still have to touch it because one day when you're all grown up you will ultimately come face to face with this question. I think you ought to know by now that there's not only one type of sexuality among us humans. I'm pretty sure you've heard or watched about homosexuality, transgender or queers from TV, YouTube and even the songs you've been listening to. So how should you react or respond to this issue?
Actually it is not an issue at all and how you should respond is the same as how you see normal heterosexual people. No judgment and definitely no hate. You see children, homosexuality is prevalent in a lot of animal species. Over 1,500 of them to be precise. And since we are part of the animal kingdom ourselves, is it any surprise that some of us exhibit the same tendencies?
I know you've probably learned from your ustazs and ustazahs and teachers, perhaps some of your family members as well that homosexuality and being gay is wrong according to our religion. And that people who engage in such activities is sure to be thrown into hell. I can't stop them from believing that nor can I stop the hate and prejudice against the LGBT community. What I can do is teach my children that being gay is not a choice but a complex combination of genetic, hormonal, developmental, social and cultural influences on sexual orientation. In simpler terms, they are born that way.
Let me ask you this, can you make or force yourself be attracted to member of the same sex? No right? That is exactly how it is with gay people. You can't force them to like members of the opposite sex just as you can never force me to like Fatah Amin or David Beckham. We are just not born that way.
Still the question remains, our religion expressively forbid homosexuality so we can never accept them, no? I'm not going to argue about that but our religion allows and forbids a lot of different things throughout history. Once upon a time slavery is the accepted norm in our religion just as well marrying young girls or cutting the limbs of people who commit crimes. Do we see muslim people practising any of those nowadays. Apart from ISIS and the Talibans, I'm sure no progressive, modern muslim countries still condone such barbaric acts. The simple reason being values can and have changed throughout time and history. What seems acceptable back in the 7th century has no place in the modern era.
The same goes about hating people who are different from us. Just because our religion forbids some things and you see certain people doing it doesn’t mean that you absolutely must hate them too for no rational reason other than because some ustaz or teachers told you so. It's like a hindu person hating on muslims because they don't refrain from killing and eating their holy cows. It's simply irrational. What I am trying to say is children, we can still follow our religious beliefs and traditions and at the same time not hate people who are different from us be it christians, jews and especially gay people for no apparent reason. Those two are not mutually exclusive. You can always be a good muslim and accept other people for what they are.
Can I expect my children to not be a bigot and a hateful person? I certainly hope so.
No comments:
Post a Comment