Homosexuality in the Islamic World (video)

Al Muqaddimah, May 6, 2022; CC Liu, Seth Auberon (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

Homosexuality in the Islamic World

(Al Muqaddimah) This video talks about homosexuality in the Islamic World.

Gay and trans Indonesian Muslims: the Obamas

[Pederasty, or the rape of younger males by older men taking on an educational role or being a helping hand in a prostitution type relationship, is not covered because as we all know, that's not gay. That's just ancient Greek. Wait, that's totally gay. But it's not counted in this examination. And neither is anything the Sufi (mystic Muslim) poet Rumi might have felt or done with Shams. And if Indonesian Muslim Barry Soetoro Obama loved Michael, and Michael became "Michelle" and fooled everyone but Joan Rivers, we're not even touching that. Indonesia's a strange place. And when the CIA gets involved, things just get weird and unbelievable.]

While today, the Islamic World and homosexuality do not seem to go together, in the past, there was a rich tradition of homosexuality being expressed through stories and poetry.

While it was never completely allowed, it did become an open secret.

CHAPTERS

• 

  Fuentes is a Nazi incel, not a gay

  Intro 00:00
• Before beginning 01:49
• Islam's stance 02:56
• Sexual identity 03:55
• Homosexual monarchs 05:10
• Sufism 07:23
• Lesbianism 10:33
• Transmission and normality 12:27
• Rejection 15:41

Further reading and sources

• Islamic Homosexualities by Stephen O. Murray and Will Roscoe
• Before Homosexuality in the Arab-Islamic World by Khaled El-Rouayheb
• Homoeroticism in Classical Arabic Literature by J. W. Wright and Everett K. Rowson
• Homosexuality in the Middle East and North Africa by Vincenzo Patanè

Christian white supremacist Nick Fuentes is gay

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Spiritual poetry of Sedona (Meetup)

Shanti Natania Grace (IntrinsicHeart.com); Dhr. Seven, Jen B. (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

Spiritual poetry books deepen our lives.

ONLINE SPIRITUAL POETRY MEETUP meets online on the third Saturday of every month to read and discuss spiritual poetry and wisdom quotes to share thoughts, feelings, and insights inspired by these readings.

About 25 people attend from several groups. It would love to hear what poem or quote is meaningful: Who loves Rumi, the Buddha, Rilke, Joy Harjo, Hafiz, Mary Oliver, Alice Walker, Ryokan, Thomas Merton, Mirabai, Pablo Neruda, Hildegard of Bingen, Wendell Berry, Nâzım Hikmet, Zen Buddhist monk Thich Nhat Hanh or...?

Every meetup is different, depending on what participants choose to read and discuss. Let's learn from each other as we share these invitations to what is higher and deeper. We draw strength, support, and inspiration from poetry and wisdom traditions.

ALL paths and views are welcome: This is an open and welcoming space where we get to know others who share a love for spiritual poetry and wisdom quotes and for that which connects us to a deeper life, regardless of spiritual path or personal history.

• Spirit Unlimited Sedona (Sedona, AZ) | Meetup

NOTE: RSVPs close two hours before the meetup begins. To join the meeting one must be logged in on Zoom, and a password is required. The password will be sent by direct message or email as the date gets closer.

Please check Meetup account (top right) for messages! (There will also be an email, but Meetup.com messages appear much sooner than the emails. Sometimes Meetup's emails get bottle-necked, so it's always better to check Meetup.com account or, better yet, RSVP early). 

Take-Home Poetry Packs are available for FREE download at intrinsicheart.com under the "Poetry & More" tab. (These are a gift for enjoyment, not a prescription for readings).

To see lists of readings from past Spiritual Poetry Meetups, go to intrinsicheart.com/category/poetry/spiritual-poetry-meetup-readings. More

Reza Aslan on "God: A Human History" (live)

VromansBookstore.com/Random House; Dhr. Seven, CC Liu (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

Our favorite Muslim, scholar Reza Aslan

The #1 New York Times bestselling author of Zealot: The Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth and host of Believer Reza Aslan explores humanity's quest to make sense of the divine and sounds a call to embrace a deeper, more expansive understanding of "GOD."

In Zealot, Christian Bible scholar Reza Aslan replaced the staid, well-worn portrayal of [the historical] Jesus of Nazareth [who differs from the fantasy Jesus Christ] with a startling new image of the man in all his contradictions. In his new book, Aslan takes on a subject even more immense: God, writ large.

• Monday, Nov. 27, 2017, 7:00 pm
• All Saints Church, 132 N. Euclid Ave.
• Pasadena, California 91101 (626) 449-5320

In layered prose and with thoughtful, accessible scholarship, Aslan narrates the history of religion as one long and remarkably cohesive attempt to understand the divine by giving it human traits and emotions.

According to Aslan this innate desire to humanize God is hardwired in our brains, making it a central feature of nearly every religious tradition.

There is no God! - Cressida

As Aslan writes: "Whether we are aware of it or not, and regardless of whether we're believers or not, what the vast majority of us think about when we think about God is a divine version of ourselves." But this projection has consequences.

We bestow upon [our] God not just all that is good in human nature -- our compassion, our thirst for justice -- but all that is bad in it: our greed, our bigotry, our penchant for violence.

Don't listen to her. There's a God

All of these qualities inform our religions, cultures, and governments. More than just a history of our understanding of God, this book is an attempt to get to the root of this humanizing impulse in order to develop a more universal spirituality.

Whether you believe in one God (no god but God), many gods [the correct view], or no god at all [also ultimately correct but conventionally inaccurate], God: A Human History will challenge the way you think about the divine and its role in our everyday lives.

 

"Breathtaking in its scope and controversial in its claims, God: A Human History shows how humans from time immemorial have made God in their own image, and argues that they should now stop. Writing with all the verve and brilliance we have come to expect from his pen, Reza Aslan has once more produced a book that will prompt reflection and shatter assumptions."

-Bart D. Ehrman, author of How Jesus Became God

 

Lies My Teacher Told Me

Tickets include one signed copy of God: A Human History. All books will be signed by Reza Aslan prior to the event; therefore, signed copies will be handed out at check-in. He will personalize after the event for those wanting a name in their book.

• Pope making an impact? Bangladeshi Ministry of Foreign Affairs signs accord with counterpart in Burma to return Muslim Rohingya refugees to Rakhine State
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• BOOK REVIEW: God: A Human History (best seller)

SUFI version of the Buddha's life

Dhr. Seven, Amber Dorrian, Ashley Wells, Wisdom Quarterly; TheMorgan.org

St. Issa (Jesus), the Buddha, Goddess Oshun, Bodhisattva Kwan Yin, Shiva (tumblr.com)

Sultan "Ibrāhīm Ibn Adham of Balkh Served by Angels" from the Read Mughal Album. Mughal, probably Oudh, third quarter of the 18th century, attributed to Mīr Kalān Khān. Purchased by Pierpont Morgan, 1911; MS M.458.32 (themorgan.org).

  

Rumi, inspired by Buddhism, set forth Seven Pieces of Advice. They are universal, transcending religious boundaries, epitomizing the highest sentiments of humanity, and encompassing the common values of all religions:

1. In generosity and helping others, be like the river.
2. In compassion and grace, be like the sun.
3. In concealing others’ faults, be like the night.
4. In anger and fury, be like the dead.
5. In modesty and humility, be like the soil.
6. In tolerance, be like the ocean.
7. Either appear as you are, or be as you appear.

Rumi, Founder of Whirling Dervishes

Sufism well knows the story of Siddhartha Gautama, who became the Buddha. But the story is told of an ancient king of Balkh:

 

After a spiritual awakening, Ibrāhīm Ibn Adham (d. 798), an 18th century ruler of Balkh, renounced his kingdom and wealth to become a wandering dervish.

 

Part of his spiritual awakening happened one night when he heard people on the roof of his palace. When he made inquiry, a man told him they were looking for a lost camel.

 

Ibrāhīm then replied it was ridiculous to expect that the camel would be on the roof of his palace. The man then said it was equally crazy to expect to find Allah [oneness with the divine, GOD, the Source, the ultimate, etc.] in the lap of luxury. Ibrāhīm then realized that his hope of finding Allah in his present surroundings was as futile as searching for a camel on his roof.

 

Rumi Museum (newlotus.buddhistdoor.com)

Jalal al-Din Rūmī (1207-1273), a later Sufi mystic, also born in  Balkh (an early center of Buddhism), recounted Ibrāhīm's story in his six-volume poetic work, the Masnavī. (He is depicted showing his love for his young male disciple Hussam al-Din Chelebi, c. 1594, extract from Tardjomev-i-Thevakib, by the Mawlewiyya Dervich Aflaki Baghdad, Pierpoint Morgan Library, New York).

 

Legend has it that Khiżr, the immortal guide of the Sufi, played a role and that Ibrāhīm, regarded as a spiritual ancestor of the Chrishtī Sufi order, was fed by angels. (Siddhartha during his futile period of severe fasting and penitence was going to be fed by the devas through the pores of his skin to keep him alive, but he declined thinking it would be deceptive since everyone assumed him to be fasting).

 

Here the haloed Sufi shaikh (spiritual master) sits at the right, with eyes closed and supported by a staff. Seven "angels" (devas, "shining ones") have already arrived, and an eighth is en route. A pensive man, at the far left, echoes the figure of Ibrāhīm.

 

The subject may have been inspired by engravings of Christ fed by angels in the wilderness -- another echo of the Bodhisattva Siddhartha's quest for spiritual enlightenment. The painting is probably by Mīr Kalān Khān, who was active in Oudh and Delhi during the 1760s.

The Read Mughal Album

Rumi Mausoleum (newlotus.buddhistdoor.com)

Pierpont Morgan purchased the Read Mughal album, along with a Persian album, from Sir Charles Hercules Read, Keeper of British and Medieval Antiquities at the British Museum, in 1911.

 

The Morgan purchase consisted of 30 folios (including both Indian miniatures and the Mughal portraits). But Read owned at least 48 others, now widely dispersed. The leaves were probably once bound in several lacquered bindings. 

 

The identity of their compiler has not been established, but many borders date from the 18th and 19th centuries. The Mughal emperors of India commissioned biographies and were frequently portrayed by artists. Here the paintings are presented in the order of the emperor's reigns rather than the dates of the miniatures, starting with Bābur (r. 1526–30), the Muslim founder of the dynasty, and ending with Shāh Jahān (r. 1628–58), builder of the Taj Mahal. More

Language of Love: One gay teen’s short on unrequited love

Seventeen-year-old Australian high schooler Kim Ho wrote and starred in a short film about a teenage boy who falls in love with his best friend and grapples with coming out. VIDEO: "The Language of Love"

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Dear Malala: Taliban commander writes letter to girl

A senior Pakistani Taliban commander has written a personal response to 16-year-old school girl Malala Yousufzai, who survived a shooting attack. The letter offers some sympathy, but it also attempts to justify Taliban attacks on schools. Read the Taliban letter

• HERstory: photos of female medical pioneers  
• Solar-powered car seats family of four  
• Syrian "rebels" facing defeat in key city of Homs  
• How Thor’s Hammer became approved VA symbol 
• NSA leaks spawn global debate on privacy invasion

Alleged NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden, now in Russia seeking asylum from American torture, has dominated international news headline for weeks. It’s spawned a global debate over privacy vs. the laughable pretext of "national security" governments use to deprive citizens of rights and civil liberties.

  

Baloch women lead fight to secede from Pakistan

Balochistan is one of the most underdeveloped regions in Pakistan, and has traditionally had a heavily male-dominated patriarchal society. Women have rarely had a role in public life. That’s changing as women are now taking up leading roles in the Baloch nationalist movement.

 

Florida’s far-reaching "self-defense" laws, which thanks to ALEC helps Wal-Mart, may be at front of global trend

The state law in Florida which gives citizens the option of using deadly force in self-defense may be at the cusp of a global trend, says University of Chicago law professor Tom Ginsburg.

• VIDEO: One-minute World News
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Alchemy Event(s), Los Angeles (11:11:11)

AlchemyEvent.com

ALCHEMY EVENT METAMORPHOSIS 11:11:11

GLOBAL ASCENSION/TRANSFORMATION
Experience transformation as we cross the threshold into the Age of Aquarius! “11.11.11 is a celebration for Global Peace and Transformation.” Disclosure includes ETs, 2012, Mayan Calendar, Meditation, Yoga, Music, Ancient Aliens, Prophecy, Earth Changes, Exopolitics, Consciousness, Forbidden Archeology, UFOLOGY, Sound Healing, Dance, Banquet Party...

(trivedifoundation.org)

Buddhism is Sufism (Central Asia)

Historical Sketch of Buddhism and Islam...
Dr. Alexander Berzin (with archeological information by Sergei Sokolov)

Ancient India's influence reached deep into the west, and the Buddhism there spread throughout ancient Greece and Russia, eventually seeding Christianity.

Buddhism and Islam

Throughout the region [Russia, Central Asia, the New-istans], there are many indications of cultural borrowing between Buddhism and Islam. For instance, Kazakh Sufis not only believe in rebirth, but also identify reincarnations of past Sufi masters like the Tibetan and Mongol Buddhists do of their teachers.

The Sufis build shrines as graves for their masters, circumambulate them and light butter lamps, reminiscent of Buddhist practices around stupas of deceased masters.

Sufi meditation includes recitation of the Islamic equivalent of "mantras," often combined with breathing cycles, as well as visualization of the[ir] Prophet and spiritual masters.

Parthia and Bactria [Iran and Afghanistan]
Historically, Buddhism was found in all five former Soviet Central Asian Republics that constitute West Turkistan: Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, and Kazakhstan.

It initially spread in the first century BCE from Gandhara (modern Pakistan) and Afghanistan to the kingdoms of Parthia [1] and Bactria. Turkmenistan and northeastern Iran constituted the Kingdom of Parthia; while southern Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, and northern Afghanistan constituted the kingdom of Bactria [2].

Sogdia
Buddhism spread to Sogdia [3] in central Uzbekistan and northwestern Tajikistan mostly from Bactria. The sixth century Chinese pilgrim Xuanzang (Hsüan-tsang) reported two huge Buddhist monasteries at the Sogdian capital at Samarkand.

(qwiki.com)

Western Turk Empire
In the seventh century, when the Turkic people from Mongolia conquered most of Central Asia, Buddhism spread from the Sogdians and from Kashgar/Khotan in southern East Turkistan to the Taraz (Talas) River valley in southern Kazakhstan and the Chu River valley in northern Kyrgyzstan.... These regions constituted parts of the Western Turk Empire [4].

In the eighth century when Tibet ruled East Turkistan, the Tibetans also occupied eastern Kyrgyzstan, bringing with them early Tibetan Buddhism. [5]

Although Islam came to the southern part of these Central Asian republics in the ninth and tenth centuries, and to the northern part in the eleventh, Buddhism was not totally eliminated in the north.

Islam was always weak there and mixed with shamanism and even Buddhism. The main form of Islam throughout the region has always been Sufism [which many today treat as if it were a form of Buddhism, and Rumi a Buddhist, recognizing many similarities], a non-doctrinal sect that emphasizes meditation and a community of highly devoted practitioners living around a master. More

• A Buddhist Library: The Soul of Rumi (Sufism)
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BERZIN ARCHIVES
Buddhism and Islam in East Turkistan
The Historical Context: Buddhism and Islam
Buddhism and Islam in Afghanistan

Invisible History: Buddhist Afghanistan

Paul Fitzgerald and Elizabeth Gould (InvisibleHistory.com) Wisdom Quarterly

Invisible History: Afghanistan's Untold Story tells the story of how Afghanistan brought the United States [like Russia and England beforehand] to this strange place in time after nearly six decades of American policy in Eurasia. VIDEO: The Story Explained with Pictures

The authors visit San Francisco, Los Angeles

"Afghanistan" is older than America with a complex, multi-ethnic culture, deep roots in mystical [pre-Islamic] Zoroastrian and Sufi traditions. It has played a pivotal role in the rise and fall of empires.

Invisible History provides sobering facts and details every American should have known about America’s secret war, but were never told. What was the real story behind the propaganda? More

Crossing Zero: The AfPak War at the Turning Point of American Empire focuses on the AfPak strategy and the importance of the Durand/Zero Line. That line is the border separating Pakistan from Afghanistan, referred to by the military and intelligence community as the Zero Line.

The U.S. fought on the side of extremist-political Islam from Pakistan during the 1980s and against it from Afghanistan since September 11, 2001.

It is therefore appropriate to think of the Durand/Zero line as the place where America’s intentions face themselves -- the alpha and omega of nearly 60 years of American policy in Eurasia. The Durand Line is visible on a map. The Zero Line is not. More

A Discouraged Meditator and the Buddha

Wisdom Quarterly, Susan Elbaum Jootla Teacher of the Devas (accesstoinsight.org)

Easing into meditation like an ecstatic whirling dervish (Susykeys/Flickr.com)

A deva named Kamada had been trying to follow the Buddha's teachings but found the task too demanding.

He was dispirited, even a little depressed, as human meditators sometimes feel when no apparent "progress" can be seen in our practice and we begin losing sight of the long-term perspective.

Discouraged, Kamada complained to the Buddha about how difficult it is to practice the Dharma.

The Buddha, taking a positive approach, did not coddle or comfort the deva. Instead, he praised recluses who leave the household life to work steadfastly towards the goal of happiness and a final end of all suffering:

"O Kamada, they do even what is difficult to do,
The trainees who are well composed in virtue,
Steadfast in their hearts.
For one who has entered the wandering life,
There comes contentment that brings happiness."

Kamada remained disconsolate insisting on the difficulties:

"Blessed One, it is hard to win this serene contentment!"

The Buddha emphasized that some beings do it, explaining that they are those "who love to achieve the mastery of the heart, whose minds both day and night, love to meditate."

But many people meditate without becoming enlightened or even coming close to enlightenment.

It is not meditation itself that frees hearts and minds from obstructions. It is meditation on the universal characteristics of change, unsatisfactoriness, and selflessness that leads to the ultimate contentment. Practicing to know-and-see these three universal characteristics leads to detachment from worldly concerns.

Kamada continued to complain, stressing that it is hard to compose the mind.

The Buddha gently agreed that the task of balancing the mind -- as opposed to either straining it or slacking off -- is not easy and added:

"Yet that which is hard to compose, they compose it." And calming their restless minds, they attain the stages of enlightenment, realization, and awakening.

Still the deva Kamada complained: "The path is impassable and uneven, Blessed One!" It was as if he were craving some magic to make everything easy.

Buddhas, unlike magicians, teach in a different way. They point, show, instruct, and rouse listeners to make effort. Happiness is not the goal; happiness is the way! Passing through successive stages of bliss (jhana), one enters upon the path of insight (vipassana).

No happiness along the way can match nirvana. But we ourselves -- whether we are light beings or fortunate humans -- must put forth the energy to practice the path. Liberation takes consistent, persistent, diligent effort: not straining, not slacking, but always balancing.

The light being Kamada complained some more because training the mind seemed like an endless task. And the Buddha continued to encourage him:

"Though the path is impassable and uneven,
The noble ones walk along it, Kamada.
The ignoble fall head first,
Fall down on the uneven path.
But the path of the noble ones is even,
For the noble are even amidst the uneven" (KS I, 68-69; SN 2:6).

• Buddhist Meditation
• Stages of Meditation
  The stages of meditation outlined apply to all methods -- breathing, visualization, single image focus, mantra... Meditation is the cornerstone to building a happier, healthier you.

100% Missing Link; 50% California; 1% Sufis

Two wild ideas excite Web
A proposal to split up California and Ida the "missing link" are online sensations. What else this week?

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Mystics in sights of Taliban PESHAWAR — Sufi worshippers still flock to the grave of Rahman Baba, a Muslim mystic revered by millions in Pakistan and Afghanistan. But they now pray at a mound of rubble and twisted steel — all that remains of his tomb since militants bombed it. More>>

VIDEO: China "could face banking crisis" (BBC)

Retreats: Religious Replenishing

Buddhism is compatible with practicing other faiths (dreamstime.com).

• Animism: the original "faith," a life dependent on the Spirits (ABC News visits a tribe deep in the Amazon, 9/23/08) VIDEO (2:28)

Replenishing the soul with religious retreats
Michael Virtanen (AP)

Hojin Kimmel is seen during breakfast at Zen Mountain Monastery in Mt. Tremper, N.Y., Thursday, March 20, 2008. Dozens of religious retreats are nestled in the Catskill Mountains and Hudson Valley of upstate New York, many open to visitors seeking quiet getaways and personal enlightenment (AP Photo/Mike Groll).

NEW LEBANON, N.Y. (7/24/08) -- At the former Shaker village, where the Taconic Mountains roll into the Berkshires and New York touches Massachusetts, Yaqin Aubert read aloud Hindu, Buddhist, Taoist, Zoroastrian, Judaic, Christian and Islamic texts during the Sunday service at the Sufi religious retreat.

With two dozen worshippers, who mainly resembled any mostly white upstate congregation, Aubert invoked "the Omnipresent God" and repeated scriptures of peace from seven religious traditions. He told a story about Jesus, whose disciples were angry at their rude treatment by several villagers in ancient Palestine, while Jesus was unbothered.

"I can only spend what is in my purse," was his reply. "All he had inside was peace," explained Aubert, a Sufi Muslim retreat guide. Peace outside comes from peace inside.

Dozens of religious retreats are nestled in the Catskill Mountains and Hudson Valley of upstate New York, many open to visitors seeking quiet getaways and personal enlightenment. Stay for meals or overnight, you'll likely be asked for a donation or pay a small fee. Come for organized retreats for weekends, weeks or longer, with guided learning, solitary prayer or meditation, and pay program fees.

At Abode of the Message in New Lebanon, 25 miles southeast of Albany, the bulletin board by the communal kitchen had a Sufi story about how an individual's inner light can illuminate an entire city. The woman washing dishes described herself as a Sufi Christian. That afternoon, there would be a discussion of the mystical, reverent 13th-century poetry of Rumi, a key figure in Sufism.

Whatever your tradition, this mystical Sufi brand of Islam invites you to deepen your faith here without converting.

The Buddhists in Mount Tremper, 50 miles southwest of Albany in the Catskills, likewise welcome visitors at certain times, recommending the weekly Sunday morning program with beginning instruction in meditation at Zen Mountain Monastery. Senior monastics said they see no conflict between Buddhist practice and someone's search for God. The quest for greater mindfulness and compassion welcomes the question. More>>