SITUATING HINDUTVA & LGBT: THE CRISES WITHIN MUSLIM POLITICS IN INDIA
The issue of political alliance with LGBT groups has again come to the fore lately among Muslims in the east and west. The dilemma seeking to ally with such groups is however only among those who have normalized liberal-secular moral compass in arguing for ‘rights’ which our creator did not grant. While this writing is in response to the recent published article of Fraternity Movement national leader Waseem R.S, the issue is not restricted to Muslim politics in India. Famous Daees like Omar Sulieman and Yasir Qadhi are seen grappling with criticisms and rebuttals for their controversial stance on the ‘necessity’ of Muslim political alliance with those propagating towards normalising all types of sexual perversions and deviancy. The problem with community leaders among Muslims is that they are erroneously and carelessly equating homophobia with Islamophobia- (which even large majority of liberals doesn’t engage in due to their islamophobia)- in the name of identity politics and fight against fascism.
One main argument of those among Muslim community leadership in favouring a political alliance with this group is based on the false argument that sexual minorities are ‘persecuted’ and ‘oppressed’ similar to Muslims, resulting in a dangerous equation of Muslim’s liberation struggle against our oppressors using the propaganda strategy of oppressors themselves! These people have normalized the lie of homosexual persecution in an attempt to seek political alliance supposedly against a common enemy. But is Hindutva the common enemy of Muslims and LGBT communities alike? Are the right-wing liberal fascist govt. in India propagators of homophobia and do they legislate homophobic laws restricting freedom of sexual minorities? Looking at the philosophical paradigm and state policies towards LGBT implies that right-wing ideology and sexual degeneracy are pinned to liberalism.
Hindutva is pro LGBT
I happened to have had a conversation with one of my hard-core right-wing classmates at JNU in 2019. This unapologetic Hindutva supporter had once straight forwardly admitted to one of my Kashmiri classmates that Indian Government supports Israel because of their collective hate against Muslims above everything else. Amidst my conversation with him on Hindutva, to my remarks that BJP Government is regressive, he responded,” the government recently revoked the criminalization of same sex relations and is not anti-LGBT, so how can you call it regressive?” It is clear from his reply that right-wingers and the BJP Government considers supporting homosexuals and other sexual deviants as progressivism.
As Muslims, there should be no element of surprise in this to accept that since LGBT propaganda is the natural culmination of liberal materialistic epistemology, Hindutva being part of this philosophical paradigm will support this. Given the manner liberal consciousness works to oppose every divinely revealed moral criterion- which in the current era is embodied in Qur’an and Islam, Islamophobes among liberals in all spectrum, including Hindutva will definitely support LGBT due to their opposition and hate towards Islam.
While we rightly condone Hindutva as fascism, it is necessary to understand what constitutes fascism, which is an extreme form of secular nationalism.
Hindutva like Zionism is a right liberal secular ideology that consider Muslims and Christians as their enemy. Hindutva Govt. in India similar to Zionist Govt. in Israel are very pro LGBT and consider homosexuality and other evil or immoral acts (we are not criminalizing thoughts, but actions) considered sin in the Abrahamic faith laws as progressiveness. As for the right liberals in Israel that forms the government, it is clearly a behaviour contradicting the canonical laws of Judaism, as for Hindutva, the Hindu scriptures themselves have normalized it. There are right-wing Hindu academics who defend LGBT using Hindu scriptures. They maintain that Hindu culture & scriptures are welcoming of homosexual behaviour without incarcerating them for their sexuality.
They further argue that foreign invasions by proponents of Abrahamic faith had contributed in shaping some elements of Hindu societies with negative attitude towards sexual minorities referring to the criminalization of homosexuality by British colonial law. The irony is that the right-wing Hindutva intellectuals consider opposing the colonial era moral code as a decolonizing aspect! These intellectuals justify their re-Interpretation of Smriti scriptures containing anti-Homosexuality elements to comply with their ‘decolonial’ approach in order to support LGBT and appear ‘progressive’.
It should also be pointed out that most of right-wing adherents and supporters similar to the right-wing cadres in the west are either atheists or agnostic. Even among their clergy men or spiritual gurus, many still have very confusing conception of God due to the ambiguity of Hindu scriptures on such basic aspects- to the extend of understanding God as ‘nothingness’.
Thus, furthering the argument that alliance with LGBT is a necessity because it is a war against fascism is an argument that lacks meaning and substance.
Apart from the philosophical synchrony, BJP Government’s pro-LGBT stance on this matter is clear from the legislations it has undertaken since coming to power. In June, few weeks after the BJP won the 2014 parliamentary elections with a clear majority, India’s supreme court granted the transgender community option to mark their gender in a third category, and affirmed them fundamental rights granted in Indian constitution to be applicable to them. Later in 2018, Supreme court struck down provisions of section 377 and ruled decriminalizing private and consensual same sex activity in a landmark judgement. Apart from legislated laws, several transgender protection bills were also introduced during the BJP term since 2014. The Hindutva government is also striving to ensuring the ‘inclusivity’ and acceptance of LGBT in economic sector, wherein companies are asked to give jobs to more LGBT members. These are but a few snippets of the other many pro-LGBT policies of BJP government.
The argument of Muslim community leaders who have embarked on a fight resisting fascism clearly are devoid of the knowledge regarding the nature of their foe. Instead of understanding it, they are defending their strayed policies of seeking alliance from a group whose ideology and philosophy is liberalism similar to the far-right government. The majority of Indian society similar to global trends are being socially engineered to accept supporting and promoting LGBT as progressivism with state approval legislation and policy in education sectors. There’s also an ever-increasing stream within self-proclaimed ‘free thinkers’ who defend every anti-Muslim policy of right-wing Hindutva Govt. who are also the loudest proponents of LGBT propaganda.
So how is this clearly opposite treatment of two groups by the state and society to be considered same by Muslims? Is the situation of Muslims even comparable to LGBT with all that is happening to Muslims around the world by enemies of Islam among infidels and hypocrites? Liberal states’ policies from east to west on the other hand is in an opposite drive with regards to Muslims than what they are doing with LGBT. There’s also unsurprising compatibility of liberals in all spectrum for the ongoing oppression of Muslims in every way possible- demonizing, dehumanizing and humiliating our lives. Public lynching’s of Muslims just because of their Muslim identity is mostly normalized and not newsworthy in the liberal medias, with masses and state authorities justifying killing Muslims because of being Muslim. Every episode of oppression is demonstrating us that the system in complete from judiciary to media are working for the maximum annihilation of Muslims from the country.
Liberals who are equating this are doing so with a clear agenda to promote this among a public who are perfectly happy in the treatment of Muslims. Further, equating Muslim persecution and killings to the ‘concerns’ of LGBT activists by Muslims ourselves is a victory for our liberal oppressors in being able to make us trivialize our sufferings and reduce our moral compass to that of liberalism -which lacks any moral basis in the first place.
Is supporting LGBT politically beneficial for Muslim organisations in India?
The ardent supporters and promoters of LGBT agenda among political parties today in Indian campuses are the communist/liberal left. The various student organisations of left parties like SFI, DSU, AISA, AIYF etc. have positioned LGBT as their main ideological stance. The switch of left student organisations from an intellectually driven movement to promoting immorality is resulted from the failure of Marxist and other center-left liberal theories as a meaningful alternative that could strong-arm right-wing ideologies. The lack of conviction and followers for the redundant and false assumptions of liberal ideologies have prompted them to steer towards the extremity of sexual deviancy. Homosexuality promotion and social engineering to create a gender confused new generation is the last leg in the downfall of liberal civilization. It has always been the case of any civilizations in the past since the time of people of Prophet Lut (A.S).
It is a reality understood by most of the Muslim organisations and political parties in India that center-left student organisations and their affiliate parent parties are Islamophobic largely acting as mute sympathizers of RSS agenda and anti-Muslim policies of the BJP govt. In this scenario, if the Muslim student organisations like Fraternity Movement that are aligned with an Islamic parent organisation Jamat e Islami Hind treads along a secular framework of politics, where morality and Islam are separated from their political engagements, it will be a failing strategy and akin to submitting to the evil agenda’s. Such a strategy will contribute towards incompetency in countering the left politics on an issue they are becoming fanatical and enforcing heresy on its critics.
Adopting queer politics and seeking political alliance from such groups that is becoming the identity of left politics imply a deep crisis within Muslim political activism. The idea that political success will only accompany if we align with liberal parameters of ‘rights’, justice, equality and morality is in itself unethical in Islamic point of view. If one argues that Muslim student parties are not following Islamic framework or paradigms to evade criticism from fellow Muslims, then this is the moment for Muslim advocacy leaders to reflect upon the methodology that seeks to work within the worldview and philosophy causing our oppression. Our means should be in right guidance to attain liberation. Means does not justify the ends in Islamic paradigm.
For what difference is between center-left-right wing party politics and Muslim politics if our political ethics are based on same wrong materialistic philosophy other than that we are more sincere in resisting our oppression? This should be the moment we assert the existence of a different and true revealed epistemology and abide by its principles.
By complying with the liberal paradigm, Muslim parties are entrapping the Islamic Ummah into an ideological quagmire of secular metaphysics which several Muslim intellectuals warned against. As Ali S. Harfouch argues, the root cause of the crises in the Muslim world is the absence of a center that functions along Islamic metaphysics. Not politically aligning with LGBT groups does not and should not be allowed to imply that we deny them their right to life. We should not succumb to yet another witch hunting by left-liberals on the issue of LGBT simply because of our adherence to the rationality of our creator than theirs. Firm stand should be taken against such blanket propaganda where even differing opinion is not tolerated and equated as oppressing the delusional folks.
Instead of erroneously equating human being’s God given duty and rights and the ‘right’ inspired by Shaitan, Muslim organisations should cooperate with Muslim intellectuals to develop a different framework to address the genuine concerns of intersex people or those called as Hijra or Khuntha in Islamic texts. It is the un-Islamic stand points of Muslim political movements that best explains “to saw off the branch one is sitting on” and not vice versa. For Allah has warned against watering down our faith: “Exceed not the limits in your religion (by believing in something) other than the truth, and do not follow the vain desires of people who went astray in the past, and who misled many, and strayed (themselves) from the right path” (5:77)
