Islamist Homophobia in the West: From Rhetoric to Violence Lorenzo Vidino Alexander Meleagrou-Hitchens September 2022 Program on Extremism THE GEORGE WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America. © 2022 Program on Extremism at George Washington University 2000 Pennsylvania Avenue NW Washington, D.C. 20006 https://www.extremism.gwu.edu About the Program on Extremism The Program on Extremism at The George Washington University provides analysis on issues related to violent and nonviolent extremism. The Program spearheads innovative and thoughtful academic inquiry, producing empirical work that strengthens extremism research as a distinct field of study. The Program aims to develop pragmatic policy solutions that resonate with policymakers, civic leaders, and the general public. The views and conclusions contained in this document are those of the authors and should not be interpreted as necessarily representing the official policies, either expressed or implied, of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security or The George Washington University. This material is based upon work supported by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security under Grant Award Number 20STTPC00001-01. September 2022 Table of Contents Executive Summary ...........................................................................................................................4 Islamic and Salafi Views on Homosexuality ...................................................................................5 Western Islamic and Salafi Views on Homosexuality....................................................................7 Anti-LGBTQIA+ Attacks in the West ..............................................................................................10 2016 Pulse Nightclub Shooting ..................................................................................................10 2020 Dresden Stabbing................................................................................................................13 2022 Oslo Shooting ......................................................................................................................15 Foiled Jihadist Plots Targeting the LGBTQIA+ Community ...................................................19 Conclusion ........................................................................................................................................10 Islamist Homophobia in the West: From Rhetoric to Violence 1 September 2022 Executive Summary The global LGBTQIA+ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer/questioning, intersex and asexual/aromantic/agender) community has historically been subjected to hateful rhetoric, discriminatory practices and acts of violence. In the West, this animosity has traditionally mostly originated from a heterogeneous array of actors that can broadly be identified with the far-right. And while in recent years the LBGTQIA+ community has received rights and a degree of acceptance largely unthinkable only a few decades ago, episodes of intolerance and violence are still very much present. Recently, for example, in June 2022, authorities detained 31 members of a white nationalist group called Patriot Front who were allegedly about to attack the Pride in the Park event in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho.1 If animosity against the LGBTQIA+ community from right wing circles is a well-known and fairly uncontested topic, less so is that originating from Islamist milieus.2 Yet, an abundance of evidence indicates that, over the last few decades, hateful rhetoric and occasional acts of violence against the LGBTQIA+ community in the United States and virtually all other Western countries have increasingly come from Islamist actors. Both in the Muslim world and in the West, mainstream Islamists, such as those from Muslim Brotherhood and Salafist backgrounds, depict homosexuality as a perversion and a grave sin. Islamist anti-LGBTQIA+ rhetoric takes different angles. At times, it focuses on warning the Muslim community about engaging in homosexual acts, evoking the divine punishments that await those who do so. In line with some Christian fundamentalists, natural events such as hurricanes and earthquakes or diseases like AIDS are also painted as divine punishments against homosexuality. A substantial part of the messaging also views homosexuality and gay rights as a Western plot devised to pervert and weaken Muslims. This report documents several instances of preachers and top-ranking officials linked to prominent Islamist organizations in the U.S. and Europe, several of whom are engaged as partners by Western governments and civil society, that espouse such views. Most Islamists agree that punishment of homosexuals is the responsibility of God, and not of ordinary Muslims. Nevertheless, it is not uncommon for Islamist preachers to speak about homosexuals with extremely hateful characterizations and invoke brutal punishments against them, contributing to a hate-filled atmosphere which can influence individuals with more immediate violent intentions. Jihadist groups adopt even more extreme positions on homosexuality and justify killing those who engage in it. The Islamic State has been particularly ruthless in its persecution of homosexuals, enacting theatrical executions of individuals it accused of being gay and broadcasting them when it controlled territory in Syria and Iraq. Like antisemitism, anti-Shi’a sectarianism, and views on blasphemy and/or apostasy, homophobia is a bridge issue linking Western non-violent Islamists and their jihadist counterparts. Despite their disagreements about the precise conditions for applying the death penalty against LGBTQIA+ individuals, which remains a matter of great dispute between the factions, an emerging consensus 1 Sullivan, Becky. 2022. “A Far-Right Plan to Riot near an Idaho LGBTQ Event Heightens Safety Concerns at Pride.” NPR, June 15, 2022, sec. National. https://www.npr.org/2022/06/15/1104481518/idaho-pride-lgbtq-patriot-front. 2 Islamist is a broad term commonly used to describe all movements that adopt a politicized version of Islam. It is at times also used to include Salafism, a puritanical movement within Sunni Islam which calls for reverting the religion back to the time of the prophet Mohammed, and the first three generations of Muslims known as the Salaf al-salihin. While most Salafis share a similar creed (‘aqīda), different strands of the movement diverge significantly on the method (manhaj) they employ to achieve their goals. The strand of Salafism that advocates violent confrontation as the main method to achieve its goals is commonly referred to as jihadism. Islamist Homophobia in the West: From Rhetoric to Violence 2 September 2022 connects Islamists of all stripes, particularly in the West. First, Islamists and jihadists alike view homosexuality--active or passive--as a grave sin, entailing some form of divine retribution. Second, figures on both sides have expressed their views that the promotion of “LGBTQIA+ ideology” is part of a grand conspiracy by Western countries to dissuade Muslims from living out their faith, and that calamities that befall Western countries are a result of divine judgement against them. Lastly, certain prominent Islamists concur with the jihadist viewpoint that, in an ideal Islamic state, the death penalty should be enforced against homosexuals. Against this backdrop, it is not surprising that in recent years the LGBTQIA+ community in the West has suffered a series of terrorist attacks perpetrated by individuals inspired by Islamist and/or jihadist ideology. Successful attacks against LGBTQIA+ targets were carried out in Orlando, Florida (2016, 49 killed), Dresden, Germany (2020, 1 killed), and Oslo, Norway (2022, 2 killed); other attacks were foiled in France, the Netherlands, the U.S. and the UK. In order to provide a general overview of these dynamics, this report will first outline the main Islamist viewpoints on homosexuality. It will then provide examples of how Western-based Islamist actors have framed the issue, examine the views and actions of jihadist groups like the Islamic State and al-Qaeda, and finally conclude with an analysis of terrorist attacks perpetrated or planned by individuals motivated by Islamist/jihadist ideology against LGBTQIA+ targets in the West. Islamist Homophobia in the West: From Rhetoric to Violence 3 September 2022 Islamist and Salafi Views on Homosexuality Like those of other Abrahamic religions, Islamic texts contain negative views of homosexuality. Quranic passages refer to the prophet Lot and the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah by God after the people refused to heed Lot’s warnings about what was considered their “deviant” sexual behavior.3 As a result, God punished them by ordering the angel Jibreel to lift the entirety of the area and throw it back down to earth, killing its inhabitants with a rain of stones. This Quranic reference is often followed up with the citation of a hadith narrated by Ibn Abbas to justify the execution of gay people in an Islamic state, if their illicit act was witnessed by at least four people: “If you find anyone doing as Lot's people did, kill the one who does it, and the one to whom it is done."4 Over the centuries, exegeses of these sources have differed. While there is a general consensus that Islam sees homosexuality as a sin, there are disagreements among Islamic scholars and schools of jurisprudence on whether merely having homosexual tendencies without acting on them constitutes a sin, what the punishments should be, who should mete them out, and many other related aspects. Islamists of various backgrounds also draw from these sources when formulating their stances on homosexuality. However, they differ in how they interpret them for implementation in modern times. Most do adopt the essential conservative Islamic view on homosexuality, which claims that it represents a corruption of the innate and pure nature, or fitra, granted by God at a person’s birth which ensures procreation by creating all humans with an attraction to the opposite sex. Thus, according to this view, no one is “born gay” but rather people become gay as a result of corruption due to un-Islamic influences or some sort of traumatic experience. As such, homosexuality is seen alongside other sexual “perversions” such as paedophilia and bestiality. In many cases, Islamists agree that the story of Lot shows that the punishment of homosexuals is the responsibility of God. They argue that individual Muslims have only the duty to try and teach gay people that they are sinful in the hope they change their ways while also working to implement laws and encourage the establishment of social norms which restrict homosexuality. Others, however, simply refer to the story of Lot and the hadith as a guide on how to deal with homosexuality, omitting any qualifiers or context. In June 2020, for example, Egyptian Islamist Hala Samir appeared on the Turkey-based Muslim Brotherhood affiliated television channel Watan TV to discuss homosexuality. Referring to the hadith, she told viewers that “'If you find men engaged in a homosexual act – kill the active one as well as the passive one.' Don't start asking: 'Are you active or passive?' Just kill both.”5 She went on to suggest that the most religiously acceptable ways to do this was either by burning them alive or throwing them from a high place and then stoning them, thus mimicking God’s punishment of the inhabitants of Sodom and Gomorrah. Similarly, in 2019, Muslim Brotherhood member Amer Shamakh wrote for a Brotherhood website lamenting that the gay liberation movement was being imported from the West to Egypt and reminding readers that, “in Islam, homosexuality is one of the most loathsome deeds, and Islamic law instructs that those who carry it out be killed by burning, being thrown from a high place, or 3 See for instance Surah al-A’raf, 80-84; Surah ash-Shuara 160-175; Surah al-Ankabut 26-35. 4 “One who does the action of the people of Lut.” Sunan Abi Dawud 4462. https://sunnah.com/abudawud/40 5 Weinthal, Benjamin. 2020. “US Envoy Encourages Condemnation of Muslim Brotherhood’s Call to Kill Gays.” Jerusalem Post, June 28, 2020. https://www.jpost.com/international/us-envoy-urges-condemnation-of-muslim- brotherhoods-call-to-kill-gays-633022 Islamist Homophobia in the West: From Rhetoric to Violence 4 September 2022 stoning... For the Prophet said: 'Whoever is found behaving in the manner of the people of Lot – kill him and the one to whom it was done.'”6 Yusuf al-Qaradawi, the spiritual leader of the global Muslim Brotherhood and chairman of the Dublin- based European Council for Fatwa and Research, a body established to provide religious guidance to European Muslims, has stated about the punishment for gays: “Some say we should throw them from a high place, like God did with the people of Sodom. Some say we should burn them, and so on. There is disagreement. . . . The important thing is to treat this act as a crime.”7 Members of the Muslim Brotherhood are not the only Islamists to make such claims. Indeed, in South Asia, Islamists have been even more active in protests against homosexuality and its potential legalisation along with same-sex marriage. This is particularly prevalent in Bangladesh, where since 2013, a spate of targeted killings against secular, liberal, and gay or gay rights-supporting bloggers has been linked to the anti-gay hate campaigns and activism of Islamist groups including the Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) and Hefazat-e-Islami (HI).8 The killings coincided with Hefazat-e-Islami’s production of a list of 84 bloggers it identified as promoting liberal values, atheism, and homosexuality. At least five of the people on that list have since been murdered.9 Similarly, in 2015, both JI and HI were among 13 Islamist groups in the country to put forward a 15- point plan which included asking the government to take action against homosexuals by implementing an existing law which criminalises “carnal intercourse against the order of nature.”10 Months later, one of the most notorious killings took place. Xulhaz Mannan, founder of a national LGBTQIA+ magazine, and his friend Mahbub Rabbi Tonoy were murdered with machetes after a group of men forced their way into Mannan’s house.11 6 Amer Shamakh, “A Homosexual American President,” July 10, 2019, available at: https://www.fjp.best/259469/%D8%B1%D8%A6%D9%8A%D8%B3%D8%A3%D9%85%D8%B1%D9%8A%D9%83% D9%89-%D9%85%D8%AB%D9%84%D9%89-%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%AC%D9%86%D8%B3%D9%8A%D8%A9/ 7 “Muslim Cleric Backs Gay Burnings.” 2006. PinkNews. June 16, 2006. https://www.pinknews.co.uk/2006/06/16/muslim-cleric-backs-gay-burnings/. 8 Amundson, Inga. 2018. “The Ruins of Bangladesh’s LGBT Community.” East Asia Forum, March 23, 2018. https://www.eastasiaforum.org/2018/03/23/the-ruins-of-bangladeshs-lgbt-community/; Hasan, Mubashar, and Geoffrey MacDonald. 2022. “The Persistent Challenge of Extremism in Bangladesh.” Washington: United States Institute of Peace. https://www.usip.org/publications/2022/06/persistent-challenge-extremism-bangladesh; Hammadi, Saad. 2016. 9 “'Anyone Could Become a Target’: Wave of Islamist Killings Hits Bangladesh.” The Guardian, April 30, 2016. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/apr/30/bangladesh-islamist-attacks-murder-gay-atheist-activists-dhaka; Bhatt, Chetan. 2021. “Words and Violence: Militant Islamist Attacks on Bloggers in Bangladesh and the UK.” Ethnic and Racial Studies 44 (14): 2615–36. https://doi.org/10.1080/01419870.2020.1828599. 10 Amundson, “The Ruins of Bangladesh’s LGBT Community.” 11 BBC News. 2016. “Bangladesh LGBT Editor Hacked to Death,” April 25, 2016, sec. Asia. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-36128729. Islamist Homophobia in the West: From Rhetoric to Violence 5 September 2022 Western Islamist and Salafi Views on Homosexuality In the West, Islamists express very similar views on homosexuality, but are usually more cautious in their language and caveat religious justifications for the execution of gays with warnings that this cannot be pursued by individuals in non-Muslim countries. Influential Western Salafi Bilal Phillips, for example, speaks of the “severe punishment of death” for gays, but only in an Islamic state.12 American preacher Yasir Qadhi made similar, if slightly more explicit comments: “this is a part of our religion...to kill, by the way, the homosexual. The fiqh rulings say that the homosexual be killed, OK? …This is all a part of our religion. This doesn’t mean we go and do this in America but I’m saying if we had an Islamic state we would do this.”13 Abu Khadeejah, a UK-based Salafi who runs Salafi Publications, a publishing house which is among the most influential among American Salafis, also writes that, while the Quran does not detail the punishment for homosexuality, “a saying of the Prophet makes clear: ‘Whoever you find engaging in the action of the people of Lūt, execute the one who does it, and the one to whom it is done.’” However, he too follows this up with a warning that “this saying must not be used by individuals as an excuse to enact or incite violence against homosexuals. Prescribed punishments can only be carried out by the legal authority in a country that practices Islamic Law… A Muslim, regardless of which country he lives in, is not allowed to physically harm those he regards to be sinners, nor incite others to do so. Vigilantism goes against Islamic teachings because it creates an anarchic, unjust and disorderly society.”14 Following a reasoning common also in some ultra-conservative Christian milieus, some also suggest that divine punishment has struck gay people in the West through the spread of AIDS. Bilal Phillips, for example, claims that “as a consequence of this practice, AIDS spread through the society beginning with the homosexual element…this is divine retribution…from an Islamic perspective.”15 Similarly, American Salafi imam Abdullah Hakim Quick has said that AIDS is caused by the “filthy practices” of homosexuals.16 This type of hateful language is commonplace among Western Islamists. Australian Salafi Feiz Mohammed describes homosexuality as the “worst, disgusting, scummy, dirty, filthy, abominated act on the face of this earth.”17 Also relying on the same hadith noted above, he says that Islamic law obligates the killing of those who take part in homosexual acts. A prominent American preacher and former Vice-President of the Muslim Brotherhood-influenced Islamic Society of North America (ISNA), Siraj Wahhaj, describes homosexuality as “a disease of this society,” and tells his followers that they should make gay people in America “feel uncomfortable.” He, too, reminds listeners that Islamic law calls for the killing of homosexuals, but that “I don’t want us [American Muslims] to go get sticks and start running outside looking for homosexuals, we don’t condone that.”18 Another top 12 Philips, Bilal. 2006. “Homosexuality- Contemporary Issues.” Digital Minbar, December 14, 2006. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AerCqUUxiUo 13 Audio of undated lecture of Yasir Qadhi in authors’ possession, copy available on request. At the time Yasir Qadhi was a very influential American Salafi, but he has since renounced Salafism, see Qadhi, Yasir. 2014. “On Salafi Islam.” Available at: https://muslimmatters.org/2014/04/22/on-salafi-islam-dr-yasir-qadhi/. 14 Abdul-Wahid, Abu Khadeejah. 2019. “The LGBTQ Movement: Homosexuality and Islam: Understanding Muslim Attitudes To Homosexuality (Islam 5.7).” Abu Khadeejah : ةجيدخ وبأ. January 30, 2019. https://abukhadeejah.com/lgbtq- homosexuality-gay-muslims-and-islam/. 15 Philips, “Homosexuality- Contemporary Issues.” 16 “Clayton and Triangle Television Ltd - 2004-001.” 2004. Broadcasting Standards Authority of New Zealand. February 26, 2004. https://www.bsa.govt.nz/decisions/all-decisions/clayton-and-triangle-television-ltd-2004-001/. 17 Mohammed, Feiz. “Homosexuals.” https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x2v4rsi 18 “Siraj Wahhaj on Homosexuality.” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4xR-ibkcC_g Islamist Homophobia in the West: From Rhetoric to Violence 6 September 2022 ISNA official, former president Muzammil Siddiqi, has similarly stated: “Homosexuality is a moral disorder. It is a moral disease, a sin and corruption . . . No person is born homosexual, just like no one is born a thief, a liar or murderer. People acquire these evil habits due to a lack of proper guidance and education.”19 The hate-filled homophobic rhetoric of Islamists like the Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) also extends to the movements influence in the West. One such example is the East London Mosque, a heavily JI- influenced institution which has been criticised a number of times by gay rights campaigners for regularly hosting speakers with a record of anti-gay hate speech, including Abdullah Hakim Quick.20 In 2007, the mosque was discovered to have hosted a talk in which the speaker, the UK-based Abdul Hattin, showed the audience pictures of gay and heterosexual men and invited them to “spot the fag.”21 Through such events, gay activists claim that the mosque has “created an atmosphere in which [anti-gay] hate is socially acceptable; they have spread a message in which maiming and violence is the most dutiful, honorable, devout thing to do.”22 The “threat” of homosexuality in the West is also often presented by Islamist preachers as a conspiracy in which there is a supposed “gay agenda” to destroy the moral fiber of society and corrupt Muslims. American Salafi Moosa Richardson, for example, warns that “Muslims in the West must reflect seriously over the story of Loot and his trials, especially in an era when the homosexual agenda is being repackaged to the world as personal freedom and even heroism. A Muslim living in the West may be affected by the homosexual agenda, or perhaps a spouse or a child may be affected.”23 One of the main perceived threats of the “gay agenda” is the introduction of gay marriage. In the West in particular there is a focus on how the legalisation of homosexuality and same-sex marriage is a symptom of the evil corruption of Western societies. Michigan-based Salafi Ahmad Musa Jibril, for example, reminds his followers that “The people of Lut were destroyed due to their evil practice of sodomy,” and yet “in this [Western] society it has become legalised! The punishment of Allah is near. Allah will save all those who do good - they hear and they obey. Allah will save those who enjoin the good and forbid the evil.” In a recent lecture on the concept of al wala wal bara, Jibril claims that the concept is a crucial way for Muslims to understand the enmity between them and the non-Muslims that surround them in the West who are “such hypocrites” because they allow the massacre of righteous Muslims (a reference to counter-terrorism operations against jihadist targets) while in their own society, even “homosexuals and animals have rights” above Muslims.24 While, as seen, Islamists in the West usually fall short of calling for Muslims to take it upon themselves to kill homosexuals, these and many other examples show how they have they have 19 Habib, Samar. 2010. Islam and Homosexuality. Praeger, p. 299. 20 The East London Mosque and its sister organisation, the Islamic Forum of Europe, were revealed to be taking their ideological line from Mawdudi’s work in a Channel 4 Dispatches investigation, “Britain’s Islamic Republic,” first aired on 1 March 2010. See also Gilligan, Andrew. 2010. “Inextricably linked to controversial mosque: the secret world of IFE,” Daily Telegraph, February 28, 2010. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/labour/7333487/Inextricably-linked- to-controversial-mosque-the-secret-world-of-IFE.html. 21 Adamidou, Christina. 2011. “Gay and lesbian activists challenge East London Mosque over use of homophobic speakers.” East London Times, June 14, 2011. https://www.eastlondonlines.co.uk/2011/06/gay-activists-challenge- east-london-mosque-over-extremism/ 22 Butt, Riazat, and religious affairs correspondent. 2011. “Ban Homophobic Clerics from Mosques, Gay Rights Campaigners Urge.” The Guardian, June 9, 2011, sec. World news. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2011/jun/09/gay-rights-london-mosques. 23 Richardson, Moosa. 2018. “The Fitnah (Trials) of Passions and Desires.” Bakkah Publications. February 9, 2018. https://www.bakkah.net/en/the-fitnah-trial-of-passions-and-desires.htm. 24 Jibril, Ahmad Musa. 2022. “Al Wala w’al Baraa Series.” Islamist Homophobia in the West: From Rhetoric to Violence 7