16.4.08

ATTACK

An anonymous man who does not name himself (I assume it is a man, since we were in Turkey) has decided to leave this choice comment on every post of this blog. I reproduce it for you.

Allahın Laneti sizin ve lut kavmi gibilerinin üzerine olsun.

May God's curse be upon you and people like the Lut tribe!


Interzone from Ankara says:
Long ago a friend from Holland said to me: "Holland is not heaven". He was right. It seems like, heaven is a relative aspect on this. On the other hand, even the comment above, proves Mehmet's words.

We are not searching for heaven, we want to free the world from hatred and fear.

Banu Guven, the popular Turkish TV Presenter interviewed me on her show (as I was on my way to the airport yesterday).

And finally, DORIAN JONES does an excellent feature on the film for Voice of America
Documentary About Muslim Homosexuals Screened at Turkish Film Festival

Also SABOOR KHAN has this to say:
This film is contradicting itself and I am really confused! Please can you clarify to me how you can suggest when this is one of the fundamentals of Islam since it has been clearly portrayed in the story of Prophet Lot (peace be upon him) in the Quran, and mentioned also in several Hadith, and furthermore is agreed upon all the major scholars. How can some people decided to change things and start a new interpretation of a faith and then label the rest of the religion as extreme or intolerant. I am a Muslim, but Islam does not tell me to be intolerant to homosexuals, it just says that one is not a Muslim if one is homosexual. Please also consider the following Hadith which has been widely accepted by all the scholors:

Abdullah bin Amar (RA) relates that the Holy Prophet (peace be upon him) said "Surely things will happen to my people as happened earlier to Israelites, they will resemble each other like one shoe in a pair resembles the other to the extent that if anyone among the Israelites has openly committed adultery to his mother there will be some who will do this in my Ummah as well, verily the Israelites were divided into 72 sections but my people will be divided into 73 sections, all of them will be in the fire except one." The companions asked, 'Who are they O Messenger of Allah,' Holy Prophet (peace be upon him) said, "They are those who will be like me and my companions."

Truly the Prophet or his companions were not homosexual.

Please kindly respond.


Sabah has done another little feature which is here and translates as:

'I was scared, I took a deep breath with the applause'
One of the most contraversial films of the 27th International Istanbul Film Festival that will go on until April 20th was "A Cihad for Love" by Parvez Sharma of Indian origin, which discusses the lives of gay and lesbian Muslims. Director Sharma, who himself is also gay said: "I was very scared before coming to Istanbul. But I came across an incredible audience that applauded me. I took a deep breath". Turkey is the first Muslim country that the film was shown.




4 comments:

Isa said...

I wrote this to Sandi somewhere.

dear Sandi: I cannot begin to express the deep gratitude I feel personally for the gift of this film. It is so much more than a masterpiece so much more than a film so much more than a documentary so much more than an media event so much more than any words I have, a true jihad for true love.


The film itself, including all those whose efforts it is, is clearly a profoundly personal struggle for faith and truth and love. My poor words cannot do it justice.

Jihad for Love faces directly the fundamental spiritual question of our day and age. It answers the fundamental question of our day and age. IMHO (not so humble really) it is at least as deserving for the Nobel prize for peace as Gore's work on global warming.

Paul the Apostle in one of his letters explains what the Body of Christ is: the community of believers in the way of love are the Christ, Christ sacrificed and risen: the Body of Christ is the community of believers in love. The voice of G-D in the Haggaddah proclaims God's love for us and G-D's love alone as the sole saving fundamental principle of reality. In Buddhism the pillar on which faith stands is the community which serve each other and all creatures in love. In Jihad for Love Pervez Sharma Ustad shows that this jihad is love, love that actualizes, realizes, verifies that God's love for us, God's uniqueness is the love we have for each other and the sacrifice we make for each in love. La illaha ila LLAH says there is no other God except this love we share and this love we give to each.

At the heart of Islam are the two festivals of Ramazan and of Sacrifice. In both, the whole family of believers celebrate the sacrifices made for each other by the whole family of believers acting in the fullness of God's love for us, God's saving, giving forgiving love. In Jihad of Love you see that this love is a struggle, a sacrifice, and a celebration, a coming out like the coming out of Moses (aws) the people of God in the Haggaddah, Like Jonah coming out of the whale(aws). Like Eyyub (aws) coming out of misery. Into the Light. Like the coming out of Mohammed (saws) and his friends (ra) to set up a new community of lovers. The actual body of love, the saving serving giving forgiving body of God's love in this world. Jihad of Love is a coming out of the darkness into the light.

Isa said...

correction: coming out of Moses (aws) with the people of God in the Haggaddah,

Eflatoon said...

Selaam from Turkey!

i am so sorry for that cooment of homofobic Turk with turkey brain! that attack style shows that he must be gay also.

we r here, working against homofobi...

my islamic gay blog

Brandon said...

Hi Parvez,
my name is Brandon. I am an indepdendent, glbt journalist, here in the states, and I would love to view your film and review it. Please contact me bwallace@huntingdon.edu Thanks!

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