Brokeback Mohammed

Muslims, Jews, and Christians may have their, oh, occasional differences, but as an Islamic scholar observes in Parvez Sharma’s documentary A Jihad for Love, there is one point on which the religions agree: Homosexuality is a crime. In his fine Trembling Before G_d, Sandi DuBowski tackled the conflict in the Orthodox Jewish community between religious stricture and sexual orientation; this DuBowski-produced doc addresses the same subject through the veil of Islam, following gay, lesbian, and transvestite Muslims abroad who hew to their faith in the face of hostile, even murderous dogma. Sharma’s subjects -- an Egyptian man imprisoned and brutalized essentially for the crime of attending a disco; a gay imam whose attempts to find some lenience in the Quran are fiercely rebuffed -- share a perhaps puzzling devotion to a religion that, under a fundamentalist sharia interpretation, regards their expression of love as a death-penalty offense. And yet the movie leaves open a provocative question: If you pick and choose which tenets of a religion apply to you, is it still a religion? The conflict seems most deeply felt by Maryam, a Parisian lesbian who cherishes both women and Islam but confesses that she still considers her sexuality haraam -- forbidden. The imam clarifies that his is a “jihad” for love in the sense of struggle, not holy war. Considering the hateful rhetoric he faces on a radio call-in show, however, he may be mistaken. The filmmaker and producer appear in person tonight.
Aug. 25-29, 2008