• Develop foundational knowledge grounded in an Islamic perspective around gender, sexuality, morality and identity
  • Why an Islamic Worldview matters
  • Understand and apply an Islamic Framework to contemporary issues
• Understand the implications of the contemporary language related to gender and sexual identity
• Deconstruct the secular framework used to explain sexual and gender identity and reconstruct using an Islamic framework
• Prepare to lead a discussion with stakeholders (parents, students, teachers, community members) using a 3C “Prophetic Pedagogical” Approach: Clarity, Conviction, and Compassion

Course Outline:

5-week On Demand ISLA Course

Week 1: Sexual Revolution, Civil Rights & Current LGBTQ+ Movement

• Decoupling Sex, Marriage, and Reproduction
• Civil Rights
• Identity Politics
• LGBTQ+ Movement Today

Week 2: Worldviews & the Importance of Maintaining an Islamic Worldview

• Modern secular vs. Islamic worldview
• Islamic vs. secular paradigm on gender and sexuality specifically
• What does Islam actually say (and not say) about “LGBT”-related issues?
  • same-sex feelings/behaviors
  • gender nonconforming behaviors/dispositions
  • transgenderism and gender transitioning

Week 3: Sexual Paradigms & Culture, Globalization & Modernity

• The historical and cultural specificity of the modern Western sexual paradigm
• Same-sex desires/acts before “homosexuality” in pre-modern Muslim culture
• Feelings, actions, identity (perspectives through time)
• The transcendence of Allah’s command, or the unbreachable red lines

• Universalizing the Western paradigm and the “liberal Muslim” critique of Islam on homosexuality

Week 4: What Is “Homosexuality”?

• Understanding the subjective experience
• Getting our language and paradigm right
• “Being gay” (identity paradigm) vs. “having same-sex attractions (or SSA)”
• Where does homosexuality come from?
• How to deal with Muslims experiencing SSA or gender identity disorder?

Week 5: Civic Engagement and “Allyship”

• Can we be allies with the LGBT community?
• Does the LGBT community “support” Muslims? Can Muslims “support” the LGBT community?
• Muslims as a primarily religious vs. a primarily political community: which do we want to be?
• How do we engage with political activism and stay true to our principles?

Week 1-5: Being Unapologetically Muslim

• Holding strong to Islamic beliefs and principles
• Responding with Clarity, Conviction, and Compassion
• Enjoining what is right and forbidding what is wrong (al-amr bi-l-ma‘ruf wa-l-nahy ‘an al-munkar)
• Lakum deenukum wa liya deen (to you your moral way and to me mine)
• Witnesses to Allah: truth, compassion, conviction.