Understanding the LGBTQ + Narrative Course
For: K-12 subject area teachers, Islamic studies teachers, counselors, imams, youth directors and parent volunteers in Islamic schools.
Join the Islamic School League of America’s (ISLA) professional learning community on
“Addressing LGBTQ+ Issues in Islamic Schools and Communities”
“Addressing LGBTQ+ Issues in Islamic Schools and Communities”
Pre-recorded Lectures:
Dr. Sharif El-Tobgui
Course Facilitator:
Yahya Van Rooy
What? A safe space to explore and dig into the complex topics of gender, sexuality, morality, and identity within an Islamic worldview and begin to understand how to approach and address these issues in your school and community.
When?
July 8 – August 12, 2024
Self-Paced, asynchronous course hosted on Canvas
+
60 minute Weekly Live Sessions (optional, but highly encouraged)
Mondays @ 5 pm CST
For Whom? Islamic school educators across the world, including administrators, curriculum developers, Islamic studies teachers, Muslim youth workers and counselors
More Details:
Course Goals
- 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
