SEPTEMBER 27 — Homosexuality is a sin, but sinners deserve to be loved just as much. That was the consensus I gathered from a public discussion.

Last month, the New Straits Times published a column titled The Homosexual Agenda.” its writer Harun Yahya, an anti-Darwinian televangelist himself, likened the liberation of homosexuals from long-standing oppression as humanity’s Doomsday. And he did so in the name of Islam.

Curious as to whether it was a legitimate view of Islam, I turned to Facebook for an answer. “Is Islam against homosexuality?” I asked. Most comments weren’t helpful: people were either offended or offensive.

But of the answers that were helpful, this was the consensus I gathered: in Islam homosexuality is a sin, but homosexuals deserve to be loved and forgiven. This view is moderate – hate the sin, not the sinners – in comparison to governments who outlaw homosexuality, or even allow stoning to take place. In essence, it was better than hating the sin along with its sinners.

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But two issues rest uncomfortably with me. The first is that homosexuality is a sin. Is it? In Islam, as with other religions, there are many sins to be despised: stealing, lying, and cheating are among some. These are social ills that breach the trust which hold societies together.

There are some premature arguments for homosexuality being a sin. One, for example, is how because HIV/AIDS used to disproportionately affect gay men, that was their “punishment.”  

The lack of education on sexual diseases exacerbated this too. Since gay men cannot impregnate each other, condoms were of no use. But this meant full exposure to the disease. Now, education is more accessible and treatment less discriminatory. So much so that the situation has reversed: heterosexual men make up a larger proportion of the infected than homosexual men in the US.

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Another ridiculous argument supporting the case for homosexuality being a sin comes from Harun Yahya’s column in theNST: that homosexuals are paedophiles. How? By showing the rising number of children being adopted by homosexual men, increasing in line with the rising number of children being sexually abused by homosexuals.

As though heterosexuals cannot be paedophiles. What the writer ignores is that homosexual men cannot produce children to start families, so they adopt. That is intentional. His article is full of numbers, giving the impression that his views are legitimately backed by statistics. But he abused and misinterpreted them so they fit his agenda. They say numbers don’t lie, but they forget people often do.

But these two ideas don’t define Islam’s treatment of homosexuality as a sin fairly. There are real concerns. One friend told me that he believed life rested on certain axioms, making up a “natural order” that should not be disturbed. Homosexuality disrupts this order, because it has no family-building and procreative qualities.

That’s true: if homosexuality becomes common practice that is the end of future generations. But push any theory to an extreme and it never fails to sound convincing. One must also know if that is the case, is homosexuality to blame? Or it it governments or lack of subsidised child care for women so they can continue working? Or extractive elites, for hindering our ability to raise living standards so families can actually afford to raise children?

The second issue I am uncomfortable with is the “hate the sin, not the sinner” approach. It leaves a lot of room for bigotry to be justified. Try telling someone, “I hate what you are and what makes you happy but I don’t hate you. And I still love you. Just not…  what you are.”

Some even go out of their way to extend this bigotry, in the guise of love. One support group, namely Straight Struggles, provides a platform for Muslims who experience what it calls “same sex attractions” (SSA). They advocate that it is okay to have desires unasked for (SSA), but not to act on same sex encounters (SSE).

It’s a wonderful idea to support such an already oppressed community. Desires are halal, encounters are haram. But there’s a hitch: marriage makes encounters halal, and the group only advocates heterosexual marriages. That’s saying, “It’s okay to feel gay, but not okay to be gay.” Is that really accepting homosexuals as equals then?

It is natural to find anything challenging religion discomforting, especially for those who are believers. Most religions perceive homosexuality to be a sin. People tend to specify that in Islam it’s a sin, but that doesn’t mean all Muslims do. Unfortunately we were taught that it is supposed to, and not all agree. Even those who do are not entirely convinced; they are in a grey area themselves.

That is a good thing. I believe, at best, most religious people see this conflict of hating homosexuality but not homosexuals. And that followers are often in a grey area, between the desire to remain faithful, and the same desire to be fair. But the choice is up to the individual. Is he only faithful if all criteria are fulfilled, or is that a personal decision between him and God, and not someone else’s choice to decide if he’s faithful? I find that sort of faith strongest -- between you and God only -- so long as it does not harm another’s ability to believe in God, like terrorism or nosy, overreaching communities. Why is it anybody’s business if you’re faithful? That is personal.

Ultimately homosexuals are people like us, and if people find same sex relationships strange, that is natural because it is uncommon. For many people, religion has been the foundation, the guiding principles of their lives. To dispute religion is to dispute whatever their life has been built on. It is inconsiderate to expect people to concede what life has meant to them in a day. But eventually some will let go of certain beliefs that has not served them well. That is truly brave of them: to withstand community pressures to conform.

Homosexuality is not a sin; it does not harm. Recognising that challenges religion, even though it is considered taboo. But taboos aren’t taboos because its topics are sensitive. Ideas don’t feel, people do. And for homosexuals and heterosexuals, that is what counts the most. So if you truly love, treat, and accept homosexuals as equals, there is no homosexual agenda. The only agenda is equality. That, I believe, is not a sin.

* This article was written by an Associate Editor from CEKU, the editorial arm of the United Kingdom and Eire Council of Malaysian Students (UKEC).

** This is the personal opinion of the columnist.