Gay-Inclusive Arab Journal Fights Progressive Cause

Islamophobes the world over like to claim that Islamic people are enemies of freedom and must be stopped in their tracks. It's a clever, convenient argument, and one that has sparked massive amounts of xenophobia since 9/11, when the nation was raw and itching for a collective "enemy." Arab editors in Israel, however, are about to blow that myth out of the water.

Alaa Hlehel and a dedicated staff of wordsmiths just launched a new web-based literary journal that has made a point of including the LGBT set. Called Qadita, named after Hlehel's hometown, destroyed in the 1948 Arab-Israeli war, the journal will include video, fiction, commentary and a very special gay page. Could this be the tool gay people need to help break down long-standing sociopolitical barriers?

To say that there exists a division between Islamic and queer communities would be an understatement. Though certainly not all Arab people, the majority of whom are Islamic, are homophobic, many state leaders around the world have helped drill anti-gay attitudes into their people, or, at least, their politics. Who could forget, for example, when Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad claimed there were no gay people in his nation?

Gay people aren't necessarily better: over my years as a gay editor, I have seen countless comments on how Arab and/or Islamic people "hate" gays, and the porn producer Michael Lucas has turned anti-Arab attitudes into a pet project. Qadita may be just the ticket to changing the Islam-Arab-Gay debate, and ones more universal than just identity politics.

"Rebellious or 'non-conservative' writing should not fall victim to erasure just because its dissemination angers some people or offends 'sensitivities,'" said Hlehel of his project. "We believe the margin of freedom in Arabic-language publishing is under siege, because of political and social tensions and various groups."

Though gays fit firmly into his ultimate mission, they're hardly the pinnacle. The site wants to move beyond partisanship and create a publication that includes all voices, even those that are opposed to one another. In a world of exponential social and political division, Qadita turns out to be a ray of sunshine. Asserted Hlehel: "We are doing this to allow gays to speak out, to leave their ghetto and to become a natural part of Palestinian and Arab culture." So, those who think that Arabs and Islamists want to curtail free speech, I suggest you brush up on your reading.

Photo credit: PictureNewYork LG's Flickr