For over ten years now, queer French Muslims have beencaught between one extreme (virilist and pan-ArabistIslamism) and another (European nationalism). Theformer pretends that (gender) diversity and Islamare incompatible, while the latter adopts(neo)colonial strategies to assimilate diversecultures into a homogenous whole that conforms toparticular (all while pretending to be universal)social, political and identity norms. Thus, thequestion remains whether queer French Muslims canrecognize themselves within identities that arealternative to white heterosexuality. Would they bebetraying a part of their ancestors’ heritage byembracing those alternative identities?

There are historical antecedents to these sorts ofreflexive questions in Arab-Muslim history. Forinstance, Ghâlib (1797-1869), the last of the Mughalpoets, expressed himself very openly in 1861 on thequestion of same-sex relations and age differencesto his friend Ala Ud Din Ahmad Khan Alai (Kidwai,2001, p. 189). However, in another letter, Ghâlibreprimanded his friend who had left his wife toengage in pederastic relations with a member of thesame sex: “Is this any way to behave to leave yourwife for a boy?” Within the same philosophicaltradition, ‘Abd al-Ghani al-Nabulusi (1641-1731), afamous Sufi Sheikh born in Damascus, responded tothose who advocated the other extreme:

Ghâlib and other Muslim mystics were therefore aware ofthe delicate balance at the time between, on the onehand, male responsibilities towards the family andthe Muslim Mughal society and, on the other hand,the pursuit of homosexual relationships, outside theprivate circle and with a certain discretion, withina circle that could be described as “intimate.”