Acknowledgments Firstly, I am extremely grateful to the 35 men who were willing and kind enough to take part in my study. Without their participation, this thesis could never have been written. I am also greatly indebted to my supervisors Professor Andrew Yip and Doctor Esther Bott for their encouragement, and their advice and suggestions that helped improve earlier drafts of the chapters. Thanks are also owed to Khaiser Khan and Asif Quraishi of Naz Project, London and Asifa Siraj, independent scholar, for their helpful suggestions. 1 Abstract The aim of this study is to explore the lives and identities of gay Arab Muslim men living in the U.K., a group that has not been specifically or exclusively researched in any previous study within the British context. The thesis aims to demonstrate how various identities such as sexuality, race, ethnicity, gender and social class intersect with each other within three different contexts: in an intra-personal context, in the context of relationships with family and kin, and in the context of interactions in white-dominant gay and non-gay spaces. The thesis investigates the outcomes of these intersections and how these outcomes are managed and negotiated. The study’s epistemology aligns in a broad sense with feminist epistemological approaches in making subjugated voices and marginalised experiences heard. A qualitative research methodology is adopted involving individual interviews with 35 men. Intersectionality is utilised as a theoretical framework, and the thesis asserts that concepts such as intra-categorical and inter-categorical intersectionality are extremely useful for achieving an in-depth understanding of the complexities and nuances of the lived experiences and identities of these men, illustrating both the diversity of experience subsumed within supposedly homogeneous ethnic categorisations, and uncovering how these men’s interlocking identities may be characterised by experiences of multiple discriminations, including homophobia, racism and Islamophobia. 2 Contents CHAPTER ONE: WHY A STUDY OF GAY ARAB MUSLIM MEN? 7 1.1. Introduction 7 1.2. Constructing the Research Topic: The Intertwining of the 9 Personal and the Academic 1.3. Research into LGBT Muslim Identities and the Gaps in Knowledge 11 1.4. Research Aims and Questions 15 1.5. Chapter Outline 17 CHAPTER TWO: REVIEWING THE LITERATURE: INTERSECTIONALITY AS 20 A THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK AND EMPIRICAL STUDIES OF LGBT MUSLIMS 2.1 Introduction 20 2.2. Using Intersectionality as a Theoretical Framework 21 2.2.1. Intersectionality and empirical studies into LGBT identities 30 2.3. Arab Ethnic Identity and Intra-Categorical Intersectionality 35 2.3.1. Affiliation with an Arab identity vis-à-vis other identity 36 dimensions 2.3.2. Wealth and social class differences 37 2.3.3. Generational differences and hybridised Arab identities 38 2.4. Constructing Islamic Masculinities 40 2.5. (Homo)Sexuality in Islam, Religious and Cultural Homophobia 43 2.6. The Intersection of LGBT Muslims’ Religious and Sexual Identities 47 2.6.1. Integration and accommodation 47 2.6.2. Conflict, dissonance and dissonance reduction 48 2.6.3. Theologically-centred strategies for managing identity 51 dissonance 2.6.4. Using LGBT Muslim support groups for emotional 55 support 2.7. Coming Out to Family and Kin 56 2.7.1. Meaning and models 56 2.7.2. LGBT Muslims and coming out to parents and family 59 2.8. Racialised Gay Spaces 61 2.8.1. Ethnicised erotic capital in gay spaces 63 2.9. Racism and Islamophobia in White Spaces 65 2.10. Summary 70 3 CHAPTER THREE: RESEARCHING GAY ARAB MUSLIM MEN: EPI- 71 STEMOLOGICAL AND METHODOLOGICAL CONSIDERATIONS 3.1. Introduction 71 3.2. The Epistemological Framework 71 3.2.1. A feminist-aligned, intersectional approach to 71 epistemological issues 3.3. Research Design 76 3.3.1. Adopting a qualitative approach 76 3.3.2. The research method: Interviewing 77 3.4. Sampling 80 3.4.1. Sampling strategies 80 3.4.2. Challenges of the sampling process 80 3.4.3. Sample characteristics 82 3.5. Data Collection 86 3.5.1. Conducting the interviews 86 3.5.2. The role of the interviewer: Insider, outsider or both? 89 3.5.3. The role of the interviewee and influence of 91 interviewee characteristics 3.6. Data Analysis 93 3.7. The Management of Ethical Issues in the Research Process 96 3.7.1. Informed consent 96 3.7.2. Ethical behaviour and online privacy rights 97 3.7.3. Offering rewards to participants 98 3.7.4. The principles of non-maleficence and autonomy 98 3.7.5. Issues of power between the researcher and researched 101 3.7.6. The ethics of sexual relationships with participants 102 3.8. A Note on Terminology 104 3.9. Summary 105 CHAPTER FOUR: CONSTRUCTING AND MANAGING PERSONAL IDENTITIES: 106 BEING ARAB, MUSLIM AND GAY 4.1. Introduction 106 4.2. Intersectional Arab Identities 107 4.2.1. Identification as Arab 107 4.2.2. Geo-political, historical, religious and 113 socio-cultural differences 4.2.3. Wealth and social class 117 4.3. Religious Homophobia within Islamic Texts and the 122 4 Wider Muslim Community 4.4. Cognitive Dissonance as a Negative Outcome 124 4.5. Attempts at Managing Cognitive Dissonance 126 4.5.1. Abandoning their religion 127 4.5.2. Compartmentalisation 128 4.5.3 Non-theological reverse discourses 130 4.5.4. Theologically-derived reverse discourses 132 4.5.4.1 Strategies of resistance 132 4.5.4.2. Strategies of attack 143 4.5.5. Seeking out other LGBT Muslims for emotional support 148 4.6. Summary 150 CHAPTER FIVE: GAY ARAB MUSLIM IDENTITIES AND THE NEGOTIATION 152 OF FAMILY AND KIN RELATIONSHIPS 5.1. Introduction 152 5.2. Sexual Silence 153 5.2.1. Honour and sexual silence 153 5.2.2. Religiously and culturally-derived homophobic experiences 157 and sexual silence 5.2.3 Valuing personal relationships inside the family 159 5.2.4. Maintaining the sexual silence: Compartmentalisation and 162 passing 5.3. When the Sexual Silence is Broken 171 5.4. Negative Family Reactions to Disclosure 175 5.4.1. Incomprehension, abuse and violence 175 5.4.2. Denial 179 5.4.3. Pressure to marry heterosexually 181 5.4.4. Pressure to ‘change’ their sexual identity 183 5.4.5. The deterioration of family relationships 184 5.5. Supportive Family Responses to Disclosure 185 5.6. Coming Out as a Process 187 5.7. Summary 188 CHAPTER SIX: LIVING OUT GAY ARAB MUSLIM IDENTITIES IN 190 PREDOMINANTLY-WHITE SPACES 6.1. Introduction 190 6.2. The Gay Scene 191 6.3. Dating Websites 196 5 6.4. The Erotic Capital of Arab Men in Offline and Online Gay 203 Spaces 6.5. Racism in White Spaces 213 6.6. Islamophobia in White Space 219 6.7. Summary 224 CHAPTER SEVEN: CONCLUSIONS 226 7.1. Introduction 226 7.2. Contribution to Knowledge 227 7.2.1. Intersectionality and intersectional identities 227 7.2.2. Gay spaces and erotic capital 231 7.2.3. The power of the family 233 7.2.4. Reconciling the conflict between sexuality and religion 235 7.2.5. The role of cultural hybridity 238 7.2.6. Giving voice to the experiences of gay Arab Muslim men 239 7.2.7. Utilisng inter-disciplinary insights 241 7.3. Avenues for Further Research 243 References 246 Appendix 290 6 CHAPTER ONE: WHY A STUDY OF GAY ARAB MUSLIM MEN? 1.1. Introduction In recent years, Muslims appear to have become ever more frequently the subject of media, public and political debate and discourse in the U.K. and time and again, similar narratives are being constructed. In 2014, the Daily Mail journalist Richard Littlejohn wrote an apparently satirical column concerning an alleged radical Islamic cleric who had hired out the Legoland theme park for a Muslim social event. Littlejohn imagined how the group’s day trip would unfold, describing how ‘[t]he quartermaster of the Hounslow branch of Al Muhajiroun will be handing out leaflets showing how to disguise Semtex as bricks of Lego’ and there will be ‘a practical demonstration on how to make an execution block out of Lego, for use when making Internet videos showing beheading of infidels and apostates’ (Littlejohn, 2014). On the 23rd November 2015, following terrorist attacks in Paris, the Sun newspaper published a front page headline based on an opinion poll that screamed: ‘1 in 5 Brit Muslims’ sympathy for Jihadis’ (the Independent Press Standards Organisation, later labelled the Sun’s interpretation of the poll as ‘significantly misleading’ [Julian, 2016]). The media, have frequently used the words ‘fundamentalist’, ‘extremist’ ‘radicalised’ and ‘terrorist’ when referring to young British Muslims when focusing on cultural and religious differences, and have often published stories about those who have gone to fight, or are willing to go and fight for the so-called Islamic State in Syria (Awan, 2017; Carter, 2017; Hamid, 2017). Beyond media representations, in April 2016, a ComRes opinion poll of 2,000 people investigating the wider British public’s attitudes towards Islam, found that 43% of those questioned agreed with the statement that Islam was a negative force in the U.K., and only 28% agreed that Islam was compatible with British values (Comresglobal, 2016). Regarding political discourse, in the recent British General Election, the manifesto of the right wing United Kingdom Independence Party (UKIP) outlined plans to prevent Shari’ah (Islamic law) councils from operating in the U.K.; to ban Muslim women’s face coverings such as the niqab and burkha since they are, in the words of the manifesto, ‘dehumanising symbols of segregation and oppression’ and ‘security risks’; and vowed to tackle what they term ‘Islamist extremism’ in schools 7 (UKIP, 2017).