Forum deplores ‘demonisation’ of sexual minorities by Kerala’s right-wing Muslims

Indian Muslims for Secular Democracy (IMSD) has strongly condemned the “efforts by the Muslim right wing in Kerala, including leaders of the Jamaat-e-Islami and the Indian Union Muslim League (IUML) and some Muslim-run websites,” to denigrate and demonise Muslims who are part of the LGBTQIA+ community. A pressnote signed by 38 persons, including Islamic scholars, journalists, scientists, filmmakers, academicians, lawyers and social activists, said it was a tragic irony that while the minority Muslim community in India was itself the target of rampant Islamophobia, the conservatives among them were hurling hate speech at the sexual minorities. “What logic or ethics makes Islamophobia wrong but homophobia, queerphobia or transphobia right? Not surprisingly, the Muslim right has much in common with the Hindu right,” the pressnote said.