{"id":5894,"date":"2009-08-12T10:01:09","date_gmt":"2009-08-12T15:01:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sepiamutiny.com?p=5894"},"modified":"2009-08-12T07:23:46","modified_gmt":"2009-08-12T12:23:46","slug":"saqib_ali_takes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/sepiamutiny.com\/blog\/2009\/08\/12\/saqib_ali_takes\/","title":{"rendered":"Saqib Ali Takes a Stand for Gay Marriage"},"content":{"rendered":"

We have mentioned Saqib Ali<\/a> several times previously on Sepia Mutiny. Anna mentioned a personal challenge he and his wife faced a few years ago here<\/a>. We also had posts on his campaign for the Maryland state legislature here<\/a>, and then again after his election victory here<\/a><\/p>\n\n

Now Saqib Ali, one of a very small number of Muslim candidates elected to public office anywhere in the U.S., has taken a public stand in favor of granting gays and lesbians the right to marry. He published an op-ed in the community paper the Gazette: here<\/a>. It was also covered yesterday on NPR<\/a>, which is how I heard about it. What I like about Saqib Ali’s approach is the directness with which he handles the religious prohibition on homosexual acts in Islam:<\/p>\n\n

It feels like the nature of the fight for equality has changed. It has gone from being a rather niche liberal issue to perhaps the most pressing civil rights issue of this generation. And marriage equality throughout the land now feels like an eventual inevitability.

\n\nI expect some day people will look back at this fight for equality like we now look back on oddly antiquated anti-miscegenation laws. I’m proud that I’ll have stood on the right side of history: In support of full marital rights for same-sex couples.

\n\nMy stance on this issue isn’t politically expedient. I am the first Muslim in the legislature. Homosexuality is strictly forbidden in Islam. As such I have evinced much grief from my most conservative supporters.<\/b>

\n\nBut I recognize that I represent people of all faiths and no faith at all. If I tried to enforce religion by law \u00e2\u20ac\u201d as in a theocracy \u00e2\u20ac\u201d I would be doing a disservice to my both constituents and to my religion.<\/b> (link<\/a>)<\/blockquote>\n\n

What’s clever about this is the twist on religious morality. Normally, opponents of gay marriage apply a version of a presumed Judeo-Christian morality as support for their position. Saqib Ali, coming from an Islamic background, knows full well that his invocation of “theocracy” has extra rhetorical weight; the last sentence in the paragraph quoted above hits home.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We have mentioned Saqib Ali several times previously on Sepia Mutiny. Anna mentioned a personal challenge he and his wife faced a few years ago here. We also had posts on his campaign for the Maryland state legislature here, and … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[2],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/sepiamutiny.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5894"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/sepiamutiny.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/sepiamutiny.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sepiamutiny.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sepiamutiny.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5894"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/sepiamutiny.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5894\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/sepiamutiny.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5894"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sepiamutiny.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5894"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sepiamutiny.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5894"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}