So Türkiye, a Muslim-majority secular nation, has banned Pride Parade since 2015, on religious and moral grounds. Hungary, a Christian-majority secular nation, tried banning Pride Parade this year, but millions of citizens turned out in protest at the Budapest Pride. In India, many cities from Mumbai and Kolkata to Lucknow and Vadodara saw Pride Parades, but permission was withdrawn in Amritsar following opposition of a Nihang Sikh organisation. Meanwhile, something interesting happened in Hamtramck, a small enclave north of Detroit, US.
Once predominantly Polish, the Hamtramck council had worked hard to establish nonprofits to feed, clothe and house Muslim immigrants from Yemen and Bangladesh, in the spirit of multiculturalism. In 2021, the city voted an all-Muslim council. In 2023, the council voted to ban the display of Pride Flag on city property. In 2025, the council refused to be part of the Pride marches. A lesbian, former councilwoman was shocked and outraged. She vented on X (formerly Twitter) about ‘being stabbed in the back’. Her tweet went viral.
Suddenly, the Left-leaning groups, long known for their disproportionate support of Islamism, have had to sit up and take note. This, especially in the wake of the remarkable ‘Queer for Palestine’ marches seen across many US university campuses that view Israel’s pro-gay stance as merely ‘pink-washing’, ignores the rather openly anti-gay stance of Palestinians around the world, while highlighting Israel’s terrible military actions in the name of self-defence
Many years ago, in the early days of Twitter (now X), I made a comment about how Muslim immigrants to the West, who take the benefit of human rights, also need to integrate and make room for gay rights. I was immediately attacked by a woman, a senior leader of a communist party, atheist but with a Hindu name, for my ‘false equivalence’, ‘whataboutery’, and ‘Islamophobia’.
More recently, as the Israel-Palestine conflict escalated, I made a comment on how the political and economic conversations were ignoring the mythological foundations of the war: that Jerusalem was the sacred city of Jews, Christians and Muslims. From a prominent anti-CAA protester, secular with Hindu surname, I received a private message informing me about how Israel was a ‘settler-colony’ and an imperial force. I told her gay people have rights in Israel, not in Palestine. She did not respond.
When I made this point to a professor, known for his brilliant study of Rajput-Mughal relations, he snarled at me for focusing on ‘trivial sexual issues’ when ‘children were being killed’. This is no different from politicians today who use Hindu culture to block same-sex marriage, when convenient.
As I write this column, I fear I will be attacked by the Left for being critical of Islamic communities when they are being victimised globally. This is the alleged reason why stand-up comedians do not wish to make jokes on Muslim social practices. Then I think of my Muslim lesbian and gay friends who are torn between faith, citizenship and sexual orientation. Who speaks for them? Why do activists who speak of Islamophobia not have problems with Islamic homophobia?
Attacking capitalism is important, we are being told. Questioning Israel is the need of the hour, we are being told. Calling out homophobia is also important, I feel. Who said revolutions and social justice should be sequential? Why not simultaneous? Why is public display of religion and territorial integrity of nation states more important than one’s private sexual choices? Why is the hijabi lesbian and the namazi gay being rendered invisible by all?
Victims hate being told they can be victimisers too. If descendants of Holocaust victims are now being accused of being villains in the genocide in Gaza, we must accept that those who seek refuge today can also deny refuge to others tomorrow. The Hamtramck council story is a case in point.
The Left-wing indulgence of the Islamic world began with the late Edward Said, the Palestinian Christian American, who in 1978 published the book Orientalism, which spearheaded postcolonial studies. In it, he accused Western scholars and writers of having historically depicted the East (by which he meant only West Asia, not India or China) as exotic, backward and uncivilised to justify colonialism and maintain Western superiority.
Since then, the humanities and social science departments across Europe and America have bent over backwards to avoid criticising anything West Asian, other than Israel. To the extent that there is complete silence on the absence of Pride Parades in many Muslim-dominated nations and even Muslim-dominated areas of Western societies.
In the book he co-edited in 2000, Same-Sex Love In India, the late Saleem Kidwai drew attention to widespread existence of homoerotic relationships in Persian literature and Sufi poetry. One can imagine these being part of Pride Parades. But these are not. It is being whitewashed away by Muslim radicals and their gullible Left-leaning supporters. And that is such a sad thing. Human rights are not a one-way street. Without reciprocity, there can be no inclusion of diversity.
