Far more threatening to the West’s traditional order were the arrival in the early twelfth century of Arabic astrology, which many saw as a threat to Christian ideals of free will, and the Muslims’ rendering of Aristotelian physics and cosmology that accompanied it. It had been one thing for the Western elite to marvel at the practical uses of the Muslims’ astrolabe, algorism, and related technologies, for none of them required a radical rethinking of Christendom’s dominant worldview—at least not at the relatively low level at which Europe’s early adopters first approached them. And church authorities had already adopted Aristotle’s methods of logical argumentation, the dialectic, because they were keen to use it to establish the truth of Christian revelation in their battle against heresy.5 But all that began to change with the introduction of the Arab Aristotelians’ natural philosophy. Here was an underlying metaphysics, a science of “being as being,” that addressed many of the same questions, albeit in a very different way, as the traditional readings of revelation. It presented medieval Christendom with a competing “theory of everything” that could not be either digested and assimilated painlessly, on the one hand, or ignored outright, on the other.
Albumazar’s ninth-century Introduction to Astrology, the full text of which appeared in Latin in 1133 and again in 1140, provided the West with the first major pathway into the Aristotelian tradition in natural science. Adelard of Bath had some two decades earlier translated Albumazar’s own abridged version, the Lesser Introduction to Astrology. This early translation, essentially a practical handbook, helped ignite an appetite in the West for Arabic astrology and other occult practices, but it omitted the Aristotelian framework that made the full Introduction to Astrology such a powerful text. And it was this Arab-influenced apprehension of Aristotle rather than any immediate direct access to his natural philosophy that prompted the church to ban his teachings at the university of Paris, then the premier center of Christian theology, in 1210 to 1215 (Lemay 1958:xxvii).
The initial crisis at Paris induced by the Aristotle of the Muslim astrologers was soon followed by the appearance around 1230 of Michael Scot’s translations of the great commentaries on Aristotle’s metaphysics and natural science by the Muslim philosopher and jurist Ibn Rushd, known to the Latins as Averroës. Averroës’s works provided Europe with some of its first access to an authentic Aristotle, freed of earlier entanglements with the occult. Yet this presentation posed an even greater challenge to the West, for it forced Christendom to reexamine critically many of its most closely held beliefs—on creation, on the nature of God, and on humanity’s place in the universe.
Here, then, lie the origins and driving forces of the second phase—after the initial flurry of translations in Spain, Sicily, and the near East—of the Western encounter with the Islamic intellectual tradition, that of assimilation and, more accurately, of expropriation of Arabic science and philosophy. This phase required an intensive effort to “Christianize” Aristotle, already champion of the church’s dialectic, and to make his powerful natural philosophy and metaphysics safe for Western consumption (Lemay 1958:xxiii; Bullough 1996:46–47). And this effort meant, in effect, a campaign of intellectual “ethnic cleansing” that would attempt to strip out any traces of Muslim influence—now seen as a corruption of the original text—and to bequeath an acceptable version of Aristotle to his legitimate heirs in the Latin West. Over time, the vital contributions of the Muslim philosophers were pushed so far to the margins of Western intellectual history as to become almost invisible. A similar pattern would soon be repeated in other fields, including mathematics, medicine, and even literature. Each time, the anti-Islam discourse would provide the rules of procedure and the intellectual mechanism for this willful act of forgetting.
Jonathan Lyons, Islam Through Western Eyes (2014)
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🌈☪️ List of LGBTQI+ friendly Mosques and Muslim Congregations:
This is a list of mosques,muslim/islamic congregations that welcomes queer,trans,non-binary,intersex,BIPOC Muslims. The list is curated by Bangladeshi Bisexual Muslim @nakibistan. In this list some of the mosques/islamic congregations are radically “inclusive” to all folks. Please note that, some of the mosques & muslim congregations in this list only welcome to queer folks.
USA 🇺🇸
MPV-NY Unity Mosque, New York – Started by MPV-NY Chapter
MPV-LA Unity Mosque – Started by MPV-LA chapter
Unity Mosque of San Francisco – Started by MPV-SF Chapter
Atlanta Unity Mosque – Started by el-Tawhid Juma Circle & MPV
Unity Mosque, Chicago – Started by MPV Chicago
Unity Mosque, Boston – Started by MPV-Boston Chapter.
Unity Mosque, Columbus – Started by MPV-Columbus
Masjid an-Nur al-Issalah – Started by MPV-DC.
Masjid al-Rabia, South Loop downtown of Chicago – An intersectional, women-led, queer-affirming mosque.
Qalbu Maryam Mosque – A woman led, queer-friendly mosque
Masjid al-Inshirah – Started by Pioneer Valley Progressive Muslims group. The mosque also welcomes LGBTQI+ muslims
Masjed Fatimah – A shia-centric, inclusive mosque
Rainbow Crescent Mosque – A virtual queer-friendly mosque
Masjid Daar ul-Gharib – A virtual intersectional, queer-friendly mosque.
Masjid-ul-Hub – An online mosque for LGBTQI+ Muslims
Masjid al-Musawa – An online mosque for queer muslims
Haven, Philadelphia – An inclusive muslim congregation also includes LGBTQ+ muslims
Jummah 4 All collective
Mercy Community Center
Dergah al-Farah, Manhattan Downtown of NY – Radical inclusive sufi lodge of Nur Ashki Jerrahi order
The Circle of Ishq of Minneapolis – An inclusive Sufi lodge Jerrahi community
The Atlanta Circle – An inclusive sufi lodge of Nur Ashki Jerrahi
Nur Ashki Jerrahi Michigan Dervish
Nur Ashki Jerrahi Pittsburg Drevish
La Order Sufi Yerraji/Nur Ashki al-Jerrahi Sufi Order of New Mexico - Progressive, liberal Mexican sufi dervish of US
Muslim Space, TX – A texas-based BIPOC, queer-friendly, gender-inclusive community
Redwood Unity Mosque Initiative (RUMI),CA – A small congregation of progressive muslims in Redwood. It was affiliated with eTJC (don't know it's still active or not)
New England Unity Mosque (NEUM) – A Unity mosque of New England. This mosque was affiliated with el-Tawhid Juma Circle.
UK 🇬🇧
Inclusive Mosque Initiative (IMI) – An inclusive congregation that opened first LGBTQI+ friendly, women-led mosque in Britain
Nur Ashki Jerrahi Order of UK – Sufi lodge of Leeds/London
Imaan LGBTQ+ Muslim Charity
France 🇫🇷
Mosquée Inclusive de l’unicité , Goutte d'Or neighborhood of Paris – France's first unity mosque started by Imam Ludovic Ahmad Zahed
Frederico Joko Procopio's Buddhist Dojo, Paris – egalitarian congregation where french queer muslims prayed
Progressive Islamic Center, Marseille
Fatima Mosque – A progressive, women-led, mixed-gender mosque
Musulmans Inclusifs de France – A progressive muslim congregations of France
Voice of an Enlightened Islam (VOIX) – A progressive, spiritual & radically inclusive congregation for all. VOIX also runs Simorgh Mosque, which welcomes LGBTQ+ muslims
Canada 🇨🇦
Masjid el-Tawhid/Toronto Unity Mosque - It is the first unity mosque of el-Tawhid Juma Circle (eTJC) & Canada
Ottawa Valley Unity Mosque (OVUM)
Vancouver Unity Mosque, British Columbia
Halifax Unity Mosque, Nova Scotia (don't know it's still active or not. please contact eTJC for details)
Kitchener Waterloo Unity Mosque
Calgary Alberta Unity Mosque
Madison Unity Mosque
Queer Muslim Network
Germany 🇩🇪
Ibn Rushd Goethe Moschee,Berlin – A liberal, feminist mosque for sunni, shia, sufi, ahmadi, non-religious, BIPOC, queer, man & woman folks
Liberal-Islamischer Bund e.V. – A largest feminist, liberal muslim congregation of German
Australia 🇦🇺
Australia's first Unity Mosque
MPV-Australia
Norway 🇳🇴
Masjid Al-Nisa – A women-led, LGBTQ+ friendly mosque in Oslo
Italy 🇮🇹
Moschea al-Kawthar/Al-kawthar Mosque – A virtual intersectional mosque started by Sveva Basirah Balzini
Mexico 🇲🇽
Tasním Nur Ashki Al Yerrahi, Cuernavaca – Radically inclusive sufi dervish for all genders & sexualities
South Africa 🇿🇦
Masjid ul-Umam ( People's Mosque), Cape town – First egalitarian mosque of Africa
Masjid ul-Ghurbaah – An inclusive mosque for marginalised muslims, runs by al-Ghurbaah Foundation
The Open Mosque – An egalitarian, mixed gender mosque for all
Claremont Main Road Mosque, Cape town – A mixed-gender mosque in South Africa. The mosque also welcome HIV+ & LGBTQI+ folks
Pakistan 🇵🇰
Khusrain Wale Shahi Masjid/ Khusray wale masjid, Jalalpur of Punjab – Punjab's oldest mosque of transgender eunuchs (also known as Khusra/Khusray)
Shrine of Shah Hussain/Madhoo Lal Hussain – An important site for queer & trans muslims where they can explore the divinity of love & find solace
Bari Imam Shrine
Imambargah of Mirpur Khas
Dargah of Hazrat Lal Shahbaz Qalandar
Rehmatul Alameen Masjid,Islamabad
India 🇮🇳
Hijron Ka Khanqah, Delhi – A historical sufi khanqah with a small mosque. The mosque is only for muslim Hijras (an umbrella term for transgender,eunuch, transvestite,gender non-binary & intersex folks)
Khawaja Gharib Nawaz Dargah
Ajmer Sharif Dargah
Nizamuddin Dargah
Masjid Syed Gauhar Ali Shah Qadeem, Delhi (this mosque doesn't allow women to pray besides men)
Masjid-e-Mukhannisan/Hijron Wali Shahi Masjid, Lohamandi of Agra – A historical mosque was built by Emperor Akbar to honour his favourite Mukhannas Itibar Khan
Indonesia 🇮🇩
Pondok Pesantren Waria Al-Fatah, Yogyakarta – Indonesia's first Islamic centre for Warias (Indonesian local term for trans woman)
Bangladesh 🇧🇩
Dakshin Char Kalibari Masjid, Mymensingh – Bangladesh's first hijra mosque
Turkey 🇹🇷
Alevi Muslims are providing safe spaces for LGBTQI+ to pray
Ağalar Mosque in Topkapı Palace – A historical mosque for gender non-confirming eunuchs
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Get to know me
I was tagged by @engelsschwert
Last Song: Faith and the Muse - Sparks
Favorite Color: Red, dark purple, black
Currently Watching: Several videos from Perun's channel. He discusses defense economics. With powerpoint presentations.
Last Movie: Hitler versus Picasso and the Others
Currently Reading: Comentaries on Plato's Republic by Averroes (Ibn Rushd) in a physical book and Medieval Heresies by Nachman Faibel in e-book form.
Sweet/Savory/Spicy: Savory
Relationship Status: No.
Current Obsession: I don't really have the time and energy to obsess right now. Uh. I've been very into bubble tea, I guess?
Last Google: Uh... "socialized prostitution". A friend asked about how the term was being used and it turns out it was a bit by religious conservatives attacking any behavior they found "immodest".
Currently Working On: The rewrite for Alhazred's DD2 Shrines.
Tagging @cynthplop @marbleboa and any other follower that wants in
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