Can a Muslim be a lesbian


Bernd Simon

To person

Dr. phil., born 1960; Professor of Social Psychology and Political Psychology at the Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel, Institute for Psychology, Olshausenstrasse 40, 24098 Kiel. [email protected]

The relationship between gays / lesbians and Muslims is fraught with conflict. The article analyzes the dimensions of the conflict and illustrates the character of the mutual respect claims and perceived unreasonable demands.


The relationship between homosexuality and religiosity is problematic, at least from the perspective of the most influential Abrahamic religions (Christianity, Islam, Judaism). Recently, public attention has increasingly been directed to the problematic relationship between homosexuality and Muslim religiosity, especially when it manifests itself in confrontational clashes between gays and lesbians on the one hand and mostly young male members of the Muslim migrant community on the other.

These disputes are to be interpreted against the background of an increasingly pluralizing society, in which claims of respect from one side are often experienced as unreasonable by the other. A central component of the respective claims to respect is the demand for recognition as equals or for recognition of the equivalence of one's own way of life, while people who do not share this way of life often perceive the claims as an unreasonable expectation in the sense of an irritating confrontation with the other (alterity).