Cyber mecca.

Gay Muslims in many countries face severe penalties even deafly--if they come out. But many are now meeting and organizing via the Internet

The greatest example thus far of the Internet's power has to be its ability to swiftly draw together on a global scale members of one of the most underground subcultures imaginable: lesbian and gay Muslims.

Just five years ago the thought of gay Muslims organizing at the international level was unfathomable. In many devoutly Muslim countries, after all, homosexuality is a crime punishable by death. In Iran, Iraq, and Afghanistan, men who've engaged in homosexual acts have often been cruelly tortured and executed--in the name of Islam. In other Muslim countries people are imprisoned for life for being gay; known lesbians are often shunned by society forever. It's not difficult to understand why many lesbians and gay men in the Muslim world would remain deeply in hiding--nor how the In-terrier has now become a sort of miraculous lifeline.

"I don't see any other way that queer Muslims could be reached," says Sulayman X, who runs a Web site called Queer Jihad. "You certainly couldn't put an ad in the Baghdad Times," Queer Jihad offers provocative, engaging essays and articles by writers worldwide as well as readers' comments, The site also provides numerous links to gay, Islamic, Arabic, and Asian cultural, legal, and political sites,

Sulayman X, who converted to Islam in 1993, is a journalist who lives in a large Asian city; for fear of retribution he does not use his given name. Ever since he created Queer Jihad in 1997, the response has been staggering--from gay and lesbian Muslims as well as from those who hate them. "The most overwhelming response has been sheer disgust," he sadly recounts. "I get E-mail every day from Muslims who are offended, disgusted, outraged, can't believe there's any such thing as a gay Muslim, and all the rest of it."

Like gay and lesbian Christians in this country who are embroiled in their own war with the religious right, Sulayman X and other gay Muslims maintain that Islam is being misused. "Islam is an elegant, simple religion that values humankind and places much emphasis on the here and now--creating just societies," he says. "Islam has been hijacked by extremists, and when you read about Muslims in the newspaper, invariably it's about Muslims who are killing people or resorting to violence to get what they want. But that's not Islam. That's people using Islam as a political tool to achieve political ends."

The barrage of hate E-mail Sulayman X receives every day, he says, is offset by reactions he gets from gay and lesbian Muslims who stumble onto the site. "What makes it all worthwhile are the occasional good responses: when a gay or lesbian Muslim writes and says, `Hey, I thought I was the only one!' There've also been several from young people wanting to commit suicide and others from young men trapped in marriages they didn't want."

To Sulayman X, who has recently written articles for publication in U.S. gay newspapers by sending them out via the Internet, the new technology is providing a way to bridge cultures and bring the gay Muslim experience to the surface. "Almost overnight, we now have a safe way to connect," he explains, "to explore this issue, to talk about our lives."

One site that Queer Jihad links to is that of the New York-based Al-Fatiha Foundation, which was itself created on the Internet. The organization grew out of an E-mail discussion group--or listserve--for "gay, lesbian, bisexual, trans-gendered, and questioning" Muslims, founded in 1997 by Alam Faisal, a 22-year-old Washington, D.C., activist.

"It was the first time that communication was made possible by gay Muslims across the world," Alam notes. The listserve soon grew to include subscribers from 25 countries. By 1998 small gatherings of subscribers began taking place, and Al-Fatiha was thus formed, Soon enough, the group held an international conference in Boston, in 1998. And in May the organization will hold in London the Second International Retreat for LGBTQ Muslims and Their Friends.

People from as far away as Singapore and Pakistan have expressed interest in attending. "We are in communication with gay and lesbian groups in countries like Turkey and Malaysia, where one would not imagine that such groups are organizing," Alam says. "They all want Al-Fatiha chapters to open up in their areas, and with the help of the Internet that dream will come true."

Signorile is editor for The Advocate, Contact him at www.advocate.com.