This hasn’t historically always been the case—there was widespread public acceptance of homosexuality in the first 500 years of Islam’s existence, with homoerotic poetry being a staple of their culture—see e.g. here.
Judaism also unequivocally rejects homosexuality, yet many modern orthodox synagogues happily have openly gay members of their congregation. So this doesn’t seem quite as impossible as you make out.
In 14 centuries of Islamic history from Spain to Indonesia, with limited travel and much regional variation for most of it, there will be many opportunities to find examples that match our own culture’s Current Thing. Some Muslims are hypocrites; some Westerners look for homosexual subtext where none was intended. Many Muslim empires have risen in vigor and fallen in decadence. Still, the orthodox position is clear—homosexuality is both sinful and illegal. I’ve seen a Jew eat pork and laugh it off; it would be a mistake to make pork a key component of an appeal to militant Jews.
More to the point, in this era gay rights are associated with the West at its most liberal, which is exactly what Islamists oppose. Activity that might have been tolerated a thousand years ago is now perceived as a Western obsession and its practitioners as enemy sympathizers.
This hasn’t historically always been the case—there was widespread public acceptance of homosexuality in the first 500 years of Islam’s existence, with homoerotic poetry being a staple of their culture—see e.g. here.
Judaism also unequivocally rejects homosexuality, yet many modern orthodox synagogues happily have openly gay members of their congregation. So this doesn’t seem quite as impossible as you make out.
In 14 centuries of Islamic history from Spain to Indonesia, with limited travel and much regional variation for most of it, there will be many opportunities to find examples that match our own culture’s Current Thing. Some Muslims are hypocrites; some Westerners look for homosexual subtext where none was intended. Many Muslim empires have risen in vigor and fallen in decadence. Still, the orthodox position is clear—homosexuality is both sinful and illegal. I’ve seen a Jew eat pork and laugh it off; it would be a mistake to make pork a key component of an appeal to militant Jews.
More to the point, in this era gay rights are associated with the West at its most liberal, which is exactly what Islamists oppose. Activity that might have been tolerated a thousand years ago is now perceived as a Western obsession and its practitioners as enemy sympathizers.