The Koran and the Flesh

A childhood marked by religion classes, his passion for the Koran, his father's homophobia and his impulses, Ludovic-Lotfi Zahed is the author of an unpublished and rare book on the possible reconciliation between homosexuality and Islam. The man who, as a teenager, turned away from a religion that rejected him, who became a Salafist out of love for his brother in religion—he was unaware of his homosexuality at the time—is today an adult who has matured, a moderate Muslim who returned to his initial positions, denouncing the corruption that reigns within Islam, the quest for power between Salafists and Muslim extremists. In a remarkably well-written book, halfway between biography and essay, he explains how he lived through the discovery of his homosexuality. He tells of the many questions of identity that followed, the rejection of his Salafist "brothers" who were disturbed by his effeminate attitude and the relationships of domination within the Muslim community. In his analysis, which appears in the background, the author wonders: Why such a need for universal normalization among his Muslim brothers? Why such a need for gregarious living? Why do they never talk about the well-being of the other? The Koran, a stake in the fratricidal wars of those who use religion as a weapon, is a real bargaining chip for dogmatic Muslims. Very early on, he confided in me: “I was astonished by the way in which it is possible to ‘buy’ the respect of a brother by quoting two or three well-felt verses, followed by the commentary of an ulama, a pillar of Islamic law." The Koran and the Flesh is a testimony of an unsuspected richness which, beyond the question of homosexuality, deals with the more ignored aspect of the life of a nearly ordinary Muslim in France.