Queer Muslim voices : performing identity in I Am Gay and Muslim and A Jihad for Love

J. Zonneveld

Drawing on queer theory and identity politics, this study explores the intersectional location of queer Muslims by examining Chris Belloni?s I Am Gay and Muslim and Parvez Sharma?s A Jihad for Love. Both documentary filmmakers argue against the irreconcilability of homosexuality and Islam, presupposed in homophobic and Islamophobic, ?eastern? and ?western? discourse, but occupy a different ?location? as from which side of the western/eastern dialectic they are representing their queer Muslim subjects. Using Bill Nichols? concept of documentary voice, this study argues how the dialectic performatively produces the filmmakers? identities as well as their different representations of queer Muslim identity. Finally, the study will offer a ?quare? rearticulation of queer theory, making way for an intersectional approach to theorizing queer Muslim identity.