Speaker at UCLA Attacks Homosexuals, Denies Existence of Gays in the Middle East and Islamic World [on Joseph Massad]

Joseph Massad, an associate professor from Columbia University, spoke at UCLA last week. His lecture, sponsored by the Center of Near Eastern Studies, was titled “Pre-Positional Conjunctions: Sexuality and/in Islam”in which he made a bizarre presentation suggesting that there are no homosexuals living in the Arab world because the idea of homosexuality or being “queer” is an imperialist or Western construct. Eric Golub who covered the event for Campus Watch notes that the lecture was in tune with Massad’s text, Desiring Arabs, in which he asserts that homosexuality is a social construct. Massad’s attitude concerning the West in his text is scathing and derisive, and very far from academic.

Here is an excerpt of Eric Golub’s article, published on February 1st, fromCampus Watch:

While past CNES lectures resulted in Israel-bashing and anti-Semitism, UCLA finally decided to honor its commitment to diversity by attacking another minority group. This time, homosexuals had their turn in the multicultural bile wheel. This was not a seminar on sexuality in Islam. From inception to completion, it was nothing more than gay-bashing. This was on par with the thesis of Massad’s 2007 book, Desiring Arabs, which posits that gay sexuality among Muslims does not exist, but is rather a Western plot designed to undermine the Muslim world.

There were few attendees, with half the crowd consisting of elderly people and the other half students checking each other out to see if they were being checked out. Upon realizing that the lecture was an anti-sex discussion of homosexuality rather than a pro-sex meeting with flowers and Barry White music, a portion of the audience left.

The UCLA devotion to hyper-tolerance offered plenty of intolerance from Massad. Here’s a sampling:

Offering up a helping of academic jargon, he described the queer issue as “epistemological” and “ontological.” Massad then claimed: “To the Islamic, hate and sexuality are only translatable to English-speaking people.”

I keep forgetting about imaginary Judeo-Christian rape and honor killings.

“Queer is an imperialist term. It is part of the Anglo-American gay agenda.”

He finally figured out the Neocon Zionist conspiracy. It spreads homosexuality throughout the Arab world so that Arab nations cannot reproduce. This explains why, according to the Encyclopaedia Britannica, the Middle East and North Africa are home to, “the world’s second-fastest growing population, after sub-Saharan Africa.”

Ahmadinejad famously told a Columbia University audience that there are no gay people in his country. One might ask Massad, how the West could have exported gay people if there are none over there? “There is no such thing as Iran/Arab/Muslim sexuality. Sexuality is an English notion.”

Is every single Arab or Muslim the result of an immaculate conception?

He then admitted he was “very interested in talking to people about their sexual experiences if they want to tell me.” [...]

Read the full article here.