Oct 5, 2014 05:18 AM
Abdellah Taïa: 'In Arab countries, homosexuality is a crime. This has to change'
"Taïa’s new film, Salvation Army, which follows a young gay man growing up in Morocco, is based on his own difficult upbringing. [...] Does he feel a contradiction between Islam and homosexuality? 'No contradiction. Faith is a personal question,' he said. 'There’s the official version of Islam, promoted by those in power who want to keep us in prison, and there’s the real faith. I am very much attached culturally to Islam, to the magnificent and inspiring poems written by Jalal ad-Din Rumi and Omar Khayyam, attached to Ibn Khaldun, to Averroes, to Islamic architecture.'"
"Taïa’s new film, Salvation Army, which follows a young gay man growing up in Morocco, is based on his own difficult upbringing. [...] Does he feel a contradiction between Islam and homosexuality? 'No contradiction. Faith is a personal question,' he said. 'There’s the official version of Islam, promoted by those in power who want to keep us in prison, and there’s the real faith. I am very much attached culturally to Islam, to the magnificent and inspiring poems written by Jalal ad-Din Rumi and Omar Khayyam, attached to Ibn Khaldun, to Averroes, to Islamic architecture.'"