The Spiritual and Sexual Manipulation of Muslim Men

Homosexual acts are strictly forbidden in Islam. This matter is clear and decisive. Manipulative charlatans can nevertheless persuade some vulnerable Muslim men into these actions under the guise of spiritual guidance, or sulook, and through tactics such as brothers’ bonding activities and requests to journal intimate thoughts. Although the subject of sexual abuse of women and children is more widely discussed, Muslim men must also guard against all forms of sexual abuse.

Sexual Acts under the Guise of Sulook

In outreach and conversations, multiple men have told me that they were convinced to engage in homosexual acts with religious figures for purposes of sulook. These religious figures ranged from a shaykh of tariqa to a muqaddam to figures respected in the tariqa with no formal position. Other instances have included active community members seen as pious who were positioned as mentors. Each person I spoke with told me that they had earlier shared vulnerabilities in their personal lives with the religious figure, which they realized in hindsight made them susceptible to manipulation. All have since repented from their actions.

The logic that was presented to these men to justify homosexual acts is twisted and depraved. In some instances, the shaykh brought the murid forward and told him that he was aware of the murid’s same sex attraction. To purify the murid of this dirtiness, the shaykh said the murid must engage in sexual acts with him. One man told me that the shaykh even invoked the pain the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ endured during his final moments (sakarat al-mawt) to justify these actions. The shaykh falsely claimed that enduring things we find repulsive, like these sexual acts, would somehow purify the soul. This is unquestionably false and abhorrent, but it demonstrates that any reference to a traditional source or concept will resonate and prove convincing for some.

One individual, believing the shaykh’s false guidance, engaged in sexual acts with him and only recognized the red flags as the sexual requests escalated. He shared that the whole experience was confusing because the sexual acts were not validated as good but rather treated as the student’s repugnant vice that he had to act on in order to remove it. He had never acted on this desire in the past because he knew it was haram, but only acted on it when the shaykh created a false sense of spiritual necessity.

Mirroring the anecdotes above that were shared with me directly, below is an excerpt from an article about a shaykh who, among other accusations, told murids that homosexual actions would elevate their rank.

*Ali [pseudoname] offers a detailed account of how, for about two years, he was allegedly subjected to Mansouri’s abuse. On the night of Laylatul Qadr (usually the 27th night of Ramadan), in October 2008 in Cape Town, three men were invited to sleep over at Mansouri’s home. This is where, once alone, Mansouri made sexual advances and advised Ali that his status with Allah would be elevated.¹Cape Town ‘spiritual master’ accused of abuse, By Mahmood Sanglay, Shahista Rohan

The tactics employed by sexual predators share important commonalities across different times and places.

Some of the manipulated men believed the shaykh had kashf (spiritual unveiling) in recognizing their same sex attraction, and the shaykh bringing it up without them having disclosed it convinced them of his righteousness. A few points are important to know here: good, average, and bad people can all have kashf. Also, people are not always as good at hiding their secrets as they may think. A man with same sex attraction may be oblivious as to how obvious his struggles are to others, even if most people do not comment. So, when met with an exploitative man in a role of spiritual authority, it is easy to misinterpret his basic observations as kashf.

Furthermore, there are plenty of ways of gathering information. One manipulative tactic is to request the student journal his sexual desires. Journaling requests may start with something as mundane as material desires and food, then transition to sexual desire journaling. This can happen with adults and young students. We should not be surprised to learn of a teacher doing this to students. Public schools today are full of LGBT indoctrination and overtly sexual conversations between teachers and even elementary school students. Journaling is a common tactic to open up conversations on sexual topics and test the target’s reaction. Through journaling, the predator can gain certainty about whether or not his target has same sex attraction. In other cases, a predator may hear gossip, have an intuition or browse the target’s internet profile, and then ask testing questions to confirm.

Itikaaf and brothers’ bonding

How else does someone in a religious position try to convince another man to engage in what is obviously haram? One way is to use itikaaf, sleepovers at the masjid, camping trips, MSA activities and similar scenarios that allow the abuser to gain proximity to young men. Such predators will use their position as teachers and mentors to give their students lots of attention, develop relationships, and then slowly introduce sexual acts.

In these scenarios, the religious figure may actively look to identify men who he thinks are amenable to sexual advances. After developing a sense that someone is also attracted to men, the religious figure will nudge him to explore it. In other cases, he will just begin touching him and pushing him to do sexual acts. Sometimes pornography will be shown.

In other cases, the targets of these sexual advances may not be attracted to men at all. They may, however, appear meek and unlikely to fight back or resist. The predator will often make that assessment when choosing his target. Furthermore, because guidelines for interaction between men and men are not as stringent, clear, or emphasized as interactions between men and women, it is not easy for everyone to see when a line is crossed.

Conclusion

True spiritual guidance, as exemplified by the Prophet ﷺ, leads to purity and never to exploitation. As highlighted throughout this piece, figures in religous positions can exploit their roles to convince others to engage in sinful acts, all while falsely presenting these actions as necessary for spiritual purification. Muslim men must understand that women and children are not the only targets of sexual abuse, and all Muslims – men, women and children – should learn and guard against the common tactics and pitfalls of spiritual and sexual manipulation.

 

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