Will LGBTQ curriculum push Muslims, like conservative Christians, toward Republican Party?

When Muslim and Christian parents lined up at a Jersey City meeting nearly four years ago to decry a new LGBTQ curriculum, their joint protest offered a glimpse of a larger conflict to come.

Today, clashes have erupted in school districts across America over LGBTQ education, pitting advocates calling for greater inclusion against groups who say the lessons violate their religious beliefs.

In this battle, many Muslims and conservative Christians — once unlikely allies — are working on the same side in a fight that political insiders say could push more Muslims to vote Republican in upcoming elections. For some voters, that could mean aligning with a right wing that has ostracized them, calling for them to be banned from entry to the U.S. and surveilled in their mosques.

Not everyone sees it that way. Some Muslims believe their values align more closely with Republicans, and those faith-based values transcend political allegiance, said Omar Mohammedi, an attorney and president of the Al Falah Center, a mosque in Bridgewater.

“That’s sacred, religious rights," Mohammedi said. "They would rather fight the fight when there is hatred against the Muslim community or discrimination or the ‘Muslim ban’ that does not make them lose their identity.”

Christian and conservative groups who have protested LGBTQ-friendly policies tend to vote Republican, but Muslims have largely supported Democrats in a post-9/11 era that saw threats to their civil liberties and the brutal invasion and war in Iraq. Rising Islamophobia and immigration bans pushed them further toward Democrats.

It’s hard to gauge how much voting patterns may change, but what is certain is that it is a big topic of concern and debate.

Voting their values

At social gatherings, in groups and in talks with community and religious leaders, Muslims are raising an alarm about LGTBQ policies they say infringe on their religious parental rights. They are swapping advice on how to approach schools to ask about opting out of lessons.

In these conversations, they also debate whether to support Democrats.

“With Republicans, sometimes it’s funny,” said Sayel Kayed, a North Bergen parent. “Sometimes you align with their values more than Democrats, but they don’t accept you because they don’t look like you and you are different. Democrats accept you because you are different.”

Kayed believes lessons about sexuality and gender do not belong in the classroom and that parents should be able to opt out.

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“They can do what they want, but my children don’t have to be exposed to it,” he said.

Muslim parents and community leaders have also rallied against LGBTQ-inclusive lessons and books in Montgomery County, Maryland, and in Dearborn and Hamtramck in Michigan. They are a minority in a larger conservative movement that has launched protests, lawsuits and political campaigns pushing back against what they say is youth indoctrination of LGBTQ values.

Advocates say LGBTQ-inclusive education helps all students to feel welcome and safe and can reduce stigma and bullying they often face. Parents' rights should not usurp the rights of other groups, including gay and transgender students, they say.

The glut of information coming from schools, advocates and right-wing groups about LGBTQ lessons, state standards and opt-out rights has prompted questions and confusion. In New Jersey, several mosques have held lectures and forums to address the topic.

The Al Falah Center in Bridgewater hosted a discussion on Sept. 10 with Mohammedi, who talked about constitutional rights, along with an educator and the mosque’s imam.

“Parents don’t know what they need to do, but they are very concerned for their children,” Mohammedi said. “They want to bring them up as Muslims believing in religious principles. What is happening in New Jersey is coming down hard on people of faith.”

‘Navigating differences’

In May, more than 130 Islamic scholars and clergy members issued a joint statement on the matter called Navigating Differences: Clarifying Sexual and Gender Ethics to address the issue.

They sought to provide clarity amid “an increasing push to promote LGBTQ-centric values among children through legislation and regulations, disregarding parental consent and denying both parents and children the opportunity to express conscientious objection,” they wrote.

“Such policies subvert the agency of Muslim parents to teach their children their religiously grounded sexual ethics, violate their constitutional right to freely practice their religion, and contribute to an atmosphere of intolerance toward faith communities,” the scholars wrote.

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They wrote that sexual relations are permitted only within marriage and that same-sex relations were forbidden in Islam. They said they “reject the notion that moral disagreement amounts to intolerance or incitement of violence.”

The voices against LGBTQ-inclusive education are the most prominent, but they don’t paint a full picture. In a 2017 Pew Research survey, about half of U.S. Muslims said homosexuality should be accepted by society (52%), an increase of 25 percentage points since 2007. About 33% said homosexuality should be discouraged. Muslims who were younger, female and born in the U.S. were more likely to be accepting of same-sex relationships.

Afsheen Shamsi, a Princeton resident active in Democratic politics, called in an opinion column for inclusion of LGBTQ people, as an extension of justice and compassion promoted in Islam. She said it was “no different” from Muslims wanting curriculum about Islamic history.

“We want to build bridges of understanding, and we want people not to bully Muslims,” said Shamsi, vice president of communications and marketing at Union Theological Seminary. “I don’t see LGBTQ-inclusive curriculum being any different. It’s intended to build bridges of understanding. With the high rate of suicide of LGBTQ teens, it is incumbent on us to protect the sanctity of human life.”

She said she was speaking in a personal capacity and not as the representative of any organization.

A political statement

Some Muslims tend to be socially conservative and place high importance on chastity and modesty. They may be uncomfortable with any discussion of sexuality in the classroom and believe sexual relations are not permitted before marriage.

Parents sought opt-outs from sex education, also called family life, well before the debate on LGBTQ education entered the public sphere. New Jersey law permits parents to opt their child out of sex education at school.

Others have also sought removal of LGBTQ-themed books, or opt-outs from lessons not related to sex education that may mention LGBTQ history.

South Brunswick parent Senad Palislamovic has asked to review material taught in his child’s class so he can determine when to keep his child out. “What they choose to teach goes against our principles and family values from a religious perspective and norms,” he said. “It is forced on us.”

Still, some Muslims are reluctant to vote for a party whose members have alienated their communities over decades with policy and rhetoric viewed as hostile. Some of the same groups now rallying against LGBTQ education have also pushed the conspiracy theory that Muslims are trying to infiltrate American institutions to impose Shariah, or Islamic law.

The 2017 Pew Survey found that two-thirds of U.S. Muslims identify with or lean toward the Democratic Party (66%). Far fewer say they are Republican or lean Republican (13%), while one in five say they prefer another party or are political independents and do not lean toward either major party.

Despite the bipartisan divide, some local and state Republican leaders have built good relationships with Muslim constituents through community outreach and support.

Jimmy Small, president of the Muslim League of Voters of New Jersey, feels people may be overestimating the political fallout. He lives in Essex County, with a large population of Black Muslims he said are unlikely to move away from their historic support of Democrats.

“They are trying to say we are attaching ourselves to the right wing and, in actuality, we are not,” he said. “We support this one issue about LGBTQ. There’s the one issue where they have an agreement.”

Still, Shamsi is concerned. She has heard fellow Muslims talk about shifting their political party or vote, she said.

“People are questioning party loyalty over this,” she said. “I think it could potentially impact elections. I think the ‘Navigating Differences’ statement is not just a religious statement. It’s a political one.”

A Teaneck parent said he, too, was concerned after hearing reports of graphic descriptions of LGBTQ relationships in library books and discussions of non-conforming gender in elementary and middle school. He has friends who are Democrats who are leaning to the GOP over this issue, he said. Personally, he feels conflicted, saying it “puts me on the fence.”

“Everybody has their right to practice what they want to practice,” he said. ”It shouldn’t be something forced in the school system. They haven’t talked about math and science. They are talking about this issue. The things we should be talking about are taking a back burner.”

This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: Will LGBTQ curriculum debate push Muslims toward Republicans?