This poll may be useful to this discussion. Don’t know if it has been posted here yet.
It examines attitudes towards issues - including acceptance of homosexuality - by religion, for Americans.
http://www.pewforum.org/2015/11/03/c...cal-attitudes/
The important findings for our purposes: Muslims in America are not notably different in attitudes towards homosexuality from other mainstream religious groups.
One of the questions was whether homosexuality should be accepted by society. The answer for Muslims was: 38% said “yes” in 2007; while 45% said “yes” in 2012. The answer for Protestants as a whole: 38% said “yes” in 2007; 48% said “yes” in 2012.
[The groups that polled the worst were Jehovah’s Witnesses, Mormons, and Evangelical Christians. Witnesses polled only 12% “yes” in 2007, and 16% “yes” in 2012].
This poll demonstrates some valuable points, based on some facts rather than rhetoric:
(1) In America itself, Muslim attitudes towards homosexuality are reasonably mainstream, on average. They are no worse than American Protestants (again, on average).
(2) Muslim attitudes, like that of anyone else, can change: they have, fairly significantly, in the short time between 2007 and 2014.
(3) These attitudes are found in a population that is itself majority immigrant. It is interesting to note that the majority (61%) of American Muslims are themselves immigrants.
(4) Therefore, there is nothing essential in being Muslim, or being a Muslim immigrant, that requires or imposes homophobic attitudes. It is perfectly possible to be both Muslim, an immigrant, and not homophobic - at least, the American polling data appears to demonstrate that Muslims in America, including Muslim immigrants, tend to either already have, or to assimilate, much the same attitudes as their fellow-countrypersons.
[As an aside, the most liberal attitudes are on average displayed by Jews, Atheists/Agnostics, and Buddhists, in order of increasing liberalism; the group with the greatest level of increased liberalism is Hindus].
