There are differences in how the Qur'an and later hadith traditions orally transmitted collections of Muhammad's teachings treat homosexuality, with many Western scholars arguing that the latter is far more explicitly negative. Using these differences, these scholars have argued that Muhammad , the main Islamic prophet , never forbade homosexual relationships outright, although he disapproved of them in line with his contemporaries.
In the modern era, Muslim public attitudes towards homosexuality underwent a marked change beginning in the 19th century, largely due to the global spread of Islamic fundamentalist movements , namely Salafism and Wahhabism. A number of Muslim-majority countries that were once colonies of European empires retain the criminal penalties that were originally implemented by European colonial authorities against those who were convicted of engaging in non-heterosexual acts.
Muslim attitudes to LGBTQ practices have varied throughout Islamic history; legal scholars condemned and often formulated punishments for homosexual acts, yet lenient or often non-existent enforcement allowed for toleration, and sometimes "celebration" of such acts.
There is little evidence of homosexual practice in Islamic societies for the first century and a half of the Islamic era. Chief Judge of the Abbasid Caliphate Yahya ibn Aktham permitted homosexual acts, despite being harsh on other sexual acts such as fornication.
The conceptions of homosexuality found in classical Islamic texts resemble the traditions of classical Greece and those of ancient Rome , rather than the modern understanding of sexual orientation. The medieval Islamic concept of homoerotic relationships was distinct from modern concept of homosexuality, and related to the pederasty of Ancient Greece. While the story of their love affair had been censored until recently β the result of Western colonialism and changing attitudes towards homosexuality in the Middle East β Jasmine explains how Ghazni's subjects saw their relationship as a higher form of love.
