scholars, though not all, asserted that such behavior was not objectionable.” While not indicative of the Middle East as a whole, these anecdotal accounts provide at least some bases for the existence of such preferences in the pre-modern Middle East. The vast majority of men in the Middle East, even in ancient times, married women and fathered children without sexually engaging young boys. Others, possibly a large minority, practised pederasty. Western Moral Influence Today, for some, the Middle East is known as one of the most repressive regions with regards to sexual expression. Some historians have noted, however, that with respect to homosexuality, such repression was, imported, so to speak, from the West. [T]he encounter with European Victorian morality was to have profound effects on local attitudes toward what came to be called “sexual inversion” or “sexual perversion” (shudhūdh jinsā). With the Middle East's contact with the West came an increasing importance placed on assimilation, so to speak, with the values and systems prescribed from the West. The rise in participation in international markets came the destruction of the kinship-based community and an increasing stigma toward homosexuality ”‘The concept of homosexuality as defining a particular type person and a category of ‘deviance’ came to the Middle East [through the agency] of the West’ as well. Until Western influence, homosexuality did not carry a negative connotation in the Muslim world. The change in community structure and the rising influence of Western perceptions thus largely created the contemporary taboo against homosexuality in Muslim societies.” Before this influence from the West there was no identity or concept of “homosexuality”, though in practice acts that could be considered homosexual in nature did occur, but it simply was not conceptualized as it is now. With the increased influence of the West, even if one were to abide by the societal norms that once made such behavior inconsequential, such homosexual behavior is now met with increased opposition. See also References Middle Eastern culture Sexuality in Islam