Opinion editorial on homosexuality in Islam -- opinion?

Ok, I posted awhile back asking for suggestions on Holocaust topics I could use to write an opinion editorial on for my Religion class. Well, now we have been assigned another op-ed on any topic regarding Islam.

I’ve already chosen my topic: Homosexuality in Islam

I’ve done some research to find out the facts, and I’ve come up with some really interesting stuff. The most extreme thing I’ve found is that five Muslim countries use the death penalty for homosexual acts. And many of the others use imprisonment, fines, and corporal punishment. I also found some pretty harsh quotes from Islamic scholars on the subject.

I am very much for gay rights and I’m about as liberal as you can get regarding human sexuality (okay, maybe not as liberal as you can get, but close enough), so I chose this topic because I know the Koran condemned homosexuality and I knew I’d have an opinion on the topic. This is, after all, an OPINION editorial. Research and facts are fine, but we need to include our own view on the subject.

My professor’s suggestion was to compare it to my own religious views and go from there. Well, I don’t have religious views on homosexuality. I thought that since I am pretty familiar with Christianity and that is the religion most people in that class seem to follow, I could still make that comparison and then add in my two cents, but I don’t really know how I’d go about doing that.

I know my opinions (ie. Homosexuality is not a choice, homosexuals are human beings as well and don’t deserve to be executed for sexual acts, these laws are a horrid invasion of privacy, etc), but I just can’t seem to fit it into my paper without sounding like, “I think this, and I think that…yay for gay.” I mean, it’s college, that’s just not going to cut it.

So, I don’t want someone to write it for me, but any suggestions on how I can begin to work that into my paper would be greatly appreciated. :)

ETA: Also, I’m not writing this paper to bash Islamic culture. That’s not the goal here.