Editing LGBTQ people and Islam (section)

====Practicality====
Since a ''[[hadd]]'' punishment for ''zina'' requires testimony from four witnesses of the actual act of penetration or a confession from the accused repeated four times, the legal criteria for the prescribed harsh punishments of homosexual acts were very difficult to fulfill.<ref name="autogenerated1983" /><ref name="leaman" /> The debates of classical jurists are "to a large extent theoretical, since homosexual relations have always been tolerated" in pre-modern Islamic societies.<ref name="autogenerated1983" /> While it is difficult to determine to what extent the legal sanctions were enforced in different times and places, historical record suggests that the laws were invoked mainly in cases of rape or other "exceptionally blatant infringement on public morals". Documented instances of prosecution for homosexual acts are rare, and those which followed legal procedure prescribed by Islamic law are even rarer.<ref name=iranica-law/>