Gay Mlim Imam Brgs Msage of Tolerance to Europe - DER SPIEGEL

Contents:

• GAY-IENDLY 'MOSQUE' OPENS PARIS
• A GAY IMAM'S STORY: 'THE DIALOGUE IS OPEN ISLAM – 10 YEARS AGO WASN'T'
• PARIS ACTIVIST TO TT TABOOS WH GAY-IENDLY MOSQUE
• ‘EUROPE’S FIRST GAY-IENDLY MOSQUE’ SPARKS NTROVERSY
• GAY MOSQUE TO OPEN PARIS, ADDRS TO BE SECRET
• FIRST GAY-IENDLY MOSQUE OPENS FRANCE
• FRANCE TO OPEN WORLD'S FIRST GAY MOSQUE
• FRANCE SLATED TO OPEN FIRST GAY MOSQUE
• GAY MLIM IMAM BRGS MSAGE OF TOLERANCE TO EUROPE
• GAY PARIS

GAY-IENDLY 'MOSQUE' OPENS PARIS

Media ptn, Ludovic-Mohamed Zahed, a gay Islamic scholar, explas why he cid to anise the new "mosque"A prayer room scribed as Europe's first gay-iendly mosque is openg on the outskirts of Paris.

A GAY IMAM'S STORY: 'THE DIALOGUE IS OPEN ISLAM – 10 YEARS AGO WASN'T'

The new centre is n by Ludovic-Mohamed Zahed, a gay Islamic scholar, married to a gay man, and the founr of Homosexual Mlims of Zahed regularly attends the Grand Mosque Paris, but says he wants to create a more "clive" place for gay, lbian and transgenr says many of them felt unfortable prayg tablished mosqu. "Many gay men don't go to the mosque bee they don't want to be regnised, " says Mr Zahed.

"They don't want to be ostracised bee they wear earrgs or bee they're effemate or they're transgenr, somethg that's pretty obvly rejected many mosqu France, " he Zahed's South Ain gay hband has enuntered siar problems.

The room holds more than 20 people and is rated wh lligraphy Che Imam Ajmal Masroor says that Mr Zahed's meetg room do not nstute a mosque as do not fully adhere to Islamic preachg and ptn, Mr Zahed says many gay people feel unfortable ordary mosquMr Zahed says his "mosque" is not tryg to be specifilly gay-iendly, but "clive".

PARIS ACTIVIST TO TT TABOOS WH GAY-IENDLY MOSQUE

He wants men and women to be able to pray together, not jt "gay and straight" and women pray together Mec, he says, so why n't they ordary mosqu?

‘EUROPE’S FIRST GAY-IENDLY MOSQUE’ SPARKS NTROVERSY

The Koran nmns homosexualy. Tradnally, Mlim relig thori have opposed gay sex. "Homosexualy is a choice, 's a sire, 's not somethg that you are born wh, " says the London imam Ajmal Masroor.

Homosexualy is not acceptable for eher Sunni or Shia Mlims, he says, bee God tends for sex to occur between men and women only, wh marriage, and "any sexual relatnship outsi marriage is a s". However, that do not mean that Mlims should discrimate agast homosexuals, says Mr Masroor. Mosqu are open to than tryg to separate themselv homosexuals should be attendg mosque like other Mlims, argu Mr Masroor.

GAY MOSQUE TO OPEN PARIS, ADDRS TO BE SECRET

" Mr Zahed says that "Islam has nothg to do wh homosexualy".

PARIS (Rters) - Europe’s first gay and lbian-iendly mosque opens on Friday an eastern Paris suburb, a challenge to mastream Islam’s long tradn of nmng same-sex relatnships.

Ludovic-Mohamed Zahed, a French-Algerian homosexual Mlim, pos ont of Paris Mosque November 23, 2012. REUTERS/Charl PlatiThe mosque, set up a small room si the hoe of a Buddhist monk, will wele transgenr and transsexual Mlims and seat men and women together, breakg wh another ctom where the sex are normally segregated durg founr, French-Algerian gay activist and practisg Mlim Ludovic-Mohamed Zahed, will also enurage women to lead Friday prayers, smashg yet another taboo.

FIRST GAY-IENDLY MOSQUE OPENS FRANCE

A mosque where people n e as they are, ” said Zahed, 35, whose prayer space will be the first Europe to formally brand self as a gay-iendly mosque, acrdg to Mlim mosque, which for now will be limed to Friday prayer ssns, is openg as relig lears France, cludg senr Mlims, are petng agast plans by the Socialist ernment to legalise gay marriage. “Beg homosexual and Mlim is borrle schizophrenic, ” said one of three gay Mlims who will lead prayers at the mosque, whose floor-to-ceilg wdows look out on a garn rated wh Buddhist cid there was a need for a fixed gay-iendly prayer space as membership of his fledglg associatn “Homosexual Mlims of France” rose to 325 people om jt six people when he found two years prayer lear at Zahed’s mosque said hostily to gays prompted many to qu the fah. The Mlim world tends to be more hostile to homosexualy than Judaism or Christiany, where a few nomatns wele gays.

“We know that homosexual Mlims exist but openg a mosque is an aberratn, ” said Abdallah Zekri, who monors anti-Mlim attacks for France’s Mlim uncil. “We do not pot the fger at homosexuals, but we nnot give them cred to the pot that they bee regnised our muny, ” he of the worshippers at the Grand Mosque, whose maret towers over a quiet district central Paris, agreed.

Many terpret the Koran as forbiddg homosexualy. Print Franis Hollan’s plan to legalise gay marriage is provg highly divisive a untry that is maly Catholic, though home also to 5 ln Mlims, and is wrtlg wh the issue of whether gay upl should be able to raise, who believ he is the first Mlim France to be joed to a same-sex partner a symbolic ceremony nducted by an imam, says gays or transsexuals who feel their sexualy is nspicuo n stggle to blend at regular a handful of gay-iendly mosqu now exist Canada, South Ai and the Uned Stat, Zahed believ he is phg a new boundary France by providg a haven for gays. “The goal of the Mlims is to promote a form of Islam that is clive of progrsive valu, ” said Florence Berged-Blackler, an associate rearcher at France’s Rearch and Studi Instute on the Arab and Mlim ph by gay Mlims for acceptance as a younger generatn of Mlims is qutng some of the existg terpretatns of the Koran as over-nservative.

FRANCE TO OPEN WORLD'S FIRST GAY MOSQUE

So their msage is not havg an signifint impact, ” Berged-Blackler married his male partner, also a Mlim, a civil ceremony South Ai where same-sex marriage is France, he found a sympathetic iend a gay Buddhist monk who offered to host his mosque his home. PARIS — When Ludovic-Mohamed Zahed announced his tentns to lnch the first gay-iendly mosque Paris, was difficult for him to image what lay mosque’s lnch November 2012 was a monumental step raisg awarens and providg a place of worship for Mlims who are also part of the LGBT muny. Dpe legalizg gay marriage jt over one year ago, France’s attus toward LGBT rights are mixed.

A 2013 Pew Center survey found that 77 percent of people France thk society should accept homosexualy, down om 83 percent 2007.

FRANCE SLATED TO OPEN FIRST GAY MOSQUE

A 2009 Gallup poll found that 35 percent of Mlims France believe that homosexual acts are morally neher Zahed nor supporters enuntered physil harm followg the mosque’s lnch, he says the weeks and months followg were “tense. ” He rells the first meetg of the associatn he found for gay Mlims France, HM2F, the basement of a fe as charged and tentative.

After the media attentn surroundg the announcement of the gay mosque, Zahed says he felt uneasy at home, particularly after his addrs was published the time of mosque’s lnch, a spokman for the Grand Mosque of Paris, one of the largt mosqu France, rpond by sayg that Zahed’s actns were not acrdance wh the the midst of France’s gay marriage bate last year, Dalil Boubakr, rector of the Grand Mosque, told a French rad statn that while he nmns homosexualy he do not ndone nsirs discsn around the issue to be enuragg. At the very least, he says, the ncept of a gay mosque and the legalizatn of gay marriage have sparked a willgns wh France’s Mlim muny to engage dialogue around LGBT nsirs the domtic and ternatnal media verage of the ncept to have been “dispensable” this evolutn, he says. “It helped a lot unterg the ia that Mlims are not homosexual, or the ia that homosexuals reject Islam.

He remembers beg mmerized by the bety of the Quran, by the “universalism” the nsirs himself a gay femist, two labels he nsirs patible wh Islam. “After more than 15 years of reflectn on the matter, I now unrstand that the Quran do not explicly refer to ‘homosexualy, ’ nor do refer to women as ‘ferr.

GAY MLIM IMAM BRGS MSAGE OF TOLERANCE TO EUROPE

He wr about this journey, and the difficulti growg up as a gay Mlim, his memoir, Le Coran et La Chair (The Quran and the Flh), published will also be lnchg a fah-based advocy group Cape Town, "Rumi's Isiphephelo. ” The anizatn will serve as a mosque, shelter for refuge and imam trag om GlobalPost: Ugandan anti-gay law boosts standg of a print power sce 1986.

A Mlim prayer centre, which has been dubbed Europe’s first gay-iendly mosque, opened Paris this week.

GAY PARIS

The openg of what has been dubbed Europe’s first gay-iendly mosque Paris has been nmned by some of the cy’s Mlim lears for gog “agast the spir of Islam” new “mosque”, which opened on Friday a small room si the hoe of a Buddhist monk, has smashed a taboo Islam by welg transgenr and transsexual Mlims. Dalil Boubakr, rector of the Gran Mosqueé Paris, told FRANCE 24 that the openg of a new place of prayer for gay Mlims go agast the l of Islam. “The mosqu that are already there accept everyone so creatg one specifilly for homosexuals is agast the spir of Islam.

”Boubakr argu that Islam’s l on homosexualy were unambiguo. “Homosexualy is nmned 13 vers of the Koran. The only sexual relatnship that is legimate is between married men and women”, he said, though acknowledgg that is agast Islam to be homophobic.

“We know that homosexual Mlims exist but openg a mosque (for them) is an aberratn, ” he said. 'Radilly clive mosque'Acceptg homosexual Mlims is not the only relig taboo the new mosque will break, wh the ual l on separatg men om women also to be mosque’s founr, French-Algerian gay rights activist and practicg Mlim Ludovic-Mohamed Zahed, will also enurage women to lead Friday prayers. Speakg to FRANCE 24 shortly after that ceremony Zahed, an expert on the Koran, boldly said: “I am sure that if the Prophet Mohamed was still alive, he would marry gay upl”.