Meet the imam of Ai’s first gay-iendly mosque | World Enomic Fom

Contents:

• AFFIRMG MOSQU HELP GAY MLIMS RENCILE FAH, SEXUALY
• TORONTO MOSQUE IS GAY IENDLY, MIXED GENR PRAYERS LED BY A WOMAN
• MEET THE IMAM OF AI’S FIRST GAY-IENDLY MOSQUE
• GAY TORONTO
• HALIFAX'S FIRST GAY-IENDLY MOSQUE OPENG THIS SUMMER
• LONDON'S LANDMARK BUILDG DOTTED WH STRIP CLUBS, GAY VENU TO TURN TO MOSQUE
• MEET AMERI’S FIRST OPENLY GAY IMAM

AFFIRMG MOSQU HELP GAY MLIMS RENCILE FAH, SEXUALY

Today is the Internatnal Day agast Homophobia.

TORONTO MOSQUE IS GAY IENDLY, MIXED GENR PRAYERS LED BY A WOMAN

In general, is strange that this phenomenon still exists, bee gay people are everywhere, and no matter how different medieval figur try to “cure” or kill them, is impossible. Today, even the state media of aternal Cha allow themselv to openly exprs support for homosexuals. Sadly, relign remas the ma stronghold of the fight agast gays.

But the Orthodox and pecially Islamic environment, gay people are still beg stigmatized. But what should a vout Mlim do if he is gay?

MEET THE IMAM OF AI’S FIRST GAY-IENDLY MOSQUE

But the worst thg (om the pot of view of Islam) is not even that gays n e here. After all, gays also go to ordary mosqu, they simply do not reveal themselv.

Imam El-Faro Khaki -found Toronto's first LGBTQ-iendly mosque, Uny Mosque, 10 years ago to allow lbian, gay, bisexual, transgenr and queer Mlims to attend prayers whout havg to hi their sexual orientatn or genr inty for fear of discrimatn. INTERPRETATIONGay Mlim scholar Stt Siraj al-Haqq Kugle has spent two s rearchg LGBTQ issu the Islamic fah and said many people are surprised to disver that Islam is not herently nmng of LGBTQ people. “In the Quran, there is no word that explicly scrib homosexual or transgenr persons; the Arabic terms were vented after the Quran’s revelatn, by medieval jurists and ntemporary journalists, doctors and social crics.

GAY TORONTO

FINDING ‘A MIDDLE GROUND’Tugay Sarac was 13 when his father died eight years ago. “I thought I n't be Mlim and gay at the same time, ” he said. “This went on for a few years until I went to the Ibn Rhd-Goethe Mosque, where I realized that is actually possible to be Mlim and gay.

”Tugay Sarac is the LGBTQ ordator of Ibn Rhd-Goethe Mosque, the only self-scribed liberal mosque Germany.

Courty of Tugay SaracIbn Rhd-Goethe Mosque is the only self-scribed liberal mosque Germany. “I know that many gay Mlims turn to radil ias bee they want to cure themselv om homosexualy, ” Sarac explaed. “Mosqu like Ibn Rhd-Goethe n give people a place to be gay and Mlim.

HALIFAX'S FIRST GAY-IENDLY MOSQUE OPENG THIS SUMMER

Acrdg to a 2017 Pew Rearch Center survey of Amerin Mlims, a majory (52 percent) believe society should accept homosexualy, pared wh jt 27 percent 2007. K., however, Mlims are ls acceptg of homosexualy.

A 2016 ICM Unlimed survey found only 18 percent of Brish Mlims agreed that homosexualy should be legal Bra. ‘INCLUSIVE AND RELEVANT’Like Kugle, Imam Daayiee Abdullah, one of the first openly gay imams the U. S., believ the prevalent view of homosexualy as a s current Islamic teachg is rooted tradn, rather than scripture.

LONDON'S LANDMARK BUILDG DOTTED WH STRIP CLUBS, GAY VENU TO TURN TO MOSQUE

“Many tradns are locked to a particular time, place and culture — they're not necsarily appropriate for today or for people who will be worshippg 50 years om now, ” Abdullah Daayiee Abdullah, founr of the Mec Instute, is one of the first openly gay Imams the U.

Growg up, Yara El Safi, a queer Mlim artist who immigrated to Canada om Lebanon 2001, was nstantly exposed to a “weird belief that queer and gay is a Wtern ventn.

Founr El-Faro Khaki said was important for him and his -founrs to create the Uny Mosque, or the El-Tawhid Juma Circle, as a space that is welg to | The all-clive mosque on CBC's Metro MorngHalifax's first gay-iendly mosque opens 2014"There's a notn, I thk, out there that Mlim spac are not welg, that they're not clive, that they don't embrace non-Mlims, or that women or LGBTQI people are somehow not wele, " said Khaki, who spoke to CBC's Matt Galloway on Metro Morng. Salaam is a volunteer-n anizatn that advot for social jtice and addrs the tersectg issu around homophobia, transphobia, and Islamophobia/racism. CALEM received the SOS Homophobia 2010, was supported by the European Council 2012, was an advisor to the Brish urt of jtice to the stat of refuge, was advisor to the French ernment regardg the law on marriage for all, and advisor to the nstutn of ILGA Ai (Biggt LGBT NGO worldwi).

MEET AMERI’S FIRST OPENLY GAY IMAM

Visors om around the world takg part a Universy of Toronto Islamic studi nference vis a gay-iendly, genr-equal mosque. The mosque is gay and lbian iendly, and believ genr equaly. The El-Tawhid Juma Circle was tablished May 2009 by Silvers, a Universy of Toronto relig studi scholar, alongsi Mlim gay-rights activists El-Faro Khaki and Troy Jackson.

To ensure their gathergs are a safe place, cludg for homosexual members who may not be publicly out, the mosque keeps s downtown lotn secret (terted atten learn where to go by quirg through the group’s webse.