Why are gays supporrting islam

Some Muslims may want to live like this still is seventh-century Arabia, but it's not. And it is your duty as an imam or as a Muslim to go and speak to them and say: 'No, it cannot be. And so I got married. Muhsin Hendricks, a South African imam who fights for recognition for gay men and lesbians, believes that it doesn't have to be this way.

The community tells you you should just get married and then it will all go away. But, thankfully, I am in the business of faith. If I can't be part of their Islam, so be it. Change is in the air, however. I've taken on the patriarchy that sits behind Islam. It is forbidden.

Whoever goes against that goes against the natural disposition of mankind, the fitrah. Explore the complex relationship between Islam and homosexuality in this comprehensive analysis. It challenges the notion that homosexual behavior is innate, highlighting that inclinations may arise from various.

Hendricks, who has received death threats from people offended by his work, said his organization occupied a niche that occasionally even attracts unexpected praise from other Muslim communities. One of those is Imam Yusuf Pandy, who leads a congregation in Mowbray, a busy district near central Cape Town, about 10 kilometers 6 miles north of the Inner Circle's offices.

It's not easy, and it requires a good amount of faith to do that work. Gay men and lesbians continue to suffer persecution in most formally Muslim countries - eight of which even treat homosexual acts as crimes that are punishable by death. Much like at the mosque run by Hendricks, men and women worship together, and homosexuals are welcome and integrated into the congregation.

Gays and lesbians go against the natural disposition They (gays and lesbians) both go against the natural disposition (fitrah) which Allah has created in mankind – and also in animals – whereby the male is inclined towards the female, and vice versa. Hendricks lends support to gay Muslims who have been exposed to intolerance from more-orthodox Islamic leaders in their communities.

Deaves said she had a number of homosexual Muslim friends and that most Muslims in Cape Town have inclusive attitudes toward gay men and lesbians. But many Muslim South Africans disagree with the extension of equal rights to gay men and lesbians. In Paris in November a room in a Buddhist prayer hall was used by gay Muslims and called a "gay-friendly mosque", [] and a French Islamic site [] is supporting religious same-sex marriage.

Literally down the street from the community center and mosque run by Imam Hendricks, another mosque opened its doors two years ago, also welcoming queer Muslims. Cape Malays experienced widespread poverty under apartheid rule, albeit to a lesser extent than South Africa's majority black population did.

She told DW that prevailing attitudes toward homosexuality within Islam meant that "some Muslims felt that they couldn't be accepted in their communities and families because of their sexuality. Using his homosexuality as a conduit for dialogue, Hendricks views himself as a part of a growing movement aimed at changing global perceptions of Islam.

That's why I believe in Muslim communities this needs to be discussed more openly. The article discusses the historical context of homosexuality in both Western and Islamic perspectives, addressing misconceptions fueled by biology, psychology, and genetics. Muslim Americans have become more accepting of same-sex marriage in recent years, but have those shifts translated to more inclusive mosques?

He has built up a small, loyal congregation in Cape Town called the Inner Circle, in which he helps queer-identified Muslims reconcile their sexuality with their religion. There are , Muslims living in Cape Town, the majority of whom are Cape Malays, mixed-race descendants of people brought to the Cape of Good Hope from present-day Indonesia in the 17th century, typically as slaves.

The Open Mosque, which was started by the British scholar Taj Hargey in , brings Muslims from different walks of life together. But first he has to convince fellow Muslims that he is not a wayward imam. He experienced this firsthand, having grown up under the teachings of his grandfather, who also was an imam.

Hendricks had two children with his wife, but then divorced her to seek a more honest life: "I needed to let the world know that I was an imam, but that I was also gay. Can LGBTQIA+ and Muslim identities coexist?. But it didn't even take us a year to realize that we had made a big mistake.

South Africa's constitution established nominal equality for all its citizens, including then-revolutionary protections for homosexuals; to this day, it remains the only country in Africa that allows same-sex marriages. The Koran is not obsessed with gays in the way that some of these imams seem to be obsessed with gays.

Active for 20 years now and headquartered in Cape Town's southern suburb of Wynberg, the Inner Circle is not limited to gay men and lesbians.