by HAJER NAILI
PHOTO/Charles Roffey/Flickr
Kaamila Mohamed, Nabil K. and S. Syed have three things in common: they’re Muslim, queer and rarely found at mosques.
The Islamic month of Ramadan is coming to an end and none of them has consistently attended prayers at mosques as is often done during this spiritual month. The reason: they do not feel very welcome.
“I don’t go because of that feeling that I cannot be my full self,” said Mohamed in a recent phone interview from Boston. “I have to constantly be questioning and navigating whether it is safe to be open about who I am. That is an extremely psychologically draining experience and it bars me from being a full participant and community member” in Muslim spaces.
The LGBTQ Muslim community around the world has attracted attention in the arts and media lately. Earlier this month “Coming Out Muslim: Radical Acts of Love” was staged in New York in two performances. The play dramatizes the struggles of queer Muslims to reconcile the beliefs of their families and homelands with their own existences as LGBTQ Muslims. In a poetic narrative-based format, Terna Tilley-Giado and co-creator Wazina Zondon shared their stories as coming out Muslims.
But breaking that kind of artistic ground doesn’t mean an openly bisexual woman such as Mohamed feels comfortable or accepted in her own community or in mosques.
As in any Abrahamic religion, homosexuality is forbidden in Islam and subject to legal punishment in many Muslim countries, though discrimination against the LGBTQ community happens all over the world, including the United States.
Sexual orientation is barely, if at all, addressed in mosques, said queer Muslims who spoke to Women’s eNews. At worst, you may hear some form of condemnation; at best, religious leaders and community members will stay silent.
None of the imams contacted by Women’s eNews wished to comment on the issue or they didn’t reply to an interview request.
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