Nur Warsame is a gay imam from Australia. He is a hafiz, i.e. one who has memorised the Quran; he is the second Victorian imam to earn this title. [1]
Warsame was born in Somalia [2] and lived in Egypt and Canada as a child. He moved to Melbourne in Australia as a high school student, and has been an imam since 2003. [1]
Previously married to a woman and with one daughter, [2] Warsame came out as Australia's first gay imam in 2010, [3] and is the only gay imam in the country as of 2018 [update] . [4]
Since 2014, he has run the underground LGBT support group Marhaba ('welcome' in Arabic) [1] [5] and says he was ostracised by the Muslim community because of his sexual orientation, and intended to open Australia's first mosque which was open to the LGBT community. [3] [6] That year, he spoke at the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras. [7]
Within the Muslim world, sentiment towards LGBTQ people varies and has varied between societies and individual Muslims, but is contemporarily negative. While colloquial and in many cases de facto official acceptance of at least some homosexual behavior was commonplace in pre-modern periods, later developments, starting from the 19th-century, have created a generally hostile environment for LGBTQ people. Most Muslim-majority countries have opposed moves to advance LGBTQ rights and recognition at the United Nations (UN), including within the UN General Assembly and the UN Human Rights Council.
Queer is an umbrella term for people who are not heterosexual or are not cisgender. Originally meaning 'strange' or 'peculiar', queer came to be used pejoratively against LGBT people in the late 19th century. From the late 1980s, queer activists began to reclaim the word as a neutral or positive self-description.
Islam is the second-largest religion in Australia. According to the 2021 Census in Australia, the combined number of people who self-identified as Australian Muslims, from all forms of Islam, constituted 813,392 people, or 3.2% of the total Australian population. That total Muslim population makes Islam, in all its denominations and sects, the second largest religious grouping in Australia, after all denominations of Christianity.
The Lakemba Mosque, also known as the Masjid Ali Bin Abi Talib and officially the Imam Ali bin Abi Taleb Mosque, is Australia's largest mosque. It is located at 71-75 Wangee Road, Lakemba. Owned and managed by the Lebanese Muslim Association (LMA), Lakemba Mosque and the LMA offices are situated contiguously at the same address.
Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ) rights in Australia rank among the highest in the world; having significantly advanced over the latter half of the 20th century and early 21st century. Opinion polls and the Australian Marriage Law Postal Survey indicate widespread popular support for same-sex marriage within the nation. Australia in 2018, in fact was the last of the Five Eyes set of countries - that consisted of namely Canada (2005), New Zealand (2013), United Kingdom (2014) and the United States (2015) to legalize same-sex marriage. A 2013 Pew Research poll found that 79% of Australians agreed that homosexuality should be accepted by society, making it the fifth-most supportive country surveyed in the world. With its long history of LGBTQ activism and annual Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras festival, Sydney has been named one of the most gay-friendly cities in the world.
Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ+)-affirming religious groups are religious groups that welcome LGBT people as their members, do not consider homosexuality as a sin or negative, and affirm LGBT rights and relationships. They include entire religious denominations, as well as individual congregations and places of worship. Some groups are mainly composed of non-LGBTQ+ members and they also have specific programs to welcome LGBTQ+ people into them, while other groups are mainly composed of LGBTQ+ members.
El-Farouk Khaki is a Tanzanian-born Muslim Canadian of Indian origin who is a refugee and immigration lawyer, and human rights activist on issues including gender equality, sexual orientation, and progressive Islam. He was the New Democratic Party's candidate for the House of Commons in the riding of Toronto Centre in a March 17, 2008 by-election. Khaki came in second with 13.8% of the vote.
The relationship between religion and lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ) people can vary greatly across time and place, within and between different religions and sects, and regarding different forms of homosexuality, bisexuality, non-binary, and transgender identities. More generally, the relationship between religion and sexuality ranges widely among and within them, from giving sex and sexuality a rather negative connotation to believing that sex is the highest expression of the divine.
Somali Australians are citizens and residents of Australia who are of Somali ancestry.
Daayiee Abdullah is an American Imam based in Washington, D.C. Abdullah is said to be one of five openly gay Imams in the world. Abdullah was a member of and spiritual advisor of the Al-Fatiha Foundation until it closed in 2011. As a Muslim leader, Abdullah's homosexuality has caused controversy due to the traditionally upheld beliefs about male homosexuality in Islam.
Houston has a large and diverse LGBT population and is home to the 4th largest gay pride parade in the nation. Houston has the largest LGBT population of any city in the state of Texas.
Throughout Dallas–Fort Worth, there is a large lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender community. Since 2005, DFW has constituted one of the largest LGBT communities in Texas.
Paris, the capital of France, has an active LGBTQ community. In the 1990s, 46% of the country's gay men lived in the city. As of 2004, Paris had 140 LGBT bars, clubs, hotels, restaurants, shops, and other commercial businesses. Florence Tamagne, author of "Paris: 'Resting on its Laurels'?", wrote that there is a "Gaité parisienne"; she added that Paris "competes with Berlin for the title of LGBT capital of Europe, and ranks only second behind New York for the title of LGBT capital of the world." It has France's only gayborhoods that are officially organized.
Ludovic-Mohamed Zahed is a French-Algerian imam. An openly gay Muslim, Zahed is the founder of an Islamic prayer room in Paris, France, with the goal of accommodating the LGBTQ and feminist Muslim communities. He also founded the LGBT Muslim association HM2F, and manages the Calem Institute in Marseille.
Lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people in Kerala face legal and social difficulties not experienced by non-LGBT persons. However, Kerala has been at the forefront of LGBT issues in India after Tamil Nadu. It became one of the first states in India to establish a welfare policy for the transgender community and in 2016, proposed implementing free gender affirmation surgery through government hospitals. Same-sex sexual activity has been legal since 2018, following the Supreme Court ruling in Navtej Singh Johar v. Union of India. In addition, numerous LGBT-related events have been held across Kerala, including in Kochi and Thiruvananthapuram. However, there is also increasing opposition to LGBT rights recently as evidenced by the anti-LGBT campaigns spearheaded by meninist groups and Muslim organisations like Indian Union Muslim League, Samastha and Jamaat-e-Islami.
Homonationalism is the favorable association between a nationalist ideology and LGBT people or their rights.
Mohammad Tawhidi, also known as the Imam of Peace, is an Australian Shia Muslim influencer and "Imam".
The Mareeba Mosque, officially known as the Mareeba and District Memorial Mosque, is a mosque located in Mareeba, a rural town in Queensland, Australia. The building contains a minaret, and an adjacent hall used for community functions that houses the library and visitors room. Associated with the Albanian Australian community, the mosque is owned by and the centre of the Albanian Australian Moslem Society.
Islam in Washington, D.C. is the third largest religion, after Christianity and Judaism. As of 2014, Muslims were 2% of Greater Washington's population. Around 50,000 Muslims live in DC. DC's Muslim history dates to the early 1600s, when the first Muslim residents were enslaved and formerly enslaved African Americans. DC is home to seven mosques, including some of the oldest mosques in the United States. A copy of the Quran owned by Thomas Jefferson is held at the Library of Congress.
Muhsin Hendricks is a South African imam and Islamic scholar. He has been involved in various LGBT Muslim advocacy groups and has been an advocate for greater acceptance of LGBT people within Islam. He has been described as the world's first openly gay imam, having come out in 1996.