gay muslims meet

By Paul Harris

August 2003: Many people who have religious beliefs have to confront opposition from within their respective faiths. Lately we have seen the trouble that a gay Episcopal Bishop had in getting elected, while Roman Catholics face opposition from the Pope. For Muslims though the opposition to their very existence is even greater. To make the situation even worse, as many Muslims are from the Middle East and Pakistan originally, in the current political climate they are treated with suspicion by everyone from the Government to their neighbors.

It was against this background that last weekend in New York City Al-Fatiha, the organisation for GLBT Muslims, held a conference attended by people from all over the Eastern United States. Not surprisingly the first major session of the day concerned the challenges facing Queer Muslims in the US post 9/11.

One of the ironies that came out was that amongst those GLBT Muslims interviewed by the FBI their sexuality provided a defense. Why, after all, would gays and lesbians want to aid a movement that had a reputation for being fervently antigay?

Some Gay Muslims, such as Atif Toor, a New York-based graphic designer found that the attacks upon Islam made post 9/11 made him reevaluate his relationship with the religion and he found himself defending the religion on a regular basis and bringing him in closer relationship with Muslim communities.

This was a feeling echoed by Ramzi Zakharia, one of the founders of the Gay and Lesbian Arab Society who is also active in the Arab Cultural Center of New York City and the! Arab American Family Center. He noted that the impact of 9/11 had "pushed the gay and Arab worlds together to some extent" and that he had "encountered some of the most horrible discrimination from within the gay community." Urooj Arshad, who works at the National Youth Advocacy Coalition in Washington, DC, talked of constantly being made to feel like a second class citizen and about how the tax dollars of Arab Americans are being used to finance a war against the Arab World. She also pointed out to the growing lack of student visas for would-be Arab students, and of people being left ‘in limbo’ waiting for their green cards even after being granted asylum based upon their sexuality.

For Khalida, a twenty-four year old student in Philadelphia, she had never been made to feel "so strongly an outsider, so immigrant" - and this even though she had been born in the New York Borough of Queens! She too spoke of facing a backlash from the "activist community" and had to a! nswer questions such as ‘Do you speak Muslim?’

One of the attendees from the floor pointed out that many of the problems people faced post 9/11 existed before. One of the benefits now is that people are more aware of their rights as immigrants.

If the formal sessions were important for some, for others just being in the company of other Gay and Lesbian Muslims was important. Sadiq (not his real name) is a nineteen year old political science student at a prestigious school in Pennsylvania who was brought up in Palestine. His family now lives in Milwaukee, WI where his father is an engineer. He is the eldest son, of the eldest son, of the eldest son, of the eldest son and much is expected of him - including "finding the golden girl and getting married!" He thought that if his father found out that he was gay he would first kill him (Sadiq) and then shoot himself!

Although Sadiq has always known that he was gay since puberty "nobody knows at school.! " He regarded coming to the Al-Fatiha conference as the first baby step. "Where I’m going to go from this point on I don’t know. It’s one of the reasons that I am here." He described being at the one day conference as being wonderful. "I’ve really found my niche. It’s revolutionized the way I think."

Attendees of the conference also had the opportunity of viewing the rough-cut of a film documentary being made by director Parvez Sharma. The film, which is still being shot and edited, is called "In The Name of Allah" and contains interviews with Gay and Lesbian Muslims from all over the world. Many of those taking part have been fearful about going public about their sexuality.

Al-Fatiha has come a long way since five people nervously met in Washington, DC in 1998. Its growth has in large part been due to the growth of t! he Internet allowing people to contact each other in relative safety and also to the undoubted courage of its leaders particularly its president, Faisal Alam, who last year was honored as a "Young Visionary Under 30" by the Utne Reader, and as a "Founding Father" by OUT Magazine in 2001.

For anyone wanting information about joining Al-Fatiha the organization can be contacted at GayMuslims@yahoo.com