Paris: Europe has its first gay-friendly worship place opened for gay Muslims, run by a gay Islamic scholar, on the suburbs of Paris, French capital city.
The new prayer centre is led by Ludovic-Mohamed Zahed, who is married to a gay man and the founder of Homosexual Muslims of France.
The mosque (prayer room) has been set up in the French Capital with the intent to create a more “inclusive” place for gay, lesbian and transgender Muslims, Mohamed Zahed told BBC World Service.
He says many of them felt uneasy praying in established mosques. “Many gay men don’t go to the mosque because they don’t want to be recognized.”
“They don’t want to be ostracised because they wear earrings or because they’re effeminate or they’re transgender, something that’s pretty obviously rejected in many mosques in France,” he says.
Another reason behind the opening of new worshiping place, what he describes was discrimination, saying, “A transgender from a Muslim background died last summer. It was hard to find an imam to pray for her. Nobody wanted to. In the end, we had to do it. We had to pray for her.”
However, for now they have made a room of Buddhist prayer hall the place of worship which holds more than 20 people and is decorated with calligraphy in Chinese characters.
Meanwhile, the new prayer hall for gay-Muslims faces ire from London Mosque Imam Ajmal Masroor who said, “”Islam has nothing to do with homosexuality and it is a choice, it’s a desire, and it’s not something that you are born with.”
However, that does not mean that other Muslims should discriminate against homosexuals, says Mr Masroor. Mosques are open to everyone.
He urged the gay Muslims to stop trying to separate themselves from others and should be attending mosque like other Muslims.
Masroor said they should not be trying to change the religion. “If you join Islam, you must conform to Islamic teachings.”
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