An imam is a leadership position within the Islamic faith. It is most commonly found in the context of a leader of worship in a mosque. Imam may also be used in the form of a title for renowned Muslim scholars. Meet America’s first openly gay Imam Daayiee Abdullah.
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He’s been condemned by other Muslim leaders, and some local imams have even refused to greet him; however Imam Daayiee Abdullah – believed to be the only openly gay imam in the Americas – is proud of his story.
He was born and raised in Detroit, where his parents were Southern Baptists. At age 15, he came out to them. At 33, while studying in China, Abdullah converted to Islam, and went on to study the religion in Egypt, Jordan and Syria. But as a gay man in America, he saw that lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender Muslims had unmet spiritual needs and he became an imam to provide community support.
“Sometimes necessity is the mother of invention. And because of the necessity in our community, that’s why I came into this particular role,” he told America Tonight about his journey.
His first act as an imam? Performing funeral rites for a gay Muslim who died of AIDS.
“They had contacted a number of imams, and no one would go and provide him his janazah services,” he said, referring to the Muslim body cleaning ritual. That pained him.
“I believe every person, no matter if I disagree with you or not, you have the right as a Muslim to have the proper spiritual [rites] and rituals provided for you. And whoever judges you, that will be Allah’s decision, not me.”
It’s one of the mantras he lives by in his work, even as others condemn him. Read the full article featured at Aljazeera America here.
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Daayiee Abdullah Talks About His First Love
In the brief candid and honest interview below, Daayiee Abdullah talks about his first same gender loving relationship.
Wow. That was a really sad ending to his first love.
Gays are of every race, creed, color, religion and ethnicity world wide. Homosexuality is as natural as heterosexuality or being right handed. This guy just happens to be (apparently) African American.
THEy had a pretty log-lasting bond.I’m sorry it ended that way,For Otis and for Both of them.
As for the matter of other religious leaders ,I think people need to be more objective with their religious beliefs.I’m not sure if this is true for his faith,but Christians’ most important rule is not to put yourself in the place of or before God,yet you always see someone condemning another person. Even if you think someone was living in sin or whatever,wouldn’t they be more in need of your spiritual services by that logic?
This.
I have a FB friend who has two particular friends, one male and one female, and every time, EVERY TIME our mutual FB friend posts something that’s ‘gay’ both of these two jump in talking about “It’s a sin!” “Abomination”. I get they have their religious feelings and what have you but if I’m not even their FB friend but I know to expect to see their comments, to me, that says something more about them trying to find some way to feel superior.
The chick has some type of personal agenda against Beyonce and a few other female celebs because she stays on saying something negative about them showing off their bodies but she always posts photos of her ‘coke bottle shape’, but I notice I see her ‘likes’ show up when our mutual FB friend posts a 80% nekkid male stripper. And the dude NEVER says anything when an attractive lesbian is on display.
I just hate hypocrisy.
I think the next time I see them post something like that I’ll mention ‘reaching out and mentoring since they clearly are the moral compass’ to which I’m sure crickets and tumbleweeds will be the response.
They obviously forgot about the sin of gossiping and harping on the faults of others. Imo, people like this are insecure.Anytime you have to go out of your way to prove something about yourself, you don’t feel confident in that aspect of yourself.
The sad reality is that for many people, religion is merely a tool to further one’s own preexisting beliefs. In fact, I’m certain that the vast majority of people who claim a biblical motivation for their homophobia are simply using the bible to fuel their own prejudices (which may come from their family, social network, or simply ignorance of gays). This mentality applies to Christians who have a “superiority complex” about other groups. The bible for them is an afterthought, not a source of moral guidance. In my opinion, its nothing short of blasphemy to use any religious text as a vehicle for your personal hate.
In my opinion, its nothing short of blasphemy to use any religious text as a vehicle for your personal hate.
And this is why war and social injustice gets carried out in the name of deities. It actually turns people away from your faith,and in the end, is a complete bastardization of Spirituality.
Heartbreaking and and so sad! How many more must we lose before people realize that we are no judge and jury. Live your life and leave other people alone. I find when you are living your truth and enjoying your life, you do not have time to worry about what others are doing in their lives. These control freaks who think they have all the answers and all the knowledge are delusional. They are the cause of so much of the misery in the world. We have lost some pretty astonishing people due to ignorance, violence and fear clothed in the form of Religion. Until God appears and makes his/ her judgment, I will continue to believe that everyone must live their own truth and we have no right to infringe upon that truth.
that was touching, thanks for an interesting piece. We are so caught up in our own little world that sometimes we forget that acceptance is a worldwide, culture wide, religious wide problem and although we share similarities we are all so different . It is for us to use our differences as our strength and work towards one aim – global acceptance. This may be an ideal but we must never retreat or surrender, as souls like Ottis and the millions of others , would have died in vain.
This does make continue to wonder why anyone who is gay would even want to be a Muslim or a part of any Abrahamic mythology. Considering the ugly things Judaism, Christianity, and Islam have to say about homosexuality. This makes me glad to be an atheist. These backward and barbaric middle-eastern/indo-european myths are obsolete in the modern age.