Imam Daayiee Abdulah, so far is the only openly gay Imam in America was born and raised a Baptist Christian
faithful in Detroit but converted to Islam while studying in China. Upon his
conversion, he noticed the spiritual gap lesbians, gays & transsexuals in
the Islamic faith had and decided to become an Imam so as to provide an ideal
Islamic support for them, he says.
"Being an openly gay imam and
having been identified as such, I do get a lot of feedback and also kickback,
but that's OK,” he said. “I think that when people are unfamiliar with things,
they tend to have an emotional knee-jerk reaction to it. Sometimes necessity is
the mother of invention. And because of the necessity in our community, that's
why I came into this particular role."
Abdulah, who says he told his parents he was gay
at age 15, converted to Islam at the age of 33 and went on to study the
religion in Egypt, Jordan and Syria. Asked what was his first spiritual act as
an Imam, Abdulahi says it was the funeral for a gay Muslim who had died of AIDS
"They had contacted a number of imams, and no one would go and provide him his janazah services. This pained me. 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. The beautiful thing about God is that when you change your attitude, and say, 'God, I need some help,' and mean it sincerely, God is always there for you,”
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