Muhsin Hendricks

South African gay imam

Imam

Muhsin Hendricks

Born|

Muhsin Hendricks

June 1967 (age 57)

Cape Town, South Africa

Occupation| Imam
Ecclesiastical career
Religion| Islam

Muhsin Hendricks (born June 1967)[1] 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.[2]

## Early and personal life

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Hendricks was brought up in a traditional Muslim home,[3] and his grandfather was an Islamic cleric.[1] He studied at the University of Islamic Studies in Pakistan.[4] He has stated that his "forefathers are a mixture of Indonesian and Indian background. They were brought to Cape Town as political prisoners and slaves by the Dutch colonialists".[5]

He married a woman in 1991, and had children with her before the two divorced in 1996.[1] He subsequently lived in a barn for three months, fasting and meditating on his faith.[1] Hendricks came out later that year, at the age of 29.[2] At the time, he was serving as an imam, imparting teachings in mosques and at the nearby madrasa,[4] and he was fired because of his sexual orientation.[6]

Hendricks is in a relationship with a Hindu man. As of 2017[update], they had been together for 11 years.[1]

## Activism

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In 1996, Hendricks founded the Inner Circle, a support network aiding (but not exclusively for[7]) gay Muslims in coming to terms with their sexual orientation and how this may impact their religious faith.[4][8] They were founded in response to LGBT Muslims who felt excluded from mainstream mosques during Friday prayers.[9] Since 1998, Hendricks has provided prayers, counselling and Muslim same-sex marriage ceremonies.[2] Inner Circle was later known as Al-Fitrah Foundation.[10]

He states that, in his interpretation (and in opposition to mainstream Islam), there is nothing in the Quran that condemns homosexuality.[2][11] He interprets the story of Sodom and Gomorrah as condemning rape, rather than homosexuality.[6] This is in opposition to mainstream Muslim views, which use the story to condemn same-sex behaviour.[12] The Muslim Judicial Council condemned Hendricks in 2007, later issuing a fatwa against gay people.[2] This position, which is backed up by most of South Africa's mainstream Muslim organisations, has been criticised for not recognising gender and sexual diversity in pre-colonial Muslim societies. In addition to this, in the African context there has often been pushback to LGBT rights from conservative groups of all faiths, who view homosexuality as un-African.[13]

In 2011, he founded Masjidul Ghurbaah in South Africa, a mosque belonging to the Al-Ghurbaah Foundation.[2][14] Of this endeavour, Hendricks said: "There is this love-hate relationship from the Muslim community. Sometimes they feel that I should be thrown from the highest mountain, and sometimes they appreciate that there is one imam who is willing to work with people who they are unwilling to work with".[8][15] Al-Fitrah Foundation later founded the Masjid Ul-Umam.[10]

Hendricks appeared in the 2007 documentary film, A Jihad for Love.[6] In 2022, Hendricks was the subject of The Radical, a German documentary film.[16]

## See also

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* Ludovic-Mohamed Zahed
* Nur Warsame

## References

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1. ^ a b c d e Sengar, Shweta (29 May 2017). "A Gay Imam With Hindu Partner Runs An LGBT-Friendly Mosque In South Africa. This Is His Story". IndiaTimes. Archived from the original on 25 January 2024. Retrieved 17 December 2023.
2. ^ a b c d e f Fullerton, Jamie (19 October 2022). "'I'm hoping there will be more queer imams'". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 25 January 2024. Retrieved 25 January 2024.
3. ^ Boh, Elvis (31 October 2016). "South Africa's openly gay Imam comfortable with role". Africanews. AFP. Archived from the original on 25 January 2024. Retrieved 25 January 2024.
4. ^ a b c Eveleigh, Robin (18 January 2023). "Meet the gay imam changing attitudes from within". Positive News. Archived from the original on 25 January 2024. Retrieved 25 January 2024.
5. ^ "Q&A: Imam Muhsin Hendricks". Islamia Queeristi (in Finnish). 21 August 2020. Archived from the original on 25 January 2024. Retrieved 25 January 2024.
6. ^ a b c Spence, Rebecca (11 September 2008). "Trembling Before Allah". The Forward. Archived from the original on 25 January 2024. Retrieved 17 December 2023.
7. ^ Sanderson, Sertan (31 October 2016). "Gay imam starts quiet revolution in Islam". DW. AFP. Archived from the original on 25 January 2024. Retrieved 25 January 2024.
8. ^ a b "A gay mosque in Cape Town sounds the call to prayer for everyone". Quartz. 2 November 2016. Archived from the original on 25 January 2024. Retrieved 25 January 2024.
9. ^ Hendricks, Imam Muhsin; Krondorfer, Björn (2011). "Diversity of sexuality in Islam: Interview with Imam Muhsin Hendricks". CrossCurrents. 61 (4): 496–501. ISSN 0011-1953. JSTOR 24461906.
10. ^ a b Lazareva, Inna (5 February 2019). "'Space to coexist': Inside South Africa's LGBT-friendly mosque". Reuters. Archived from the original on 25 January 2024. Retrieved 25 January 2024.
11. ^ Hendricks, Muhsin (2010). "Islamic texts: A source for acceptance of queer individuals into mainstream Muslim society" (PDF). The Equal Rights Review. 5 (1). Equal Rights Trust: 31–51.
12. ^ Bonthuys, Elsje; Erlank, Natasha (2012). "Modes of (in)tolerance: South African Muslims and same-sex relationships". Culture, Health & Sexuality. 14 (3): 269–282. doi:10.1080/13691058.2011.621450. ISSN 1464-5351. PMID 22081952. S2CID 26656828.
13. ^ Osman, Mujahid (September 2023). "Queering Jihad in South Africa: Islam, Queerness, and Liberative Praxis". Religions. 14 (9): 1081. doi:10.3390/rel14091081. ISSN 2077-1444.
14. ^ Harrisberg, Kim (18 December 2020). "Keep on talking: gay imam engages Africans in pandemic". Openly News. Thomson Reuters Foundation. Archived from the original on 25 January 2024. Retrieved 25 January 2024.
15. ^ "Cape Town's gay mosque provides rare haven". News24. 31 October 2016. Archived from the original on 25 January 2024. Retrieved 25 January 2024.
16. ^ "The Radical". Human Rights Film Festival Berlin. 2022. Archived from the original on 25 January 2024. Retrieved 17 December 2023.