#queer ummah

[africanmuslimunicorn]

We exist. We are many. Unapologetic. Unafraid.

[queerummah]

From Northampton, Massachusetts, USA:

“Reasons why my life is worth living right now (in no order of importance):

- Learning more about and honoring the lives and mission of Ahlul Bayt

- beginning to harness and appreciate my voice in a musical context

- unraveling anxiety and trauma, pushing myself through necessary and thrilling healing

- connected more deeply with other people of the book, especially those of color, who share a radical vision of life and the future God will empower us to make - meeting my ancestors for the first time My Islam _is_ my Blackness, and my queerness. Submission to ﷲ has meant ceasing to struggle against the nature They gave me, has meant stopping the hatred of the body They gave me, has meant living in the present of Their reality and striving to hear Them when they speak desires to me, through whatever source. There’s the ritual of submission,  following the Prophet ﷺ and his family, loving and honor them and the traditions they brought to us as Muslims, but submitting to God runs deeper, I feel, than the ritual. I could not have learned to love my Blackness without first submitting to God, without being Muslim. I don’t know if I would have had the courage to pursue transition without meditation on my self guided with of Qur’an; Being Muslim is... natural. Just like sinning is natural and breathing is natural. This may not be true for everyone, but my Islam, the peace and submission come through centering myself *in* myself in ways that I couldn’t do when trying to operate in any other spiritual context.”

[queerummah]

From Michigan, USA:

“When I was 17, I knew I was queer. I had been sure for about 3 years. In the same tender year, my AP Literature teacher read my class a Rumi or Hafiz poem every Friday.  I became very attached to Rumi in particular and went to a bookstore some weeks later to steal a small book of Rumi poems. I kept that little book close to me at all times, meditating on his words and filling the book with pink sticky notes. One year later, I abandoned Christianity and decided that I there was no way for me to be religious and gay. Those years of hard secularism were the most confusing and as much as I tried to remain steadfast in godlessness, I turned to Rumi for comfort and guidance. I bought more Rumi books and came across a passage about living a life for Allah. And for the first time, I thought if I wanted to understand Rumi, I should learn about Islam. From there, I fell in love and was filled with love. I am privileged enough to have a powerful queer Black Muslim in my life to show me that queerness and Islam can live harmoniously in the same heart. After years of anger expressed through secularism, I am now at peace in Islam. I’m still new, and I sometimes hesitate to call myself Muslim because there is still so much I have to learn. Additionally, I’m afraid of being called illegitimate because of my newness and queerness. 

One day, inshAllah, I will live out my given name: Faith.”

[queerummah]

From Queens, New York, USA:

“I was raised a homophobe in my mother's Muslim household. I remember absorbing a lot of hate speech, automatically separating myself from the victims of her prayers. She would always hope that they could all go to their own island and leave the rainbow alone... Darker tones than that though. I left her household in 2014 and moved back to Queens.

It wasn't until college that I removed the default label of heterosexuality and called myself a 'philosexual'. I loved anyone who would love me, that I could feel from afar and reciprocate warmly. They happened to be 75% girls. And I was still a virgin, so sex wasn't even part of it until much later. I only was in love with one boy, but my soulmates were my sisters. One Muslima who felt the way I did, one trans boy who taught me to feel ways I never did, and one younger lesbian who just wanted to love every aspect of me.  

I realized they were me. They all showed respect and empathy that you don't always get from outsiders. The level of understanding was different.

I have married a man (the boy I was in love with) who now understands that one reason he's so lucky to be my husband alone, is that I can only love another woman after being hurt, manipulated and disappointed by so many men. He still isn't on board with the whole movement to bridge homosexuality and Islam. It is a touchy subject in the house still, but we're both growing.

I didn't want to be forced to marry just anyone, to ‘save me from the hellfire’. I see the depression in sisters who come out too early, still under their parents' control. I feel blessed to have explored on my own, and coming out to peers in my own time. A lot of people remember me being really adamant about not being touched, especially by a woman. A lot of that emotion was fear of the pain of rejection. I was an honor roll student and I barely got recognized as such at home because that is what was expected of me. My name means ‘female leader’ so every time I fucked up, it would definitely be my doing that my sisters would follow in my footsteps. How could I make my younger siblings gay by letting a girl feel me up in the locker room?

To be honest, I still don't stand by the crude methods of young lesbians influenced by the dumbass boys we went to high school with... Them boys ain't get no cheeks and we all hated them. What kind of example?

But when I got older and met more mature members of the LGBTQ+ community, I felt like my more complex emotions were simplified... I learned that I wasn't set to one fate because my hijab dictates my piety. In actuality, my hijab has gotten me alone with more pretty girls than my mom would think... so yikes.

She still feels a way about the community, but she notices the change in my demeanor... that I'm a lot sweeter, more patient, and loving than before. I was not taught this love at home. I learned it through loving women, softly. By being cautious with a sensitive man's heart, caringly.

Knowing Allah helps me see things differently. I've been depressed with regular existence things for the latter half of my life... dissociating often and not giving my heart the proper attention, because I live above my own head. But I know Allah loves love. He built the whole universe on love. And if there would be a punishment for love, it would be for withholding love from another and replacing it with hatred and enmity. How do you justify greeting a beloved part of Allah's creation with disgust when all they exude is love? My mom says ‘love what Allah loves and hate what he hates,’ but Allahu ar-Rahman, so who has the right??? I have the right to love in all directions and still pray in one. I am capable and always open to sweet love. Surface love or deep love. The ummah should teach peace and understanding, because the hatred and abandonment of pure emotions will distract anyone going through them from faith. We love one another, but we only really need God's love. The type of tough love homophobic parents show their LGBTQ+ children makes them feel exiled. InshaAllah we will be more receptive than our parents, and let not stigmatized views of personal values be in the forefront of our faith. We don't take sex to the masjid or the prayer rug anyway.

Let there be true peace. InshaAllah.”

[africanmuslimunicorn]

This pic was sent to me by the wonderful @animemonzta (IG) for the "LGBTQ+ Muslims Pride Event" I hosted on my IG, this is her and her friend @ferenadebineva at the Feminist Fest Jakarta 2017 on August. . These are her words" It's hard to be queer, feminist, and muslim at the same time in the country where Islamic fundamentalism is growing but we never stop glowing!" . Hats off to these Queens 👑❣️

[africanmuslimunicorn]

Turn on the 🔊 . The unashamedly intersectional podcast telling the incredible story of Mariam, a sex worker who juggles being Muslim, queer and non-binary. . Link: https://itunes.apple.com/fr/podcast/queer-podcasts/id1227703932?mt=2&i=1000385032411

[africanmuslimunicorn]

💅

[africanmuslimunicorn]

What he meant by reading the "Qu'ran" is reading Islamophobic Instagram Memes. I have decided that I will keep the receipts about what White people are and will be sending me on the Muslim LGBTQ+ Pride Day. Thank you white people again for whitesplaining LGBTQ+ Muslims their identity.