Meet America's Only Openly Gay Imam

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How difficult is it to be Muslim and gay? Well for starters, five Muslim-majority countries (out of more than 50) reportedly have a statutory death penalty for homosexuals: Iran, Mauritania, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, and Yemen.

But D.C. resident and openly gay Imam Daayiee Abdullah is defying perceptions and challenging those those who seek to punish gays and lesbians for who they love.

“Nowhere in the Quran does it say punish homosexuals,” Abdullah told SiriusXM’s Dean Obeidallah during an interview Saturday. “And historians have also never found any case of the Prophet Muhammad dealing with homosexuality.”

Born in 1954 in Detroit, Abdullah was raised by Southern Baptists, according to a profile by Aljazeera.

Today, Abdullah resides over the Light of Reform Mosque in Washington, D.C., where he serves as the imam and educational director of the mosque, which he helped form more than two years ago to be a safe space for values and practices that other mosques may eschew, according to the Aljazeera profile.

“When I graduated from high school, I hoped that one day gay Americans would be able to get married. And now here I am 45 years later officiating same sex marriages—how can I not be optimistic that the future is bright?” Abdullah, 61, tells Obeidallah in The Daily Beast.

Abdullah plans to spend Memorial Day weekend in Philadelphia at a retreat for LGBT Muslims and their partners.

The LGBT Muslim retreat Web site says the goal is to be inclusive of all Muslims including those who identify with Islam politically, culturally, religiously, ideologically and/or spiritually.

Read More at The Daily Beast >>

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Photo courtesy of Light of Reform Mosque online.