BY JUDY MOLLAND
Care2
Imam Daayiee Abdullah is in charge of Washington D.C.’s Light of Reform mosque, described on their website as: “A fully inclusive community that meets locally every Friday afternoon to pray, learn and support each other.” An African American convert to Islam, the Imam is a gay Muslim who has been fighting against discrimination and hatred towards gays and Muslims alike. Through a group called the Al-Fatiha Foundation, he has helped to raise awareness of the oppression of homosexuals in Islam, and he has also for many years been an example that one can be both gay and Muslim.
How did this Imam come to his progressive ideas? He grew up in Michigan, finished high school early, and attended Georgetown University, intending to become a lawyer. After he was kicked out of a Saudi-financed seminary in Virginia when they discovered he was gay, he moved to Washington, D.C. in 1979, for the National March on Washington for Lesbian and Gay Rights as one of the coordinators. He hasn’t looked back since.
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