When Sahar AliDeen travels to Cape Town in October, he hopes to track down Muhsin Hendricks for an interview. The South African imam is the first openly gay Islamic leader.
AliDeen thought Hendricks would make a great first guest on the podcast he’s starting for OUTMuslim, a social-media community he created in 2013. He plans to release episodes, including interviews with Philadelphia-based LGBT Muslims in January or February.
“I wanted to create something I didn’t have when I was younger,” said AliDeen, 26, who grew up in New York City and moved to Philadelphia for graduate school. “I’m trying to create visibility and role models. There are some out queer Muslims who are actors and doctors and all kinds of things.”
When AliDeen was 12, he came out to his parents. He said he tried to use the Internet as a resource to connect with other LGBT Muslims, but he couldn’t find anything.
Since launching OUTMuslim on Facebook and Twitter, AliDeen has facilitated discussions around news articles. But he wanted to take the interactions to the real world. He incorporated OUTMuslim this month so he could apply for 501c3 status and start raising money for events. Through a private Facebook group, he has promoted gatherings for Ramadan and Eid this year.
For those who would like to get involved in the community, they should email [email protected].
AliDeen, who goes by that name as an alias to protect his family from threats, uses a private Facebook group to offer discretion to Muslims who may not be out broadly. AliDeen said he hopes to eventually attach his real name to his advocacy efforts. He wants his parents to agree to the idea first.
AliDeen said his mother became especially tuned into his activism this summer after a man pledged allegiance to the Islamic State while carrying out a mass shooting at Pulse, an LGBT nightclub in Orlando.
“It sucks that Orlando had to happen to get people to pay attention,” he said. But he noted it led many Muslims to start conversations about LGBT people in their communities.
“If they can’t deal with these things, mental illness can manifest,” AliDeen said.
He said he wrestled with his faith when he was younger, but he came to the conclusion that he couldn’t be an atheist because he doesn’t know enough about the universe.
AliDeen found the Sufi practice of Islam suits him best.
“It’s a mystical understanding of Islam,” he said. “It’s not about God watching every move you make and waiting to smite you. It’s an interpretation that God is a life force and we are all connected. It’s the idea of universal souls and the idea of being responsible and nurturing to every form of life.”