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Double jeopardy? Gay Muslims in America

By Clarence Page, Tribune Content Agency on

One day in the late 1950s on a golf course with actor-comedian Jack Benny, song-and-dance man Sammy Davis Jr. was asked what was his handicap. "Talk about handicap," said Davis, according to various sources. "I'm a one-eyed Negro Jew."

Right. Beat that for a handicap.

Davis was an African-American convert to Judaism who lost an eye in an auto accident. But Davis' refusal to let any obstacle block his way to stardom became an inspiration for the world.

Times change. Davis' story came back to mind after the Sunday early-morning massacre at a gay nightclub in Orlando, Florida. Suddenly Muslim Imam (minister) Daayiee Abdullah became one of the most sought-after clergy in America.

Abdullah, 62, is this country's first openly gay imam. Born Sidney Thompson to a black Baptist family in Detroit, the former public interest lawyer directs the Mecca Institute, an online learning and research center in Washington, D.C., for those seeking "more expansive and inclusive interpretations" of Islamic texts.

How many gay imams are there in the world? "I've met 12," he said. "Eight of them are out." Meaning, eight are openly gay in a religion known more often to be openly hostile to same-sex marriage and to homosexual conduct.

 

That's more than I thought, yet so few that Abdullah understandably joked with his South African counterpart, Imam Muhsin Hendricks, that, "You take care of the eastern hemisphere, I'll handle the west."

Recent surveys by Pew Research and Public Religion Research Institute, find American Muslims to be more opposed to homosexual conduct than almost all other religious groups, except evangelical Christians, Mormons and Jehovah's Witnesses.

Yet, because the Koran does not explicitly condemn homosexuality, progressive scholars like Abdullah point to various passages to argue that the Koran acknowledges and accepts same-sex relationships.

Such issues took on new and tragic relevance for the rest of us after gunman Omar Mateen, an Afghan-American born in New York City, killed 49 and wounded more than 50 others at the nightclub and claimed to be doing it on behalf of the Islamic State.

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(c) 2016 CLARENCE PAGE DISTRIBUTED BY TRIBUNE MEDIA SERVICES, INC.

 

 

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