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Rabat- A new mosque has been opened in Paris, for the gay community, where women pray alongside men, and Muslim homosexuals can receive a blessing at their wedding ceremony.
The gay-friendly mosque is ran by Ludovic Mohamed Zahed, a French-Algerian homosexual Muslim who is married to a South-African gay partner.
In 2012, Zahed witnessed what he called a discrimination case against a deceased Muslim Homosexual. A transgender from a Muslim background died in France, and no Imam wanted to pray for her.
As a result, Zahed realized that a mosque for gays was a must for gay Muslims who want to perform their prayers. Thus, he decided to establish an inclusive mosque for gay, lesbian and transgender Muslims.
Through this Gay-Friendly mosque, Zahed aspires to break many Islamic taboos. Unlike normal mosques, where women cannot pray alongside men, this gay-friendly mosque allows men and women to pray together.
Zahed started conducting same-sex Muslim marriages. Recently, he was in Sweden to conduct the wedding ceremony for a lesbian couple, according to Spiegel.de.
Mohamed Zahed was brought from Algeria to France as a child. He memorized the Koran at the age of 12, and eventually joined a Salafist brotherhood.
At the age of 17, Zahed met a man named Jibril. He loved him, and they slept together, according to Le Point.
Few months later, Mohamed Zahed along with his family moved to Marseille. At that time, he felt lost. Therefore, he ceased praying and had his beard shaved off. Instead, he turned to partying and drugs.
When Zahed told his parents that he is gay, his mother cried, but his father was not surprised. He already knew it, but was just waiting for his son to admit it.
At the age of 30, Zahed traveled to Pakistan on a business trip. This trip changed his life. He started reflecting on his life and wondering if he was still that good person he was in Paris.
Eventually, he turned to reading the Koran and started praying again. Zahed claims that there is no Sura in the Koran that condemns homosexuality.
As a result, once he came back to France, he decided to be a gay Muslim activist and to establish an inclusive mosque for the gay community.
