Nur Warsame

Nur Warsame is a gay imam from Australia. He is a hafiz, i.e. one who has memorised the Quran; he is the second Victorian imam to earn this title.[1]

Warsame was born in Somalia[2] and lived in Egypt and Canada as a child. He moved to Melbourne in Australia as a high school student, and has been an imam since 2003.[1]

Previously married to a woman and with one daughter,[2] Warsame came out as Australia's first gay imam in 2010,[3] and is the only gay imam in the country as of 2018.[4]

Since 2014, he has run the underground LGBT support group Marhaba ('welcome' in Arabic)[1][5] and says he was ostracised by the Muslim community because of his sexual orientation, and intended to open Australia's first mosque which was open to the LGBT community.[3][6] That year, he spoke at the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras.[7]

See also

References

  1. ^ a b c Lattouf, Antoinette (28 April 2016). "The secret mosques opening their doors to gay Muslims". ABC News.
  2. ^ a b Abboud, Patrick (14 July 2016). "Meet Australia's first openly gay Imam". SBS News.
  3. ^ a b Polianskaya, Alina (10 January 2018). "A gay Imam hopes to open one of the first LGBT+ friendly mosques". The Independent.
  4. ^ Glazzard, Jonathan; Bancroft, Kate (22 October 2018). Meeting the Mental Health Needs of Learners 11-18 Years. Critical Publishing. p. 95. ISBN 978-1-912508-15-0.
  5. ^ Mohummadally, Alyena (24 September 2018). "Queer Muslims in Australia Yahoo! Group: A first in Australia". In Pallotta-Chiarolli, Maria (ed.). Living and Loving in Diversity: An anthology of Australian multicultural queer adventures. Wakefield Press. p. 319. ISBN 978-1-74305-595-3.
  6. ^ Lattouf, Antoinette (9 January 2018). "Gay Imam hopes to open Australia's first LGBTI-friendly mosque". ABC News.
  7. ^ Aslan, Alice (1 March 2018). "Muslim activists promote acceptance of queer Muslims". Green Left. No. 1171.