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French Muslim plans 'mosque for gays'
Stay safe. You'll be in our prayers -- for those of us who pray -- and in our thoughts -- for those of us who don't.
Mohammed Ludovic Lutfi Zahed returned to France from the Hajj with a strange idea. After going on his pilgrimage, Zahed felt enlightened and decided he wanted to give something to his gay Muslim community in Paris: Opening a "mosque for gays."

He said, "In normal mosques, women have to sit in the back seats and wear a headscarf and gay men are afraid of both verbal and physical aggression. After performing the Hajj, I realized that a mosque for gays was a must for gay Muslims who want to perform their prayers."

During Hajj, women and men are not segregated. Both sexes crowd together during all the rituals of Hajj. When they are doing tawaaf (circling around Kaaba), men and women are all together.

Zahed, founder of association of Gay Muslims in France (HM2F), said he will use a Buddhist chapel where Friday prayers and gay marriages would be performed. He explained, "We will start with Friday prayers, but we will perform marriages afterwards."

Zahed is convinced that the mosque will help to fight against homophobia in Islam and Islamophobia within the gay community in France.
Posted by: ryuge 2012-11-24
http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=356744