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.
Warsame was born in Somalia 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.
Previously married to a woman and with one daughter, Warsame came out as Australia's first gay imam in 2010, and is the only gay imam in the country as of 2018.
Since 2014, he has run the underground LGBT support group Marhaba ('welcome' in Arabic) 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. That year, he spoke at the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras.
See also
References
- ^ Lattouf, Antoinette (28 April 2016). "The secret mosques opening their doors to gay Muslims". ABC News.
- ^ Abboud, Patrick (14 July 2016). "Meet Australia's first openly gay Imam". SBS News.
- ^ Polianskaya, Alina (10 January 2018). "A gay Imam hopes to open one of the first LGBT+ friendly mosques". The Independent.
- 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.
- 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.
- Lattouf, Antoinette (9 January 2018). "Gay Imam hopes to open Australia's first LGBTI-friendly mosque". ABC News.
- Aslan, Alice (1 March 2018). "Muslim activists promote acceptance of queer Muslims". Green Left. No. 1171.