Even in his closing seconds of life, first homosexual imam pushed boundaries

The execution-style killing of an overtly homosexual imam, Muhsin Hendricks, in South Africa has left individuals within the LGBTQ+ neighborhood fearful for his or her security – but additionally decided to forge forward with the marketing campaign to finish their marginalisation in non secular circles.

Reverend Toni Kruger-Ayebazibwe, an overtly homosexual Christian cleric, informed the BBC that Hendricks was a “light spirit” who introduced gentle into any room he occupied.

“The hole Muhsin leaves is huge,” she informed the BBC, including that she knew for a incontrovertible fact that there there have been “a lot of queer Muslims world wide who’re grief stricken”.

The 57-year-old was shot useless in what seemed to be a success on Saturday within the small coastal metropolis of Gqeberha.

Preliminary stories that Cape City-based Hendricks had been in Gqeberha to carry out the marriage ceremony of a homosexual couple have been dismissed as unfaithful by his Al-Gurbaah Basis.

“He was visiting Gqeberha to officiate the marriages of two interfaith heterosexual {couples} when he was tragically shot and killed,” it mentioned in a press release.

It’s unclear why the {couples} had requested Hendricks to supervise their ceremonies, however it means that he was pushing the boundaries, even within the final seconds of his life.

Conventional imams in South Africa not often, if ever, carry out the wedding of a Muslim to a non-Muslim – one thing that Hendricks clearly had no concern with.

He had, based on a religion chief that the BBC spoke to, carried out one such wedding ceremony and was on his solution to conduct the following one when he was gunned down in his car.

Two main our bodies that signify imams – the Muslim Judicial Council (MJC) and the United Ulama Council of South Africa (UUCSA) – condemned Hendricks’ killing.

“As members of a democratic, pluralistic society, the MJC stays steadfast in advocating for peaceable coexistence and mutual respect, even amidst divergent views,” the MJC mentioned, whereas the UUCSA mentioned it condemned “all types of extra-judicial killings”.

Nonetheless, Hendricks – who did his Islamic research in Pakistan – was a pariah of their circles, as they maintain the view that Islam prohibits same-sex relations.

They pointedly referred to him as “Mr Hendricks”, relatively than by non secular titles like imam or sheikh.

In distinction, Hendricks’ supporters hailed him because the world’s first overtly homosexual imam who made it attainable for them to reconcile their sexuality with their Islamic religion.

That he was a trail-blazer isn’t a surprise – South Africa’s structure, adopted in 1996 after the top of white-minority rule, was the primary on this planet to guard individuals from discrimination due to their sexual orientation.

Then in 2006, South Africa grew to become the primary nation in Africa to legalise same-sex marriage.

As soon as in a heterosexual marriage with kids, Hendricks got here out as homosexual in 1996 – and, based on The Dialog, he later broke one other taboo by marrying a Hindu man.

He then spearheaded the formation of The Interior Circle as “an underground social and help group” for queer Muslims.

It began out at his dwelling in Cape City, and has “confirmed to be very profitable in serving to Muslims who’re queer to reconcile Islam with their sexuality”, The Interior Circle’s web site says.

Regardless of South Africa having a thriving LGBTQ+ scene, members of the neighborhood nonetheless face some stigmatisation and violence.

Just a few of the nation’s non secular teams have adopted insurance policies which might be extra beneficial in the direction of the neighborhood, amongst them the Dutch Reformed Church and the Methodist Church of Southern Africa.

The Dutch Reformed Church was in 2019 compelled by the courts to reinstate a coverage it had launched 4 years earlier, however then scrapped, permitting same-sex marriages and for homosexual and lesbian pastors to be in romantic relationships.

The next yr, the Methodist Church mentioned that whereas it was “not but prepared to use for its ministers to officiate at same-sex marriages”, no congregant residing in a member nation that recognised civil unions can be “prevented from coming into into such a union which could be as same-sex or reverse intercourse {couples}”.

Reverend Ecclesia de Lange, the director at Inclusive and Affirming Ministries (IAM), informed the BBC that even in cases the place religion teams had adopted inclusive insurance policies there have been nonetheless “pockets of very sturdy conservatism”.

“The standard interpretations of sacred texts proceed to exclude LGBTQ+ individuals, so the battle for acceptance inside religion communities stays ongoing,” she mentioned.

Senior lecturer in Islamic Research at South Africa’s College of the Western Cape, Dr Fatima Essop, mirrored on the “distressing” vitriolic content material circulating on social media within the wake of Hendricks’ killing.

“I simply discover that utterly surprising and thus far faraway from our… Islamic custom, which is all about compassion and mercy and preservation of human life,” she informed the BBC.

Dr Essop added that whereas she understood a number of the sturdy emotions in opposition to Hendricks’ work, there was “completely no justification, Islamic or in any other case, for this type of violence”.

And whereas the motive is unclear, Hendrick’s killing – and the unfavourable feedback that adopted – was prone to make individuals fearful to “talk about their sexuality or sexual orientation”, Dr Essop mentioned.

Reverend Kruger-Ayebazibwe mentioned that whereas Hendricks’ capturing would make LGBTQ+ leaders rethink their safety, it will not deter them from campaigning for change “as a result of the work issues an excessive amount of”.

Hendricks has already been buried at a non-public ceremony, although his Al-Gurbaah Basis has pledged to organise a memorial within the close to future to “honour his immense contributions”.

For Teboho Klaas, the faith programme officer at The Different Basis, which champions LGBTQ+ rights in southern Africa, his killers might have minimize his life brief “however not his legacy as a result of he has multiplied himself”.