Pride season is upon us, and this year we’re ringing it in by spotlighting the folks who make us proud to show up to work each day — the artists, activists, performers and personalities who make our community shine.
Shawn Ahmed is a Bangladeshi-Canadian blogger and activist who founded the Uncultured Project, which focuses on using social media for social good. His work has been honored by The World Economic Forum, Save the Children, and The Webby Awards. Over the years, he has also been an outspoken voice for LGBTQ Muslims around the world. He lives in Toronto.
As an openly gay Muslim, what does Pride mean to you?
Growing up in the closet within a conservative Bangladeshi-Muslim immigrant family, I wasn’t ever allowed to attend Pride. The closest I ever got was seeing glimpses of the Pride parade on TV before my parents would catch me and insist I change the channel. Even those fleeting glimpses meant the world to me. One of the things that resonated with me personally was seeing that many of our government officials and even law enforcement were among those walking in the Pride parade.
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My family emigrated from a country where homosexuality is a criminal act. My family follows a faith where many believe the punishment for being gay is death. Growing up, and seeing images of leaders and law enforcement walking side by side amongst the people my family and religious community believe deserve to go to Hell meant these people were my allies even when those closest to me weren’t.
Describe your first Pride.
My first major Pride event was actually last year. For the first time in my life, I was able to finally attend Toronto Pride instead of watching it from afar. Pride actually fell on the Holy Month of Ramadan so I was actually fasting during both Pride and the Pride parade. The difficulty fasting meant I had to give up the chance to march in the Pride parade with some friends.
During last year’s Pride season, Omar Mateen went on a shooting rampage at a gay club in Orlando. Afterwards, you wrote a very moving column piece about it that that was widely shared online. As we approach the one year anniversary, what are your thoughts on that tragedy and its aftermath?
Orlando was over a thousand miles away. I never realized one tweet would bring this tragedy so close to home for me. Condemning the attack as an openly gay Muslim brought me a lot of hatred and a lot of death threats from fellow Muslims. The larger Muslim community has not done enough to condemn homophobia within its community. Many either condone it or fuel its flames. There are also those who see homosexuality as “Western” society thing (and the advancement of LGBTQ rights in Muslim countries as Western encroachment). It is no surprise then, whether in Bangladesh, Orlando, Manchester, and now London, Islamists often target LGBTQ people.
Everyday I’m grateful to be living in a country where police are committed to protecting people like me. It is a privilege that most LGBTQ Muslims do not–but should–have.
What are some of the most common misconceptions people in the LGBTQ community about LGBTQ Muslims? How do you respond to those misconceptions?
LGBTQ Muslims face the same misconceptions that cisgender heterosexual Muslims face–bigotry, racism, sexism, and Islamophobia. And Trump voters. The LGBTQ community isn’t as inclusive and affirming as we think it is. Many within our community mistakenly assume that, because they are a minority themselves, they have can’t possibly be prejudiced against other minorities. Responding to these misconceptions is difficult for most LGBTQ Muslims. We have the double burden of overcoming the misconceptions within the LGBTQ community while also trying to do the same within the Muslim community.
What are you doing for Pride this year?
What I doing this Pride is the same thing I do all year round: be Muslim and be gay. As a Muslim, as I interpret my faith, I believe we need to make the world a better place through peace. Part of that means we need to better understand each other.
We need to understand that, within the LGBTQ community, not everyone is OK right now. Attacks on LGBTQ people are real. Islamophobia is real. Anti-black racism is real. Systemic racism is real. Pride is not just a celebration but also a political movement towards greater justice.
This year, Pride Toronto’s parade will likely be on the same day as the Muslim holy day of Eid alFitr. It is the day Muslims around the world will be celebrating the end of the month long fast of Ramadan. As a gay Muslim, I can’t help but see that as a bit auspicious. I’ll be celebrating both as a Muslim and a gay man.
KaiserVonScheiss
“Muslims cannot claim that Islam is the Religion of Peace if it is the Religion of Homophobia.”
Well, hard to disagree with that.
heath0043
As can be said about Christianity. As has been proved over and over.
KaiserVonScheiss
@Heath0043 Christian countries don’t execute homosexuals. Islam seeks to dominate wherever it gets a foothold. It’s not just a religion, but a way of life which demands total control over the social, political, and economic aspects of a society.
Xzamilloh
Was that really necessary, Heath? Christianity is not the litmus test for Islam and doesn’t need to be mentioned as though it is the opposite of Islam. The fact of the matter is, both religions are homophobic, but only one group predominantly practices the act of executing gays as part of their laws.
ErikO
The majority of Muslims worldwide and living in the Western world are homophobic and biphobic and want all of us bisexual and gay men dead, in prison, want Sharia law, and honour killings also happen in the Western world as well.
Hussain-TheCanadian
Calm down queen; you’re going over the top with your paranoia………here (Hussain passes a joint to Eriko)
IDoNotHaveToAgreeWithYou
No he isn’t. It’s no coincidence that sand animal attacked a gay bar or that another one tried to burn down a gay bar full of people before that.
1EqualityUSA
“Sand animal” is meant to dehumanize another, spiritually dark mind at work. Not true colors, no color.
Stilinski26
Considering he gets death threats from his own “community” on a daily basis I am sure Trump and his supporters are not your main problem right now mate.
IDoNotHaveToAgreeWithYou
Same with black gays that ate always complaining about white gays.
Prax07
Funny that a gay man can be proud of following a religion that wants him and every other gay person dead. And people should be islamaphobic, it’s a vile religion, and most that blindly follow it are equally? vile people.
I hate Trump as much as the next guy, but I agree Muslims should be banned.
mhoffman953
I concur. How could anyone be Muslim considering Mohammad was a pedophile?
osman
@mhoffman953 your mothers a pedophile !
mhoffman953
@osman That’s the best response you have? So instead of addressing my point, you make mom jokes?
Guess what…allah isn’t great
Nixter
Islam, the religion of pieces !
Xzamilloh
I think there need to be more Muslims like Ahmed not sugarcoating the issues of homophobia within Islam… frankly, the apologists on here and in general do a great disservice to LGBT Muslims by constantly obfuscating the violence in Islamic countries done to LGBT people and are disgusting. Imam Tawhidi, Maajid Nawaz, Ayaan Hirsi Ali… these are people the left should be championing instead of demonizing as “Islamophobic.”
Heywood Jablowme
Add the author of “The Atheist Muslim,” Ali A. Rizvi – great book that came out a few months ago. Rizvi goes into detail about how Western apologists throw around the term “Islamophobic” in illogical and bizarre ways.
Also, the out lesbian Irshad Manji, author of “The Trouble With Islam Today.”
Xzamilloh
Thank you for reminding me of Ali A. Rizvi… I love reading his tweets and his response to that piece of crap apologist CJ Werleman who I can only describe as a terrorist sympathizer.
osman
Most of the people on here are scared ! because they know that Islam will keep growing and people like me will keep pushing it on you bitches !!
1EqualityUSA
Until assimilation takes place, then your white-nationalist-reverse-psychology maneuver will fail, as you did in your second semester at college.
Nixter
Bullshit. Islam sucks, and you won’t win, barbarian. What an ugly cult of death.
1EqualityUSA
You’re countering a white nationalist who is trying to stir up hatred by pretending to be an angry, unreasonable sort whose stereotyped hype is too overdone and clichéd. It isn’t working, except on you, unless you’re the same troll working both pathetic angles.
Heywood Jablowme
It’s a good sign of assimilation when an American-born Muslim is named Shawn!
When American Muslims give their boys old-time, r@ghead, camel-j0ckey names like Omar and Syed, it severely limits their job prospects, and they end up with way too much time on their hands to watch ISIS videos.
1EqualityUSA
Or they go to UCSF, UCD, UCSD, UCSB and attain their masters and do research and have a family and buy a house and watch cable T.V. and go to the gym just like every other citizen of the U.S.A. My parents chose a Greek, middle name for my brother. We teased him as children, but it was cool. Leave it, Heywood.
Heywood Jablowme
Really, a Greek MIDDLE name? Yeah, that’s exactly equivalent. (eye roll)
1EqualityUSA
The unibrow gave us all away, irrespective of our name. Frida Khalo would nod.
1EqualityUSA
kahlo, sorry. dyslexic.
awombat
Hey Queerty Editors,
Thanks for featuring a gay person of color and a gay person of faith. That said, I just signed up for the first time to comment because of the amount of racist language in this comments section. Please work on removing hate speech from your site; it normalizes racism and xenophobia within our community, work that certainly doesn’t need doing.
kylerh
I just discovered this wonderful article and realize there needs to be more about dealing with gay Muslims. I’m struggling with my gay lover and there seems to be no useful advice anywhere on how to deal with it. The gay Arab community is large and strong, but crossing the divide to us non-Muslims is hard.