Muhsin Hendricks

Muhsin Hendricks (born June 1967)^[1] is a South African imam and Islamic scholar. He has been involved in various LGBT Muslim advocacy groups and has been an advocate for greater acceptance of LGBT people within Islam. He has been described as the world's first openly gay imam, having come out in 1996.^[2]

Hendricks was brought up in a traditional Muslim home,^[3] and his grandfather was an Islamic cleric.^[1] He studied at the University of Islamic Studies in Pakistan.^[4] He has stated that his "forefathers are a mixture of Indonesian and Indian background. They were brought to Cape Town as political prisoners and slaves by the Dutch colonialists".^[5]

He married a woman in 1991, and had children with her before the two divorced in 1996.^[1] He subsequently lived in a barn for three months, fasting and meditating on his faith.^[1] Hendricks came out later that year, at the age of 29.^[2] At the time, he was serving as an imam, imparting teachings in mosques and at the nearby madrasa,^[4] and he was fired because of his sexual orientation.^[6]

Hendricks is in a relationship with a Hindu man. As of 2017^[update], they had been together for 11 years.^[1]

In 1996, Hendricks founded the Inner Circle, a support network aiding (but not exclusively for^[7]) gay Muslims in coming to terms with their sexual orientation and how this may impact their religious faith.^[4][8] They were founded in response to LGBT Muslims who felt excluded from mainstream mosques during Friday prayers.^[9] Since 1998, Hendricks has provided prayers, counselling and Muslim same-sex marriage ceremonies.^[2] Inner Circle was later known as Al-Fitrah Foundation.^[10]

He states that, in his interpretation (and in opposition to mainstream Islam), there is nothing in the Quran that condemns homosexuality.^[2][11] He interprets the story of Sodom and Gomorrah as condemning rape, rather than homosexuality.^[6] This is in opposition to mainstream Muslim views, which use the story to condemn same-sex behaviour.^[12] The Muslim Judicial Council condemned Hendricks in 2007, later issuing a fatwa against gay people.^[2] This position, which is backed up by most of South Africa's mainstream Muslim organisations, has been criticised for not recognising gender and sexual diversity in pre-colonial Muslim societies. In addition to this, in the African context there has often been pushback to LGBT rights from conservative groups of all faiths, who view homosexuality as un-African.^[13]

In 2011, he founded Masjidul Ghurbaah in South Africa, a mosque belonging to the Al-Ghurbaah Foundation.^[2][14] Of this endeavour, Hendricks said: "There is this love-hate relationship from the Muslim community. Sometimes they feel that I should be thrown from the highest mountain, and sometimes they appreciate that there is one imam who is willing to work with people who they are unwilling to work with".^[8][15] Al-Fitrah Foundation later founded the Masjid Ul-Umam.^[10]

Hendricks appeared in the 2007 documentary film, A Jihad for Love.^[6] In 2022, Hendricks was the subject of The Radical, a German documentary film.^[16]

• Ludovic-Mohamed Zahed
• Nur Warsame