Daayiee Abdullah, the first openly gay Imam in the United States, has created an online school that teaches LGBT-friendly Islamic studies.
The MECCA Institute is available to students around the world, and it’s open to Muslims and non-Muslims alike. Classes include “early Islamic history, comparative Quran, Arabic and gender and sexual variance in Islamic texts.”
As well as acceptance and tolerance, the Institute aims to deconstruct ideas of rigid ideologies promoted by fundamentalist groups such as ISIS.
Classes at MECCA are to include early Islamic history, comparative Quran, Arabic and gender and sexual variance in Islamic texts.
The school was set up with a $60,000 grant, which enabled Abdullah to found it.
“Five years from now I want to see 100 new imams who’ve been trained in an inclusive Muslim ideology,” he said.
Incredible. Cannot wait to see what good this brings to the world.
This makes me so happy
“Originally from Detroit, Abdullah studied Chinese and Arabic Languages at Beijing University, and learned of Chinese Silk Road traders, who were introduced to Islam, but did not have issues with same-sex relationships.
‘The Islam they practiced did not see being gay as an issue since Chinese history includes many leaders with same-gender partners,’ he said.
‘They took me to their mosque, and what I heard made perfect sense, so I kept going back.’”
Out gay Imam creates online school for LGBT-friendly Islamic study
The Carving Witch 