We Have Always Been Here: A Queer Muslim Memoir

by Samra Habib

My subsequent visits to Unity Mosque felt like group therapy sessions punctuated by familiar religious rituals. Each time, my personal relationship with Islam was restored a little bit more, and my experience of always having felt like an outcast within Islam was validated. I’d never felt more Muslim than I did among my fellow outsiders, who came from all over the world and who each practised Islam in their own individual ways. There were people covered in tattoos and piercings, while others were wrapped in traditional burkas or chose to wear the hijab. Some prayed five times a day, while others, like me, prayed only occasionally. Yet we had come together because we were unhappy with how queer Muslims are made to feel in mainstream mosques—as though we were all sinners who were going to hell. Many of us had been made to feel rejected by Allah at times when we needed him most.