30/04/2015 | Writer: Ömer Akpınar
Sehitlik Mosque in Berlin welcomed gay people on Tuesday after cancelling a similar event in November due to pressure from Turkish media.
Sehitlik Mosque in Berlin welcomed gay people on Tuesday after cancelling a similar event in November due to pressure from Turkish media. Gay activist Daniel Phillipp Worat talked to kaosGL.org and said: “We showed that it is possible to talk about Islam and homosexuality in a mosque.”
Sehitlik Mosque in Berlin was going to open its doors to gays for a visit and a panel on “Islam and Homophobia” in November. However, the event was cancelled due to homophobic media pressure from Turkey and instead took place in a church. 5 months after the cancellation, the mosque welcomed gays who want to discuss different forms of discrimination.
“Mosque chairman was afraid of losing his position”
Gay activist Daniel Phillipp Worat, who gave a speech at the event, told kaosGL.org the meeting’s details:
“As you know, our first contact in November 2014 was not in a good way. The pressure from Turkey, especially from Ankara, was too much for Ender Cetin. He was afraid of losing his position at the DITIB (Turkish-Islamic Union for Religious Affairs) as the chairman of the mosque in Berlin. Now we know that the DITIB is financed by the Turkish Government.”
According to Cetin, being gay is a choice!
Worat underlined that Ender Cetin is not an imam but a theologian and that he considers being gay as a choice:
“What’s new for me was that the famous Sehitlik Mosque is not a liberal Islam community. They believe that the life of gays is ‘haram’. Ender Cetin tried to explain that is the same like drinking alcohol. He also talked about the history of the Qur’an. That every human is an art piece from god. That God loves every human because he created that. But on the other side, that everyone has to choose which way they want to go in life.”
Photo: Reto Klar
There are gay and trans people in Muslim community
Worat interprets Cetin’s words as follows:
“It sounds like: You can decide on your sexuality and it’s your own mistake to be gay/lesbian/bi/trans or intersex. But it was interesting to hear that there is a trans Muslim in their community. The person visits the mosque regularly for the women roundtable there.
“We are open for any requests from mosques”
Worat expressed their eagerness to collaborate with other mosques and stated that there are Muslim gays, too:
“After the discussion we went down for dinner. The mosque cooked meat, rice and salad for us. That was nice. All of us were sitting on a big table and continued the dialogue.”
“We learned that we have to go small steps. Now we hope that other mosques will do the same in the future to show, that we are welcome in a special way. I’m open for any requests. We showed that it is possible to talk about Islam and homosexuality in a mosque.”
Tags: life
