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Queer Muslims welcome activist |
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Thursday, 08 February 2007 |
by ALLISON CASEY
Lifestyles Reporter
They’re here, they’re queer and they’re … Muslim.
The Office of Multicultural Student Development presents “Hidden Voices: The Lives of Queer Muslims” Tuesday at 7 p.m. in I.G. Greer Auditorium.
Queer Muslim activist and Pakistani-American Faisal Alam will speak on the challenges facing queer Muslims.
Gus E. Pena, assistant director of multicultural education, worked to bring Alam to Appalachian.
“We try to reach a wide audience and reach as many different
perspectives as we can,” he said. “We felt like geographic diversity
was missing from last semester, and it’s something we wanted to do.”
Alam will present a multimedia, interactive story of what it was like to grow up both Muslim and gay.
“It’s a really different fusing of two different dynamics,” Pena said.
Alam will discuss human rights and Islamic Shariah law as well as his personal story.
“He’s very comfortable talking about his personal story, his background
of growing up in a Pakistani community with the added dimension of
being gay,” Pena said.
Alam is the founder and former director of Al-Fatiha.
Al-Fatiha is an organization dedicated to support, empowerment and
advocacy for Lesbian, Bisexual, Gay, Transgender (LBGT) Muslims.
He is also the youngest member of the National Religious Leadership Roundtable, a religious LBGT networking organization.
Pena said he has heard lots of good responses to the program and hopes attendance will reflect that.
“It’s a catchy flyer,” Pena said. “I’ve heard lots of ‘oohs’ and ‘ahhs’
when students see it. I really hope people come out and learn something
you just haven’t heard.”
This is the first time the office of Multicultural Student Development
has presented a program combining lesbian, gay, bisexual and
transgender issues with the added Muslim element, Tracey L. Wright,
assistant vice chancellor for Student Development, said.
Diversity programming is extremely important because it helps break
down fears that people who have never been exposed to differences or
information may have, Wright said.
“Anything we can do to help folks understand commonalities and enrich differences is important,” she said.
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