Qureshi said he’s anxious that the work he and other Muslims have done to promote good relations may be set back after the Orlando shootings. “But in the same breath we take to mourn our lost queer family, we’re scared for the backlash that’s about to come”.
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When news hit of Orlando’s shooting at a gay nightclub by an American-born Muslim, the head of the DFW chapter of the Council on American Islamic Relations says local Imams and Muslim leaders did not hesitate to speak out against it.
“We are extremely sad and horrified by what happened”, said Dr. Mansoor Qureshi, president of the MI chapter of the Ahmaddiya Muslim Community. “They start looking at you like a different way”, she said.
The Islamic State group claimed responsibility for the shooting.
Twitter user @YxxngHippie continues, “For the former, we are branded as “kaffirs” (non-Muslims), and ‘deviants, ‘ and the latter tells us we are not queer enough”.
Raquel Evita Saraswati, also on the steering committee for MASGD, says many in the Muslim LGBTQ community are dealing with the effects of both anti-Muslim bigotry and homophobia, both inside and outside of the faith community.
Islam is the third largest faith in the U.S., after Christianity and Judaism. “We are not single-issue people, and those burdens are heavy”. “Who would have expected such a thing?” people kept asking. “This act of terror occurred during the holy month of Ramadan, when it is said the ‘devil is in chains.’ As we saw this past weekend though, evil knows no restraint”. They see Christians as their enemies-though even the most aggressively antigay Christians in America, namely the “God hates fags” crowd at the Westboro Baptist Church in Topeka, don’t go around killing anybody.
The Islamic Foundation of Greater St. Louis is condemning the killings at an LGBT club in Orlando and urging the media, politicians and the community not to imply collective guilt to Muslims.
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Smith wants the public to understand they aren’t helpless in the fight against extremists and that law enforcement will not stigmatize someone if they report suspicious behavior they feel could be terrorism related.
