Gay-Friendly Mosque Will Open In Paris

Paris — The “City of Lights” will become the first European city with a gay-friendly mosque, East Idaho News reports.

Ludovic Mohamed Zahed is planning to open the mosque at the end of the month, and calls it a place of shelter as well as place of worship.

“We need to have a safe space for people who do not feel comfortable and at ease in normal mosques,” Zahed told ABC News.

“There are transgender people who fear aggression, women who do not want to wear head scarf or sit in the back of the mosque. This project gives hope back to many believers in my community.”

Zahed, who is a gay Muslim and expert on the Koran, is ready for the controversy and potential backlash that the mosque will inevitably bring, and will keep the address secret due to security concerns.

Zahed said the “Unity” mosque will start as a Buddhist temple and will emphasize “accepting everyone as equally God’s creation.” He said he hopes “straight men will pray together with gay men and women, everyone.”

The mosque will also honor Islamic traditions such as Friday prayers and the Muslim marriage contract to bless gay marriages. The mosque will also perform funeral rites for those who have been denied a traditional Sharia law-based Islamic funeral because of their sexual orientation.

“It is a safe place to worship,” Zahed said. “Our imams will talk on any taboo topic.”

Two other prayer leaders, a female French convert to Islam and another man who is being trained, will also be available at the mosque.

“Current Islamic ethics may condemn this sexual orientation,” Zahed said, “but in fact nothing in Islam or the Koran forbids homosexuality. Indeed, for centuries, Muslims did not consider homosexuality to be the supreme abomination that they do today.”