Muhsin Hendricks, world’s ‘first overtly homosexual imam’, shot lifeless in South Africa | South Africa

Muhsin Hendricks, thought of the world’s “first overtly homosexual imam”, has been shot lifeless close to the southern metropolis of Gqeberha, South African police have stated.

The imam, who ran a mosque supposed as a protected haven for homosexual and different marginalised Muslims, was in a automobile with one other particular person on Saturday when a automobile stopped in entrance of them and blocked their exit, police stated.

“Two unknown suspects with coated faces acquired out of the automobile and began firing a number of pictures on the automobile,” the Japanese Cape drive stated in a press release.

“Thereafter they fled the scene, and the driving force seen that Hendricks, who was seated behind the automobile was shot and killed.”

A police spokesperson confirmed to AFP the authenticity of a video on social media that purported to point out a focused killing in Bethelsdorp close to Gqeberha, previously often called Port Elizabeth.

“The motive for the homicide is unknown and kinds a part of the continued investigation,” police stated, urging anyone with data to return ahead.

The Worldwide Lesbian, Homosexual, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Affiliation denounced the killing.

“The ILGA World household is in deep shock on the information of the homicide of Muhsin Hendricks, and calls on authorities to completely examine what we concern could also be a hate crime,” the manager director, Julia Ehrt, stated in a press release.

Hendricks, concerned in varied LGBTQ+ advocacy teams, got here out as homosexual in 1996. Two years later he began internet hosting conferences in his dwelling metropolis for LGBTQ+ Muslims, who handled him like their neighborhood imam. “I opened my storage, put a carpet down and invited individuals to have tea and discuss,” he informed the Guardian in 2022.

In 2011 Hendricks bolstered his position as an imam determine by establishing a mosque area after a pal endured a neighborhood sermon condemning homosexuality. “I stated, ‘Possibly it’s time we began our personal area, so individuals can pray with out being judged’.”

He ran the Al-Ghurbaah mosque at Wynberg close to his birthplace, Cape City. The mosque supplies “a protected area through which queer Muslims and marginalised girls can practise Islam”, its web site states.

Hendricks, the topic of a 2022 documentary referred to as The Radical, had beforehand alluded to threats towards him.

He informed the Guardian he had been suggested to rent bodyguards however stated he by no means feared assaults and insisted that “the have to be genuine” was “larger than the concern to die”.

Hendricks, who had labored as an Arabic language instructor and designer, was 29 when he got here out to his mom. Born right into a Muslim household, he married a lady, had youngsters, then divorced earlier than revealing his sexuality to his household, eight years after his father died.

South Africa has one of many world’s highest homicide charges, with 28,000 murders within the yr to February 2024, in accordance with police information.