Homosexual Imam aims to open mosques for Australia's LGBTI community

An imam in Australia is aiming to open the first mosque for LGBTI Muslims, claiming that this community is lacking support and safe space.

Nur Warsame, the first imam to admit to being gay, has told Australian media that it faces an avalanche of misery “by Muslims LGBTI who need support. Warsame has said that some LGBTI Muslims remain in his home who fear for their lives, and this experience has moved him to believe that LGBI Muslims need places to live and work. He wants LGBTI mosque to have another home to house these Muslims.

A young man's essentials are a safe and affordable home. In order to adapt to society they cannot be in an environment that causes trauma”, Warsame said of ABC in Australia.

The proposed mosque will be in Melbourne and Warsame has said it is working with local authorities to secure a safe place for this mosque, Coha.net broadcasts.

“will be in the centre. It's close to the services I recommend: Praham Market Clinic, which is a medical service to the LGBTI community, the hospital is across the street, while the police are at the bottom of it”, Warsame said of the mosque location.

Somalian - born Warsame is a popular imam in Australia. He ran one of Melbornet's biggest mosques. He is also a believer who knows the Quran by heart.

But credentials as a devout Muslim were not taken into account by the Muslim community in Australia that severed ties with imam when he accepted sexual orientation in 2010.

Warsame had some life threats from people who believe that homosexuality is not acceptable to religion. But that has not stopped him from speaking out about what it is like to be Muslim and gay.

Some 2.6 percent of Australia's population have been identified as Muslims. Most of them live in Melbourne. In the 1990s, Muslims in Australia arrived from countries such as Afghanistan, Iraq, Iran, Bosnia, Albania, Indonesia and Malaysia.