BERLIN (AP) — Ali Darwich, a gay Muslim influencer in Berlin, picks up a date from his plate, takes a sip of water, and addresses the 15 friends sitting around the table and breaking the Ramadan fast with him.
The 33-year-old German with Palestinian and Lebanese roots — who goes by @alifragt or “Ali asks” on Instagram — has a quickly growing following on Instagram, where he draws attention to the difficulties of living as a young, queer Muslim and calls for more tolerance and inclusiveness.
“Tonight we want to send a message that no matter where a person comes from, no matter who that person loves, no matter how queer that person is, they cannot be too queer … because they are exactly as they should be,” Darwich says, smiling at the diverse group of Muslims and Christians, Germans and immigrants, gay and straight people sharing this meal with him as the sun sets over Berlin.
Omg! Someone I know made it into my little geeky communist social network! Yay!!
cannot be too queer
Hope he does well and isn’t murdered by people of his own faith, like the last several openly gay Muslims, before being entirely forgotten about because leftist spaces like reddit and Lemmy never post any stories that would highlight how Islam is a backwards, barbaric, religion followed primarily by some of the most violent, uneducated, and ignorant pieces of shit to ever walk this earth.
I’m beyond tired of the Tr*mp Rage Show Spectacular, so here’s some uplifting news for y’all.
I’m not religious or even gay but it’s great to hear stories of people who actually follow some of the Bible’s teachings. Beyond the stone them and all I mean. If only all people were accepting as this person. Sort of like the intended message of certain texts.
It’s nice to read of people think similarly. Makes me feel more hopeful in these times. We all live on this rock we call home and it’d be awesome if we learned to live together regardless of conflicting ideals when they don’t impact others.
Well perhaps one day…
There’s a few wholesome communities that could use this!
Not saying I prefer ragebait in the news community. Just saying those other communities could use some content.
I’m not a fan of crossposting since is clutters up my post history, but feel free to.
While I totally understand those communities, my preference is to not relegate anything that isn’t rage to a special community since it distills regular news down to just the rage. Just my personal preference.
Ya know - I was thinking “How the hell is this ‘news’” when I saw the title but… Yeah - I’m here for it.
Its guys like these that I would like to see put in charge of reforming Islam into something more civilized.
An example to be immitated on mass.
*imitated en masse
This will be solved as class conflicts are solved. When people are not in a survivalist mindset, they can focus on the spirituality and philosophy aspects of religion rather than the rules and fundamentalism.
Look at how the Islamic State functions in the UAE vs Afghanistan for example. The problem isn’t an “uncivilized Islam”. Almost all problems in society can be boiled down to class struggles.
Its certainly easier to prevent hegemonic religions from forming if you have a more equal society.
But hegemonic religion also maintains inequality, so you also need to combat it.
Islam is certainly not alone in being uncivilized. Any religion that maintains inequality is barbaric.
That is such a myopic view of religion. Not everyone who is a Muslim “maintains inequality” and “is barbaric”. I am not a Muslim myself, but there are many Sufi saints whose poetry I read as I find their philosophy and interpretation of Islam to be very eye-opening. Any religion can be used as a means of love or hate.
Much like people say that in the USA today, Jesus would be killed for his beliefs, you would likey find the same to be true for many of those saints in the middle east.
I think one needs to draw a distinction between religion as a belief and religion as a institution.
Its not the belief that is the problem. People should be allowed to find their own meaning to life.
The institution is where the problems lie.
Sadly, they’re more likely to be murdered by a religious zealot than listened to.
I am pretty hopeful Tunisia will be spearheading those type of reforms.
They been big on feminism since their independence and any essay written in Arabic can spread through a lot of Muslim countries.
I also have hope that Europe with its significant immigrant population will transfer more moderate ideas back to their countries of origin.
The more cultures mix the less chance there is for extreme views to take hold. Its easy to convince someone to attack someone who is different, if you have never met them.
Would you recommend Tunisa as a “progressive” Islamic country to visit for a time ?
Ah they are definetely big on feminism even compared to US on some subjects (abortion) but I don’t know the general opinion on lgbtq+ groups.
They did have a gay man run for president once and there are about 7 organizations dedicated to lgbtq+ rights, however the act of gay sex itself is still a crime.
I never lived in Tunisia myself so this is as much info I can give without going into speculation territory.
Definetely can find more knowledgable people on lemmy than me for Tunisia.
You mean into something more civilized like our white christian western civilization? Besides the fact that defining civilized as exactly that (which is a highly concerning, colonial, way of defining it, it’s also not true that “in the civilized” west guys like him are the majority. That dude probably gets thousands of hate messages from andrew_tate_88.
I mean one that supports equal human rights, protection of women and children, social justice, outlawing discrimination based on leaving a religion and removes religion from government at all levels.
So exactly not the christo nationalism, Zionist and Islamic systems that cause so many problems in the world.
They make as if each is so special, but they are all just different flavours of the problematic system of control by the elite.
I mean one that supports equal human rights, protection of women and children, social justice, outlawing discrimination based on leaving a religion and removes religion from government at all levels.
Are there any nations like that? The UK has places reserved for religion in its parliament for example. The US has shitty slogans like “In god we trust” written everywhere. I remember visiting Myanmar before this current civil war and the Muslim hate by the majority buddhists was near ubiquitous to the point of people wearing tshirts proudly announcing their discrimination and India, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Russia etal have all accelerated backwards in those aspects
The US are UK are poor examples of progressive western values. Look to Scandinavia and northern Europe for the best examples.
Alhumdullilah
Hell yeah
