Queer and Muslim
On Faith, Family, and Healing
The heartfelt essays and poems in Queer and Muslim defend religion’s compatibility with queerness.
Religion can be a means of liberation rather than oppression, said Imam Muhsin Hendricks, shot dead in South Africa in 2025. Reflecting this, these twenty autobiographical pieces consider identity, family expectations, experiences of homophobia, and the value of community and spirituality. Maha Noor plans her same-sex wedding. Aaron El Sabrout personalizes the Muslim notion of purity in “Trans Wudu.” Nazanin Moghadami recalls her struggle to adopt a child. Amal Ishaque addresses Islamophobia in poetry and prose.
Many of the contributors write from an immigrant or second-generation perspective, their families having moved to North America from South Asia or Africa. The challenges they recall are thus intersectional, fusing the complications of race, gender, sexuality, faith, and colonial history. That a number of entries are anonymous or pseudonymous indicates the shame still attached to queerness in traditional communities.
The pieces’ varied structures affirm diversity and mental health. Some poems echo the cadence of scripture: “With an utterance, / Khuda (God) created a multitude,” Fira writes in “Letters of Resistance.” Saara pens an open letter in verse to her mother, declaring “I am not your migrant success story … / your redemption, and your unfinished narrative … / I am whole.” Adnan Patel directs his essay to his inner child.
The book also includes conversations via a transcript of a meeting of a Queer Muslim collective in Singapore, a typical phone call with a semi-estranged mother, and a dialogue about recreational drug use. Rituals around food and charity are shown to provide community connections as well as opportunities for self-care. Psychedelics and therapy are among the other healing strategies discussed.
A vibrant anthology, Queer and Muslim gathers essays and verse from twenty-three authors who reconciled religion and sexuality and traded trauma for good mental health.
Reviewed by
Rebecca Foster
Disclosure: This article is not an endorsement, but a review. The publisher of this book provided free copies of the book to have their book reviewed by a professional reviewer. No fee was paid by the publisher for this review. Foreword Reviews only recommends books that we love. Foreword Magazine, Inc. is disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255.
