Murder of gay South African imam Muhsin Hendricks reignites queer Muslim debate

Dubbed the “world’s first openly gay Imam”, South African religious leader Muhsin Hendricks was gunned down on 15 February 2025 in an attack that many believe was targeted. Tributes have poured in across the world, but so have online comments that his death was justified.

His passing intensifies a global debate about whether queer Muslims belong in the faith. Amanullah De Sondy was a friend of his and is a scholar of Muslim sexuality and masculinity, including the contributions of Hendricks. He pays tribute and discusses the bigger issues.

Who was Imam Muhsin Hendricks?

Muhsin Hendricks was born in 1967 in Cape Town and raised in a Muslim household. He married and started a family with a woman before coming out as gay in 1996. He would later marry a Hindu man. His marriage touched on two complex issues for many Muslims: that it was between two men, and that it was with someone of a different faith.

Muhsin Hendricks was a learned scholar of Islam who had become a globally renowned religious leader. He created and managed large queer Muslim organisations in South Africa that brought people together from Karachi to London.

He worked first as an Arabic language teacher and fashion designer before studying globally, in particular at a religious seminary in Pakistan. He trained as an Imam and he led congregations at mosques.

He was fired from his teaching position at a Cape Town mosque when he came out.

At pivotal moments in his life, Hendricks spoke of his time praying and fasting to arrive at his reconciliation between faith and sexuality. Ultimately he believed that there could be many different colours to Islam.

What were his contributions to the pluralism debate?

There is a perception that the estimated two billion Muslims in the world are all the same, united in their belief and practice.

This in reality is not true.

Islam is lived differently in different locations and among different denominations. There are no two Muslims alike. They share a central creed of belief but the diversity of living that out is very different. For example, Islam in South Africa is very different to Islam in Islamabad or in Singapore.

I have argued that gender and sexuality, especially notions of masculinity, are causing a crisis in the Muslim world today. Through his teaching, his religious leadership, his organisations and his activism, Hendricks was an emblem of these complexities, difficulties and tensions that exist in making sure that people don’t stuff Muslims into one box. He never sat in just one box. He was open and vocal that he was both Muslim and queer.

Hendricks didn’t seek affirmation from those who would never agree with him. The quote often cited is that Islam says homosexuality is a sin. There have been renewed statements against aligning Islam with homosexuality globally.

Hendricks moved beyond convincing fellow Muslims that he believed that there was space to be queer and Muslim. He aimed to promote pluralism amongst Muslims – that there was more than one way to live Islam. He wanted to support other Muslims who were battling with the conundrum of being wholly queer and wholly Muslim. He nurtured spaces where an opportunity was given to reflect, heal and strengthen.

Can you tell us more about his work?

Hendricks’ organisation The Inner Circle did research and movement building work, but he was working on many levels. He was creating a safe space amongst Muslims but also working at an interfaith level, at the intra level – trying to build bridges with very conservative streams of Islam – in South Africa and globally.

At the very least the organisation wanted to empower queer Muslims to accept who they were. Studies have shown that LGBTIQ+ young people are twice as likely to contemplate suicide. Hendricks said that he was driven in his work to help stop them from killing themselves.

Hendricks had a vision to see the training of the next generation of leaders and Imams. He made sure to create organisations that were training and learning centres with a focus on Islamic studies and for recruits to then implement those teachings in an inclusive and loving way.

He also created the Al-Ghurbaah Foundation to create a space for psychological and spiritual support.

He was a target of conservative Muslim anger because of the impact of this work. He was very public about his sexuality where many religious leaders and other Muslims are not. There remains a very strong culture of “don’t ask and don’t tell” when it comes to sexual practices amongst Muslims globally.

Why is this such a divisive issue?

The intellectual arguments about queer Muslims have been made for well over a decade now. Hendricks was almost always included in these kinds of academic studies.

He also took part in an important 2007 documentary A Jihad for Love. Made by Parvez Sharma, it follows the lives of queer Muslims and the threats they face around the world. There’s a conversation in that documentary where he sits with a conservative Islamic scholar, who says to him that he’s interpreting the text incorrectly, reprimands him by telling him that he is out of the fold of Islam, that he would not be buried in a Muslim graveyard and that no Muslim should pray at his funeral. Hendricks listened quietly and remained strong in his belief.

The conservative Islamic view on gender and sexuality upholds the traditional roles of men and women – namely the role of being a husband, a wife, marriage and procreation, having children.

Hendricks was among others globally who started a conversation asking: can we reinterpret some of these passages that claim Islam is heterosexual, that they are not necessarily homophobic? Is there space for queer Islam?

He highlighted that there may never be full consensus on these issues amongst Muslims. His life showed that Islam is diverse.

Many Muslims in the world would disagree that the killing of the Imam is the Islamic way of living. An important list of Muslims condemning homophobia has already started circulating in response to his death. Yet there are some who are posting comments on social media saying that he deserved it, that Islam says he should be killed.

Whoever killed him, it has become clear in the hours and days after his shooting that his death has once again raised the difficult questions facing Muslims all over the world on sexuality.

How do you remember him?

Hendricks was born into a country where the liberation theology of some church leaders, including Imams, formed part of the fight against systemic racism. He continued this history of activism.

His life was a masterclass on how different forms of discrimination can intersect. He was a Muslim, a person of colour and a sexual minority. In his life he faced both homophobia and Islamophobia.

He knew that the threat to his life was very real but he reportedly refused bodyguards because he wanted to live his life authentically.

He was a formidable communicator, including his use of social media. In his TikTok and Instagram accounts you’ll see he started moving in a direction of miming to very popular Bollywood songs and doing a little dance to them. I think he’d be delighted that these are now being shared as a tribute.

Hendricks had a way of capturing many people’s minds at different levels. His reach was challenging. He wanted Muslims to embrace differences within and beyond the letters of Islamic law and theology. Hendricks offered a fully embodied way of living Islam that he believed had room for something more inclusive and queer.