• Ludovic Mohamed Zahed was born in Algeria in 1977, a country he left with his family in 1995 to settle in Marseille.

  • After studying in Paris at ENS and EHESS, in 2010 he initiated the association of Muslim homosexuals in France, then in 2012 opened the first inclusive mosque in Europe.

  • In 2019, he created the Calem Institute in Marseille, with the aim, in particular, of training imams in an inclusive and progressive Islam.

Past the maze of alleys in the heart of the Belle de Mai district, in the heart of the 3rd arrondissement of Marseille, Ludovic Mohamed Zahed - Ludovic being his first name adopted during his French naturalization - pushes the door of a discreet townhouse. The address is not public, "it is more prudent", he says without particular concern, he who says he lives in a reciprocal "holy ignorance" with the Salafists. Openly homosexual imam, he created here a research, publication and training institute for imams dedicated to an inclusive and progressive Islam. At almost 44 years old, the one who fights against a "patriarchal, anti-Semitic and homophobic" Islam, has largely passed the age of doubts of adolescence.

With a high university education, including the ENS and EHESS in Paris, holder of two doctorates, anthropology and psychology, Ludovic Mohamed Zahed situates his field of action at the crossroads of disciplines.

Combining theology, anthropology, philosophy and socio-economics, his thought, if it attacks Islam, goes beyond this simple framework.

"Islam is a product of culture and does not come down from the sky, contrary to what some think," he says.

"Trying to understand the people who wrote the texts fourteen centuries ago is more interesting than repeating them", he continues, thus urging a return to the holy texts, like what the Reformation was able to accomplish. in Christianity.

Prepare for the next generation

This work of interpretation, it seems to him urgent "not to leave it in the hands of the same bearded men, cisgender and heteronormative men". In 2019, he published

Homosexuality and Transidentity in Islam

, a Koranic study of gender and sexuality, in which he intends to demonstrate that interpretations condemning homosexuals and trans people are inherited from texts of dubious origins, often interpreted to serve interests. policies.

This intellectual, associative and religious commitment came to him ten years ago now. “I think the trigger was a 2009 televised debate between Tariq Ramadan and Caroline Fourest,” he recalls, stroking his short salt and pepper beard with both hands. “They were talking about sexuality and Islam, without the first knowing anything about sexuality and the second about Islam. I said to myself: "it is no longer possible" ". A handful of weeks later, he finds himself with five friends, gay and Muslim, in the basement of a café in the Marais district of Paris. They then founded the association of Muslim homosexuals in France, then opened in 2012, in Paris, the first inclusive mosque in Europe.

Shortly after Ludovic Mohammed Zahed was contacted by other imams engaged in the same path of openness, mainly abroad in North America and South Africa, to structure and discuss.

"In France, we are somewhat the only institutionalized and structured association," he regrets.

With the ten people and imams who are currently undergoing his training, Ludovic Mohammed Zahed hopes to "prepare the next generation" for a 21st century Islam, open and inclusive.

Marseilles

Is Marseille becoming gay friendly?

Justice

Marseille: A volunteer from the so-called Salafist mosque of Consolat sentenced

  • Mosque

  • Imam

  • Ramadan tariq

  • Religion

  • Islam

  • Homosexuality

  • Homosexual

  • Society

  • Marseilles