First openly gay imam is shot dead

The Muslim leader was shot and killed when his car was ambushed by masked gunmen in South Africa where he had established a mosque for the LGBT community.

Muhsin Hendricks, who came out publicly as gay in the mid-1990s, styled himself as ‘the world’s first openly queer imam’.

A gay Muslim leader was shot and killed when his car was ambushed by masked gunmen in South Africa where he had established a mosque for the LGBT community.

Muhsin Hendricks, 57, had defied death threats, his family said after his killing in the south coast city of Gqeberha, which was captured on security camera.

Footage shows he was the only passenger in a stationary car that was blocked by a pick-up truck carrying two men with their face covered. One gunman is seen running up to the car and firing multiple times through a back passenger window.

Hendricks had become an international figure for supporters and critics of the safe haven he had established in Cape Town for gay and other “marginalised” Muslims. He was in Gqeberha, formerly known as Port Elizabeth, to officiate at the marriage of a lesbian couple, according to local reports.

Hendricks came out publicly as gay in the mid-1990s and started a support network and later a mosque in the suburb of Wynberg. He styled himself “the world’s first openly queer imam” and used his platform to lobby for the gay community to be recognised by the Islamic religion.

Hendricks in Cape Town in 2016. Picture: AFP

“When I was looking at the way queer Muslims were negotiating this dilemma between Islam and their sexual orientation and identity, I felt compelled to do something about it,” he had said. “And I thought, for me to help would probably be for me to be authentic with myself and come out. I think it’s possible to be queer and Muslim or queer and Christian.”

The Al-Ghurbaah Foundation established by Hendricks described him was “a great father and a guardian of many. Continue resting with angels”.

The activist Zackie Achmat said his friend had “been executed in the name of Islam … by a minority bent on the destruction of people and institutions they brand as anti-Islam.”

The Muslim Judicial Council of South Africa said that while it had consistently stated that Hendricks’ position was incompatible with Islamic teachings, “We unequivocally condemn his murder and any acts of violence targeting members of the LGBTQ community or any other community.”

Hendricks was the subject of a documentary in 2022 called The Radical, in which he reflected on threats he faced and calls for his “gay temple” to be closed down. He had refused to have bodyguards.

“The need to be authentic was greater than the fear to die,” he said.

Before revealing his sexuality, Hendricks had worked as an Arabic language teacher and fashion designer and been married, become a father and divorced. He had three children and several grandchildren.

He had prepared his family for the possibility of him being killed, Moegsien Hendricks, his cousin, said. “He was not short of threats. When he started a mosque that welcomed gay people, there were threats to bomb it,” he told the Daily Maverick news site. Hate messages had been a constant for the Imam, but had escalated with the prominence of social media.

“I think he knew he was going to go this way,” his cousin said.

Muhsin Hendricks leads the start of the Jumu'ah prayer at the Inner Circle Mosque, in Capetown, 2016. Picture: Rodger Bosch/AFP

The South African justice ministry said police had not established a motive for the killing but were investigating claims that it was an assassination. The Democratic Alliance, the country’s second-biggest political party, said the evidence pointed “to a professional hit”.

Organised killings are rising in South Africa where ineffective policing has allowed gang activity to flourish, according to data gathered by the Global Initiative against Transnational Organised Crime, which is based in Geneva.

Police data showed that there were 28,000 murders recorded in the year to February 2024.

The Times