The Koran and the Flesh: The Pilgrimage of a Gay Imam

'A moving, courageous voice ... Muslims and others alike need to listen to him’ ObserverLudovic-Mohamed Zahed is an imam and Koranic scholar. He is also gay. In this memoir, he explains the journey he has taken to be both the founder of a mosque in Paris and to be openly gay, after a troubled childhood in Algeria in poverty and living with an aggressive and often violent father. Having found it impossible in that society to be both religious and true to himself, and being abandoned by a fellow school pupil with whom he was in love, he lost his faith. Trained as an imam, though, he became an accomplished Koranic scholar. He concluded that there was nothing in the Koran that condemned same-sex attraction or committed same-sex relationships. Finally, during a pilgrimage to Mecca, he understood that he could be fully himself and practise his religion with sincerity and commitment. The Koran and the Flesh tackles these subjects with originality and is a book of real bravery, that shows how it is possible to reconcile homosexuality and religion.

''Zahed’s is a moving, courageous voice, but he also acknowledges the isolation of his position in an Islamic world where attitudes to sexuality have only hardened in recent years. But it is for this very reason that Muslims and others alike need to listen to him’ - The Observer

''A moving, courageous voice ... Muslims and others alike need to listen to him’ Observer

Ludovic-Mohamed Zahed is an imam and Koranic scholar. He is also gay.

In this memoir, he explains the journey he has taken to be both the founder of a mosque in Paris and to be openly gay, after a troubled childhood in Algeria in poverty and living with an aggressive and often violent father. Having found it impossible in that society to be both religious and true to himself, and being abandoned by a fellow school pupil with whom he was in love, he lost his faith.

Trained as an imam, though, he became an accomplished Koranic scholar. He concluded that there was nothing in the Koran that condemned same-sex attraction or committed same-sex relationships. Finally, during a pilgrimage to Mecca, he understood that he could be fully himself and practise his religion with sincerity and commitment. 

The Koran and the Flesh tackles these subjects with originality and is a book of real bravery, that shows how it is possible to reconcile homosexuality and religion.

• | Author: Ludovic-Mohamed Zahed
• | Publisher: Swift Press
• | Publication Date: Feb 13, 2025
• | Number of Pages:
• | Language:
• | Binding: Hardback
• | ISBN-13: 9781800754904
• | ISBN-10: 1800754906