{"id":496,"date":"2014-08-09T09:14:00","date_gmt":"2014-08-09T09:14:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/2014\/08\/progressve-american-muslims-find-faith-while-challenging-taboos-on-sexuality-and-gender.html"},"modified":"2014-08-09T09:14:00","modified_gmt":"2014-08-09T09:14:00","slug":"progressve-american-muslims-find-faith-while-challenging-taboos-on-sexuality-and-gender","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/2014\/08\/progressve-american-muslims-find-faith-while-challenging-taboos-on-sexuality-and-gender.html","title":{"rendered":"Progressve American Muslims Find Faith While Challenging Taboos On Sexuality and Gender"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>
Omar Akersim prays regularly and observes the dawn-to-dusk Ramadan fast. He is also openly gay.<\/span><\/div>\n
Akersim, 26, is part of a small but growing number of American Muslims challenging the long-standing interpretations of Islam that defined their parents\u2019 world. They believe that one can be gay and Muslim; that the sexes can pray shoulder-to-shoulder; that females can preach and that Muslim women can marry outside the faith \u2014 and they point to Quran passages to back them up.<\/span><\/div>\n
The shift comes as young American Muslims work to reshape the faith they grew up with so it fits better with their complex, dual identity, with one foot in the world of their parents\u2019 immigrant beliefs and one foot in the ever-shifting cultural landscape of America. The result has been a growing internal dialogue about what it means to be Muslim, as well as a scholarly effort to re-examine the Quran for new interpretations that challenge rules that had seemed set in stone.<\/span><\/div>\n
\u201cIslam in America is being forced to kind of change and to reevaluate its positions on things like homosexuality because of how we\u2019re moving forward culturally as a nation. It\u2019s striving to make itself seen and known in the cultural fabric and to do that, it does have to evolve,\u201d said Akersim, who leads a Los Angeles-based support group for gay Muslims. \u201cTen or 15 years ago, this would have been impossible.\u201d<\/span><\/div>\n
Read the rest here<\/a><\/span><\/div>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Omar Akersim prays regularly and observes the dawn-to-dusk Ramadan fast. He is also openly gay. Akersim, 26, is part of a small but growing number of American Muslims challenging the long-standing interpretations of Islam that defined their parents\u2019 world. They believe that one can be gay and Muslim; that the sexes can pray shoulder-to-shoulder; that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-496","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nProgressve American Muslims Find Faith While Challenging Taboos On Sexuality and Gender<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Omar Akersim prays regularly and observes the dawn-to-dusk Ramadan fast. 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