Islam: The Exorcist

A former Muslim extremist has revealed how he was forced to undergo an exorcism by his father at a shop in east London to “cure” him of his homosexuality.

Sohail Ahmed, 23, told The Times that the ceremony, which took place at an Islamic spiritual healing shop in East Ham, left him feeling suicidal.

The former student of Queen Mary University of London appeared at a rally organised by the Peter Tatchell Foundation last month, which was held to build bridges between the Islamic and gay communities.

However, he said his experiences have left him convinced that the Muslim faith would not accept homosexuality “in my lifetime”.

Mr Ahmed, who has now left Islam but maintains his identity as a “cultural Muslim”, said that at the age of 17 he fantasised about blowing up Canary Wharf, in London, but never translated his thoughts into action.

The exorcism took place at the Abu Ruqya shop in June 2014, which claims to specialise in healing those who are suffering from “black magic (sehr), jinn (demonic) possession and the evil eye (ayn), as well as other various conditions”...

“The guy gave me an example of another guy who had come to him and claimed to be gay and he was now fully healed and married to a woman,” Mr Ahmed said. “There was only one session at the Abu Ruqya shop where the guy was reading Koran and then blowing on me afterwards. At one point during the Ruqya, I felt an urge to just start thrashing out. I had to suppress it. I still don’t understand it till today.” ...

Mr Ahmed said: “I understand the Muslim viewpoint on homosexuality. A mosque saying we accept LGBT people — this is not going to happen in my lifetime, it’s a long process.” ...

 The Times.

And on ITV News.

PS Fagburn was reminded of this essay today, Gay Imperialism: Gender and sexuality discourse in the 'war on terror', by Jin Haritaworn, Tamsila Tauqir and Esra Erdem.

(Peter Tatchell denounced this as a 'smear' and 'fabrications').