The Koran and the Flesh

<p><strong style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(33 37 41 1)>'A moving courageous voice ... Muslims and others alike need to listen to him' <em>Observer</em></strong></p><p></p><p><span style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(33 37 41 1)>Ludovic-Mohamed Zahed is an imam and Koranic scholar. He is also gay.</span></p><p></p><p><span style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(33 37 41 1)>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.</span></p><p></p><p><span style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(33 37 41 1)>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. </span></p><p></p><p><em style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(33 37 41 1)>The Koran and the Flesh</em><span style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(33 37 41 1)> tackles these subjects with originality and is a book of real bravery that shows how it is possible to reconcile homosexuality and religion.</span></p><p></p>