192 pages
ISBN : 9782315003488
Gay and vigorous muslim, Ludovic-Mohamed Zahed tells us about 20 years of intellectual and emotional tearings which lead him to accept and show himself like he truly is, and to reconcile faith and sexuality. This is the first testimony about one of the biggest taboo of the Muslim world.
The author’s childhood in Algeria is characterized by religious lessons, his passion for the Koran, his father’s homophobia and dreadful punishments. During his adolescence, between France and Algeria, Ludovic-Mohamed represses his homosexuality in the name of Islam, even if he wonders about his sexual identity. When he is 16 years old, after the 1994 attacks, his father chases him to Marseille, in France. Everyone makes fun of his androgyny.
When he is 20, he sets aside religion for a while and finally assumes his homosexuality, shares his « coming out » with his family. Very surprisingly, his father and his sister accept this revelation in a better way than his mother and his brother do.
Today, he has reconnected with the Muslim religion. He denounces the prevaling corruption existing within this religion, the quest of power between extremist groups, Salafists and Muslims. He wants to prove that Islam is not an homophobic religion, that you can belong to this religion without joining these extremist and deceptive dogmas. To demonstrate it, he relies on texts excerpted from the Koran, texts by theologians and sociologists. He advocates a calm and liberating vision of Islam in a universal testimony about desire, flesh and religion.
Born in Alger, Ludovic-Mohamed Zaheb is 34 years old. He grew up between Algeria and France. Graduated from L’école Normale Supérieure in cognitive psychology, he is doing a thesis upon anthropology of religion permits and more precisely about Islam and homosexuality, and teaches cognitive psychology. He has also created several assossations. He is the first french muslim to be married religiously.
