USA
 

Faisal Alam Steps Down As President of Al-Fatiha

Faisal Alam, founder of Al-Fatiha Foundation in the United States, will be stepping down as its volunteer director and president of its board of directors, the board has announced.

The board meeting in July learned of Faisal’s intention to step down and it decided to create positions of co-chairs.  Khalida Saed from Washington, DC and Syed Asif Hassan from Houston, TX were elected unanimously.  They will Take up their positions on September 1, 2004. 

Faisal Alam founded Al-Fatiha in 1998; the organization has since grown significantly, with sister-organizations in Canada, the United Kingdom and South Africa.  Under his leadership, Al-Fatiha and the LGBITQ Muslim communities have received wide media recognition.

Al-Fatiha has been featured in media and press around the world including BBC World Television, the New York Times, the Washington Post, BBC Radio, NPR, the San Francisco Chronicle, and the Chicago Tribune.

When the group was founded, it had an annual budget of$100.  Today, the budget has increased to more than $30,000 since its incorporation less than six years ago.

Al-Fatiha estimates that more than 2,500 LGBTIQ Muslims have had direct contact with the organization; through its email and internet spiritual counseling services, an annual conference, through one of Al-Fatiha’s ten chapters in the United States and through other Al-Fatiha events.  Additionaly, the organisation has made significant links with sexual and gender minorities within the Islamic world, helping to support the struggle for the recognition of human rights in countries including Egypt and Saudi Arabia.

In announcing his resignation as director and president of Al-Fatiha, Faisal said: “I am eternally grateful to so many people who have supported me and guided me, as we tried to create a community that was once invisible.

“Al-Fatiha is in a unique place in its history as an organization; the world we live in today requires us to work harder than ever to launch a progressive movement within Islam that accepts all of its followers, regardless of their sexual orientation or gender identity.” He continued.

“I am confident that Khalida and Asif will lead Al-Fatiha with a faithful vision and with courage, dedication and commitment to support the ideals that Al-Fatiha has created.”

Khalida Saed, a board member of Al-Fatiha and a former chapter coordinator was elected as co-chair.  She is 25 years old and comes from a grassroots, feminist, and social justice movement of organizing.

Currently, she is applying to law schools and hopes to work in international human rights law.  Khalida is also active in immigration and asylum rights work as well as LGBT youth organizing.

“Ideally, Al-Fatiha is an organization where as a woman, the best parts of Islam, coupled with a sense of global humanity, come together to include me and my struggles,” she said.  “Islam as a religion has not gone out of its way to include lesbian and women's voices.

“Al-Fatiha has done more to foster a sense of spirituality in me than traditional channels ever could.  My vision is to encourage that inclusion of women's issues within Al-Fatiha.

“Through our efforts to promote a progressive Islam in the United States, I hope to also promote an on-going dialogue on what feminist Islam would look like and come up with practical applications of this in our conferences, our mosques, and within our membership.

“Previously as a member of Al-Fatiha and then as a board member, I have seen much of this come to fruition already,” she added.

Syed Asif Hassan, elected as co-chair of Al-Fatiha, is currently working on a doctoral degree in physics.  Multiracial, raised Muslim in Algeria, the United Arab Emirates, and the United States, his political and spiritual outlook has been shaped by his experiences of living in communities of people of many cultural and religious backgrounds and perspectives.

“All of us on the Board have learned many things from Faisal, most importantly the scope of what Al-Fatiha can achieve as an organization,” he said in a statement.  “As an incoming co-chair of Al-Fatiha, I plan to uphold that pioneering spirit.

“I have faith that Al-Fatiha can bring the LGBTIQ Muslim community even further towards our goal of being embraced and celebrated in our various communities, where we can fully share our unique progressive vision of Islam.”

Currently Al-Fatiha has eight board members and an estimated membership of 1,500 people in the United States.  The organization has sponsored 9 conferences and retreats since its inception almost 6 years ago.  Al-Fatiha’s conferences, retreats and various other events, have brought together hundreds of LGBTIQ Muslims and their allies from around the world, to discuss a number of different issues facing the queer Muslim community.

In 2005, Al-Fatiha will launch a national fundraising campaign where Faisal and Al-Fatiha’s new co-chairs will travel around the country to meet with local LGBTIQ Muslims and their allies.

In July 2005, Al-Fatiha will sponsor the first-ever queer Muslim women’s retreat in Philadelphia, PA and in September 2005 Al-Fatiha will host the Fifth International Retreat for LGBTIQ Muslims and their Allies.

Al-Fatiha Foundation  can be contacted at:  PO Box 33532, Washington, DC 20033, USA.  The Foundation also hosts a Yahoo! Group.

14 August, 2004