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FAITH

Founder of a Queer Jihad
Faisal Alam, 24
Washington, D.C.
It ain't easy leading a double life. Just ask Faisal Alam, who for years hid the fact that he was gay from his devout Muslim family. 'I was Brother Faisal Alam in the morning, involved with at least five different local, regional, and national organizations in the Muslim community, and at night I was Club Kid Faisal, going out every single night,' says Alam, who eventually succumbed to his schizophrenic lifestyle and suffered a mental breakdown. During a two-week hospital stay, he vowed to reconcile his two identities.

Alam searched the Web for gay Muslim support groups but came up with nothing, so in late 1996 he launched Al-Fatiha (www.al-fatiha.net), an international support group for gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender Muslims that today has grown into a volunteer-run organization with almost 700 members in the U.S., Canada, and the U.K.

The move has not been without costs. Once deeply religious, Alam feels that he can no longer go to mosques, and he is estranged from his disapproving parents. 'The community is so strong in our world, in our families,' he says. 'Even though individually we might be able to reconcile, dealing with community and dealing with our families is the ultimate struggle.'

Currently working for the National Minority AIDS Council in Washington, D.C., Alam hopes in a few years to establish support groups for GLBT Muslims living in Indonesia and other predominantly Muslim countries.
-Anjula Razdan

Interfaith Youth Activist
Eboo Patel, 26
Chicago, Illinois
Reading Eboo Patel's résumé is dizzying, but once you get past the part about his being a Rhodes scholar, holding an Oxford Ph.D. in the sociology of religion, and enjoying a private audience with the Dalai Lama, you realize that the idea behind his Chicago-based Interfaith Youth Core (www.ifyc.org) is simple: Bring together young people of different faiths, perform joint service projects, and then reflect on this work through the lens of diverse religious traditions. In short, fuse spirituality and activism.

You have only to look to Gandhi's concept of satyagraha -which borrows from Hinduism, Christian social gospel, and Jainism-to grasp that faith-based action isn't new. But, according to Patel, it's gotten a cold shoulder from many left-leaning social activists who dismiss the role of religion in social justice. Citing the likes of Catholic Worker founder Dorothy Day, spiritual explorer Ram Dass, and Muslim poet and activist Mohammed Iqbal, Patel points out that each faith tradition promotes a theology of social action. 'And, if you don't want to deal with churches, mosques, and synagogues,' says Patel, a devout Muslim, 'you're missing mass quantities of people.'
-Anjula Razdan

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