Your Tuesday Nice Time: DC Imam Marries Gay Couples, For Creeping Sharia

So it turns out there is this super rad Islamic cleric in Washington, DC, who marries gay couples because, like decent people of all faiths, Imam Daayiee Abdullah just ignores the crazy medieval stuff and focuses on the let's just love each other part of his faith .

“I think we’re at the start of a movement: a more inclusive Islam in America,” says Abdullah, who runs Washington’s Light of Reform mosque and is thought to be the only publicly gay Muslim leader in the Western Hemisphere.

“So if you have any same-sex marriages,” he says with a soft smile and a shrug, “I’m available.”

Some young Muslims in attendance mumble, “Wow!” and “Seriously?”

Seriously. Let's count the reasons why this is seriously nice:

• By performing their weddings, Abdullah is ensuring that gay Muslims, many of whom left homophobic theocracies in search of a more tolerant culture, can receive the same rights and benefits of marriage as everyone else.

• Every religious voice speaking up for humanity toward one's fellow man is a net positive for our society.

• The freak-out from Michele Bachmann, Sean Hannity, Bryan Fischer, et al. when they find out there is a Muslim cleric -- a Sharia expert even! -- gay marrying people will be spectacular .

Unless you happen to be gay and Muslim, you probably just think:  Oh, this Daayiee Abdullah sounds like a nice Imam and go about your business. But for paranoid and insane wingnuts, this news is literally all their most horrible fantasies coming true. When they find out, the AOL email forwards will fly (ahem) fast and furious about impending Sharia-enforced gay Muslim marriages. Flag-desecrating clothing will be purchased at the Dressbarn or some such place. Ghost Breitbart will spin in his grave. Ammunition sales will increase. Heads will explode. The heads that don't explode will, with every Imam or NBA all-star being totally cool with gay people, hopefully retreat deeper into their exurban bunkers and Idaho compounds (sorry about that, Doktor Zoom) far away from decent, civilized people.

Yeah, about that culture war thing. The good guys are winning. And that's very nice.

[ Washington Post ]