Appeal for Support

You can change  lives.  When you give to Imaan, your voice unites with many others to say: “I believe in equality for every person, and every family!” You will know that you are supporting the organizations and leaders that are defending the rights and equality of LGBT Muslims in the UK.

Every gift makes a huge difference to the work of Imaan, to the welfare service and other programs. Ninety percent of Imaan’s funding comes from people like you: who care about our community and who want to make it a better, safer place to live now and in the future.

When you choose to give monthly you are choosing to make a regular commitment to Muslim LGBTQ equality in the UK.

“I came to the UK in 2010 from Pakistan because I was forced into a marriage. I was beaten, physically abuse and raped. I approached Imaan in 2011 when I fled my relative’s home and was leaving on the streets. Imaan supported me in accessing housing, food and finally supported me through my asylum claim until I was granted refugee status.” Jamal Aged 25

What can your monthly gift do?
• £3 a month would pay the bus fare for a Imaan member to attend a welfare or immigration appointment
• £20 a month ensures that a support meeting can take place for vulnerable Imaan members.
• £30 a month provides food and a night in a refuge or hostel in an emergency for an Imaan member fleeing violence.

Funds raised by Imaan will be used to continue promoting and providing a safe space for all Imaan members and for fighting discrimination. This includes supporting asylum seekers, victims of forced marriage, and homelessness. we are striving to expand our services further outside London. Contributions are also used to cover the daily operations and maintenance necessary to run this rapidly growing service. Imaan is run and staffed by unpaid volunteers – every penny you donate goes directly to the services we deliver to people in urgent need

Yes, I want to help those in Need

Donate By Bank Transfer directly to Imaan’s bank account

Barclays Bank plc
Account Name: Imaan
Account Number: 60534196
Sort Code: 20-71-74

JazakAllah khairan!,

Imaan

Imaan AGM – 11 February 2012, London

Salaams, friends and members.

We are pleased to announce the 2012 Imaan AGM.

Date: 11 February 2012

Time: 14:00 to 16:00 – immediate start and finish is essential

Place: Positive East
159 Mile End Road
London E1 4AQ

This is not an election year and the Trustees have no voting business to put to members.

We will circulate an agenda and the Chairperson’s report shortly, but please note the date and time in your diaries.

This is the opportunity for the Trustees to account for the business and finances of the last 12 months and for members to put their questions, concerns or general feedback in the open.  Aside from that, it is good to get together and exchange news and views.

Please note that our good friends at Positive East have agreed to open up especially for Imaan, so in respect to their time and generosity, the meeting will start at 2pm and it will finish at 4pm.

Please let us know if you are willing and able attend, so we can plan for numbers - info@imaan.org.uk

If you would like to raise a particular concern or question, please contact the Chairperson - tawseef@imaan.org.uk

We hope to see you on the day!

Imaan Announces 2012 Conference!

Salaams Brothers and Sisters

Imaan has some exciting news to share! Come 2012, Imaan will be organising and hosting only its FIFTH ever International LGBTQI Muslim Conference. It will take place from Friday 24th August 2012 to Monday 27th August 2012 in London, UK. The conference is open to all Muslim Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans, Queer and Intersex (LGBTQI) people, their family, friends and supporters.

So save the dates and start looking/booking tickets! Look out for further details, such as registration procedure, costs and the programme of events, which will follow in due course.

Until then, please email us to register your interest at conference@imaan.org.uk.

For any queries, or to volunteer as a facilitator, speaker or organiser, please contact info@imaan.org.uk or tawseef@imaan.org.uk.

Wasalaam

Imaan Board of Trustees

Imaan Launches Emergency Fundraising Appeal

You can change  lives.  When you give to Imaan, your voice unites with many others to say: “I believe in equality for every person, and every family!” You will know that you are supporting the organizations and leaders that are defending the rights and equality of LGBT Muslims in the UK.

Every gift makes a huge difference to the work of Imaan, to the welfare service and other programs. Ninety percent of Imaan’s funding comes from people like you: who care about our community and who want to make it a better, safer place to live now and in the future.

When you choose to give monthly you are choosing to make a regular commitment to Muslim LGBTQ equality in the UK.

“I came to the UK in 2010 from Pakistan because I was forced into a marriage. I was beaten, physically abuse and raped. I approached Imaan in 2011 when I fled my relative’s home and was leaving on the streets. Imaan supported me in accessing housing, food and finally supported me through my asylum claim until I was granted refugee status.” Jamal Aged 25

What can your monthly gift do?
• £3 a month would pay the bus fare for a Imaan member to attend a welfare or immigration appointment
• £20 a month ensures that a support meeting can take place for vulnerable Imaan members.
• £30 a month provides food and a night in a refuge or hostel in an emergency for an Imaan member fleeing violence.

Funds raised by Imaan will be used to continue promoting and providing a safe space for all Imaan members and for fighting discrimination. This includes supporting asylum seekers, victims of forced marriage, and homelessness. we are striving to expand our services further outside London. Contributions are also used to cover the daily operations and maintenance necessary to run this rapidly growing service. Imaan is run and staffed by unpaid volunteers – every penny you donate goes directly to the services we deliver to people in urgent need

Yes, I want to help those in Need

Donate By Bank Transfer directly to Imaan’s bank account

Barclays Bank plc
Account Name: Imaan
Account Number: 60534196
Sort Code: 20-71-74

JazakAllah khairan!,

Imaan

Imaan joins other LGBT groups calling for the cancellation of an LGBT Interfaith delegation to Israel

A number of LGBTQ activist organizations from across the world have called upon three French religious organizations to cancel an upcoming interfaith delegation to Israel because it violates the Palestinian civil society call for boycott, divestment and sanctions. Asserting itself as a “vanguard of a dialogue among spiritualities for reciprocity and solidarity with local LGBT movements,” Beit Haverim, David and Jonathan, and HM2F are French LGBT groups of Jews, Christians and Muslims respectively whose tour next week is partly sponsored by the City of Paris.

Arab / Palestinian LGBTQ groups have expressed concerns about the wisdom of such a visit, against a backdrop of claims that the French organisations have not discussed or collaborated effectively with local organisations.

Writing at Pinkwatching Israel, the local activists explain:

The organizations claim that the trip is “non-political,” but a brief look at their program clearly shows the political dimensions of the trip. Meeting with an Israeli MK [Member of the Knesset], an official from the municipality of Tel Aviv, and French Cultural Attaché in Israel to discuss “cultural relations between Israel and France” are political by nature. Violations of BDS guidelines constitute a conscious political choice. Beit Haverim, David and Jonathan, and HM2F are clearly willing to engage only in certain forms of politics which they deem safe, while ignoring questions of their responsibility, as religious tourists, to refrain from legitimizing occupation and apartheid.

This denial is so powerful that none of the material produced by the organizations for the trip mentions the word “occupation” even once. The only West Bank city on their itinerary is Bethlehem, currently surround by the apartheid wall which segregates 15,000 dunums of agricultural land. Ironically, the wall around Bethlehem serves to isolate and annex the very same religious areas that the organizations plan to visit. Around Rachel’s Tomb and the Bilal Ibn Rabah Mosque, hundreds of Palestinians are isolated between two walls, further strengthening Israeli control of historic, religious, and deeply significant places and strangling the city economically.

In particular, activists questioned the solidarity of HM2F (Homosexuels musulmans de France) with Muslim LGBT people in Palestine.

According to the program, they claim to be in touch with “Muslim LGBT” organization Al-Qaws, when in fact, HM2F only contacted them for a meeting on the 1st of November. This lack of concern is evident not only in their misidentification of alQaws as a Muslim group, but also in their decision to bypass any prior consultation with the Palestinian queer groups they claim to be in solidarity with. In particular, HM2F’s participation comes as a disappointing surprise to the organization’s partners as their involvement directly risks the safety of activists and groups located in Arab societies. HM2F is currently a member of several coalitions along with different Arab and Muslim queer groups, and is planning to join several anticipated coalitions along the same lines. By leading this initiative, HM2F is unfortunately neglecting calls for solidarity and further burning its bridges with these groups, several of whom have criticized them for similar actions in the past. 

Major Palestinian organizations that work on LGBTQ and sexuality issues, and many others, have shared and endorsed the statement.

• PinkwatchingIsrael.com
• Palestinian Queers for BDS (Palestine)
• Abu Nawas (Algeria)
• OMNIA (North Africa)
• Engender (South Africa)
• MidEast Youth (MENA)
• alQaws for Sexual & Gender Diversity in Palestinian Society (Palestine)
• Meem (Lebanon)
• Nasawiya (Lebanon)
• Decolonize Queer (International)
• Muntada, The Arab Forum for Sexuality, Education, and Health (Palestine)
• Bedayaa, Organization for LGBTQI of the Nile Vallye Area (Egypt & Sudan)
• GAYa NUSANTARA (Indonesia)
• Indonesian Legal Aid for Women Association (Indonesia)
• Helem (Lebanon)
• Coalition for Sexual and Bodily Rights in Muslim Societies

Imaan shares the concerns of our brothers and sisters and calls upon the organisers of the proposed tour to explain their position more clearly. However, our belief is that a queer group considering an LGBT interfaith tour in Israel is quite troubling. Interfaith LGBT outreach is important and extremely rewarding for LGBT people of faith, but we draw a line at what appears to be a fairly uncritical event inside Israel and inclusive of elements of the Israeli body-politic: a regime that maintains a facade of socially progressive policy as one of the ways in which it seeks to present itself as a normal and benign nation-state. A “tour” of the sort described would add undeserved credence to Israel’s assertion of “normal” statehood and would be a press-bonanza. We do not believe that LGBT groups, let alone those representing Muslims should be seen, even, to be applauding a state for its largely empty platitudes towards queers, when that same state can’t respect the most basic of human rights – such as the right to life – of its citizens and neighbours.

We hope that these three groups will reconsider their plans and enter a constructive dialogue with Palestinian groups working on the ground, about the best way to achieve valuable local interactions that first and foremost respect and maintain solidarity with the Palestinian people

Imaan Launches Emergency Fundraising Appeal

You can change  lives.  When you give to Imaan, your voice unites with many others to say: “I believe in equality for every person, and every family!” You will know that you are supporting the organizations and leaders that are defending the rights and equality of LGBT Muslims in the UK.

Every gift makes a huge difference to the work of Imaan, to the welfare service and other programs. Ninety percent of Imaan’s funding comes from people like you: who care about our community and who want to make it a better, safer place to live now and in the future.

When you choose to give monthly you are choosing to make a regular commitment to Muslim LGBTQ equality in the UK.

“I came to the UK in 2010 from Pakistan because I was forced into a marriage. I was beaten, physically abuse and raped. I approached Imaan in 2011 when I fled my relative’s home and was leaving on the streets. Imaan supported me in accessing housing, food and finally supported me through my asylum claim until I was granted refugee status.” Jamal Aged 25

What can your monthly gift do?
• £3 a month would pay the bus fare for a Imaan member to attend a welfare or immigration appointment
• £20 a month ensures that a support meeting can take place for vulnerable Imaan members.
• £30 a month provides food and a night in a refuge or hostel in an emergency for an Imaan member fleeing violence.

Funds raised by Imaan will be used to continue promoting and providing a safe space for all Imaan members and for fighting discrimination. This includes supporting asylum seekers, victims of forced marriage, and homelessness. we are striving to expand our services further outside London. Contributions are also used to cover the daily operations and maintenance necessary to run this rapidly growing service. Imaan is run and staffed by unpaid volunteers – every penny you donate goes directly to the services we deliver to people in urgent need

Yes, I want to help those in Need

Donate By Bank Transfer directly to Imaan’s bank account

Barclays Bank plc
Account Name: Imaan
Account Number: 60534196
Sort Code: 20-71-74

JazakAllah khairan!,

Imaan

 

London Events – October 2011 to February 2012

This provides a comprehensive list of the events that will be taking place in London between October 2011 and February 2012, giving you plenty of notice to put the dates in your diaries and little excuse for missing out!

October
Sun 16th – Coffee/Bowling
11am [£]
(Bayswater)

Thur 27th – All Connected: Immigration, Politics and Eugenics
6pm [Free]
(Euston Square)

—Headlines about immigration are nothing new. Gavin Schaffer (University of Birmingham) considers the relationship between anxieties around immigration and racial science in Britain, considering the legacy of eugenics and thinking about race beyond the early 20th Century up to 1948.
Dr Gavin Schaffer is author of ‘Racial Science and British Society, 1930-62′.—-

November
Fri 11th – Club Night
10pm [£]
Venue TBA

Sun 20th – Sermon by Karen Armstrong On Compassion + coffee afterward
11.30am [£]
(Holborn)

—-From Confucius to Oprah, people have preached compassion for centuries. But how often is it actually put into practice? We may know that we should “treat others the way we wish to be treated”, but the reality – particular in the face of a perceived injustice – just isn’t that easy. Compassion is hardwired into our brains, yet is constantly pushed back by our more primitive instincts for selfishness and survival. Provocative religious thinker, Karen Armstrong, knows this. Yet she will take to our pulpit to offer an impassioned call to cultivate and expand our capacity for compassion. Drawing on material ranging from the spiritual character of the world religions to the findings of contemporary neuroscience, she’ll outline concrete ways of enhancing our compassion and putting it into action in our everyday lives. —-

Thur 24th – Excavating Egypt in the African American Imagination
6pm [Free]
(Euston Square)

—-From the land of the Pharaohs to the contemporary bridge between African and Islamic worlds, the idea of ‘Egypt’ has played a crucial role in the African American imagination of freedom from the bondage of slavery and its legacy. This talk by Anna Hartnell explores the idea of ‘Egypt’ – in both ancient and contemporary narratives – as a key imaginative touchstone for the black liberation struggle in the United States, from the 19th century through to the ‘age of Obama’.—-

December
Sat 3rd – Art exhibition, The Street: Reclaiming the Mural followed by lunch/tea in Brick Lane
12pm [Free/£]
(Whitechapel)

Fri 16th – DVD and pizza Night
7.30pm [Free]
Venue TBA

Fri 23rd – Coffee/drinks followed by Club Night
6pm/10pm [£]
Venue TBA

Fri 30th – Speed dating (Men)
6pm [Free]
Venue TBA

January
Wed 4th – Natural History Museum + informal lunch
11am [Free]
(South Kensington)

Sat 7th – Speed dating (Women)
6pm [Free]
Venue TBA

Sat 21st – Cinema (Matinee/Night)
[£]
Time&Venue TBA

February
Fri 3rd – Comedy Night
7pm [£]
(The Boat Show Comedy Club)

Sat 18th – British Museum + coffee/tea (at local tea room)
1pm [Free/£]
(Holborn)

Events outside of London will continue to take place, as has been our focus for the majority of 2011. For more details, sign up to the mailing list by emailing info@imaan.org.uk or keep checking our forum and website!

Support East London Pride this Saturday 24 September

LGBTQ people in East London are coming together to celebrate our diversity and oppose homophobia,transphobia,sexism and racism,including islamophobia and antisemitism.

We invite LGBTQ people and supporters who share our values to join us – people of all genders and all ethnic groups,people of all ages,and people of faith and none.

Starting at 1300 outside Hackney Town Hall,the East London Pride Parade will form a procession to Oxford House Community Centre in Tower Hamlets,by Weavers Fields.

The Pride festival at Oxford House will reflect the range of interests within our communities.

Entertainment expected to include dance,cabaret and more.
Workshops exploring contemporary politics and identity,for example,how the spending cuts and recession disproportionately affect LGBTQ people and lead to an atmosphere where minorities are made scapegoats.
Market place for local services,community organisations and LGBTQ rights campaigns.
Bar and café.
Picnic space available in Weavers Field.
Older and younger LGBTQ people,and families,will be particularly welcomed.

For further information contact info@eastlondonpride.org.uk.

Email restored

Imaan email is now working normally, sorry for any inconvenience!

Eid Events on 16th & 17th September 2011

Eid Events on 16th and 17th September

Apologies for the late delay in getting ourselves together, but we have finally managed to organise a series of events for an Imaan celebration of Eid.  These events are a great opportunity for our members to get together after Ramadan and celebrating Eid with their families and catch up over some food, fun and dancing!
Drinks and Club Kali
On Friday 16th September 2011, we’ll going for drinks at Halfway to Heaven, a pub on Duncannon St, near Trafalgar Sq and Charing Cross Tube. Meet us at the pub at 9pm, though if you’d like a meeting spot, I’m sure insomniacsleeper can arrange a meeting spot at Charing Cross station!

For those who haven’t been to Club Kali and would really like to, we’ll be heading to the infamous Club Kali afterwards, for dancing, fun and frolics! Should you wish to, you can also meet us there.  Club Kali, for those who don’t know, is situation in Tufnell Park, at The Dome, 1 Dartmouth Park Hill, N19 5QQ. We hope that you will join us, as our trips to Club Kali are ALWAYS full of joy.

Lunch at Sahara
On Saturday 17th September, we have booked a table at Sahara, a lovely and intimate Moroccan restaurant in Bayswater for 1pm. For those whom Friday will be a late one, the 1pm lunch provides an ideal opportunity to gain some much needed sustenance and replenishment. 

We’ll meet at Bayswater station at 12.30, for those who wish you join us in advance and make their way to the restaurant together. Otherwise, feel free to meet us at the restaurant at 1pm, which is located at 39 Hereford Rd, Westbourne Grove, London, W2 4AB.

Please email either tawseef@imaan.org.uk, qurra@imaan.org.uk or tubedriver@imaan.org.uk to let us know of your intention to attend, making it a lot easier for us to anticipate numbers and organise ourselves accordingly. Hoping to see you all there and to celebrate Eid, belatedly, but with style!

Wasalaam