5 Questions I Asked The Founder of A Queer Muslim Group In Conservative Singapore
The answers are more surprising than expected
Introduction
Most people would associate Singapore with the now-iconic movie, Crazy Rich Asians, and think that with all the shiny new buildings, that we’d be a reflection of the liberal West we’d modeled ourselves after.
Nothing could be further from the truth.
Queer people have got it stacked against them and queer people of faith often face ostracism from their faith community.
Today, I interview Zuby Eusofe, the founder of The Healing Circle, a safe space she’s created for LGBT Muslims in Singapore, and ask her 5 questions about it.
5 Questions for Zuby
1. How did you decide to set up The Healing Circle?
I set up The Healing Circle because previous LGBTQ+ Muslim groups that I was a part of did not make it able for us to bring more queer Muslims into our community.
In addition, I felt that we needed to let fellow queer Muslims out there know that there are people just like them that exist within the Muslim society, right here in Singapore.
Finally, there are LGBTQ+ Muslims out there who believe, deep down, that they can still be Muslims even though they belong to a minority in terms of their sexual and gender orientations, and I wanted to create a space for them to belong.
2. What does the name, “The Healing Circle”, mean?
The first word that came to my mind when I was conceptualizing the name for the group was the word “Healing”. This is because LGBTQ+ Muslims need to heal themselves from the trauma inflicted from mainstream Muslims who often accuse them being “sick”, a “freak”, and even being “lustful”.
Also, there’s the idea one carries over from childhood where us as Muslims are taught to fear Allah, God the Punisher, instead of Allah as a God of Mercy and of Graciousness, and as a God of Love and Peace.
Healing thus needs to take place so that we can see that there are hope and love from our Creator, Allah.
We also did not choose to be this way but are rather chosen by Allah who has created us to be the way we are.
The word “Circle” represents unity and communion within the group and was a kind suggestion by one of our friends.
3. What do you do in your monthly group meetings?
Firstly, we will go around and ask how each group member is doing that month.
Then, we generally talk about a single topic, either relating to spirituality, relationships, our current emotional state, or our views on important events happening within each particular month.
Then, we sometimes provide a group therapy session where we might paint, do some art, or write a letter to someone we want to come out to. It’s serves as a form of catharsis.
Right now, we also have a certified counselor where our members can come and have a one-to-one session with.
4. What’s in store for the future for The Healing Circle?
We hope that one day we can have a dialogue with our local mufti (Islamic jurist) to promote acceptance of LGBTQ+ people within the faith.
In the first week of Ramadan, Nadia Gideon, the founder of the L-Inc Foundation in Malaysia and I wrote an open letter addressed to a local mufti and bishop in the first week of Ramadan to suggest the possibility of dialogue between our organizations and are currently waiting for their reply.
In the letter, we mentioned how we were touched by the kindness of an earlier viral open letter our mufti wrote to the bishop, whom the latter wrote back to.
This was the inspiration for our letter and we hope that they will one day agree to a dialogue that will help move forward how queer people of faith are treated in both the Muslim and Christian spheres.
5. How can people contact you if they’d like to join The Healing Circle?
They can reach us with by dropping us a Direct Message (DM) on Instagram, text us on Facebook Messenger, or email us at thehealingcircle.sg@gmail.com
