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The Koran and the Flesh

Ludovic-Mohamed Zahed

Book cover: The Koran and the Flesh

‘A moving, courageous voice … Muslims and others alike need to listen to him’ Observer

Ludovic-Mohamed Zahed is an imam and Koranic scholar. He is also gay.

In this memoir, he explains the journey he has taken to be both the founder of a mosque in Paris and to be openly gay, after a troubled childhood in Algeria in poverty and living with an aggressive and often violent father. Having found it impossible in that society to be both religious and true to himself, and being abandoned by a fellow school pupil with whom he was in love, he lost his faith.

Trained as an imam, though, he became an accomplished Koranic scholar. He concluded that there was nothing in the Koran that condemned same-sex attraction or committed same-sex relationships. Finally, during a pilgrimage to Mecca, he understood that he could be fully himself and practise his religion with sincerity and commitment. 

The Koran and the Flesh tackles these subjects with originality and is a book of real bravery, that shows how it is possible to reconcile homosexuality and religion.

Hardback

ISBN: 9781800754904

Published: February 13, 2025

Ebook

ISBN: 9781800754911

Published: February 13, 2025

Book cover: The Koran and the Flesh

Category:
Non-fiction

Reviews for The Koran and the Flesh

‘Zahed’s is a moving, courageous voice, but he also acknowledges the isolation of his position in an Islamic world where attitudes to sexuality have only hardened in recent years. But it is for this very reason that Muslims and others alike need to listen to him’The Observer

Author

Ludovic-Mohamed Zahed

Author image: Ludovic-Mohamed Zahed

Ludovic-Mohamed Zahed was born in Algiers in 1977. Trained as a Koranic scholar, he holds two doctorates from the University of Paris – one in anthropology and one in social psychology. He travels and lectures throughout the world – his English is perfect though his native languages are French and Arabic. In 2014 he gave a series of lectures at Boston University on ‘Rethinking Homosexuality and Islam’.

Author image: Ludovic-Mohamed Zahed