February 16, 2025 | 06:43 pm
TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - The world’s first openly gay imam, Muhsin Hendricks, was shot dead on Saturday, February 15, 2025, near the southern town of Gqeberha, South Africa. The imam ran a mosque that was intended to be a safe haven for gays and other marginalized Muslims, Arab News reported.
He was in a car with others when a vehicle pulled up in front of them and blocked their exit, police said. “Two unidentified suspects with their faces covered got out of the vehicle and began firing multiple shots at the vehicle,” Eastern Cape police said in a statement.
“They then fled the scene. The driver saw that Hendricks, who was sitting in the back of the vehicle, had been shot and killed,” police said.
A police spokesman confirmed the authenticity of a video on social media showing the killing in Bethelsdorp near Gqeberha, formerly known as Port Elizabeth. “The motive for the killing is not yet known and is part of an ongoing investigation,” police said, appealing for anyone with information to come forward.
The International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association condemned the killing. “The ILGA World family is deeply shocked by the news of the murder of Muhsin Hendricks, and calls on authorities to thoroughly investigate what we fear is a hate crime,” executive director Julia Ehrt said in a statement.
Hendricks, who was involved in various LGBTQ advocacy groups, came out as gay in 1996. He ran the Al-Ghurbaah mosque in Wynberg near his birthplace, Cape Town.
The mosque provided a safe space where queer Muslims and marginalized women could practice Islam, its website states.
Hendricks, who was the subject of a 2022 documentary called “The Radical,” has previously spoken out about threats against him, but he insisted that the need to be authentic outweighs the fear of death.
South Africa has one of the world’s highest murder rates, with about 28,000 killings in the year to February 2024, according to police data.
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