Imam to wed same-sex couples under Pride
Imam Ludovic Mohamed Zahed will be carrying out same-sex marriages during the Stockholm Pride Festival and says his faith can be open and accepting to the LGBTQ community.
Same-sex marriages in Sweden have been legal since 2009 but within the Muslim community the issue is much more controversial.
The openly gay and HIV-positive imam Ludovic-Mohamed Zahed opened Europe' first LGBT-friendly mosque in Paris two years ago. In Stockholm, he's to perform same sex marriages during the capital's Pride Festival.
During an interview with Radio Sweden's sister channel Metropol, the South Africa-based imam said he jumped at the idea when the festival's main sponsor contacted him to marry muslim two women originally from Iran.
He said other couples were also welcome.
"I thought it was a very interesting idea and I jumped on the occasion, and I said 'Yeah, of course. Let's do it,'" he told Metropol. "I like the idea of including religious topics more and more in LGBT organizations, because it's something that we haven't worked with enough the past few decades."
