Salaam/Peace,

Many people wonder how StraightWay came to be. Here is one very brief account in
answer to an e-mail received...

NB: There is also a brief response to those who label us as an "ex-gay"
organisation! We have NEVER described ourselves that way, and never will.


> ---------- Forwarded message ----------
> Subject: who are you?
> To: info@...
>
>
> In the name of Allah
> as-salamo alykom
> I have explored your web site and I would like to know who are you?who
> did build this web site?
> are you former homosexuals or you are straight?
> thanks
> Ali
>

Wa 'alaikum assalaam brother,

May Allah reward you for getting in touch. We only hope for His pleasure, and we
are in need of our brothers' advice and support.

I established the StraightWay Foundation over two years ago in recognition of a
few facts. I heard about people calling themselves "gay Muslims" and running
organisations to promote their ideas. Looking more into the subject, I realised
that there was a real problem faced by many Muslims: same-sex attraction can
affect people regardless of which religion they follow, or their level of
faith/practice. So the broad aim of StraightWay is to provide proper
information on the issues, and give advice to Muslims struggling with same-sex
attractions (SSA).

After setting up the website (which was mainly developed by myself, collecting
articles and writing new ones with my own approach/ideas), I came into contact
with other interested Muslims, and now there is a good team working together,
trying to take things further. These include brothers and sisters, in various
countries around the world, some specialised in psychological issues, some more
specialised in Islamic research, and all of us trying to do our bit for the
cause of defending Islam from corruption, and supporting Muslims in need.

All of us describe ourselves as "straight" in the sense of striving to be on
Allah's path, according to His Qur'an and the Prophet's Sunnah (peace be on
him). Some of us suffer from same-sex attractions (SSA), to varying degrees.
Maybe a few among us have committed sins in the past, from which they repented.
Each person has his or her own motivations for working in this field. But we all
totally reject the idea of labelling ourselves as "gay", or even "ex-gay",
because this terminology is mistaken from an Islamic point of view.

I hope this clarifies, and please do write back if you have any more questions -
or even better, if you have ideas to help.

Your brother,

Mujahid Mustaqim
StraightWay Chairman


--
The StraightWay Foundation
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