I think I’ve finally found the phrase that identifies me, at least with regards to the kinda guys I go for. According to part 3 of the Gay Muslims documentary, I would be a “Mohammed queen”. (Similar to how a white guy who likes East Asian guys is called a “rice queen” and a non-white guy who likes white guys is called a “snow queen.”) I feel like my ideal lover and life partner would be a guy who identifies as Muslim and practices the faith (or, at least, shows some genuine love/affection for it).

One comment on my post of yesterday titled "Canadian Progressive Muslims on 9/11" was in the vein of "Why say that Progressive Muslims condemn this and that; why not condemn it as Muslims?" (Paraphrasing here.) And it is something that comes up often. And a question worth addressing. So here goes:

Believe me, I understand where that question is coming from. I have been there.

But I find it much more intellectually honest for a group to say "Look, we're not saying we speak for all Muslims; but here's what we think." Too often very conservative people say things that only 5% of Muslims would completely agree with; and, on the other side, very liberal/progressive people say things that only 5% of Muslims would completely agree with--and claim the mantle of moderate or mainstream Muslims. Take the policies of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, for example. Or the regime in Iran. Or take Irshad Manji. If Irshad Manji said, forthrightly, "Look, I am not saying things that most Muslims might agree with, but I have something to bring to the table" instead of her holier-than-thou-more-human-than-thou spiel, she might be a good addition to the conversation. That's the difference I see between her and El Farouq Khaki, one of the co-authors of the piece I forwarded.

This goes for anyone who find my questions about their identity annoying.

I mean no harm, I guess I'm a little apprehensive around other Muslims, somewhat never feeling like I fit in.

Mark Simpson was born in York, England, where he attended the same school as Guy Fawkes, though not in the same year.

After running away from Oriel College, Oxford and working as a deckhand, a bouncer, a photo-love novel model, a pot-washer and a double-glazing salesman, he realised he was unemployable and so naturally turned to writing.

Exposed by the New York Times as the deadbeat dad of the 'metrosexual', he has since been asked by hundreds of publications and TV stations around the world to explain himself, his own ‘lesbosexual’ sense of anti-style, and his offspring’s perfect complexion. He also appears to have been the inspiration for Quentin Tarantino's manic cameo appearance in the movie Sleep With Me as a party guest obsessed with the homoerotics of the classic Eighties blockbuster Top Gun.

I have a question, it seems that people make references to their identity in passing, but when it comes to direct questions posed by me, they never answer them.  Instead they remain silent, never even quenching my curiousity.

When it comes to people of color reverts and Jews, they always seem to delve in their identities and the various labels they self-describe themselves.

But for Euro-American reverts, there is this hesitancy to discuss issues of race and ethnicity.

OmarG seems to be the exception, with his insistence on an indigenous American Muslim identity predicated upon intermarriage and ethnic miscegenation.

This photo was taken in 2004, near the Afghan-Tajik border.

This topic concerns issues of conflicting identities.

I shall talk about my subjective experience as both a gay man and a Muslim man living in America. I stated shahada in 2003, at the age of 23 though I am now 26, I still do not know the prayers completely in Arabic and my knowledge of Islam is still lacking in some arenas.

I do attend a mosque regularly, the Islamic Center of San Diego which is quite political surprisingly; unlike the mosque I originally attended in Los Angeles sandwiched between Hollywood and Koreatown on Vermont Avenue.

My posts will not always deal with Islam per se, but issues that certainly do affect Muslims. One such issue is immigration from immigrant sending nations to immigrant receiving nations. I was reading an article in the Los Angeles Times yesterday, about this woman who is an immigrant, who came to this country illegally from Jalisco, the same state as my father.

She arrived in Los Angeles in 1984, after 22 years of living here, she does not speak English. Her husband, who has been here for 28 years, speaks little to no English at all too. She has a total of 10 biological children and three children from her husband’s previous relationships. They live in a one bedroom apartment in South Los Angeles; her older children do not speak English that well, their reading skills are confined to picture books which visually aid them in reading and comprehending the words.