Behind the Scenes with Waheed Jensen

As the founder of the first ever podcast series catered for Muslims experiencing same sex attractions, Waheed Jensen is no stranger to the SSA Muslim community, and we are delighted to have him as a guest. In this webinar, we look at Waheed’s journey to Islam and his own journey in reconciling his faith with unwanted same sex lust. We explore his work in the Muslim community on this topic, discussing the challenges he faced and what the future looks like for the well-recognised A Way Beyond the Rainbow podcast series.

Date: Saturday 21st November

Time: 5pm (GMT)

Experiencing familial difficulties and sexual abuse from an early age, coupled with a sense of alienation from religion, Waheed struggled with reconciling his faith and identity as a man with his incongruous same sex attractions. He later found himself dealing with severe anxiety, depression, low self-esteem, shame and suicidality.

Realising that the combination of Muslim + SSA + trying to stay true to Islam and God was a turbulent journey of its own, he took a first step to shed light on the matter in 2015, using the pseudonym Waheed Jensen, he published his article The Strange Elephant in the Room: Struggles, Passions and Hopes. Since then, e-mails from all over the world started pouring in, with many men and women struggling with SSA feeling heard and seeking help in the process. Later, Waheed discovered the Straight Struggle community and was involved with different initiatives to help this community, providing meaningful and practical solutions instead of the usual rhetoric heard from Muslims on what is haram (forbidden) and what is halal (lawful).

Waheed’s blog gathered attention, but he wasn’t finished yet. At the start of this year, Waheed started his podcast series: A Way Beyond the Rainbow, with episodes covering topics such as identity and shame, desires and spirituality, support systems, addictions and habits, among other topics. In the podcast, Waheed speaks with Muslims who are on the journey, as well as therapists and various leaders of organisations from around the world. The aim of the podcast is to be a comprehensive Islamic resource for Muslims struggling with unwanted same sex lust, where topics related to psychology, identity, spirituality, support systems, marriage and celibacy, interpersonal relations, family, community and others are covered.