Muhsin Hendricks—who has been called the world’s first openly gay imam—has been shot dead in South Africa, the BBC reported. He was 57.
Hendricks ran a mosque in Cape Town that was considered a safe space for LGBTQ+ and other marginalized Muslims. He was killed on Feb. 15 after the car in which he was traveling near the city of Gqeberha (formerly known as Port Elizabeth) was ambushed.
“Two unknown suspects with covered faces got out of the vehicle and started firing multiple shots at the vehicle,” authorities said.
LGBTQ+ individuals and organizations reacted with shock at the killing. Julia Ehrt—executive director at the International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association (ILGA—urged authorities to thoroughly investigate “what we fear may be a hate crime.”
Hendricks, involved in various LGBTQ+ advocacy groups, came out as gay in 1996, according to The Guardian. Two years later he started hosting meetings in his home city for LGBTQ+ Muslims, who saw him as their community imam. “I opened my garage, put a carpet down and invited people to have tea and talk,” he told The Guardian in 2022. Hendricks, the subject of a 2022 documentary called The Radical, had previously alluded to threats against him.