"Thank you for humanizing Islam..."

150 students and faculty showed up to watch, debate and discuss at the 1929 building of the Michigan League in Ann Arbor last night. The University of Michigan Campus had put together an excellent program.
One of the key members of the Muslim Students Association, Mohammed Safi, offered by way of introduction to the evening- a case for why theologically, Islam and homosexuality cannot be reconciled. He started with prayer and armed with Quran, also offered particular evidence of why this was not possible. Interestingly, he also made a case for civil discourse.
I was deeply touched by his presence as well as the presence of other members of the MSA who came and stayed for an intense discussion that followed, right after they finished their Maghrib prayers. Some of them were missing a meeting of their Executive Board.
Out of everything that Mohammed said, this stays-
"Thank you Parvez for humanizing Islam (and Muslims)..."
What also remains is our civil discussion based on his opinion that the two can never be reconciled (Islam and homosexuality).
Also present was another young Muslim man-Amer Ahmed, who is also a spoken word artist-and can be found at www.dawahpoet.com. Amer spoke eloquently, as a co-sponsor but again left me with a heart warming thank you and a CD of his own work.
"Parvez, I am so glad that you (as a Muslim) made this film. I am afraid of what could have happened f this subject matter had fallen into the wrong hands"

A big thank you to Gabe and the Spectrum Center, who worked so hard to include the Muslim students on this 40,000 strong campus and spread the word.