Justice
The Lebanese Alt-Rock Band America Listened to After the Orlando Shootings
The gay, Muslim lead singer of Beirut’s Mashrou‘ Leila spoke out against simplistic statements on Islam and the LGBT community.
The Beirut-based alt-rock band Mashrou‘ Leila (“Night Project”) just happened to be on a U.S. tour when the shootings at a gay nightclub in Orlando took place last week. In the aftermath of the tragedy, the very existence of Mashrou‘ Leila and its lead singer, Hamed Sinno, who is both Muslim and gay, became a source of interest in the U.S. media.
It started when Sinno spoke out in the wake of the incident, telling a Washington, D.C. audience: “There are a bunch of us who are queer who feel assaulted by that attack who can't mourn because we're also from Muslim families and we exist. This is what it looks like to be called both a terrorist and a faggot.”