Ibrahim Abdurrahman Farajajé

Ibrahim Abdurrahman Farajajé (19 December 1952 – 9 February 2016), formerly known as Elias Farajajé-Jones, was a queer theologian, AIDS activist, scholar, spiritual leader, academic and professor. In 2023 a festschrift entitled Dr. Ibrahim Abdurrahman Farajajé: A Legacy of Afrocentric, Decolonial, In-the-Life Theology and Bisexual Intersexional Philosophical Thought and Practice was published, edited by H. Sharif Williams.

Early life and education Farajajé was raised in Berkeley, California; his parents were both education activists. He attended boarding school, where teachers there encouraged his initial interest in Islam; it was also where, in 1966-67, that he began to identify as anti-Zionist and pro-Palestinian. As one of the first black male students at Vassar College, he earned an A.B. in Religious Studies from there in 1972. He later stated gave him a feminist education. According to Susannah Cornwall, Farajajé was also one of the first black theologians that self-identified as queer. In 1987, Farajajé was the host the co-director of a TV series for Howard University and in 1988 co-directed "Conviction: A Healing Stream", a performance that discussed black religious communities and their unwillingness to bury HIV/Aids victims. During his time at Howard University, Farajajé was faculty member for Oxala, its LGBT society. In 1995 Farajajé began work as a faculty member at Starr King School for the Ministry, where he was Provost and Professor of Cultural Studies and Islamic Studies until his death in 2016. He was known to many of his students as 'Ibrahim Baba'.

Works A proponent of the importance of intersectionality across academic fields, his work included several areas of focus, such as biphobia, bisexuality, heteropatriarchy, blackness, incense in Islam, amongst other interests. He was critical of biphobia in the black church, and emphasised that black religious communities had the potential to be spaces of safety for bisexual black people.

In 1990 Farajajé wrote In Search of Zion: The Spiritual Significance of Africa for Three Black Religious Movements; the book studies the religious and theological roots of Afrocentrism.

Legacy In 2023 a festschrift entitled Dr. Ibrahim Abdurrahman Farajajé: A Legacy of Afrocentric, Decolonial, In-the-Life Theology and Bisexual Intersexional Philosophical Thought and Practice was published, edited by H. Sharif Williams. Farajajé was described by Elyse Ambrose as a "ground-breaking theologian". The cookbook Queen of Months: An Eco-halal Sufi Vegan/Vegetarian Cookbook for Ramadan and Beyond was dedicated to Farajajé, and includes quotes from him alongside recipes appropriate for Ramadan.

Selected works

African Creative Expressions (1991) In Search of Zion: Spiritual Significance of Africa in Black Religious Movements (1990) 'Breaking Silence: an in-the-life theology', in Black Theology: A Documentary History Vol 2 (1992) and was also a disciple of Sufism. Aubrey L. Glazer also described him as a "Sufi-Jew". He had tattoos and piercings, and was bisexual. He had both biological and adopted siblings.