13. Same-sex sexualities and Belgian Moroccan communities Wim Peumans Introduction It was my very frst ‘ofcial’ day of feldwork, somewhere in October 2010, when I was introduced to the Syrian-Dutch writer and sociologist Omar Nahas by one of my interlocutors, Khalid. Omar, Khalid and I were both at the Brussels Rainbowhouse, together with dozens of others, to attend a lecture by the African American gay imam and convert to Islam, Daaiyee Abdullah. I shake Omar’s hand and tell him I know his books. He gives me a faint smile. Omar seemed a bit annoyed with me, or at least he was acting quite distant and cold – very diferent from the other times I would meet him later during my feldwork. I told him I read about him in the newspaper a few weeks earlier. Again, something between a faint smile and a grimace. I was later explained that Omar was feeling frustrated because the past weeks he had been giving interviews to Belgian newspapers about a newly set-up program in Antwerp which trained laymen –and women to become guides in their local mosques. Omar was coach and leader of the project. But instead of focusing on the program, which was to lead to mutual understanding between non-Muslim Belgians and Muslim Belgians in Antwerp, the article revolved around the reporter asking the newly trained guides ‘what does Islam think of homosexuality?’ I told Omar about my PhD project on ‘homosexuality and Islam’. “You know”, Omar said, “if you do this kind of project, I think I have an angle for you, or