A group of queer Muslims in South Africa have rejected the South African Muslim Judicial Council’s new edict that condemns homosexuality as sinful and unIslamic. The fatwa the the South African Muslim Judicial Council issued earlier this month says any Muslims who are in same-sex relationships or engage in same-sex sexual relations will have taken themselves out of the Islamic faith. The South African Muslim Judicial Council has also called for excommunication or “takfir,” with the punishment being death for any Muslim found to be a member of the LGBTQ community. “As queer Muslim South Africans and allies we resist the fatwa unequivocally. The MJC is a self-appointed, unelected and entirely male body, save for the head of their Women’s Forum, that does not represent the Muslim community on any democratic basis,” reads a letter that 20 queer South African Muslims signed. “We remind the MJC that Section 9 of the Constitution forbids discrimination on the basis of sex, gender or sexual orientation, and applies to government and private parties. Section 15 provides for the recognition of religious legal systems and marriages that are not inconsistent with the Constitution. The rights of 2SLGBTQIA+ people under the South African constitution cannot be trumped by cultural or religious authority, especially the right to life.”