Daayiee Abdullah (Arabic: داعي عبد الله, born Sidney Thompson)[1][2] is an American Imam based in Washington, D.C.[1][3][4] Abdullah is said to be one of five openly gay Imams in the world (the others being Muhsin Hendricks of South Africa, Ludovic-Mohamed Zahed of France, El-Farouk Khaki of Toronto's el-Tawhid Juma Circle/The Unity Mosque, and Nur Warsame of Australia).
[11] His parents believed that once a member of the family had graduated high school, he was an adult.
[11] Abdullah was a Community Scholar at Georgetown University studying Chinese[12] and graduated from the David A. Clarke School of Law in Washington, D.C. in 1995 as a juris doctor.
[13] In 1978, Abdullah went to Washington D.C. for a conference because he was working for Governor Jerry Brown's office in San Francisco.
[9][11] Following that experience, at age 30, he became a Muslim and adopted the Islamic name Daayiee Abdullah.
[11] Abdullah would go on to study Islam in Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, and Syria.
Abdullah, under his legal name Sidney Thompson, is the CEO of Asiad & Associates, a software company in Washington, D.C. Around 2000, he joined the online Yahoo!
[11] He began being called Imam after performing ceremonies for people who were considered pariahs in their community due to illnesses or the gender or religion of the person they wished to marry.
[9][15] Abdullah was a board member of the round table of the Al-Fatiha Foundation for several years.
Abdullah created an LGBT-friendly masjid in Washington D.C in 2011, called Masjid Nur Al-Isslaah (English: "Mosque for Enlightenment and Reformation" or "Light of Reform Mosque"), of which he is the imam and religious director.