"Eastenders" courts more gay controversy by outing a new Muslim character

Much known that Syed was going to be gay for well over a year, long before the character joined it was rumored (well pretty much confirmed) that he was going to be gay so we have been waiting a hell of a long time for him to appear.

Just a shame he has to get with Christian, Christian is one of the most annoying people on that show...and thats saying something!

I am sure there will be a bit of a "to do" about all this but it will all blow over like most things do.

Least I hope it will.

Have been half following the show.  Thus far Elliot has been pretty cool.  Part of a great family who are well written and really well acted.  This storyline should be a good one.  As for 'normal' (and I'm ignoring the insulting subtext) there are no characters in soaps who are 'normal', and in Eastenders, I can't think of any that are 'friendly'! Maybe Heather... but that's a whole other area of bigotry.

That a muslim will be kissing a Christian.  And that, Christian (as Beero noted) is an annoying character -- a second double entendre given our past eight years of Christo-facism.

Well, I'll be...

I remember reading that the original intention for the Tamwar character was to explore a gay teen, but they nixed that (although Tam's stuck in the sexless nerd role as a result.)  So I'm pleased to see they will explore this with Syed.

This storyline has SO much potential!  The Masoods (that is to say Masood and Zainab) have a very interesting relationship.  They struggle with being a modern English couple but we've seen several situations where, when push comes to shove, Masood asserts himself as the leader of the family and issues ultimatums.  It makes for some really interesting drama.

Syed has been very shady since he came on the show, lying and deceiving his loved ones and basically acting in a very selfish way, while being charming.  Hopefully they can use this storyline to redeem his character.

As for Christian, I'm all for them giving John Partridge a more serious relationship.  Part of the reason he's such a twit is because we've yet to see him actually have a mature, grown-up relationship.  If he can manage that with Syed, it might just give the character some much-needed depth.

I'll be watching this storyline very carefully.  EastEnders doesn't seem to fold easily under controversy, so we'll see if that holds true here.

 

I had a feeling they were going to make him gay. I agree, what does being gay have to do with him not being friendly and normal. I'm glad their giving christian a chance to have a real relationship, better than that stuff with stacey's ex. i admit i only watch the show off and on but lately ive bin on again what wit danielle dying and stacey going bipolar

My tounge would catch your tounge...were the world mine :-)

I think it's awesome to have a gay Muslim character on a soap!

I've never followed Eastenders, but in All That Matters (the german soap) Deniz is supposed to be a muslim, even though he's WAY nonreligious. He drinks, eats delicious german sausages (made of pork) and is bisexual...

By the way, I come from a middleeastern country, and I can assure you there are plenty of gay muslims, though they tend to be more closeted than christians...

overall its a good idea to show that gay comes in all ethnicities and religions

So I'll find it back later.

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R.I.P. - Heath - R.I.P. - Heath - R.I.P. - Heath - R.I.P. - Heath - R.I.P.

As other have posted, there were rumors about Syed being brought on as a love interest for Christian.  And we knew that Christian would have a big storyline this summer and that the Beales and the Masoods would be even more tied together than they are now.  So that pretty much added up to a relationship between the two in my mind.  And yes, it'll be good to see Christian in a serious relationship that lasts more than a few episodes.  So I'm excited to see how this plays out.

Carole

I actually wrote to the producer to say that I had been amazed to find Luke and Noah on ATWT and that the US had travelled 30 years in one year. Eastenders had gay characters 30 years ago and they had storylines but were not allowed to kiss on screen. Even the last time with Christian it was in the dark or the angle was acute. I told him I also had seen Ollian and other European couples on youtube. Eastenders put out a statement saying they treated everyone equally regardless of race, sexual orientation etc. I said I didn't think that was true. Hopefully, they have taken this on board and will not shirk this opportunity. The muslim angle will be very interesting if they can take the flak that will come their way. I have seen documentaries about gay muslims and life is very difficult for them when they are constantly told by imans that it is utterly wrong and we see in Iran that men can be executed and flogged etc. The Christian church meanwile cannot exclude people because Jesus was openly inclusive and not exclusive. The church would rather gay people abstained from sex. It was good though to see the Scottish church vote to keep an openly gay vicar that the congregation had voted for. It is about time that gay muslims had some support and I hope that this storyline will highlight the dreadful plight of people being told that who they are is not only wrong but 'evil'