As you might, or perhaps might not, be aware, the BBC runs a program called “Free Speech” in which current affairs are discussed such an unemployment, immigration, gay rights etc… The format is one that involves going out to different venues within different cities around the UK and directly engaging with the public.
In a recent slot, a gay Muslim put forward the question, “When will the Muslim community accept gay Muslims like me?”. Ah, but the problem was that they were in fact holding that in Birmingham’s central Mosque.
So here is what happened …
Seriously … a program called “Free Speech” gets censored … so what exactly did the chairman of the mosque expect when he agreed to host a “Free Speech” program?
As a result of this he got robustly criticised, and rightly so.
He has in response tried to defend himself, here for example is his defence in the HuffPo …
“There are people with homosexual tendency in Muslim countries but they respect the law and control their desire as others do.
“Human beings do have weaknesses and tendencies which are not socially acceptable and so they try to have a control over them and do not give in.
“A compulsive murderer, gambler, paedophile etc. could present the same logic and ask for accommodation by the society. Are we going to accept on the basis of freedom of action?”
It was apparent that Lahore, the Muslim drag queen featured in the programme, “does not know his religion and has not got much links with it,” Naseem said.
“He would have, otherwise, known that it is prohibited in Islam. If he wants to persue [sic] his inclination then he is free to leave Islam and follow any ideology that suits him,”
OK, so there are more than a few flaws here with all this …
- The program was entitled “Free Speech” … hint: that involves talking … or to put that another way, they were not about to have a gay couple give a live demonstration, but rather present the question and then enable all to discuss their views and that of course involves his specific view as well – but no, even talking openly is apparently banned
- Who appointed him as spokesman for “Islam” … a belief that contains many different strands of conflicting beliefs and thoughts. He might indeed declare “Islam says” … but that does not make it true at all. Clearly the question was being posed by a Muslim who was also gay.
- His comprehension of what being gay actually is, has now been demonstrated to be astonishingly ignorant and uninformed. No, being gay is not simply a “tendency” and it does not equate to a gambling addiction. Some people are born that way, it equates to being born with blue eyes or brown eyes. It is quite natural and manifests in almost every species on the planet.
- It gets even worse, he appears to equate being gay to Pedophilia
In other words, to translate his “response” he is declaring himself to be an ignorant homophobic bigot, and is using his religious belief as a shield to justify that stance.
The tragedy here is that if there had in fact been a discussion, then he most probably would still not have agreed, but he just might have possibly learned something when the myths he promots were rebutted with facts.