In response to various posters which have appeared in Tower Hamlets and other parts of East London, the director of the London Muslim Centre, Dilwar Khan has said:
“We stand together with our fellow citizens against all forms of hatred, including homophobia. We are committed to building strong and cohesive communities in Tower Hamlets, and our strength is that we will not let incidents of hate divide us.”
This is a welcome statement indeed. It is also very much at odds with the hate preachers and promotion of homophobia – including those who advocate the execution of gays – for which the London Muslim Centre is justly infamous.
For example, next Friday, the London Muslim Centre is hosting a gala dinner at which Uthman Lateef is speaking.
Uthman Lateef said this to Queen Mary students in 2007:
“We don’t accept homosexuality … we hate it because Allah hates it”
Let us look at other homophobes at the London Muslim Centre, over the past few years. Take, for example, Abdul Karim Hattin, who played “Spot the Fag” at the London Muslim Centre in 2007.
[media id=1]
Do you think that there might just be a connection between attacks on gay people, and the promotion of this sort of aggressive and vicious homophobia at the London Muslim Centre? I have to confess, I have entertained that possibility!
I hope you’l forgive me reposting habibi’s article detailing some of the other homophobic speakers who have been welcomed in recent years at the East London Mosque and its London Muslim Centre.
As reported in this documentary, Khalid Yasin is an extremist, a 9/11 troofer and a fraudster. This is what he makes of homosexuality:
There’s no such thing as a Muslim having a non-Muslim friend. If you prefer the clothing of the kafirs over the clothing of the Muslims, most of those names that’s on most of those clothings is faggots, homosexuals and lesbians. [opening of the documentary]
…
The Koran gives a very clear position regarding homosexuality, lesbianism and bestiality – that these are aberrations, they are immoralities and if they are tried, convicted, they are punishable by death. [15:30]
We have covered Abdullah Hakim Quick‘s recent visit to City University, King’s College London and the University of East London. He wants people to have no doubts whatsoever about his view on gays:
They said “what is the Islamic position [on homosexuality]?” And I told them. Put my name in the paper. The punishment is death. And I’m not going to change this religion.
Listen to Quick’s speech (MP3)
Abdur Raheem Green runs “iERA”, a group that tours Islamists around the country. He has this to say about gays on his own blog – they should be stoned, like adulterers:
All this applies also to the matter of stoning the adulterer and adulteress to death.
…
There is another direction from which the wisdom of such a punishment can be understood, and that is the death of two criminals can prevent the death and agony of many innocents. There is no doubt that adultery has caused many a jilted partner to kill not only the partner but in some instances the children as well. This is the harm that we can measure and see. It is more than likely that the psychological effects on the jilted partner, the children and their families is extensive, and can lead to behavioural problems that ultimately effect the well being of the whole society! The “harm” of the punishment for adultery is offset by the need of the “benefit” and protects the wider society. All of this also goes some way to help understand way acts of homosexuality are simlarily treated so harshly.
Bilal Philips is a Saudi-trained Islamist who supports the marriage of girls at the age of nine and Islamic corporal punishments. He is an apologist for suicide bombers and linked to the 1993 New York bombing plots. He is banned in Australia. This is from a pamphlet (pdf, pp. 21-22) he wrote called “Contemporary Issues”:
The consequence of AIDS is enough to prove that homosexuality is evil and dangerous to society.
In fact, homosexuality is so bad, Philips wrote, that it merits corporal punishment in the name of Islam, just like robbery (see page 18 of the pdf).
In this video version of “Contemporary Issues”, he says:
As a consequence of this practice [homosexuality], AIDS spread through society and it spread beginning with the homosexual element. People wanted to say, well hey, this is, you know, divine retribution. This was thrown aside. “No, how can it be, no no no, we cannot say this. This is something which happened, we don’t blame it on, you know, God punishing people.” But from the Islamic perspective, yes. [9:00]
…
In Islamic law the punishment for homosexuality is no different from the punishment for adultery and fornication. It could be death. It’s looked at as a deviation, just as if somebody is involved in bestiality, sexual relations with animals. Death! This is a deviation. Adultery is death. So it’s not any special punishment, it is a punishment for deviant behaviour which threatens the family structure of a society. [12:00]
Abu Usamah at Thahabi is an imam at Green Lane Mosque in Birmingham. He is of course known for these quotes from Undercover Mosque:
Do you practice homosexuality with men? Take that homosexual man and throw him off the mountain.
…
They have given them [homosexuals] unprecedented rights, so that your child can be exposed and introduced to lesbians. Now they say “if you discriminate against that, you’re going to jail”. We’ll discriminate, but we’ll discriminate in a way where we don’t get in trouble. The Muslim is a dentist, one of those people come, you want to take a big, big needle and stick it in his gums. [13:30]
Yasir Qadhi is a founder and leader of the Al Maghrib Institute, the Islamist training group that brought Abdullah Hakim Quick to London universities. He offers an exquisitely stupid and cruel “solution” to gay Muslim men: marry a woman.
And remember that marriage is a solution, so you should seriously consider it. The Prophet Lut ‘alayhis salam told his people, “These are my daughters, they are more pure for you.” Some scholars say that when he said “daughters”, he is also implying the women of the town and not just his own daughters. So he’s telling the men of his community who were guilty of this crime to go and marry women, for they are better and purer for them. Marriage is a solution, because sensuality and sexuality is something that can be satisfied – rather it should be satisfied – by the opposite gender within the confines of marriage.
Mohammed Alshareef is the director of the Al Maghrib Institute. He says Muslims should be proud to be homophobic. They should also follow the lead of Christians who harass gay pride rallies.
If people hear about a lecture like this at the masjid [mosque], they would say “homophobic”. Correct? They’re like “oh my God, they’re a bunch of homophobic people”. And I thought to myself, that’s an amazing word to be called. Alhamdulillah [praise to God] that you’re homophobic. Now notice the propaganda and the indoctrination that you’ve been – when I just said, alhamdulillah I’m homophobic, you’re thinking to yourself “How do you say alhamdulillah? That’s something bad.” These are words that they flipped in our minds. Homophobia means a fear of homosexuality. Alhamdulillah we have a fear of homosexuality. And then they will say it as if it is a derogatory term, but in fact it is a praiseworthy term.
…
Whenever there is a gay rally – isn’t it interesting that they call them gay, they’re happy people, right? – there are a type of people who go to these rallies and stand up for the truth. They have signs that tell them to stop what they’re doing or they will go to hellfire. Do you think they are Muslims? No, they are not Muslims, they are Christians. They are Christians who stand up for this. … I pray to Allah that you will join the ranks and start to stand up and speak against things like this. [from 25:00]
Murtaza Khan too is keen on “proper” Christians – he thinks they have a charter for killing gays, just like Muslims:
Now what is the punishment? According to the Bible, excuse me, this is a Christian country. Read the history of this country. Christian country. According to the Bible, the Bible says the person should be thrown down from a mountain and then stoned on top of that. That’s what Isa [Jesus] told you people. But they teach “no, you’re homophobic”. And those Christians who stand up against this abominable action, which goes against humanity, then they’re fundamentalists like us as well then.
…
I’m not homophobic. I believe in a natural way of life. I’m repeating you what your Bible tells you. In the hadith you find: “You find the people doing the action of Lot, kill the one who does the action and the one the action is being done to.” [4:40]
The London Muslim Centre loves to pretend that the hosting of these anti-Gay hate preachers are nothing to do with them, and that they can’t be blamed for their failure to vet these speakers.
This is utter rubbish. A number of these clerics – Muhammad Alshareef, Yasir Qadhi, Abdullah Hakim Quick and Bilal Philips – have actually given the prestigious Friday sermon at the East London Mosque itself. They didn’t know they were homophobes? Well, they know now!
Let’s see how sincere Dilwar Khan of the London Muslim Centre is about combatting homophobia. He should tell Uthman Lateef, who tells students that Muslims should “hate” – not refrain from, not regard as a sin, but hate – homosexuality, that he may not speak on their premises.