Yasir Qadhi is a prominent American Islamic preacher. He studied Islam in Saudi Arabia and it shows: he has an awful record of vicious statements about Shia Muslims, homosexuals, Jews, and much more.
He has had to whittle down that Saudi Islam in the face of sustained criticism, recanting earlier statements and insisting he has moved on.
The whittling down has not made him any more attractive. These days he seems to specialise in obnoxious idiocy.
Here is an example from an interview covering terrorism just three weeks before the Paris attacks:
I mean the official narrative that is always being portrayed that they hate us for our freedoms, I mean every analyst knows this is not true, everybody working, every academic, everybody who studied everybody knows this is just a false narrative that is being painted.
Freedom is exactly what was attacked in Paris. It was not the first such assault and it will not be the last.
On and on he goes in the rest of the interview about “foreign policy”.
Imagine someone loudly and repeatedly insisting that Norway must assess its immigration and integration policies in the shadows of Anders Breivik’s massacre. He or she would be given short shrift and this is just what should happen to Mr Qadhi.
There’s worse. After the Paris attacks, Qadhi came out with this ugly line:
We are not Ahmad Merabet, because we will not give our lives to defend the right of others to insult people’s religions.
Mr Qadhi will be in London at the end of this month. His host will be the notorious Islamic Forum of Europe.
Here’s a taste of his rhetoric in the UK. This speech was delivered in 2013 at the Islamist jamboree known as the “Global Peace and Unity” event.
He begins with a tirade against David Cameron, wilfully misinterpreting the Prime Minister’s Munich speech in a bid to stir up yet more anger. Then he brackets the EDL with the Quilliam Foundation in an utterly scurrilous swipe. It’s typical.
Finally, look at him grimacing about homosexuality and pining for a past when prejudice was the rule.
Fortunately for Mr Qadhi, many Brits are Ahmed Merabet. I am one of them.
Let him speak. He is very good at digging new holes in his vast pit of obnoxious idiocy.