Islam is unethical, immoral, and unhealthy. It should be hidden from society.
Let’s say a large and controversial East London Christian group invited a foreign preacher to address the congregation. In this thought experiment, the preacher is already on video record rejecting Islam with these blunt words:
This is a lifestyle and an action that we think is unethical. That it is immoral. That it is unhealthy for a society, especially to publicise.
Muslims worshipping secretly is “one thing”. Mosques, though, will be in a great deal of trouble if the Christian preacher’s vision is realised:
It’s one thing to do it behind closed doors. Nobody knows about it. It’s another thing to show it to an entire society and to embrace it and to allow people to come into it. And that is something we will publicly say, without any embarrassment, that this is not healthy, it is not moral, it is not good, it is not wholesome. It is harmful to society, to family, to our children, even to ourselves. It’s simply not good for the soul.
The same preacher can also be seen on video comparing those who feel called to Islam with people who have undesirable urges. Married men who want to have an affair, for example. Or kleptomaniacs who can’t stop stealing. Or alcoholics having another drink. Or even, going for the offensive jugular, so to speak, those who want to commit mass murder.
“Don’t do it”, the preacher says, adding that the best solution for someone attracted to Islam is to choose Christianity instead. If he or she can’t do that, then remain faithless.
As the preacher’s visit loomed, there would surely be outrage in East London.
Let’s turn from experiment to reality. The above words are among the pearls of the American Islamist preacher Yasir Qadhi, speaking about homosexuality.
Gay Muslim men, you see, should just marry a woman. Why ruin only one life when you can wreck two?
Here he is in another talk, pining for the old “disgust” days when homosexuals could be openly denigrated. Imagine his visible disgust turned towards Islam by the Christian preacher in our thought experiment.
The “track record”
Mr Qadhi visits East London fairly often. He is always welcome at the East London Mosque, where he delivers sermons.
This is what makes the latest news from East London so surreal:
Muslim leaders have lodged a formal complaint with the organisers of London’s Pride festival after placards allegedly bearing Islamophobic messages were spotted at the event.
A secularist group of former Muslims were seen carrying a series of controversial signs during the march through the capital last weekend.
Banners bearing slogans such as “Allah is gay”, “F*** Islamic homophobia” and “East London Mosque incites murder of LGBTs” were carried at the event by members of the Council of Ex-Muslims of Britain (CEMB), who were a participating group listed on Pride’s website.
But leaders from the Muslim community wrote to the event’s organisers to raise concerns the messages incited hatred.
The mosque weighed in:
East London Mosque spokesman Salman Farsi told the Standard: “We’ve raised a complaint with the co-chairs of the event that the group was inciting hatred against Muslims, and in particular [in relation] to our good name, based on absolutely groundless reasons.
“Our track record for challenging homophobia in East London is quite well known,” he added, citing campaigns to condemn “gay-hate” stickers that sprung up around Tower Hamlets several years ago and the mosque’s public condemnations of attacks on LGBT people.
Oh yes, the mosque certainly does have a “track record” in homophobia.
Since we live in an age of addled double standards, let’s continue with the experiment.
Islam is based on nothing more than dangerous “feelings” and will lead to “chaos”
Another preacher coming to see the Christian group had said following Islam is based on nothing more than a “whim” and “feelings” given undue free rein. This is “scary” and “insane”. It is particularly awful that qualified counsellors and psychiatrists can’t tell those attracted to Islam that it is not a good thing. You might as well tell an agitated teenage boy that yes, he can slap people whenever he wants. This is the way society falls into “utter chaos”.
In reality, that is East London Mosque Friday sermon man Nouman Ali Khan speaking about homosexuality.
Islam heralds the End Times
Be warned, oh Christians! The spread of Islam heralds nothing less than the End Times.
Ah, that’s Jamal Badawi, another preacher welcome in the East London Mosque, assigning apocalyptic significance to the acceptance of homosexuality.
Muslims are “worse than animals” and make us “nauseous”
There’s more. Muslims are “worse than animals”, another preacher says. He also recounts that his “nausea” was so intense when he was seated next to a Muslim on an airliner that he wanted to change seats. The congregation titters but is admonished – no, this is “something to cry about”.
In reality, that’s Ismail Menk speaking about homosexuals. He’s another preacher welcome in the East London Mosque.
School lessons about Islam? No way.
The East London congregation is also very vexed by lessons about Islam in schools. In a series of heated sessions, the schools are denounced. Withdraw your kids from the lessons, get angry, place Christians on school boards, make it stop, now!
In the real world, that’s Yusuf Patel at the East London Mosque, decrying school lessons presenting homosexuality as “normalised” when it is simply “unacceptable”.
Kill them for God
What about the Crusades? Oh, lovely, is the congregation’s view. Muslims are best killed really, so let’s do it again!
Yes, the East London Mosque is a place where the very worst have been welcomed. Preachers who have advocated “severe” punishments for homosexuality and still been allowed in over the years include Salim al-Amry, Haitham al-Haddad, Assim al-Hakeem, Muhammad Alshareef, Yusuf Chambers, Yusuf Estes, Abdur Raheem Green, Ibrahim Hewitt, Murtaza Khan, Bilal Philips, Abdullah Hakim Quick, Hamza Tzortzis, and Khalid Yasin.
Challenged, normally preachers such as these insist murdering homosexuals is a matter for an “ideal Islamic State” and not individuals.
As we know, of course, a band of individuals in the Middle East did organise an Islamic State, with help from many British Muslims. Happy days.
“Provocative”
Here’s Maajid Nawaz’s take on the CEMB protest:
Maajid accepts that “these posters are provocative” but argues that this “is not Islamaphobia.”
He said “I wouldn’t want to hold up those banners, you may not want to hold up those banners, but it’s their right to hold up those banners. It’s like complaining about The Book of Mormon or The Life of Brian.”
The LBC host said that the East London Mosque were using the Islamaphobia as a “shield to prevent people from critiquing the religion of Islam itself.”
He went on to say the only signs that could be considered Islamophobic were those that encourgaed hatred and violence towards Islamic people and none of the signs reached that criteria. He said that a poster saying “‘Allah is gay’ that isn’t telling anyone to go and target a Muslim.”
Yes, that’s pretty much where I stand.
The East London Mosque’s record is far, far more “provocative”. And we’re helping to pay for it all – the mosque has raked in public sector grants totalling £3.2 mn over the last decade. This includes grants for “community cohesion” (£325,000 in total). No, really.
The mosque’s surreal “track record” stance will be backed by the malignant and the deluded, of course. They are sadly numerous in East London.
For those with eyes to see, though, yet more scales should fall now.
