Liberal Islamic scholar forced to pull out of gay rights speech

[davidinalameda]

http://www.pinknews.co.uk/news/articles/2005-864.html

The liberal Islamic theologian, Sheikh Dr Muhammad Yusuf, has been pressured to pull out of a lecture he was due to give tonight in London to raise funds for the gay rights activist Peter Tatchell, following protests and warnings by Muslim leaders.

Dr Yusuf was due to call for an "Islamic Reformation" to an audience primarily made up of gay men and women. The engagement has allegedly provoked the wrath of senior Islamic clerics, who warned they could not guarantee his safety if the lecture went ahead.

Dr Yusuf was due to argue that "the moment has come for the development of an authentically British and European Islam. We need an Islamic Reformation that reconciles Islam with democracy and human rights, including human rights for women and gay people. A progressive Islam can and should be part of a liberal, humanitarian reawakening of British society and culture."

In place of Dr Yusuf, the guest lecture at tonight's annual Peter Tatchell Human Rights Fund (PTHRF) event will be delivered by exiled Iranian feminist and human rights campaigner, Maryam Namazie. She will highlight the danger posed by to democracy and human rights by the rise of "political Islam".

[mitchtv]

1. Here we go again

Liberal religious voices dutifully sitting down and returning to the back of the bus. Once again, I say that Muslims can only blame themselves for the takeover of their religion by the Fundy wingnuts. Same story with Christians

[davidinalameda]

2. it's the squeaky wheel principle

those who yell the loudest get the most attention

most liberal Christians won't go around saying that the fundies are wrong, like the fundies do, because that's not how they operate

[mitchtv]

3. and yet, they end up in the back of the bus

silently assenting to all sorts of atrocities in the name of the Lord/Prophet. There is some saying that goes "Evil flourishes when good men do nothing".