By Colin C. Cortbus
A leading Muslim Gay Rights Advocate, has slammed a talk held at SOAS by the controversial homophobic preacher Dr Haitham Al-Haddad at SOAS on Monday the 17th of February. Omar Kuddus, an international LGBTQ Human Rights Activist and the director of Gay Asylum UK, a group that has campaigned against the deportation of LGBTQ asylum seekers who might face torture or murder in their home countries, told us; “Having viewed previous videos by Dr Haddad on homosexuality, the question that comes to mind is; ‘Is he reading the same Koran as me?’ His comments are un-Islamic and have no foundation in my religion, in my opinion.” Kuddus further explained “I can only assume that his intent is to indoctrinate fundamentalist and extremist views onto the masses and that his own interpretation of my religion is to be taken as gospel. As I pointed out numerous times, Islam does not condemn homosexuality in the Koran. “
The controversial Dr al-Haddad had been invited to SOAS by the Islamic Finance and Ethics Society (IFES) to give a talk on why Interest (Riba) is prohibited in Islam.
Dr Haitham Al-Haddad’s hateful views include claims that homosexuality is a “criminal act” and that homosexual acts may be “worse than murder”, that Osama Bin Laden will eventually go to paradise, perhaps as a martyr, while the “disbelievers will be burned in the hellfire forever”. Haddad has also claimed on the subject of Female Genital Mutilation that it is “The sunnah way of doing it, the proper way of doing it, it is consensus of all the scholars that female circumcision is a sunnah…All of them they said that it is sunnah, in fact some scholars say it is wajeb [obligatory]”. He further said that the devastating 2012 Tsunami in Japan was a divine punishment that occurred because the Japanese as “a community they have never thanked Allah by submitting to him.”. Haddad has also been filmed claiming “One of the biggest problem is the wife do not obey their husbands …You must obey him. We tell her ‘ok sister, the first right is the right of your husband. Unfortunately what we see is women, they want to be independent and they don’t want to obey their husband.” Articles published on a few Arabic language websites attributed to Haddad also link him with a number of anti-Semitic statements, including referenceto the notorious forged “Protocols of the Elders of Zion”, although Haddad strongly denies having made these claims. Haddad himself denies being an extremist, claiming that his view that Bin Laden will eventually go to paradise represents “mainstream Islamic opinion” and further suggesting that his position on homosexuality “is shared by millions of other people of all faiths in Britain”.
Haddad’s appearance at SOAS sparked passionate debate on the SOAS Rants Facebook Page. Student Sabiha Al wrote on: “To be a homophobe and to support FGM – whether he actually articulates or not – boils down to the same: it is the exact mentality that excludes and marginalizes. not cool”. Student Ruthie Bubis addressed the event organiser and IFES Vice President Elis Gjevori SOAS directly, writing “Elis Gjevori – I am personally shocked and disappointed at the lack of responsibility that your society has carried out. The insensitivity is very apparent and the disregard for a safe space, whether it’s SOAS policy or not (it should be), is a disappointing reality”
The event went ahead nonetheless. Elis Gjevori defended this on grounds of academic freedom and wrote “What the speakers believe or don’t believe do not necessarily reflect the views of the society”, while SOAS Student Union told the Huffington Post “The event was stewarded to ensure it complied with our Equality & Diversity policy, and it stayed on the topic of Islamic finance. We have received no formal complaints.” Writing on Twitter organiser Elis Gjevori also claimed media scrutiny of the event was driven by “bias”, claiming “There would not be a campaign to ban the pope because he condemns homosexuals or abortion”. Interestingly it is unclear whether Gjevori is aware that when the Pope did visit Britain in 2010, over 50 highly reputed academics and politicians did sign a public letter condemning his stance on key human rights issues and opposing his state visit.
Omar Kuddus wasn’t the only one to condemn the event. Well-known US Muslim Human rights activist Raquel Saraswati wrote on twitter “SOAS, you couldn’t find an expert on Islamic finance who doesn’t support FGM? You clearly didn’t look hard enough”. Meanwhile Extremism expert and religions lecturer Dr Farhaan Wali condemned the event speaking to the London Student Newspaper. He said that “Haitham Al-Haddad’s views can be seen as part of a radical Islamist Narrative, which is very problematic. The Quran does not mention homosexuality, only the corruption of the people of Lut. If Muslims consider the Quran as their only legislative text, which they should do, then it is clear that Islam takes no position on Homosexuality.” Islamic Studies Researcher Usama Hasan of the controversial Quilliam Foundation told the Daily Mail that Haddad “Like all extreme Islamists, he uses fascist language about non-Muslims and refuses to sit at the same table as women.”
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You can’t have a safe space and freedom of expression. They’re going to come into conflict at some stage.