Brett on Harry’s Place has noticed yet another scandal from Osama Saeed – on his blog back in 2006 he recommended the unpleasant anti-gay site Eye on ‘Gay Muslims’ as a blog “[w]ell worth checking out”.
Eye on ‘Gay Muslims’ (I am repelled as I type those scare quotes) is a site written by a chap called Rashid Eldin who tells gay Muslims that there is no place for them in Islam, calls the estimable organisation Imaan’s ‘Europride‘ event a “parade of perversion” and also recomends lectures by Yasir Qadhi.
Here is Qadhi talking about homosexuality.
It’s a long video and mainly it is concerned with Qadhi’s backwards views on women, but scroll through to 32 minutes where Qadhi starts to reminisce about the good old 80s when it was OK to abuse gays – and how society has “regressed” since then as you can’t attack homosexuality without being thought a homophobe. Funny that.
Anyway, back to Eye on ‘Gay Muslims’ – it also recommends this article by (again) Yasir Qadhi where he is directing advice to a Muslim who thinks they might also be gay.
I advise you to seek counseling, and to go to people who will understand your situation and who can direct you in a more specific manner. I understand as well that if you go to many of the typical imams of the masjids, they would not sympathize with your situation at all and would probably make matters worse for you. I understand that you cannot go to such people. But you will find sympathetic ears to listen to your problem, insha’Allah.
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.
Has Qadhi no concept of the damage he will be doing to vulnerable young people who have no choice about their sexuality but whom Qadhi is instructing to enter into loveless shams of marriages? And has he absolutely no consideration for the wife of that marriage whose husband would be unable to love her as a husband should? Potentially, also, his advice will be destroying the lives of any children from that marriage if and when their father decides to stop living a lie and to be honest with the people closest to him.
Eye on ‘Gay Muslims” own Rashid Eldin has also commented on Osama Saeed’s blog recommending Straightway, an organisation which tries to “cure” gay Muslims. The idea that a young person struggling with an important facet of their personality – their sexuality – should be told to suppress it is horrifically bad advice which can only lead to personal and psychological problems in the future.
So, Osama Saeed, will you live up to the SNP’s value statement and reject discrimination and prejudice of all kinds – and that is the party for which you are a parliamentary candidate – by renouncing your endorsement of Eye on ‘Gay Muslims’, or will you continue to stand with a collection of individuals who do not think that homosexuals deserve happy and balanced psychological, emotional and personal lives?
4 Comments
The Eye on ‘Gay Muslims’ is indeed a dreadful site and Rashid Eldin of the ‘Ex-Gay Muslim Movement’, who runs it, comes across as a most bitter and twisted ego-maniac.
As for the other two ’scripture-backed’ homophobic tossers…well, Salafis will be Salafis.
Not sure Osama Saeed’s complete credo can be bundled into the term ‘Salafi’ though.
“Muslim Brotherhood flavoured candidate for the far Left SNP” would be more appropriate. No argument with the “scripture-backed’ homophobic tosser” descriptor though, that’s spot on.
Did someone say ‘ex-gay Muslim’. So he used to be gay and then saw the light. No wonder he believes gays can be ‘cured’.
Rasheed Eldin claims not to be an ‘ex-gay’ and recoils from such an heinous label. He has never been homosexual. He’s straight as a die, alright? He’s just a normal heterosexual, anti-queer Muslim homophobe.