Thought experiment: imagine that Abu Usamah at-Thahabi is not a Muslim cleric, or even a Muslim at all. Imagine Abu Usamah at-Thahabi as a non-Muslim saying exactly the same things about gays. Do you think he would be speaking at Brunel University? Or anywhere?
“London university to host anti-gay extremist Islamic preacher,” by Scott Roberts for Pink News, November 22 (thanks to Lachlan):
Brunel University in Uxbridge, west London, has been criticised for allowing a cleric who supports the killing of gay people to attend a student event.
Abu Usamah at-Thahabi is due to make a speech on campus at Brunel’s Islamic Society on Tuesday 27 November.
His extreme views have already been documented in a Channel 4 programme and by the Centre for Social Cohesion.
Thahabi previously urged that gay people should be punished with death.
“Do you practice homosexuality with men? Take that homosexual man and throw him off the mountain,” Thahabi was recorded as saying in the Dispatches programme.
“If I were to call homosexuals perverted, dirty, filthy dogs who should be murdered, that’s my freedom of speech, isn’t it?”
The controversial preacher was caught on camera addressing worshippers at Green Lane Mosque in Birmingham.
He also mocked Western attitudes towards women and attacked Christians and Jews.
Following the broadcast, Thahabi was interviewed by Channel 4 News, where he refused to reject the comments.
Earlier this year, the cleric was prevented from speaking at the University of Warwick’s Islamic Society, following a backlash by students….