A diversity event sponsored by a group called Project Dialogue at Vanderbilt University generated some interesting give and take:
[Chaplain Awadh] Binhazim… suggested that he, as part of his religion, would support the death of individuals involved in homosexual acts.
“Given the recent controversy surrounding homosexuals in the military, under Islamic laws if a homosexual engaged in homosexual acts, then the punishment under Islamic law would be death,” [a questioner said]. “As a practicing Muslim, do you accept or reject this particular teaching of Islam?”
“I don’t have a choice to accept or reject teachings,” Binhazim responded. “I go with what Islam teaches.”
… Binhazim, however, calls for perspective.
“As Muslims, we don’t just go around killing gays. That is a ridiculous misconception,” Binhazim said. “There is a set of strict criteria that must be met before this punishment is enforced. The rule is in place to promote the Muslim values of family. Even in rare cases where all criteria is met, it is even rarer for this conclusion to be reached.”…
January 29th, 2010 at 7:22PM
Binhazim also says:
“I don’t want that one question to overtake the entire purpose of why that event was done and the presentation. Many positive things came out of the gathering we had,” he said. “One question for 10 or 20 seconds could not take away that whole hour.”
Which is a perfect example of why the airing of unpopular and even horrific opinions in public is necessary and desirable: free speech uncovers the truth behind propaganda. Both Binhazin and his questioner had agendas they wished to promote, and out of that discussion came an important fact: Islam can be used to justify the murder of homosexuals. Of course, so can, and has, Christianity. Frankly, I would rather that we see and hear these opinions so they can be rebutted in the public sphere.
It’ll be interesting to see what happens to Binhazin’s career after this. He clearly wants to contain the damage; I suspect, because of the power of free speech, that he won’t be able to.
January 29th, 2010 at 7:55PM
Couldn’t agree more, Patrick. But there’s a difference – I have recent British cases in mind – between going out of your way to issue a formal university invitation to someone you know believes all homosexuals should be killed, and organizing an event aimed at cultural understanding during which it emerges that someone supports the death penalty for homosexual acts.
January 30th, 2010 at 4:28PM
Patrick, again, as before, does not seem to focus on the fact that the proposition to murder large groups of people (gays, Jews, Christians, anyone who does not believe what they believe, like these enlightened individuals advocate….) is not a free-speech or debatable point to begin with. This is not a discussion about, say, gay marriage, a topic on which reasonable people can disagree. This is about death to homosexuals or death to this group or death to that group. And you will never WIN a debate with murderous hate-mongers like this chaplain (and I was tempted to use quotation marks, UD…).
And we’ll see if this person loses his position over his comments, as Patrick would apparently like. (Is this how free speech works – let someone say what they believe then fire them?) If an evangelical Christian (of which I am not one)opposes gay marriage, that would be widely attacked by the university crowd as hate speech. But let a Muslim call for death to gays, and if past experience is any guide, there won’t be more than little peep. I suspect this has a lot to do with the fact that Christians aren’t in the business of blowing themselves up, cutting the throats of artists, threatening the lives of cartoonists, having murderous riots in the streets over unsubstantiated rumors, etc. In addition, any attack on Chaplain Enlightenment would also be characterized as, yes, and I know this word upsets you, Islamophobia.
January 31st, 2010 at 5:41PM
I’d rather know who wants to kill me and why, than stick my fingers in my ears and shout, “Islamaphobia, can’t hear you, nyah nyah” until they go away.
February 1st, 2010 at 1:49PM
Well, Patrick, let me clarify it for you. These people want to kill you. And you don’t need an academic conference, debate, seminar or any other forum for these murderers to express their carefully thought out views to establish that fact. You just have to paying attention.
February 1st, 2010 at 2:56PM
I don’t think those are the options, Patrick. Certainly we need to know all we can about dangerous and repressive ideologues. My only point is that there’s nothing compelling universities to invite such people onto their campuses. Your own language in your comment suggests the absurdity of this.
For this week’s brown bag lunch, Professor X will give a talk titled: If You’re a Jew or a Homosexual, I’ll Tell You Why I Want to Kill You.