Gay man feels he has nowhere to pray in Ireland after well-known cleric blasts same-sex ‘lifestyle’ – Irish Mirror
A gay man feels he is no longer welcome in his Dublin mosque after its prominent Sheikh condemned his “lifestyle.”
Yusuf Murray is a practicing Muslim who had been a regular attendee at the Islamic Centre of Ireland in Blanchardstown, West Dublin – which is led by well known cleric Sheikh Dr Umar Al-Qadri.
Speaking to this paper, Dr Al-Qadri insisted that he is “not homophobic” and defended reported comments about gay sex and the spread of monkeypox within the LGBT community.
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He also claimed to us that Muslims are less likely to contract monkeypox as they don’t engage in gay sex – and that the virus now appearing in gay men has revealed a “wisdom” in that.
Yusuf, who was also a member of Dr Al-Qadri’s Irish Muslim Council but has left, claims he now finds himself without any mosque to pray in after he objected to a recent speech by the cleric which was filmed and put up on social media.
In that speech Dr Al-Qadri says: “You cannot force me to believe that this lifestyle is right. In my view, according to Islam, this lifestyle, it contradicts the Koran.
“You like somebody from the same gender? Maybe that’s natural, but Islam, it strictly forbids from engaging in physical sexual activity with the same gender. Simple as that.”
![Dr. Umar Al-Qadri](https://i2-prod.irishmirror.ie/incoming/article27747215.ece/ALTERNATES/s615b/0_Dr-Umar-Al-Qadri-muslim.jpg)
(Image: P.Nicholls)
Speaking to this paper today, Yusuf feels he can no longer pray at the Blanchardstown mosque after hearing these remarks – and he now wonders if he’s welcome at all among the Irish Muslim community at large.
“Without wanting to speak too much about the rest of the community, but Dr Al-Qadri was the probably among the most progressive of Irish Muslim leaders.
“ Now he has taken this stance. Where am I meant to go and pray now?
“I don’t want to lose my faith. I’ve been brought up as a Muslim but I feel the faith community wants me to suppress it and I just don’t understand that.
“I don’t believe I’m welcome anymore,” he said.
But also speaking to this paper, Dr Al-Qadri insisted that Yusuf is still welcome – though he stands by his remarks that gay sex cannot be tolerated by Muslims.
“Yusuf is welcome to the Islamic Centre to pray. The house of God doesn’t close to his creation.
“The doors of the mosque are always open to anyone that wishes to connect with God,” he said.
After releasing the video of the Sheikh’s speech, Yusuf also put out a screenshot of messages from a WhatsApp group chat that the Muslim leader was apparently a part of – in which he appeared to comment about the spread of monkeypox.
In that chat, someone shared a CNN article with the group which stated how the virus was on the rise in the LGBTQ community.
Someone claiming to be Shaykh Umar then responded to that message with an image which stated “But they plan and Allah plans and Allah is the best of planners.”
The message also stated “Allahu Akbar” and “this should be an eye opener to those who spread campaigns that go against nature.”
When we put this to Sheikh Umar, he was unable to say whether the texts were his or not – however he said he would not condemn those messages, and went on to explain why he agrees with them anyway.
“Look, we have a WhatsApp group with 250 people in it so I don’t know how many messages there are and I did not even go back to my WhatsApp to check because every two months or 90 days the messages are deleted.
“Even if the message is there, you know there is this whole context, and if you put anything without context, it can give a very wrong impression,” he said.
“I’m not condemning it, not at all, because I believe that in this particular statement there is nothing that is homophobic,” he added.
Dr Al-Qadri insisted that when contextualised the texts are not saying gay people deserve to get monkeypox – but that Muslim’s have learned from it the “wisdom” from God in avoiding gay sex.
“When somebody says Allah Akbar they mean God is greatest.
“In our faith we are not allowed to have sexual engagements of this kind and there is a wisdom behind it and one of the reasons is now been clarified.
“It’s now clear to us,” he said.
![Muslims praying](https://i2-prod.irishmirror.ie/incoming/article27747218.ece/ALTERNATES/s615b/0_Muslims-praying.jpg)
He went on to say that by saying ‘Allah Akbar’ to such an article, a Muslim is not celebrating the virus in the gay community, but rather highlighting the “wisdom” of God.
“When someone says Allah Akbar after an article like that, they are basically saying that in our faith we are not allowed to have this kind of sexual engagement – and look now the scientific evidence is suggesting that this particular virus is being spread in this way.
“(So) Allah Akbar, God is Great in that our faith we are not allowed to have such sexual engagements which means that we have less chance of carrying this virus.”
Asked to further clarify his position on the LGBTQ community and whether they are welcome among his congregation, the Muslim cleric said they are, and just because his faith does not permit gay sex, that does not mean they cannot be Muslim.
“I can tell you one thing, what we are referring to, when we are talking about lifestyle, we have to differentiate between two things.
“One is someone being a member of this LGBT community and the other is to actually engage in sexual relations men between men – anal sex you know,” he said.
“This particular act is strictly prohibited in Islam and the articles that are in the media, scientific evidence confirm that this act, this sexual engagement is how it was spread within a particular community.
“This should not be taken in the sense that ‘oh all gays have monkeypox’.
“This has never been the intention of anybody let alone me,” he said.
“I mean from a religious freedom perspective, even from the perspective of marginalisation of others, if you show this to academics, no one will say this is actually homophobic.”
He added that just because he disagrees with someone’s “lifestyle” does not mean they cannot get along.
“Drinking alcohol is prohibited in my faith. Of course when I see articles, when Muslims see articles written that alcohol is the cause of traffic deaths and so many domestic violence incidents, Muslim’s say Allah Akbar.
“That does not mean Muslims are saying those that drink deserve to have that fate – absolutely not.
“What we say is look, this is the wisdom as to why we are not allowed to drink. But I don’t treat people who drink alcohol differently.”
But for Yusuf, Dr Al-Qadri’s remarks are deeply offensive – and he says the scientific evidence shows monkeypox has spread among far more than just gay men.
“For the vast majority of the time that monkepox has been a known virus it has killed children in Africa, not gay men, so I’d love to know how he fits that into his great scheme of wisdom.
“It doesn’t seem very compassionate from a faith leader to me,” he said.
He also said he disagreed with the cleric’s interpretation of saying ‘Allah Akbar’ in response to the article about the virus spreading among gay men.
“I would strongly disagree with that. I think there’s many other phrases that Muslims would use.
He went on to say that Dr Umar owes him an apology.
“I would urge him to put this right with an unconditional apology and a commitment to meaningfully engage with LGBT people to fully understand the hurt his comments have caused.
“It’s imperative that the Muslim community is cherished and accommodated, but also learns to cherish and accommodate all other communities too.”
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