Post-Orlando Massacre, Toronto Muslims and Gays Share an Amicable Iftar Dinner By Banishing the Elephant in the Room

So nice to see everyone getting along so well. And the only way that can work is by ignoring the ginormous pachyderm in the room, i.e. Islamic doctrine, still in effect, calling for homosexuals to be executed:

Muslim and LGBTQ organizers issued dual statements at the event, signed by community leaders and prominent organizations on each side, denouncing hatred and bigotry. Mayor John Tory and provincial Environment and Climate Change Minister Glen Murray, who is gay, were there to show support. 

“As a community we stand firmly against all forms of oppression including homophobia and transphobia,” said Jeewan Chanicka, a public school principal, and Shaila Carter, CEO of the Muslim Women’s Collective, reading from a Muslim statement endorsed by Islamic scholars and Muslim writers, businesspeople and imams, including Yusuf Badat of the Islamic Foundation of Toronto, one of the Canada’s oldest Muslim organizations.

It warned that Islamophobia is on the rise after the Orlando shooting because of the gunman’s identity: U.S. citizen Omar Mateen was the son of Afghan immigrants and an observant Muslim who reportedly pledged his support for Daesh before carrying out the massacre. 

Mateen’s identity is “sadly being used to make assumptions about all Muslims,” says the LGBTIQ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, two-spirit, intersex and queer) statement. “Some are using this attack on LGBTIQ people to justify their racism and Islamophobia.” We strongly believe that homophobia cannot be fought with Islamophobia, racism or any other form of xenophobic action.”

But it can and must be fought by acknowledging the gyrating elephant, something which, obviously, no one from either group is prepared to do. (BTW, it isn't a "phobia"--or "racism"/"hatred"-- if your concerns are legit.)


Update: Yusuf Badat condemns "all forms of oppression including homophobia," does he? That's pretty rich coming from an imam who, according to anti-jihad blogger Pointe de Bascule, is given to "blaming the internet for the radicalization of young Muslims while disseminating around him books by Maududi that praise jihad and Islamic takeover."