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 The Star today, Dr Al-Qadri insisted that he is “not homophobic” and defended reported comments about gay sex and the spread of monkeypox within the LGBTQAI+ community.
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.
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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.”
Speaking 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?” he said.
“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.”
But also speaking to The Star, 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 make a 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 LGBTQAI+ 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”.
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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. “I did not even go back to my WhatsApp to check because every 90 days the messages are deleted,” he said.
“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. I’m not condemning it...because I believe in this particular statement there is nothing that is homophobic.”
Dr Al-Qadri insisted that when contextualised the texts are not saying gay people deserve to get monkeypox — but that Muslims have learned from it the “wisdom” from God in avoiding gay sex. 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 monkeypox 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,” he said.
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