A Canadian university has received backlash from members of the Muslim community after publishing a poster on social media showing two women wearing Islamic veils about to kiss each other.
Western University, located in London, Ontario, shared the poster on the university’s Instagram account for International Day Against Homophobia, Transphobia and Biphobia that took place earlier this month.
On the poster, captioned ‘Celebrate the Power of Love’, a pair of women wearing hijabs about to kiss each other are featured alongside images of other couples.
The image sparked a backlash among Muslims, who commented on the post calling it disrespectful and insulting, the National Post reports.
“Shame on you Western for such an insulting mockery post to my religion,” one user commented on the post.
While the school made an initial attempt to justify the poster while claiming it acknowledged the imagery may upset Muslims, it later removed the post entirely from the Instagram page.
Opiyo Oloya, a university employee who works with diversity and inclusion, stated: “We believe this presents an opportunity for genuine, thoughtful discussion about how we can best support members of the Queer Muslim community, and those from all faiths and backgrounds within the 2SLGBTQ+ community.”
“In order to promote that discussion, we have removed the image from the post to not distract from these important conversations,” Oloya claimed.
Iman Abd Alfatah Twakkal, a member of the local Muslim community, also commented on the post, saying: “While we appreciate that the intent is to promote inclusion the poster is doing the opposite . . . singling a Muslim religious symbol in that setting is inappropriate.”
The issue of LGBT content and Muslims in schools and universities has become contentious in many Western countries in recent years, and has led to protests in some countries, including the United Kingdom. Muslim parents in Britain were even banned from protesting LGBT lessons at a school in Birmingham in 2019 after maintaining a presence at the school gates for an extended period of time.
In 2020, a Muslim father in Birmingham was even prosecuted in the British courts for removing his child from the same primary school due to his opposition to LGBT lessons.