Muslim Spokesman: Quran Doesn’t Say to 'Kill Homosexuals'

The Quran does not mandate the death penalty for homosexuals, argues a spokesman for the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community USA organization during an interview with The United West investigative team.

However, Islamic “Shariah” law, which draws on the Quran, does call for the execution of people who engage in homosexual acts. The mandate is deeply ingrained in Islamic law and has been affirmed by many prominent Muslim scholars.

Homosexual acts are punished by death in many Muslim countries. The Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL) and other jihadist groups are also known to brutally execute homosexuals, at times justifying their actions with verses from the Quran.

The Quran declares gay sex “a despised act… it is forbidden in Islam, completely, absolutely,” said the cleric Imam Yaseen Shaikh, a senior leader of the Islamic Society of Baltimore, which President Barack Obama choose for the first presidential visit to a mosque in February 2016.

Nevertheless, Salaam Bhatti, a representative of America’s Ahmadiyya community, known for actively promoting non-violence, argues otherwise.

The Ahmadiyya Islamic sect has some major theological differences with mainstream Muslims, namely that they venerate Jesus and have an extra prophet. Those differences ensure that the vast majority of Muslims regard the sect as heretical. In Pakistan, for example, members of the sect are frequently terrorized by mainstream Muslims.

“The Quran does not say to go out and kill homosexuals for being homosexual,” Bhatti told United West.

He made those comments in the wake of the June 12 terrorist attack at a gay nightclub in Orlando that left 50 people dead, including the gunman Omar Mateen, and 53 others wounded. Mateen, a 29-year-old of Port St. Lucie, FL, is U.S. citizen of Afghan descent. He was killed in a shootout with law enforcement.

Allah’s book of commandments does not say to kill homosexuals for being homosexuals.

But Allah does approve the killing of people who engage in homosexual relations, says the book. In Verse 80-84 of Book 7 of the Quran, for example, Allah declares that “For ye practise your lusts on men in preference to women : ye are indeed a people transgressing beyond bounds … [In Sodom and Gomorrah] we rained down on them a shower (of brimstone): Then see what was the end of those who indulged in sin and crime!”

So does Mohammad, Islam’s reputed prophet, who is deemed the perfect model for all Muslims to copy, according to orthodox Islamic ideology. His recorded statements are written up as the Hadiths, where he is shown as urging the death of homosexuals. For example, a collection of sayings by Abu Dawud records one tale “Narrated By Abdullah ibn Abbas : The Prophet (peace be upon him) said: If you find anyone doing as Lot’s people did, kill the one who does it, and the one to whom it is done.”

“There’s nothing in the Quran for any attack like we saw Sunday morning,” declared, Bhatti, referring to the Orlando incident, which has been deemed the deadliest mass shooting in U.S. history and the worst terrorist attack since 9/11. “There’s no precedent… to kill people like this or even attack.”

But Islam is a very rule-bound religion, complete with a formal process for adjudicating crimes. So it discourages vigilante action and centralizes law-enforcement and theology under the power of Imams. Homosexuals are punished via a formal legal process that sometimes ends with the victim being thrown off a cliff or a building.

The killer, Mateen, pledged allegiance to ISIS, which assumed responsibility for the massacre. Bhatti blamed the leader of ISIS and other jihadist groups for allegedly corrupting what the Quran says by turning it into a death sentence for homosexuals.

Asked if he believes Islam’s prophet Mohammad approved of homosexuality, the Ahmadiyya community spokesman responded, “Each religion has theological issues in which they believe to be right and wrong.”

“When it comes to issues that we’re facing today, with homosexuality and other things, it’s never about using violence to practice these teachings,” he continued. “These teachings can be done through peaceful ways.”