The director of Islamic teaching at the mosque which President Barack Obama has chosen to visit is on record saying that Islam requires homosexuals to be despised and treated as “transgressors.”
And according to a list provided to reporters by the White House, President Obama will meet with Imam Yaseen Shaikh, the controversial Islamic teacher, later on Wednesday.
Being a homosexual “is an immoral act, it is a shameful act, it is despised act, it is haram, it is forbidden in Islam, completely, absolutely, from the Koran, the Hadith [recorded statements from Islam’s reputed founder, the leader Muhammad) and by consensus of the scholars from the beginning of Islam,” says Imam Yaseen Shaikh, who was hired in to serve as the head of Islamic teaching or Islamic “scholar” for the Islamic Society of Baltimore and its nearby Al-Rahmah school.
GLAAD, an LGBT-rights organization, did not respond to Breitbart News’ request for comment about Obama’s visit.
Shaikh, a senior leader of the Islamic Society of Baltimore, described “Homosexuality in Islam” in a lesson that has been posted to YouTube. He made these remarks at a mosque called “Masjid Ayesha” in London in 2013, prior to his joining the Islamic Society of Baltimore, according to the upload.
“So all the sources of Islamic law are very, very accurate and very open and clear about this, without any ambiguity, without any ambiguity,” Shaikh says, mixing Arabic with English, starting at 17:10 in the video.
Shaik says his arguments rest on commandments in the Koran. One example he cites is verse 16 of book 4, which tells Muslim men that “the two who commit it among you, dishonor them both. But if they repent and correct themselves, leave them alone. Indeed, Allah is ever accepting of repentance and merciful.”
Other anti-gay verses include 27:55, and 29:28, which undergird brutal anti-gay laws in many Muslim countries. For example, the Islamic State in northern Syria kills gays by pushing them off tall buildings.
“You are a transgressing people,” the imam said about gays at 27:10 of the video, using language from the Koran to describe homosexuals.
Most of Shaikh’s speech consists of complaints about the growing political clout and growing social-status of homosexuals in society.
Homosexuality is very “controversial because its been in the media spotlight for the last couple of years,” he said, claiming that legislation on LGBT rights has affected “society as a whole.”
“It is no secret that everywhere you look into society today, at every level, you find a representation of this community. On a social level, on a political level, on the educational boards, everywhere you look today you will find a representation of this community. They are an extremely powerful group,” he added.
“It has been imposed on us. We are having to accept it. We are having this discussion today,” Shaikh said of the LGBT movement’s supposed conspiracy to “make their way into television and the media.”
The LGBT movement is attempting to get Muslims to “have some sympathy for them. Have some empathy. To start accepting them, that this is okay,” he said.
Shaikh was particularly critical about “progressive Muslims” who want to accept homosexuality. “Sometimes you even hear from Muslims. This is the most disturbing thing, is when you hear Muslims say, ‘it doesn’t bother me.’”
“Unfortunately in recent times, there are some progressive groups within Muslims … I’m not going to sit there and talk about whether they are Muslim or not, because giving that judgement is not my duty here today. But unfortunately there has been the emergence of a few Muslim groups that claim legitimacy for their acts within the Islamic faith,” Yaseen said in his attack on progressive Muslims.
“If somebody is committing an immoral act, a disgusting act, a despised act… in their privacy… we can’t judge them because we don’t know about it.” But, he said, “when that act is brought out into the public space, that’s when we have a problem.”
Muslims should teach their children that it is “not okay” to be homosexual, Imam Shaikh said. “If our children are taught in schools and colleges that it’s okay … that this is an alternative lifestyle … We have to be teaching them it’s not okay.”
The Islamic Society of Baltimore, where Imam Shaikh now preaches, has also been criticized because Shaikh’s predecessor condoned suicide bombings. Mohamad Adam el-Sheikh, who led the institution – where Obama will visit Wednesday – for eighteen years, has ties to radical groups, Breitbart News has reported.
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