Prominent American scholar, Dr Yasir Qadhi, has slammed the British press for their recent attacks accusing him of homophobia and advocating violence against non-Muslims.
The following status was posted on Dr Qadhi’s official Facebook page:
“A number of prominent British newspapers and magazines are attempting to smear my reputation before my visit there next week (primarily to raise funds for children in East Africa).
To show you how vile some reporters are, and how clear of an agenda they have, the main reporter actually emailed me two weeks ago, with selective quotations from my lectures that attempted to make me appear as a terrorist. Some of these ‘radical quotations’ were simply verses and hadith, translated (and if you don’t have commentary or context, it’s easy to misuse such Sacred Texts). Others were quotations from my Seerah lectures, in which I mention the historical battles of the Prophet’s (SAW) era and praise some aspects of them.
When I replied to each and every one of these allegations, and pointed out that the real terrorists out there have actually called for my assassination, the reporter simply dismissed those allegations and moved on to find others.
And what did they find? That I claim that Islam teaches that same-sex relations are not morally correct, and unhealthy from a spiritual perspective. That much is true – but they then add the outright lie and shear slander that I preach violence against people whom we ethically disagree with. This is a bold lie, as this video made last year explicitly mentions.
These people shall never be content with us until we leave our faith for their sake. Rather than leave our faith, we choose to leave them to their ways, and put our trust in our Creator, and continue to preach the truth.
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Their agenda is clear: to make each and every mainstream Muslim appear as a radical hard-liner.
Our response will be to say what needs to be said, with wisdom and beautiful preaching. If they lie about us, we respond with truth; when they smear, we pray that Allah guides them; when they slander, we forgive.
PS. Once in a while, we’ll choose not to forgive, and sue the pants off of them for libel so that they learn their lesson.
But yes, the default is indeed forgiveness…”
