Livingstone sidelines liberal Muslims, women and gays

Mayor plans to embrace homophobic cleric again in October

LONDON – 12 July 2004 - “Ken Livingstone has sided with male Muslim
misogynists and homophobes against women and gay Londoners,” said
human rights campaigner, Peter Tatchell of OutRage! who was one of a
group of protestors outside London’s City Hall this morning, 12 July
2004.

He was commenting on the Mayor of London’s decision to host
controversial Muslim scholar, Dr Al-Qaradawi, and to invite him to a
further conference at City Hall in October.

“By kow-towing to Islamic fundamentalists like Dr Al-Qaradawi, the
Mayor has betrayed liberal Muslims who are already isolated and
terrorised within sections of British Muslim society,” said Mr
Tatchell.

“Young Muslim girls in some parts of London are pressured by their
families and religious leaders into wearing the hijab. Gay and lesbian
Muslims have been threatened with violence by Islamic activists.
Progressive Muslims who speak out in support of gay and women’s rights
are intimidated and cowed into silence.“

“Ken Livingstone has associated himself with Muslim religious tyranny
against liberal Muslim opinion,” added Mr Tatchell.

The protest outside City Hall was against the participation of Muslim
theologian Dr Yusuf al-Qaradawi in a GLA-sponsored conference on the
hijab.

It involved activists from the gay and lesbian human rights group
OutRage!, together with Green London Assembly members, Darren Johnson
and Jenny Jones, and campaigners from GayEgypt.com and the Gay and
Lesbian Humanist Association.

The protesters say Dr Al-Qaradawi’s homophobic and misogynist views
sanction the oppression of women and the execution of lesbians and gay
men.

Despite claims by Ken Livingstone and the Muslim Association of
Britain that Dr Al-Qaradawi has been misinterpreted and
misrepresented, Dr Al-Qaradawi is the chief advisor to the website,
IslamOnline, and supervises its content. He is therefore responsible
for the views it expresses.

IslamOnline promotes policies contrary to key principles of
international human rights law. The website tacitly endorses the right
of husbands to beat their wives and to force them to wear the hijab.
It blames rape victims who dress immodestly and defends the right of
Islamic states to impose the death penalty for homosexuality, says
OutRage!

“Dr Al-Qaradawi is the chief scholar on the website IslamOnline which
issues fatwas – religious edicts – on a range of contemporary moral
issues and responds to ethical questions posed by Muslims seeking
theological guidance. In addition to answering many questions
personally, Dr Al-Qaradawi heads a panel whose role it is to ensure
that nothing appears on the site that ‘violates the fixed principles
of Islamic law’,” said Brett Lock of OutRage! who has researched Dr
Al-Qaradawi’s IslamOnline site.

“Some of the fatwas issued via IslamOnline by Dr Al-Qaradawi and his
colleagues support the death penalty for homosexuality (including
burning and stoning).

“Though he has told the Guardian that he does not support individual
Muslims attacking individual gay people, tellingly, he leaves the
issue of government-sanctioned persecution – including execution –
open, saying ‘any punishment was a matter for the state’. Currently,
at least six Islamic countries have the death penalty for
homosexuality. Instead of using his position as a respected cleric and
popular broadcaster to bring relief to the persecuted, he gives
theological authority to the persecutors.

“The conference on the hijab was a farce. It claimed to promote
‘choice’ but Dr Al-Qaradawi has himself ruled that wearing the hijab
is not a matter of choice, but one of religious obligation. The
conference speakers included no liberal or progressive Muslims. The
voices of Muslim feminists, who reject the hijab, were excluded. It
was a one-sided presentation of religious fundamentalism masquerading
as a human rights debate.”

“Interviewed in The Guardian on 12 July 2004, Dr Al-Qaradawi defended
his statements on wife-beating as ‘scholarship’, and said that in his
view it was neither ‘obligatory or desirable’.”

“We welcome this clarification,” added Mr Lock, “however we are
disturbed that Dr Al-Qaradawi seems unable to grasp that scholarly
opinions that appear to condone wife-beating give legitimacy to
domestic violence, whatever Dr Al-Qaradawi’s intentions. They may
influence the attitudes and behaviour of many Muslims who hold Dr
Al-Qaradawi in high esteem. His illiberal scholarly views help
legitimise and encourage intolerance in the wider Muslim community.

“The UK Muslim support group, Safra Project, report that domestic
violence is a major problem faced by many Muslim women. A man prone to
wife-beating is unlikely to appreciate the scholarly subtleties of Dr
Al-Qaradawi’s arguments, especially since IslamOnline’s format is
similar to that of an Agony Aunt – dispensing advice to people
presenting real-life problems and situations. How can Dr Al-Qaradawi
claim that his answers are merely academic?” queried Mr Lock.