VIDEO: On Islam, Same-Sex Marriages and Our Obligations to the LGBTQI Community

The violence in Orlando today is horrific and tragic. My prayers go out to the victims and their families. Violence is wrong, period. Oh God, please protect us from those who hate and those who teach and preach to hate!

From the video:

Though the position of Islam, according to a majority of scholars and scripture, is that of what other Abrahamic faiths say on homosexuality – that homosexual acts are a sin, I’m a strong believer in that political equality cannot be realized without accepting the moral equality of all human beings. We cannot treat others as morally unequal to us.

American Muslims are a minority in this country who feel oppressed and marginalized, just as the LGBTQI community feels oppressed and marginalized by the mainstream community. So it would be hypocritical and counterproductive for American Muslims to come out and campaign against Islamophobia and demand that the rest of the country help us fight Islamophobia and help Muslims get equal rights under the law and then turn around and make a case for discriminating against another community.

Muslims cannot do that.