The Lamppost Education Initiative is a non-profit organization that strives “to improve the quality of Islamic education for English speaking Muslims by exposing them to qualified, Muslim American scholars.”
Among its scholars are Shaykh Abdullah bin Hamid Ali, Dr Khalid Yahya Blankinship, Shaykh Muhammad Mendes, Dr Sherman Abdul-Hakim Jackson, Ustadha Zaynab Ansari, Dr. Abdullah bin Hamid Ali, Imam Zaid Shakir, and many others.
On July 6, 2018 the Lamppost Education Initiative posted a video featuring Dr. Abdullah bin Hamid Ali of the Lamppost Education Initiative responding to the questions: ‘How do we respond to and treat ‘gay Muslims’? How does the dangerous state of kufr [heresy] relate to this issue?
The Lamppost Education Initiative advised to “listen carefully to Dr. Abdullah Ali’s response to this sensitive issue.”
Here is the transcript of the video:
Question: What do you advice the college campuses between, you know, including the gay Muslims and women. How do you suggests that we deal with that issue hurting these people feelings?
Dr. Abdullah bin Hamid Ali: I think there are two different types of gay Muslims, women and men. One type who acknowledges that Islam is not allowing what they do. And they themselves are struggling with their urges and they’re not trying to make the haram [forbidden) halal [permissible]. These people, if they approach are us, we speak with them, we welcome them, we we do not divulge their secrets and we help them deal with their struggles. We take them in as brothers and sisters. On the other hand we have a group of them who are kind of Muslims who were, like, yeah. I am a Muslim and you know what, I openly profess that this is OK, and I should be allowed to do it. You need just to get coped up with the time, a lot of Americans now. Those Muslims, or so-called Muslims, you know, those people, I think that we have, just tell them that. No. It’s not allowed. You cannot justify it you won’t accept it.
Question: But I’m sorry, but they are Muslims. They are still [interrupted]
Dr. Abdullah bin Hamid Ali: If someone says he or she is a Muslim then you are a Muslim, but again we also believe that you can believe a thing what is actually contravenes the divine will, right, clearly goes against the divine will, and it leads you to kufr [heresy]. We don’t label people ourselves. I said, you know, want you have just said is kufr [heresy], right. What you are doing, believing, understanding is kufr [heresy], right. Afre you a Kafir [disbeliver]? How Allah sees you at this moment? I can’t say. I can’t say how Allah sees you at this moment. And I think that should be the approach we take with people, you know, but there are clearly things that put you out of Islam, you know, because if Allah tells you haram [forbidden], and you say, you know what I say halal [permissible], either Allah is a liar or you are, right. If you are insisting that Allah is a liar, this is kufr [heresy]. You understand? This is fundamentally the predicament that we find ourselves in and a lot of Muslims find themselves in this day. So, that’s OK, you’re a Muslim, you get drunk, OK, but listen, I’m just like a person who drinks, fornication, commits adultery, lies, compulsive lying, whatever it may be, that’s fine, all of it is a sin, right. We tolerate it. But the average Muslims are trying to tell you that, hey man, backbiting is OK, lying is OK, cheating on your wife is OK, drinking wine is OK. Muslims are not saying that, you know, and even for those people who say that, OK, well, it’s not worse than shirk [polytheism]. Well, they do what they do, but shirk [polytheism] is worse than that. OK, shirk [polytheism], it is worse than homosexual sex, you know. Yes, it is worse than that, but we’re not being asked to make shirk [polytheism] OK. We’re not being asked to make drinking wine OK, or that adultery, fornication is OK. We have been asked to say that homosexual acts are OK. So, yes, that [shirk – polytheism] is worse, but that’s not being demanded of us. This is being demanded from us and that’s why we find a very harsh reaction to it.
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