I have often been puzzled about the unholy alliance between Muslims and leftists – how could the latter, who fervently support multiculturalism, gay marriage, and gender equality, ally with the former, who support religious and cultural supremacy, traditional marriage, and the oppression of women? I have concluded that leftists enter this alliance out of naïveté and ignorance, while Muslims quite sensibly enter it for political and social expediency. Leftists can't accept that a group might purposefully deceive them because, deep down, everybody loves each other…… right?
So when I saw that the Muslim Students Association (MSA) was hosting an event titled "Common Ground: Being Muslim in the Military" which was sponsored by the Project Dialogue committee, I knew it would be ripe grounds for me to expose the gullibility of leftists who grovel at the altars of tolerance and acceptance.
The event went as expected, with Vanderbilt Adjunct Professor Awadh A. Binhazim providing a thirty-minute, flowers-and-butterflies overview of Islam, and Captain Darryl Cox explaining how much intolerance and discrimination he experiences as a Muslim in the military, all the while remaining silent on the subject of the Fort Hood Massacre. His talk left you with the same New York Times taste in your mouth that Major Hasan was motivated not by Islamic laws and the Islamic religion (like this man admits), but because somebody told one-too-many Muslim jokes.
While all of this was true to form, the real action happened during the Q&A, when I asked Professor Binhazim if he accepts the Religion of Peace's stance on the punishment for homosexuality:
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Me: Under Islamic law is it punishable by death if you are a homosexual?
Professor Binhazim: Yes. It is punishable by death.
Shocking, yes?
It shouldn't be.
The death penalty for homosexuality is common dogma throughout the Muslim world, and, as Professor Binhazim reluctantly admitted, it is Islamic law itself, which all Muslims must accept.
"God is very straightforward about this — not we Muslims, not subjective, the Sharia is very clear about it, the punishment for homosexuality, bestiality or anything like that is death. We don’t make any excuses about that, it’s not our law — it’s the Koran."
So spoke Sheikh Khalid Yasin in 2005. Sheikh Yasin is, according to Robert Spencer, "an American-born, England-based Islamic preacher who has been the Muslim Students Association spokesman at universities all over the country, including Penn State, Ohio State, the University of Minnesota, and St. Cloud University."
It is not as if these ideas occur in a void, either. Iranian gay and lesbian human rights group Homan has stated that since 1980, Iran alone has executed some 4,000 homosexuals. Homosexuality is also a capital offense in Saudi Arabia, Mauritania, Sudan, and Yemen. Robert Spencer has a comprehensive analysis of Islam's treatment of homosexuals here.
So why are leftists not in outrage over this? Why weren't there dozens of leftists asking the same question and exposing the same radical beliefs? As I said earlier, it is because they are blinded by their naïveté. They are unable to grasp basic, irreconcilable civilizational differences. They assume, without reserve, that all cultures are compatible with our basic senses of justice and propriety and that surely no culture really holds that homosexuals should be put to death. In short, the political correctness of the left is a cult of ignorance.
Case in point: after the event, a rather flustered girl came up to me demanding to know why I asked that question –
Girl: Why would you ask some irrelevant question like that?
Me: I think my question was quite relevant, since there are a number of homosexuals in the military.
Girl: So?
Me: Well let me put it this way. If I was a homosexual in the military, I would want to know if the religion of the person fighting next to me demands my death. That would be significant to me.
Girl: (sarcastically) Well I learned in Sunday school that Christianity condemns homosexuality too!
Me: Yes, Christianity does consider homosexuality sinful, and Christians pray for homosexuals because of it, while Islamic law says they should be punished with death. See the difference?
Girl: Well no one really believes that anymore.
Me: Yes they do. Iran, for instance, has put 4,000 homosexuals to death since 1980.
Girl: I still don't see why you asked the question.
Me: Then you are hopeless.
She was so wrapped up in her liberal sensibilities that she wasn't able to see what happened right in front of her face! I can only hope I planted some seed of awareness in her and the other students attending.
As YWC continues to grow and our activists continue raising awareness of radical Islamic beliefs, hopefully those on both sides of the political spectrum can remove the blinders of political correctness and look at things as they truly are, and not as they imagine them to be.
