The University of Toronto is being pressured to cancel a seminar series hosted by Abdullah Hakim Quick, a controversial Islamic scholar.
Quick is being accused of making homophobic and anti-Semitic comments in the past and should be banned from speaking at the university, according to the groups that oppose the 18-week seminar.
Along with Rev. Brett Hawkes, who’s considered a leader in Toronto’s gay community, the movement to have the seminars cancelled was also supported by the Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Center (FSWC).
The FSWC wrote a letter to the university protesting Quick’s presence on campus, said Avi Benlolo, president of the FSWC.
The FSWC is a Toronto based organization that seeks to end anti-Semitism in Canada, according to their website.
“I really cannot understand how his statement that ‘the punishment for homosexuality is death’ does not strike the university as absolutely wrong, indefensible and against every value in which our western democratic society believes,” Benlolo said.
Saleem Chagtai, a spokesperson at the Islamic Education and Research Academy, said he can understand why people were alarmed.
But at the same time, Chagtai defended Quick’s views. He said the Islamic laws on sexuality are harsh.
“We see from the human experience that if we don’t have harsh deterrents against public displays of sexuality . . . the ramifications of a lack of morality can cause lots of problems in society,” Chagtai told The Canadian Jewish News.
“This is not an issue of free speech,” Benlolo said.
“If the university does not speak out against homophobia and anti-Semitism, it is supporting it through its silence and sanctioning it by allowing it to continue.”
The school has shown no signs of cancelling the seminar series.
University of Toronto spokesperson April Kemick told The Canadian Jewish News that the “event is a booking by a campus group — one of hundreds that happen over the course of the year — and there is no connection to the university.”
