London, Feb 1 (IANS) The new imam at the proposed Ground Zero mosque in New York has said that homosexuality is the result of ‘violent emotional or sexual abuse at some point in the life of the gay people’.
Abdallah Adhami, 44, was appointed a senior adviser last month to the ‘Park51’ project at Ground Zero, the Daily Telegraph reported Monday.
His controversial views were published in a lecture posted on his non-profit website, Sakeenah.
Adhami, who was born in Washington but studied Islam in Syria, said that being gay is a ‘painful trial’ caused by past trauma.
According to the New York Post, Adhami said: ‘An enormously overwhelming percentage of people struggle with homosexual feeling because of some form of violent emotional or sexual abuse at some point in their life.’
‘A small, tiny percentage of people are born with a natural inclination that they cannot explain. You find this in the animal kingdom at some level as well.’
He said that homosexuals must fight this ‘propensity’.
He also said that if a Muslim leaves the faith and ‘preaches their views, they’re jailed’.
The Park51 organisers said that Adhami was only an adviser, and his views did not reflect that of the project.
The plan to turn a site near Ground Zero into a mosque has sparked a fierce debate in the US. Supporters of the project say it is a symbol of tolerance, while opponents argue that it is an insult to the memory of those who died in the Sep 11 attacks.
About 3,000 people were killed when terrorists flew passenger jets into the Twin Towers Sep 11 2001.
