An Imam appointed to the government’s Islamophobia panel by former Prime Minister Theresa May has now been asked to step down from his position following accusations of questioning free speech. Qari Asim, the Imam at the Makkah mosque in Leeds, was appointed to conduct inquiry into Islamophobia within the government and help create a definition for anti-Muslim hatred and prejudice.
But a recent tape shows that in September 2018 Imam Asim told an interfaith workshop that while Muslims “cherish free speech”, some want exceptions in instances where something is “distasteful to Muslims or they find it offensive”, particularly where it concerns the prophet Muhammad.
“We can have exceptions to the freedom of speech, on the basis of their being some words or some actions being offensive or distasteful.
This approach, according to him was one of the “challenges that are posed by the secular law”.
The Imam claims that his comments had been “taken out of context”, that he was discussing the views of others and that he regarded freedom of speech as “a fundamental right”.
The Imam earlier also accused Boris Johnson of “fanning the flames of Islamophobia” with his comments in a newspaper column about Muslim women in burqas looking like “letterboxes”.
