A Norwegian left-leaning newspaper has reported that the Islamic Council of Norway (ICN), a Norwegian umbrella organization tied to the global Muslim Brotherhood, has clarified its stance regarding homosexuality. According to the report:
The Islamic Council of Norway doesn’t want homosexuals, Muslim or not, to be in the closet. They live in Norway, a democratic country, and they are free to come out, says Senaid Kobilica of the Islamic council of Norway to Dagsavisen. He stresses that nobody should live in fear and points to violent incidents where homosexuals were beaten due to the sexual inclination. “Most of all they need somebody to speak with. Imams must therefore be open to listen to homosexual Muslims. We recommend that everybody respect homosexuals and lesbians”, says Kobilica. The Islamic Council is an umbrella organization for the Islamic faith societies and organizations in Norway. It represents close to 70,000 Norwegian Muslims. [ed: out of an estimated 120,000-150,000] By saying imams should listen to homosexual Muslims, Kobilica opens the door for homosexual Muslims. But the head of the Islamic Council thinks it’s incompatible to be a homosexual and a believing Muslim. “It isn’t possible to live homosexually and at the same time say that one practices Islam. These are two incompatible things.”….Earlier this week the Islamic Council of Norway’s met with SV’s homo-network, where they spoke of homosexual Muslims in Norway. This is the first time the Islamic Council met with homosexual representatives to debate on this issue. Two and half weeks ago the Children and Equality Minister, Anniken Huitfeldt, criticized the Islamic Council for not rejecting the death sentence against homosexuals. (..) “We stress that the Islamic Council of Norway rejects the death sentence for homosexuals in Norway, but we don’t want to go into legislation in other countries,” says Kobilica. But Norwegian Muslims don’t need to reject the death sentence for homosexuals outside Norway?
Previous posts have discussed the controversy surrounding the ICN and it’s failure to contradict the rulings of Youssef Qaradawi, perhaps the most important leader of the global Muslim Brotherhood, who has ruled that homosexuals should received the death sentence. These current statements by the ICN appear to allow the organization to walk a middle-ground, attempting to satisfy it’s critics in Norway without contradicting Qaradawi who heads the European Council for Fatwa and Research, the theological body of the European Muslim Brotherhood.
(Note: Translated Source, Source: Dagsavisen (Norwegian))