Mustafa Akyol said Muslims should understand that LGBTQ individuals endure a difficult life.
“They come with an inborn inclination which sees them harassed and looked down upon.
“I think the compassion of Islam, the respect of Islam should come to the fore,” he said at a webinar titled “Freedom and Tolerance in Islam: Why We Need Some Rethinking”, organised by G25 and Edunity Foundation.
Akyol, however, stated that he was not saying that Islam believes every sexual behaviour is morally right, adding that the religion also frowns upon pre-marital sex.
But, he said, a distinction needs to be made between Islam morally approving a certain behaviour and that of the people who have that certain behaviour as they are equal citizens with rights.
He said Islam could say that these kinds of sexual relationships were “not right from our moral perspective”, adding that Sunni jurisprudence “isn’t very liberal”.
“I think regardless of their lifestyle, they should be treated equally as citizens with their human rights,” he said.
Meanwhile, recalling his 2017 arrest by religious authorities, Akyol said the shariah court judge and “religious police” had asked him several times if he had cited a Quranic verse about there being no religious compulsion in Islam during his talk.
At that time, he said, he could not understand why the authorities were uncomfortable with a Muslim quoting a verse in the Holy Book.
But then he found out from the Department of Islamic Development Malaysia’s (Jakim) website that the translation of the specific verse was “given with some editing”.
“Jakim writes it differently. ‘There shall be no compulsion in religion (becoming a Muslim)’ . That statement of becoming a Muslim is not in the verse but inserted in the translation,” he said.
He said this made a lot of difference, as the original verse gave the impression that religion should be based on freedom, including the freedom for people to embrace Islam or vice versa.
It also meant that there was no compulsion to adhere to religious obligations like fasting as it was “between you and God”.
Akyol believed Jakim wanted to prevent such an interpretation and so decided to insert such a clause.
He, however, said Jakim was not the only authority that did this, as he had seen other modern translations of the Quran that also featured such a clause.
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