An Islamic preacher who has branded homosexuality "filthy" has been banned from a university in London.
Former rapper Imran ibn Mansur, 24, will not speak at an event at the University of East London over concerns about his extreme views. According to a report in the Evening Standard, Mansur has spoken at various university campuses, where he offers Muslims a "survival guide" to student life.
He regularly makes homemade videos and posts them online. In one of these, Mansur tells a "brother" who is gay that his sexuality is a result of exposure to "filthy Western culture".
"It's not something you were born with, the same way a person who's sick, we're all born healthy but then you get an illness so you take the treatment to get rid of not only the symptoms, but the disease," he says.
"Homosexuality, sodomy, is an act that in the sharia...comes under the category of 'obscene, filthy, shameless' acts."
A spokesperson for the university said it cannot "offer a public platform to speakers known to publicise and disseminate homophobic views. There go against our equality procedures and more importantly UEL's core values."
The university has banned the entire event at which Mansur was invited to speak by the Islamic Society over concerns that gender segregation would be enforced. An earlier event was cancelled for the same reasons.
"We cannot allow enforced segregation at lectures," a university spokesman confirmed.
Haras Rafiq, head of outreach at the Quilliam Foundation, a think tank set up to challenge extremism, has praised this move, telling the Standard that "it's absolutely the right decision".
"As a society we shouldn't expect anyone treating anybody as second class citizens with gender segregation," he added.
However, Mansur had defended his right to speak freely. "I was just merely voicing a belief that millions of people across the world, form the majority of the major religions – Islam, Christianity, Judaism – uphold," he said.
In an exchange on Twitter yesterday, Mansur accused the Standard's article of inaccurately portraying his views.
