The United West inves­tiga­tive team uncov­ered a story so dis­turb­ing Field Sut­ton of Chan­nel 9 news in Orlando, FL broke the story on their news­cast.

The Hus­seini Islamic Cen­ter, 5211 Hes­ter Ave, San­ford, FL 32773, invited Sheikh Far­rokh Sekalesh­far to speak at their Mosque. Dr. Sekalesh­far says the killing of homo­sex­u­als is the com­pas­sion­ate thing to do.

In a 2013 speech Sheikh Sekalesh­far said this regard­ing gays, “Death is the sen­tence. We know there’s noth­ing to be embar­rassed about this, death is the sentence…We have to have that com­pas­sion for peo­ple, with homo­sex­u­als, it’s the same, out of com­pas­sion, let’s get rid of them now.”

When Sheikh Sekalesh­far calls for the death of all homo­sex­u­als based on the tenets of Islam it can not be ignored, he is an expert on Shariah Islamiyya or Islamic Law.

Islamic Law also man­dates a death sen­tence for blas­phe­mers and apos­tates, does Sheikh Sekalesh­far and the Hus­seini Islamic Cen­ter Mosque advo­cate those legal rul­ings as well?

What’s equally dis­turb­ing is the response to this call for killing gays from Rev. Bryan Ful­wider of the Inter­faith Coun­cil of Cen­tral Florida. Rev. Ful­wider said, “These issues around homo­sex­u­al­ity and the decry­ing of it or denounc­ing of it by reli­gion takes away, often, from our really impor­tant task of help­ing our com­mu­nity to be a bet­ter community…and wishes con­gre­ga­tions would focus more on help­ing the home­less, poor , and abused instead of per­se­cut­ing a group that can take care of itself.”

This tepid response from Rev. Ful­wider is prob­lem­atic because he refuses to denounce the Hus­seini Islamic Cen­ter Mosque for pro­mot­ing a speaker who calls for the mur­der of homo­sex­u­als. Rev. Ful­wider can’t even say that call­ing for the mur­der of gays is wrong. Ful­wider con­cludes by adding insult to injury, say­ing don’t worry about the gays they can take care of them­selves.

Equally as trou­bling is the lead­er­ship at the Hus­seini Islamic Cen­ter Mosque in San­ford, FL never con­demn or dis­agree with the words spo­ken by their speaker about the killing of gays — silence is con­sent.

It would appear the hatred of gays by The West­boro Bap­tist Church has been eclipsed by Sheikh Sekalesh­far and the Hus­seini Islamic Cen­ter Mosque of San­ford, FL. Both of these sup­posed places of wor­ship should be stripped of their 501c3 sta­tus and rel­e­gated to the dust­bin of his­tory.

Alan Korn­man

The United West

Regional Coor­di­na­tor