UK: Islamic Cambridge lecturer apologies for describing homosexuality as ‘ugly’ and calling gay people ‘ignorant’
A Cambridge lecturer has apologised for describing homosexuality as an “inherent aberration” and sinful.
Tim Winter, also known as Abdal Hakim Murad, is director of studies at Wolfson College and Dean of Cambridge Muslim College. He said the remarks were made 15 years ago when he was at a retreat in the US and “in the grip of a kind of zealot enthusiasm.”
The London Evening Standard reports there was confusion over exactly when some of the comments were made, with some videos on YouTube appearing to be from a retreat in Turkey in 2011.
In various videos posted on YouTube, the 53-year-old academic calls homosexuality “inherently ugly” and says gay people are “ignorant people who don’t know what their bodies are for”.
Having faced calls from some students to resign, Mr Winter told the Standard: “I have explained to the students that the YouTube clip they understandably objected to was at least 15 years old, and represented views I no longer hold.”
