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https://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/1...ce-politics-brexit-culture-islam-islamism-spt
…In an interview with The Sun last year, the scientist took aim at his ‘fellow liberals” who refused to condemn what he described as “rampant” homophobia and misogyny in Islam.
When asked whether it’s possible to have a sensible conversation about Islam, he said: “It is difficult and many of the people who think I’m right-wing.
“Decent liberal people who I regard as my own people, I’ve always been among those people.
“Who I regard as cowards because they cave in and they do not observe their principles of feminism, of gay rights – all of the things decent liberal people believe.
“But suddenly they forget about them when it comes to Islam.”
He continued: “And I think I know why: I think it’s because they mistakenly think Islam is a race – which it isn’t, it’s a religion – if you can convert to it or apostatise out of it it’s not a race.
“And because they’re decent liberals and extremely against racism, as I am, the fear of being thought racist trumps the fear of being thought misogynist or homophobic.
“And so they overlook the homophobia and the rampant misogyny of extreme Islamism, and so they betray their decent liberal principles in that one case.
“If a liberal like me does not betray those principles and does condemn the misogyny and the homophobia of Islamic theocracies, they will turn on us and call us right-wing Islamophobes, because they have betrayed their liberal principles.”
Prof Dawkins has received a considerable amount of criticism for his views on Islam.
In 2017, while promoting his memoir ‘A Brief Candle in the Dark’, one of his appearances was cut short.
Berkeley’s KPFA Radio cancelled his appearance on the channel because, it said in a letter to ticket holders: “We had booked this event based entirely on his excellent new book on science, when we didn’t know he had offended and hurt – in his tweets and other comments on Islam – so many people….
In an open letter to the station, he wrote: “My memory of KPFA is that you were unusually scrupulous about fact-checking.
“I especially admired your habit of always quoting sources.
“You conspicuously did not quote a source when accusing me of ‘abusive speech’.
“Why didn’t you check your facts – or at least have the common courtesy to alert me – before summarily cancelling my event?”
He maintained he had “never used abusive speech against Islam”, and instead had taken aim at the “vile” Islamism, not Islam – two different things.
