Vanderbilt’s Youth for Western Civilization president, Devin Saucier, questions Professor Awadh A. Binhazim, at Vanderbilt’s “Common Ground” event, about Muslims in the military on January 25, 2010. Dr. Binhazim says Islamic law calls for homosexuality to be punished by death.
Awadh A. Binhazim is Professor of Pathology at Meharry Medical College, Adjunct Professor of Islam at the Divinity School, Vanderbilt University, and Adjunct Professor of Africana Studies at Tennessee State University.
Awadh Amir Binhazim was born and raised in Kenya. He studied Islam in the traditional styles of attending Madrassah at childhood age and completed his undergraduate studies at the King Faisal University, Saudi Arabia, Masters of Science at University of Nairobi, Kenya, and finally his Ph.D. in Pathology at The University of Georgia, Athens, Georgia.
Professor Binhazim’s interest in Islam is in Comparative Religions and Islamic Jurisprudence. He has given numerous lectures on Islam in theology classes, local churches, law enforcement agencies, and at many universities throughout the U.S., Canada, and Kenya. He has appeared in many Radio and TV programs to discuss various issues on Islam. He is the founder and program director of a series of courses (offered for free to those interested) on Islam held in Nashville, Tennessee.
Within these courses as well as at the Divinity School of Vanderbilt University, Professor Binhazim teaches about Islamic beliefs, spirituality, and moral code of Islam, monotheism, Muslim cultures, and civilizations. In addition, Professor Binhazim has presented several lectures on the topic of Muslims and their presence in the Americas before Columbus.
Professor Binhazim is the Director of the Da’wah and Outreach program of the Islamic Center of Nashville and serves as the spokesperson of the Muslim community in Nashville. A recent short course on Islam at St. George’s Episcopal Church showcases his lectures.
By Abul Kasem In Islam, keeping the virginity is the highest asset that a woman could possess. There is no crime/sin as despicable as that of losing the virginity before a woman is married. The thought of indulging in pre-marital sex by an adult woman is absolutely unthinkable in Islam (For men it is a different story altogether. As we shall see later, it is possible for an unmarried Muslim man to be engaged in sex with slave-girls/captive/infidel women but not with free Muslim women).
Mind you, premarital sex is a serious crime that may involve severe punishment for the offender; one hundred Islamic lashing for the unmarried woman (or man) and stoning to death for the married woman (or man). This punishment is hudud, which means that there is no way the offender can escape the severity of this kind of barbaric torment. Once the punishment has been passed down, it must be carried out at any cost. So much for Islamic mercy and tolerance!
If you thought that I am being too critical, then please be reminded that in Islam, homicide is not such a serious offence as sex is. That is to say, the punishment for a murder can be commuted to other sentence like Qias (retaliation) or Diya (blood money). Now contrast this if you will, with the laws for sexual offences. It looks like that taking a life is much simpler and easier than making love, especially for women, if we go by the Islamic rules. How barbaric and at the same time myopic view!
