Tweeting dodgy remarks from your own personal account is bad enough, but when you’re invited to speak for nation it’s doubly true.
Perhaps Shaykh Umar Al-Qadri should have thought a little harder before sending these tweets from the @Ireland Twitter account:
Question: Are all homosexuals born as gay ? Genuine replies please
— Ireland / Rohana – LeCheileDND (@ireland) September 10, 2015
So some are born gay and some choose to be. Those who choose to be gay sometimes are called bi-sexual, right ?
— Ireland / Rohana – LeCheileDND (@ireland) September 10, 2015
The @Ireland account is curated by a different person every week, with the idea that no one voice can speak for a nation and that a shared account can “help to further connect Ireland to the world and the world to Ireland through the different voices that curate the account each week.”
But Al-Qadri’s comments won’t have gone down well, as they came just days after he posted tweets describing homosexuality as a sin…
To all those who think we Muslims hate and want to kill homosexuals. Islam teaches to hate sin, not the sinner! pic.twitter.com/flqIL1Fmvg
— Ireland / Rohana – LeCheileDND (@ireland) September 7, 2015
@ickle_tayto @_BrianMcD Same gender attraction is not wrong or sinful in our religion. However two people of the same gender having sex is.
— Ireland / Rohana – LeCheileDND (@ireland) September 8, 2015
Ireland recently became the first country in the world to legalise same-sex marriage by popular vote, so it’s no surprise that people did not take kindly to these sentiments…
https://twitter.com/JoshuaColquhoun/status/642003135859425280
@ireland You're out of your depth here. Have you considered that religious teachings on homosexuality could be wrong?
— James Ward (@newswardie) September 10, 2015
https://twitter.com/robthemasterg/status/642001903451262976
https://twitter.com/trisarrrahtops/status/641998921968013312
@ireland Sexuality is not v visible or detectable at birth, so who knows? Why does it matter? Also a genuine question!
— 🏳️🌈 Just Izzy 🏳️⚧️🦕🦖 (@IzzyKamikaze) September 10, 2015