A Sydney-based Muslim speaker has said the public outcry that prompted the Opera House to cancel his lecture called Honour Killings Are Morally Justified reveals the “extent and depth” of Islamophobia in Australia.
The public face of Islamic group Hizb ut-Tahrir, Uthman Badar, held a press conference on Tuesday in response to his lecture being withdrawn from the Festival of Dangerous Ideas lineup, just hours after the program was announced.
Along with a public outcry largely fuelled by social media, senior political figures were among those criticising the talk.
Badar said people had jumped to conclusions about his views before he had a chance to speak.
“Things were assumed and outrage ensued,” he said. “That is the way Islamophobia works. The assumption is ‘we know what the Muslims will say’. This a very instructive case as far as that goes.
“I think the hysteria says a lot about Islamophobia and about the extent and the depth of it in this country.
“It says a lot about the reality of freedom and the space that minorities have to move in in this country, Muslims in particular.”
He said he also wanted to make it clear that Islam did not support or condone any abuse of or violence towards women.
But he also said he believed the outcry would not have occurred if his lecture on the so-called honour killings was not assigned to be given by a Muslim.
“At this year’s festival we have a talk entitled, Women Are Sexual Predators. Imagine if I was given that talk [to deliver],” he said.
“There was a talk entitled A Killer Can Be Good last year. The difference between that talk and mine was that it was given by a white guy in his mid 30s or 40s and American.”
He said he was thinking about publishing the talk he had intended to give, but wasn’t sure where he would publish it yet, saying that he had been approached by various media outlets.
But it would have examined the way honour is used to defend killing and going to war by many countries and cultures, especially the west, he said.
“The reality is we live in a world that is deeply misogynistic, that is deeply patriarchal and at the same time, it is a world that is led and institutionalised by the west,” he said.
“Therefore, for me the key topic would be talk to talk openly about Islam and the west.”
The title of the talk he had proposed to the festival organisers was entitled The West Needs Saving by Islam, he said. But festival organisers had proposed the topic of “honour” killings instead.
“I did consent to that, but initially I had suggested a different topic.
“But to make the title the issue is superficial and beyond the point – it’s no more provocative or confronting than a host of other titles that have been used in this context in the past.”
He said he was now in talks with the festival organisers, who include the St James Ethics Centre, about delivering a lecture on a different topic.
The Sydney Opera House said it would not be saying anything more on the cancellation aside from its statement released on Tuesday night.
“The Festival of Dangerous Ideas is intended to be a provocation to thought and discussion, rather than simply a provocation,” that statement said.
“It is clear from the public reaction that the title has given the wrong impression of what Mr Badar intended to discuss.
“Neither Mr Badar, the St James Ethics Centre nor the Sydney Opera House in any way advocates honour killings or condones any form of violence against women.”