A local politician from Minnesota who has been exposed as bigot says he’s allowed to be as homophobic as he wants because his religion says so, and anyone who feels otherwise is attacking his faith.
Kassim Busuri is a City Council member from St. Paul, Minnesota. Last Wednesday, the council approved a resolution recognizing June as LGBTQ Pride Month. The resolution was sponsored by every council member except Busuri.
Busuri later said the reason he didn’t sponsor it was because he only learned about it “minutes” before it was presented to the council, and so he didn’t have enough time to read it over.
That excuse might have gotten him out of the dog house. Until a bunch of old homophobic social media posts written by Busuri surfaced a few hours later.
Several screenshots of homophobic comments made by Busuri on social media hit Twitter and Facebook last Wednesday evening. Some of the comments were made as recently as 2015.
The Pioneer Press reports:
Rather than, say, apologize for his bigotry, Busuri, who is Muslim, hit back at critics accusing him of homophobia by accusing them of Islamophobia.
“My religious beliefs are very clear about homosexuality,” Busuri said last week. “Those who are attacking me, I see it as Islamophobic, attacking me for my religious beliefs.”
Um, being held accountable for gleefully celebrating a country for imprisoning LGBTQ people or using the word “homo” to disparage gay men is not the same as attacking a person for their religious beliefs.
In a follow up Facebook post, Busuri further doubled down on this idea, writing:
Not surprisingly, Busuri’s Facebook post did little to quell the outrage.
“As a queer person of color, I expect and rely on our elected officials to do the right thing to support our marginalized communities,” one commenter said. “Shame.”
“As a young Muslim women this is not what a ‘community leader’ does,” another said. “This is not Islam, this is bigotry. It will certainly not stand.”
Others has much sharper criticism, writing “This is disgusting,” “Polish up your resume!” and “Resign.”
