POLITICS
, Poppy Koronka
Friday February 24 2023, 8.30pm GMT, The Times
The leading candidate to replace Nicola Sturgeon as first minister of Scotland has confirmed he consulted the Muslim community before he pulled out of a landmark vote on gay marriage.
Humza Yousaf, the Muslim MSP who is the frontrunner to be the next SNP leader, said he often consulted the Islamic community about his policy positions.
Yousaf is under pressure to explain why he did not show up for the final vote on the Marriage and Civil Partnership (Scotland) Act in 2014.
Kate Forbes, Yousaf’s rival, said she would have voted against same-sex marriage
ANDREW MILLIGAN/PA
He said the Muslim community did not offer a “homogenous view” on same-sex marriage or influence his decision to attend a ministerial engagement rather than vote on the bill.
He claimed he had an “unavoidable” meeting with the Pakistan consulate to discuss a Scot who was on death row for blasphemy.
Alex Neil, the former health secretary who led the bill through parliament, insisted “this is not true” and “Humza deliberately skipped the vote”.
Yousaf has been accused of hypocrisy after he said this week that he would not “use my faith as a basis for legislation”.
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It was a pointed criticism of Kate Forbes, his rival in the campaign to be the next first minister, who said she would have voted against same-sex marriage because it conflicted with her beliefs as a member of the Free Church of Scotland.
Yousaf’s ministerial diary, seen by The Herald, reveals that he arranged the meeting three weeks ahead of the vote, before Mohammad Ashgar, the Scot in question, had been sentenced.
Neil told Times Radio: “I’ll tell you exactly what happened . . . in his words he was ‘put under pressure by the leaders of the mosque in Glasgow about the possibility he might vote for it at stage three’.”
Speaking at a campaign event in Glasgow on Friday, Yousaf said: “Every single member of the Scottish parliament was lobbied by, not just faith groups, there was a number of other groups that opposed equal marriage at the time and I was no different.
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“But I also speak to my community, the Muslim community in particular, I speak to them very often about the positions that I take. Some will agree, some will disagree, but to think the Muslim community has one homogenous view I think would be incorrect.”
The Muslim Council of Scotland was firmly opposed to same-sex marriage during parliamentary scrutiny of the bill in 2013.
Dr Salah Beltagui, the director of the council at the time, told Holyrood’s equal opportunities committee that same-sex marriage could legitimise incest and adultery.
He said: “Because the bill goes down a new road, diverging from the main traditional, historical way of marriage, it is creating situations that we do not know the end of, and we must be careful about these things.”
MSPs voted by 105 to 18 in favour of the bill.
source Humza Yousaf: I consulted fellow Muslims on gay marriage vote | News | The Times
Categories: Europe, Europe and Australia, Scotland, UK
Personally I find it rather silly that for such an important position the one and only point being discussed is how he voted, or not voted, on gay marriage….