Yusuf Smith has posted a report of a public meeting on Friday evening organised by the Gay and Lesbian Humanist Association on the subject of “Gays, Women and Secularists in Post-War Iraq”. The platform consisted of Peter Tatchell and Ali Hilli of OutRage! and Houzan Mahmoud of the Worker-Communist Party of Iraq.

Yusuf reports that the first question from the floor was whether the speakers considered that Islam itself was to blame for the situation they were facing in Iraq. Ali Hilli replied that he did not accept this, that Islam was a religion of peace and love – at which point Houzan Mahmoud “interjected that this was not true” – but people use it for whatever purposes they want, as with other religions.

So it would appear that at least some members of OutRage! are capable of a rather more nuanced approach to Islam than the group’s most prominent figures.