Date: Sunday, 21st August 2016
Venue: Nottingham University, Level 2 Chulan Tower, Jalan Raja Chulan, KL
Time: 3PM – 530PM

Registration: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/forum-on-hate-crime-and-lgbtiq-where-is-the-love-tickets-27106616620

Panelists:
Pang Khee Teik
Syerleena Abdul Rashid
Azrul Mohd Khalib

Moderator: Nur Adilla Abdul Rahim

“Hate crime” as a legal category is a recent invention, but bias-motivated violence has a long history.

Since antiquity, humans have been selecting other humans for assault, injury, and murder on the basis of certain personal characteristics: different appearance, different color, different nationality, different language, and different religion.  We have read how the Romans have a long history of slaughtering the Christians; the Nazis persecuted Jews; and Orthodox Christians in the former Yugoslavia singled out Muslims for imprisonment, torture, rape, and mass execution.

The recent Orlando shooting massacre has reminded us again how dangerous and fatal this irrational and suppressed hatred towards certain communities could potentially be. On June 13th, the world learned about how Omar Mateen, a self-hating homosexual, stormed a gay nightclub in Orlando Florida, wielding an assault rifle and a pistol, and carried out the worst mass shooting in United States history under the name of Islam, leaving fifty people dead and another fifty-three wounded.

There are many pertinent factors to be considered in the despicable act of mass murder. President Barack Obama has categorized the attack on the Pulse nightclub in Orlando both as a hate crime and the act of terrorism that were rooted in a deep sense of homophobia. As a deeply entrenched psychopathological condition, homophobia is not exclusive to any religion or any people. There are as many homophobic Jews, homophobic Christians, homophobic Atheists, and homophobic Muslims too. Their common denominator is not their communal membership in any religion but their identical homophobic sentiments towards the LGBTIQ communities.

This forum will attempt to initiate a conversation on the phenomena of rising Hate Crime cases around the world especially towards the sexual minorities and what we can learn from the recent tragedies. We will also discuss on how terrorism and homophobic sentiments could work hand in hand under the banner of religion to justify such horrendous crime and what are the possible ways to educate the society in order to eliminate such hatred.

Programs:

1500-1505:   Welcoming speech by Prof Zaharom Naim

1505-1520:   Speech by moderator Nur Adilla Abdul Rahim

1520-1540:   Panelist I: Pang Khee Teik

1540-1600:   Panelist II: Syerleena Abdul Rashid

1600-1620:   Panelist IV: Azrul Mohd Khalib

1620-1730:   Discussion

1730:               Tea

Jointly organized by: Islamic Renaissance Front and Nottingham University