Yunus under Ulama fire

Noble laureate Muhammad Yunus has come under fire from a body of Ulamas over a year after he spoke up for gay rights.

Four Nobel Prize winners -- Archbishop Desmond Tutu and Iranian activist Shirin Ebadi among them -- released a joint statement last year condemning violence against members of the LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, bisexual, transgender) community to which Yunus had lent support.

The ‘Ulama Mashayekh Shanghati Parisad’ told the press on Thursday that it would lay siege to the Yunus Centre after Eid-ul-Fitr.

They have accused Yunus of favouring social endorsement for homosexuality in the country.

“The country's Islamic people will never tolerate this,” said Maulna Aiyub Ansari, a member of the Parishad.

The Ulemas have reacted more than a year after the statement was released in June last year.

The statement was in all likelihood prompted by a move by Simon Lokodo, Uganda’s Minister of Ethics and Integrity, who announced a ban on 38 human rights groups for allegedly ‘promoting homosexuality’ and, thereby, ‘threatening the traditions and values of the country’.

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Archbishop Tutu is a strong supporter of gay rights. The Unites States and several European nations have already conceded them.

Maulana Ansari claimed Yunus had ‘audaciously defied Islam’ by speaking for homosexuals, something that, he said, had no place in the religion.

The group has demanded Yunus's arrest and wants him to be socially boycotted.