to report this to the boss?

[Willynutsax]

I have a very junior colleague who is gay and very much into gay rights.

He has recently started taking issue with the way that Islam sees homosexuality and punishes it in certain places in the world. This had led him to post a few things on FB about this.

Now I have no problem with him leading an intelligent debate about this but his posts are things like 'Why I'm Proud to be Islamophobic' which I think are unnecessarily inflammatory and smack of attention-seeking.
These posts are also public so can be seen by anyone where the wider context of the debate and point wouldn't necessarily be seen easily. From our employers perspective, he identifies himself as working for the company and the has a post stating he is Islamophobic.

I suggested that he might think about removing them because they could be interpreted differently from how he might wish them to be and could land him in hot water. He said he wouldn't be taking them down because, and I quote, 'I'm proud to be anti-Islam'.

There have also been issues in the past with him sharing details of confidential HR processes, job interview panels, on social media. He was advised to remove these posts by another colleague but he never did.

Do you think I should report this anonymously to the boss?

I work in the public sector.

I wouldn't report it, I'd ignore and have nothing to do with him.

It seems a bit petty to report him.

Does your organisation have a social media policy and is he in breach of it. If it does, then you should report it.

Chaz I have absolutely no idea. I'll find out.

Leave him to it. It's his opinion.

Maybe just not get involved? Not really your business.

I'm curious to know how this could be "intelligently debated", when Gay people are being openly murdered in the Muslim world.

I'm for Gay Rights and I'm not Gay, odd comment to make.

He's young and starting out on his journey against people who believe that he shouldn't exist, so he's being very vocal.

Unfortunately it's classed as Hate Speech, because he targets one large Group.

I don't have a problem with that as long as he doesn't make assumptions about every Muslim.

It's totally your decision, given his reasons, I wouldn't, I think it's a valid opinion.

I think my concern would be is the organisation is providing services to Muslims e.g. if he was a teacher in secondary school and one of the pupils found this profile it could cause a lot of problems.

Just to ask OP, are you "into Gay Rights", what's your opinion, on his?

Chaz We work at a university. He's teaching students.

Personally I get where you are coming from but I'd shy away from being the one to report it personally. It could be viewed as trouble-making even if your intentions are good.

Birds Completely irrelevant to the original question which is whether I should report this guy for openly saying on public social media that he's Islamophobic.

Birds
I agree with you.

If he had posted "I hate Islam's teaching on homosexuality" I would have no problem with it. It's the apparent targeting of 1bn people without finding out how each individual thinks is what I struggle with.

I think it's bad that when there's a valid reason behind that opinion, it still can't be expressed.

I liked that my Uni tutors were Political and into Social Matters.

No, don't report him. In the end he will get found out. Ignore him. You've given him good advice about removing the posts, if he choses not to, that is his problem.

If its a University then somebody needs to sort this out. It will cause problems if a student finds it and wants to make an issue.

Birds
I liked that my Uni tutors were Political and into Social Matters.
But if you're a Muslim student you might not like one of your tutors expressing to the world that they're Islamophobic.

Thanks for all of your comments.

I'm going to advise him again to reword his posts, if not remove them. Then I will leave him to it as most have suggested

Birds
He can express his opinion but not by othering a very large group of people. As I said above he could express a very forthright opinion about the teachings of Islam without stating that that he is Islamaphobic which tends to be taken as hating Muslims rather than objecting to Islam.

Discriminating against someone because they are Christian/Muslim is wrong and illegal.

Criticising Christianity or Islam as an ideology is not. For very good reasons. If we cannot criticise ideologies then we are all doomed. Religion does not get a free pass. Most religions have some pretty repugnant views on women/ gays etc. Criticising religion is a vital freedom in a free secular society.

If he discriminates against someone on the basis of their religion, he needs to face the consequences. If he's pointing out the hatred, misogyny and general batshit insanity of religion then he's free and clear.

Islamophobia is generally used as a term to shut down debate.

No sacred cows. We all obey the law and religion doesn't get a free ride.

Ooooh! That University has a nasty surprise waiting for them!

OP, you can either leave it, let it come to light some other way or you can work out a way to report it anonymously - I wouldn't blame you for doing it that way, it is a whole box of frogs with a bag of snakes thrown in!

It is absolutely fine for him to hold those views, unpleasant as they sound. But he needs to grow up. Freedom of speech and speech hate are sometimes a fine line to tread and, in his job, he needs to know the difference and promote himself accordingly.

Totally unacceptable to have those posts Public rather than just shared with friends. I'd imagine he could be dismissed for his behaviour? If I were you I'd report it anonymously, that way it gets dealt with and you avoid the fall out.

If you don't have a social media policy in place when you work within education I'd be amazed. We do, and that is a disciplinary matter where i work (also education).

I think if you feels aggrieved enough about his opinions to report him, you should have the balls to not report him anonymously.

He sounds somewhat misguided and fairly immature, but I'm not a big fan of censorship. He would certainly be wise to tighten up his social media settings, but presumably he treats his students appropriately which would be a bigger issue for me personally.