Anti-gay Berkeley preacher Sheikh Jamil El-Biza pulled out of Friday's event organised by the newly formed School of Liberal Arts after discussion with the University of Wollongong.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
The school, set up to house the controversial Ramsay Centre-funded Bachelor of Arts in Western Civilisation, had invited the sheikh to speak at its "Understanding others through narrative practices" workshop.
It went ahead without the two scheduled community speakers - Sheikh El-Biza, the Imam of Masjid Assalaam Berkeley and Judith Hurley, a founder of Illawarra People for Peace.
The sheikh made headlines during the debate over same-sex marriage in 2017, when he said gay marriage was "evil" and homosexuals were "f- - -ts".
On Friday he said he stood by his beliefs, but regretted the language he used. After a Mercury story on Thursday he was targeted by ant-Islamic abuse on social media.
"I never used the word to intentionally hurt the feelings or vilify any group of people," he responded on the Mercury's Facebook page.
"I however am taught by my religion not to use vulgar language in expressing or even defending my views. That was an err [sic] on my behalf and I apologise to any one who may have been hurt by them.
"I do appreciate the comments of protest against myself that were balanced and fair. I don't appreciate the attack on my faith Islam because of my actions."
National Tertiary Education Union branch president Georgine Clarsen said she was "astounded" workshop organisers invited a "fundamentalist" to represent a Muslim point of view.
"There is a big difference between free speech and hate speech and this particular man that was invited was on the record as saying very hateful and inflammatory things about gay people," Ms Clarsen said.
"The university has very strong policies about having an inclusive, accepting diverse non-racist, non-discriminatory campus community and we just do not understand how the Ramsay Centre thinks it is acceptable to invite people like that to have an official platform at our university."
UOW said the event was organised and sponsored by the newly formed School of Liberal Arts as a genuine initiative aimed at fostering open and respectful discussion to foster mutual, cross-cultural understanding.