Jordan Peterson slammed for telling Muslims to 'find a pen pal' and 'reach across sectarian divide'

Jordan Peterson addressed his Muslim audience in a new YouTube video and told them 'reach across sectarian divide' and 'stop regarding Christians and Jews as your enemies'.

In a six and a half minute long video, Peterson, 60, welcomed many of his new Muslim fans, apparently the conservative academic has become popular in the Muslim community.

In an effort to welcome his new fans, Peterson lectured his Muslim fans about being kind to people of other religions including Shia and Sunnis.

"It is time for those of you in the Muslim world to stop fighting amongst yourselves, you Shiites and Sunnis and also time to stop regarding the Christians, and even more specifically, the Jews as your enemies." Peterson said.

Sign up for our free Indy100 weekly newsletter

The Canadian-born professor told Shias to "find a Sunni pen pal" and "Sunnis do the same" even asking if someone in "the Muslim world" could make an "electronic system" that would allow the two to communicate.

Peterson is well-known for his conservative ideology of cultural, religious, and political concepts. Last month, Peterson's Twitter account was suspended after he made transphobic comments about Elliot Page.

"Muslims, reach across the sectarian divides..." Peterson said in his video. "Reach out tentatively to a Christian or even, heaven forbid, a Jew because perhaps it is time for those who purport to be followers of God - to act like it."

In response, people found Peterson's video condescending and ill-informed.

"[Jordan Peterson] If u haven't already please do read the Quran. As u are now directly addressing Muslims it will (as in the words of Thomas Cleary) provide u a superior vantage point, from where you'll beable to see through the false stereotypes held both by Muslims & non-muslims", Muslim academic Imran Hussein tweeted.

"As somebody who's said good things about Jordan Peterson in the past, I feel obligated to say that his recent "message to Muslims" video was condescending and stupid. The more he's ventured outside his area of expertise (clinical psych) the more I dislike him" Abdulla wrote.

In the comments of Peterson's YouTube video people argued that many Shias and Sunnis do get along and the violent extremists that Peterson was addressing are a very small minority of Islam, not unlike other religions.

Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.