Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has defended a religious leader who said that homosexuality “brings illnesses,” and called criticism of the cleric an “attack on the state.”

Ali Erbas, president of the state-funded Directorate of Religious Affairs, claimed last week that homosexuality causes disease, corruption, and is condemned in Islam during a weekly sermon.

The Ankara bar association of lawyers accused him of inciting hatred against gay people while ignoring child abuse and misogyny.

But Erdogan dismissed the criticism, saying “an attack against the Diyanet chief is an attack on the state” before adding: “What he said was totally right,” as reported by AFP.