The MCC Mission

The Muslim Canadian Congress is a grassroots organization that provides a voice to Muslims who are not represented by existing organizations; organizations that are either sectarian or ethnocentric, largely authoritarian, and influenced by a fear of modernity and an aversion to joy.

Members of the Muslim Canadian Congress come from all parts of the world with diverse ethnic and racial backgrounds. We are proud of our Muslim heritage and the great contribution of Islam to human civilization. As Muslim Canadians we believe in the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, and the Canadian constitution as our guiding principles.

The Muslim Canadian Congress looks to the future, and not to the past for the best days of the Muslim community; a community that will fully integrate and participate with other Canadians to build a country that is a beacon of hope, peace, prosperity and joy for the rest of the world.

We are an organization open to all Muslims who agree with our mission statement. We define a Muslim as any person who identifies himself or herself as a Muslim.

As Muslims we believe in a progressive, liberal, pluralistic, democratic, and secular society where everyone has the freedom of religion. We want our communities to be equal and active contributors and participants in the development of a just, democratic, and equitable society in Canada.

• We believe in the separation of religion and state in all matters of public policy. We feel such a separation is a necessary pre-requisite to building democratic societies, where religious, ethnic, and racial minorities are accepted as equal citizens enjoying full dignity and human rights enunciated in the 1948 United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
• We believe that fanaticism and extremism within the Muslim community is a major challenge to all of us. We stand opposed to the extremists and will present the more humane and tolerant face of our community.
• We oppose gender apartheid that is practiced in parts of our community, and believe it is contrary to the equity among men and women enshrined in Islam. We believe that Muslim men and women should work together, shoulder-to-shoulder, in their effort to rejuvenate our community.
• We envision Canada as a society with strong and well-funded public institutions in the health, education and social services sectors. We feel these public institutions are the foundation and pre-requisite for an enterprising and vibrant private sector.
• We will work for a more progressive, anti-racist and accessible immigration policy in Canada; a policy that recognizes the contributions of immigrants as vital assets of society and essential for the survival of the country.
• We hope to build a Canada where personal initiative and creativity are celebrated and rewarded, but not at the cost of our collective social conscience and an abandonment of our responsibility towards the broader community.

September 11, 2011

Tenth Anniversary of 9/11:

MCC welcomes Prime Minister Harper identifying "Islamism" as a major threat to Canada's security


TORONTO - The Muslim Canadian Congress (MCC) has urged the Canadian and U.S. Governments to understand and challenge the fundamental ideological doctrine that inspires Islamic Terrorism and draws countless young men and women born in the West to hate the societies that sustain and nurture them.

In a statement issued on the tenth anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks on the USA, the MCC said, "Ten years and a trillion dollars later, we are more vulnerable to our enemy’s machinations than we were on that sunny September morning of 2001 when evil rained hell from the skies. The jihadi terrorists’ 9/11 attack on the United States shook human civilization to its core. The colossal amounts of money spent to defend our lifestyle and values were not enough to stop 19 Arab men armed with mere paper cutters from bringing a superpower, a nation of 300 million, to its knees."

Click here to read the full statement.

September 6, 2011

A Call to McGill University and the Université de Montréal to Support Freedom of Expression

 On September 7, 2011, the Second Global Conference on World's Religions after 9/11 will take place in Montreal. It is organized with the active cooperation of McGill University and the Université de Montréal. The Dalai Lama will open the conference and many personalities have confirmed that they will attend.

In a communiqué released at the beginning of May, the organizing committee of the event stated that the following question would be submitted to the participants:

Should violating the sanctity of the scripture of any religion be considered tantamount to violating the sanctity of the scriptures of all religions?

Click here to read the full statement.

September 9, 2010

Click here to read the full statement.

August 9, 2010

Muslim Canadian Congress urges New York’s Ground-Zero Mosque Imam to abandon project

TORONTO – The Muslim Canadian Congress (MCC) is urging the Cordoba House Initiative to abandon its proposed Ground-Zero Mosque in New York in the face of outrage expressed by large segments of the American population calling the proposal an act of 'fitna' or mischief.

In a letter to Imam Faisal Rauf that will be delivered on Tuesday, August 10 by MCC’s board member Raheel Raza, the MCC says, “Many Muslims suspect that the idea behind the Ground Zero mosque is meant to be a deliberate provocation, to thumb our noses at the 'infidel.' We believe the proposal has been made in bad faith and, in Islamic parlance, is creating  'fitna,' meaning 'mischief-making,' an act clearly forbidden in the Qur’an.”

“The Qur'an commands us Muslims to, 'be considerate when you debate with the People of the Book' -- i.e., Jews and Christians [chapter 29, verse 46]. Building an exclusive place of worship for Muslims at the place where Muslims killed thousands of New Yorkers, is not being considerate or sensitive, it is undoubtedly an act of fitna,” the letter added.

The MCC challenges Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf about his claim that building the mosque will increase tolerance for Muslims when the evidence is the exact opposite. “Do you not understand that building a mosque at Ground Zero is equivalent to permitting a Serbian Orthodox Church near the killing fields of Srebrenica where 6,000 Muslim men and boys were slaughtered?” the letter asked.

Click here to read the full statement.

May 29, 2010

Islamic organizations must repudiate the label of 'heresy' hurled at Ahmadiya Muslims

MCC urges Ottawa to add Jamaat-e-Islami and
Muslim Brotherhood to list of terrorist organizations

TORONTO - The Muslim Canadian Congress (MCC) has urged Islamic organizations in Canada and the USA to declare without any ambiguity that Ahmadiya Muslims are part and parcel of the Islamic fabric and just one more sect among the hundreds that make up the Ummah.

In a statement condemning the slaughter on Friday of nearly one hundred Ahmadiya Muslims in two mosques in Pakistan, the MCC said, the time for ritualistic denunciations of terrorism is now over. "It is time for Muslims in Canada to step up to the plate and recognize the fact that by demonizing minority Islamic sects as non-Muslim, they have contributed to the crimes against humanity being committed by death-cult jihadi terrorists acting in the name of Islam," said MCC vice president Salma Siddiqui.

She and MCC founder Tarek Fatah had only a day earlier met with leaders of the Canada's Ahmadiya Muslim community to discuss questions of security and safety in light of rising anti-Ahmadiya propaganda not just in Pakistan, but right here in Canada. "It is sad that within hours of our meeting we were faced with the nightmare unfolding in the so-called Islamic republic of Pakistan," Ms. Siddiqui added.

The MCC statement said Islamic leaders in Canada have not only declared the Ahmadiya Muslims as heretic, they also refer to the Ismaili Muslims as not real Muslims and mock their practices as unislamic and unworthy of respect.

Click here to read the full statement.

May 7, 2010

MCC urges Obama Administration to distance itself from Islamists promoting doctrine of 'armed jihad' and Sharia Law

TORONTO - The Muslim Canadian Congress (MCC) has condemned the attempted bombing in New York, but has also expressed alarm at the continued refusal of American Islamic organizations to distance themselves from the doctrine of armed jihad, which is at the root of Islamic extremism and terrorism.

The MCC has on numerous occasions urged North American Islamic groups to unequivocally declare the doctrine of armed Jihad and its underlying theology as dangerous, but our call has fallen on deaf ears.

The MCC believes that unless the doctrine of “Armed Jihad” or “Lesser Jihad” as promoted by the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood and the Pakistani Jamaat-e-Islami is declared as inapplicable in the 21st century, ritualistic condemnations of terrorism and violence in the name of Islam are not worth the paper they are written on. The MCC believes it is of utmost importance to acknowledge that both the Jamaat-e-Islami and  Muslim Brotherhood have a large number of associates operating openly in the USA and Canada and they provide fertile soil for terrorists like the New York car bomber, the Toronto-18 and the Ottawa Digi-bomber to flourish and find intellectual and ideological sustenance.

The MCC strongly believe that the Obama Administration is not helping the situation by seeking advice from individuals who not only endorse the doctrine of Jihad and support sharia law, but openly deny any connection between Islamist theology and on-going terrorist activities.

Click here to read the full statement.

October 8, 2009

Muslim Canadian Congress
wants Canada to Ban the Burka

TORONTO - The Muslim Canadian Congress (MCC) is asking Ottawa to introduce legislation to ban the wearing of masks, niqabs and the burka in all public dealings..

In a statement, the MCC said, not only is the wearing of a face-mask a security hazard and has led to a number of bank heists in Canada and overseas, the burka or niqab are political symbols of Saudi inspired Islamic extremism.

The MCC dismissed the argument that wearing of a face-mask by Muslim women is protected by the Charter's guarantee of religious freedom. The MCC said, there is no requirement in the Quran for Muslim women to cover their faces. Invoking religious freedom to conceal one's identity and promote a political ideology, is disingenuous.

The MCC pointed to the the recent decision by Egypt's highest Muslim authority, Sheikh Mohamed Tantawi, dean of al-Azhar university, who said he will issue a Fatwa (religious edict) against the niqab and burka.

Click here to read the full statement.

October 11, 2009

"Nowhere in the Islamic world have the scholars achieved a consensus that Islam mandates covering the face. While there seems to be consensus among orthodoxy on modest attire, no orthodox scholar, with the exception of the Wahhabi sheiks, believe that the covering of the face is mandated by the Qur’an"

Farzana Hassan challenges the Islamists: "Let us debate the theology of the burka"

My opponent, a woman who admitted to wearing a burka, angrily instructed me to hold any judgment on whether the Qur’an mandates the burka until I found out more about Islam.

She urged me to conduct a thorough and dispassionate research of the issue. Her response was familiar. Traditional Muslims often accuse more liberal Muslims of ignorance; if such contemptible liberals understood Islam properly, they would be more conservative. They believe the opinions of liberal Muslims are woeful, have no merit or are perhaps inspired by a nefarious anti-Islam agenda.

In any case, I accepted her challenge and my research confirmed what I already knew — that neither the Qur’an nor Islam in general mandates covering the face. In fact, the Qur’an does not urge any woman even to cover her hair. I therefore regard the hijab as a biddah: something that is alien to Islam.

October 8, 2009

Tarek Fatah says "Burn the Burka"

Tarek Fatah
The National Post

In October 2006, when Britain’s former foreign secretary Jack Straw asked a constituent wearing a face-mask in his office to remove her veil, he was lambasted by UK’s mosque establishment and clerics as a racist and Islamophobe.

Three years later, it was the mother of all Islamic clerics — Muhammad Sayyid Tantawi, the Grand Imam of Al-Azhar Mosque and Grand Sheikh of Al-Azhar University in Egypt — who found himself in Jack Straw’s shoes.

Speaking to students in a girls’ school in Egypt, Sheikh Tantawi asked a girl draped in a head-to-toe black burka to take off the veil from her face. The girl refused, leading the frustrated Egyptian cleric to say he will issue a fatwa (religious edict) against the growing trend among Muslim women to wear the niqab (a dark veil covering the entire face, leaving a hole only for the eyes). He told the young woman that full-face veiling is a custom that has nothing to do with the Islamic faith.

The Muslim Canadian Congress (MCC) is now adding its voice to Sheikh Tantawi’s, and all the others who demand an end to this insult to the female gender. The MCC, an organization that I once led, has asked Ottawa to introduce legislation that will “ban the wearing of masks, burkas and niqabs in public.”

Defenders of the burka contend that the wearing of a face-mask by Muslim women is protected by our Charter’s right to religious freedom. But such arguments are premised on the myth that a face-mask for women is a necessary part of religiously prescribed Islamic attire.

There is no requirement in Islam for Muslim women to cover their face. Rather, the practice reflects a mode of male control over women. Its association with Islam originates in Saudi Arabia, which seeks to export the practice of veiling — along with other elements of its extremist Wahhabist brand of Islam.

July 17, 2009

MCC condemns attack: "Doctrine of Jihad must be abandoned"

TORONTO - The Muslim Canadian Congress (MCC) has condemned the jihadi terrorists who carried out the twin blasts in Jakarta yesterday.

In a statement, the MCC called upon Islamic leaders around the world and specially in North America to not just denounce the terrorists, but to categorically distance themselves from the doctrine of "Armed Jihad" or "Lesser Jihad" as promoted by the Muslim Brotherhood of Egypt and the Jamaat-e-Islami of Pakistan. It was their late founders --- Hassan al-Banna and Syed Maudoodi respectively --- whose teachings about Jihad today form the foundation of all Islamic terrorism.

"Unless we Muslim recognize that the ideology of Jihad cannot work in the 21st century, we will face more of terrorism. There is no point in merely denouncing terrorism while giving a wink and a nod to the theology that gives Islamic validity to such acts of terror," said Sohail Raza, president of the MCC. "The doctrine of Jihad must be abandoned," he added.

Tuesday, June 16 2009

MCC urges Ottawa to reject outcome of Iranian elections

TORONTO, June 16, 2009 - The Muslim Canadian Congress (MCC) has asked Prime Minister Harper's government to not accept the outcome of the Iranian elections and to suspend all diplomatic relations with Tehran.

In a letter to the Prime Minister the MCC said it was aware of massive vote rigging by the Iranian State authorities and that information from Iran suggests that the incumbent President Mahmoud Ahmedinejad not only lost, but came third in the final count of votes.

In a separate statement issued today, the MCC expressed its solidarity with the Iranian people and condemned the killing of several demonstrators by the Iranian State. The statement said, what is needed today is not simply a recount of the vote, but the dismissal of the so-called supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei who knew about the fraudulent vote rigging, yet authorized the result and gave it official stamp of authority.

Click here to read the full statement

Tuesday. March 31, 2009

 Tarek Fatah's book shortlisted
for Donner Book Prize
"...a fascinating book that seeks to differentiate between the Islamic State and the state of Islam."

TORONTO, March 31, 2009 - The Donner Foundation today announced that Chasing a Mirage: The Tragic Illusion of an Islamic State (Wiley 2008) by MCC founder Tarek Fatah has been shortlisted for the annual $35,000 Donner Book Prize. The award recognizes and rewards non-fiction books by Canadian authors that contribute to the "best public policy thinking, writing and research in Canada."

Recognizing Chasing a Mirage as one of the top five contenders for the prize, the official announcement described the book in these words:

"A fascinating book that seeks to differentiate between the Islamic State and the state of Islam. Can a millennia of aggression be brought to a halt? Chasing a Mirage is unequivocal in its answer and its remedy to end political violence that is inimical to Islam and its state of grace and peace."

Click here to read the full story and the names of the other finalists.

January 22, 2009

The Agenda with Steve Paikin on TVO
The Meaning of Jihad
On January 22,  TVO featured a debate on the meaning of the word Jihad with five members of the Muslim community. The participants were:

• Shabir Ally, president of the Islamic Information and Dawah Centre in Toronto
• Mohammad Fadel, professor in the Faculty of Law at the University of Toronto.
• Aly Hindy, Imam of the Salaheddin Islamic Centre in Toronto
• Muqtedar Khan, director of Islamic Studies at the University of Delaware and author of Jihad for Jerusalem
• Tarek Fatah, founder of the Muslim Canadian Congress and author of Chasing a Mirage: The Tragic Illusion of an Islamic State.

December 28, 2008

Israeli attack on Gaza
MCC calls for end to bombing
Condemns Hamas for inciting hostilities

TORONTO - The Muslim Canadian Congress (MCC) has expressed alarm at the on-going Israeli attacks on Gaza and has asked the international community to intervene and bring about an immediate ceasefire. In a statement, the MCC condemned the disproportionate response by the IDF to the rocket attacks by Hamas, leading to hundreds of casualties.

The MCC statement also condemned Hamas for treating the Palestinian people as human-bait in a ploy to provoke Israel into launching an all-out attack on Gaza. In censuring Hamas, the MCC said, the Islamist group had deliberately put the civilian population of Gaza in danger as it played the role of Iran's agent provocateur in the region.

Click here to read the full statement.

September 26, 2008

Toronto Terror Trial
MCC welcomes conviction
Acquittal would have been huge victory for Jihadis

TORONTO - The Muslim Canadian Congress (MCC) has welcomed the conviction of a Toronto man accused of belonging to a homegrown terror cell that was allegedly plotting a deadly attack on Canadians.

In the guilty verdict, Justice John Sproat said he was "satisfied beyond  a reasonable doubt that a terror group existed" and that the Muslim youth "clearly understood that the camps were training for a terrorist purpose."

The vice president of the MCC, Salma Siddiqui thanked Judge Sproat for the clarity of the verdict. "Had Justice Sproat found the young man 'not guilty', such a verdict would have been a huge victory for the world-wide jihadi movement.

Click here to read the full statement.

September 21, 2008

Islamabad Marriott Bombing
MCC denounces terrorism;
Jihadi apologists promoting conspiracy theories


TORONTO - The Muslim Canadian Congress (MCC) has strongly condemned the truck bombing of the Marriott Hotel in Islamabad, Pakistan, labelling it as yet another act of terror aimed at destabilizing the nascent democratic forces in the country. While evidence is still emerging, the Islamabad attack has all the fingerprints of Islamist terrorism.

The MCC has also expressed dismay that even though the dust has barely settled, apologists of the Taliban and Al-Qaeda have started spreading conspiracy theories in an attempt to deflect criticism from the Jihadis. Rather than categorically denouncing the terrorists and their Islamist Jihadi doctrine, many Islamists are portraying the Jihadis as if they were some sort of a liberation movement.

Click here to read the full statement.

May 29, 2008

Imam flaunts contempt for Canadian Law
MCC urges police to lay charges against polygamous Muslim men


TORONTO - The Muslim Canadian Congress has asked Toronto and Peel Regional Police to investigate the growing number of polygamous marriages and charge those who are committing this crime and committing welfare fraud.

The MCC said in a statement that it is appalled by the news that a significant number of fundamentalist Muslims are practicing polygamy in Canada despite the fact that Canadian law only supports monogamous unions.

Click here to read the full statement.

April 10, 2008

The Macleans vs. CIC saga:

MCC shocked at OHRC decision
to trumpet Islamist cause

OTTAWA—The Muslim Canadian Congress has welcomed the decision by the Ontario Human Rights Commission not to proceed with complaints filed against Maclean’s magazine related to an article where the Canadian Islamic Congress had alleged that the magazine had violated their human rights.

However, the MCC is disappointed that the OHRC has become the virtual organ of Canada’s Islamist organizations and that it has taken sides in the bitter struggle within Canada’s Muslim community where sharia-supporting Islamists are pitted against liberal and secular Muslims.

In a statement, the President of the MCC, Farzana Hassan said, the OHRC decision had the finger prints of its pro-Islamist commissioners who have close association with the Canadian Islamic Congress. It is not just the commissioners, but we have reason to believe that there are staff on the OHRC that support sharia law and endorse the CIC’s positions.

Click here to read the full statement.

April 7, 2008

Canada should repeal blasphemy laws
MCC rejects call by Islamic countries to curtail debate and discussion about religion

TORONTO - The Muslim Canadian Congress has expressed shock and disappointment at the move by Islamic countries to bulldoze the United Nations Human Rights Commission (UNHRC) into approving a resolution curtailing freedom of speech under the guise of protecting religion.

The resolution approved at the UNHRC and initiated by the Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC) is disingenuously titled "Combating Defamation of Religion.” However, the fact is that the OIC resolution is nothing more than a cover to silence opponents of Islamist oppression inside Muslim countries, as well as in the West.

The MCC in a statement said "the UNHRC resolution instead of protecting the right to freedom of conscience and religious expression, will become a tool in the hands of Iran, Saudi Arabia and the world jihadi movement to strike fear among the opponents of Islamic extremism."

Click here to read the full statement.

January 29, 2008

So-called Sharia Mortgages are a Deception
MCC asks CMHC to drop $100,000 study to introduce Islamic banking in Canada

TORONTO - The Muslim Canadian Congress (MCC) has asked the Canadian Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) to abandon its $100,000 study to introduce so-called Islamic Banking in Canada, saying there should be no room in Canada for Saudi inspired Islamist political doctrines dressed up as innocuous religious requirements.

In a letter to Karen Kinsley, Chief Executive Officer of the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation, the president of the Muslim Canadian Congress Farzana Hassan said, "Islamic Banking is nothing more than an attempt by Islamists, with backing from Middle Eastern Financial Institutions and their Western partners, to scare Muslim Canadians into believing that they should pay more to the banks and demand less in return as an act of religiosity. "

Click here to read the full statement.

January 25, 2008

Banks are helping sharia
make a back-door entrance

By Tarek Fatah
The Globe and Mail

Click here to read the full article.

Wednesday, December 12, 2007

 
By Tarek Fatah
and Farzana Hassan
The National Post

The tragic death of a Mississauga, Ont. teenage girl — allegedly at the hands of her own traditionally minded Muslim father — has sent shock waves across the world. Canadians are justified in raising concerns as to whether this is a sign of the rise of Islamic fundamentalism in their own backyard.

Aqsa Parvez, a sprightly 16-year old, beloved of her friends and peers at Applewood Heights Secondary School, was only trying to be herself, was only wishing for a normal adolescence amid Canada’s rich cultural mosaic. The father has now been charged with murder, and his son with obstruction, while a young life has been snuffed out — likely in the name of honour and Islam

Radical Muslim men consider themselves ultimately responsible for the conduct of the womenfolk. This outlook is rooted in a medieval ethos that treats women as nonpersons, unable to decide for themselves what they should wear, where they must go and what they must accomplish in life. If their conduct is seen as contravening this austere religious outlook, they are invariably subjected to abuse.

Click here to read the full article.
 

November 29, 2007

Gillian Gibbons, 54, was arrested on Sunday in Khartoum after allowing her class of primary school pupils to name a teddy bear 'Muhammad'. She now faces six months in prison and 40 lashes under Sudan's medieval sharia laws.

Click here to read the full statement.

November 28, 2007

The Jurist, Pittsburg, USA

While staunch affirmation of human rights remains the mantra of the day, the world continues to witness violations both great and small of this noble human ideal.

Click here to read the full article.

November 4, 2007

Click here to read the full statement.

July 24, 2007

June 15, 2007

FUNDING FAITH-BASED SCHOOLS

By Tarek Fatah and Salma Siddiqui
The Toronto Star

In 2003, in an attempt to break into the Liberal-dominated, vote-rich urban ridings, the government of Ernie Eves started funding private religious schools with public funds. It did not work and he was voted out of office.

Now, Progressive Conservative Leader John Tory has embarked on the same venture. In an apparent attempt to lure religious minority communities to vote for his party, he is dangling the carrot of funding their private, segregated religious schools.

Who can blame him? After all, we all live in an era when winning elections is not a means to an end; it has become an end in itself. Securing the votes of religious minorities through their clerics' backing, even if it reverses the progress we have made as a country through public education, seems worth the price.

September 9, 2007

Muslim Canadian Congress demands
Elections Canada rescind its Burqa decision
"Allowing masked voters, a
rude joke," says MCC President
TORONTO - The Muslim Canadian Congress has asked Elections Canada to immediately rescind its recent decision allowing Muslim women in burqa and niqaab to vote in the upcoming federal by-elections in Quebec.

In a letter to Marc Mayrand Chief Electoral Officer of Canada, MCC president Farzana Hassan said, "unless the intention of Elections Canada is to paint Canada's Muslim community in a negative light, we demand that this silly provision allowing masked women to vote, be rescinded immediately. The sanctioning of the burqa and niqaab as Islamic attire is a rude joke, and insult to Muslim Canadians."
 

Click here to read the full statement.

August 14, 2007

TORONTO - The Muslim Canadian Congress has reiterated its demand that the Canadian government consider criminalizing accusations of apostasy and blasphemy often levelled by Islamists against their Muslim critics.

The MCC was reacting to the attack on Bangladeshi writer Taslima Nasrin by Islamist Indian legislators last week. The exiled Bangladeshi writer was physically attacked at a press conference and later accused of being an apostate and thus worthy of death.

Akbar Hussain, a director of the MCC said, "This behaviour is unacceptable. The Indian authorities must exercise tighter control to prevent such mob politics from threatening or causing bodily harm to people who hold divergent views. This is against the principle of freedom of expression which a secular democracy like India must uphold."

Click here to read the full statement.

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July 11, 2007

 

MCC condemns latest death threats
against British author Salman Rushdie
 

"Issuing death threats and fatwas do no service to Islam or Prophet Muhammad," says Sohail Raza

TORONTO - The Muslim Canadian Congress has condemned the new death threats being leveled against the British author Salman Rushdie by Al-Qaeda and government officials in Pakistan and Iran.

Sohail Raza, the communications director of the MCC said, "whereas we Muslims respect and adore our Prophet and Mr. Rushdie has hurt our feelings, we must at the same time defend his right and of all writers to express their opinions without fear. There is nothing in the Quran that permits anyone, whether they are Ministers, Ayatollahs or Al-Qaeda leaders, to take the law into their hands and issues fatwas or edicts of death."

Click here to read the full statement.

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June 28, 2007

Britain isn't worthy of Rushdie

Tarek Fatah
National Post, Toronto

Sunday, Oct. 1, 1989 was a typically chilly morning in London. That did not dampen the enthusiasm of thousands of angry British Muslims who were heading toward the Royal Albert Hall to hear a South African orator, Ahmed Deedat, rip into Salman Rushdie for writing The Satanic Verses.

Nearly 6,000 men, some bussed in from as far as Birmingham, jammed the hall. What happened at the start of the event tells us a lot about the Rushdie saga, which it seems, will not die until the man they now call Sir Salman is sent to his death.

The first speaker read a piece from Rushdie¹s Satanic Verses and asked The audience how many were familiar with that passage or had read the book. Only one person raised his hand. One man out of 6,000! They had come to demand the banning of The Satanic Verses, but had not read the book.

That has been the story of the Rushdie affair for the last 18 years. If Rushdie had intended to defame Islam, his naysayers have helped him do so.

Click here to read the full article

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May 22, 2007

 

MCC disappointed at Alberta Court's
decision to allow photo-free driving licenses

"Islamists will exploit this ruling to their advantage," says Prof. Mahfooz Kanwar

CALGARY - The Muslim Canadian Congress has expressed serious reservations at the recent decision by the Alberta Court of Appeal allowing photo-free driver's licenses to the Hutterite community. It is asking the Government of Alberta to appeal the decision to the Supreme Court.

Prof. Mahfooz Kanwar, a Calgary-based board member of the MCC said, the court’s decision will set the wrong precedent for other ultra conservative religious communities who will use this decision to seek accommodations that have the potential of negatively impacting public safety and security.

Click here to read the full statement.

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May 12, 2007

MCC relieved at foiling of terror plot

"To fight extremism, Muslim leaders must emphasize the seperation of religion and politics," says Salma Siddiqui

TORONTO - The Muslim Canadian Congress is relieved that prompt intervention by law enforcement agencies has resulted in the foiling of a terror plot in the United States. The arrests of 10 Muslim men who were allegedly planning to attack Fort Dix, New Jersey, is yet another reminder of how pervasive and real the threat of terrorism is.

"Canadians, Muslim and non-Muslim, must take these incidents very seriously" said Salma Siddiqui, Senior Vice President of the MCC. The security of Canada is the responsibility of all Canadians and unless we are vigilant, a handful of terrorists will cause immeasurable harm to our civic society", she added.

Click here to read the entire statement

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April 17, 2007

From Soccer to Tae Kwon Doo

"Don't turn the Hijab into
a political tool," says MCC

TORONTO - The Muslim Canadian Congress has expressed concern and disappointment that the Hijab is once again being used as a political tool by Islamists to further their agenda in Canada

Recently, a Tae Kwon Doo team composed of five Muslim girls, some of whom wear the hijab, withdrew their participation from a tournament in Quebec as an act of defiance, after they were advised to remove their hijabs from underneath their protective helmets.

"The helmets were sufficient substitutes for the hijab," said Munir Pervaiz, Secretary General of the Muslim Canadian Congress. "However, the parents of these very young girls--who are not required to wear the hijab even according to the strictest interpretations of Quranic injunctions--decided to turn this into a political statement of Muslim identity," he added.

Click here to read the entire statement

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April 18, 2007

Muslims are not
required to cover up

The hijab has nothing to do with morality,
say FARZANA HASSAN and TAREK FATAH
 

The Globe and Mail, Toronto

Originally a source of modesty, the hijab, or Muslim head scarf, has become a political tool. Its latest manifestation came this week with the sight of 10-year old Muslim girls refusing to give up their hijab in a Quebec tae kwon do tournament, when the helmets would have served the same purpose of modesty and much more.

 

All Canadian women have, at some time in their lives, chosen to wear a head cover. In blinding snow storms or freezing rain, the covering of the head, irrespective of what religion one practises, is crucial to one's survival. Halfway across the world, in the deserts of Arabia, whether one was a Muslim or a pagan, the covering of one's head and face was an absolute necessity -- not just when facing a blistering sandstorm, but any time one stepped out of the home in the searing sun. What was essentially attire for a particular climate and weather has been turned into a modern symbol of defiance and, at best, a show of piety by Islamists and orthodox Muslims.

Click here to read the entire op-ed
 

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March 20, 2007

MCC president and founder
get another death threat

Extremist says, "I will slaughter all of you"

An extremist, swearing in the name of Allah, has threatened MCC president
Farzana Hassan and founder Tarek Fatah, promising to "slaughter" them along
with all members of the Muslim Canadian Congress.

Toronto Police are investigating the death threat, which was left as a message on
the telephone of MCC secretary general, Munir Pervaiz. Here is the full text of the warning:

"This is a warning to Tarek Fatah and Farzana Hassan and to all the members of your Munafiq (Apostate) organization. Wa Allah al-Azeem (In the name of God who is great), I swear… on all 99 names of Allah, if you do not cease from your campaign of smearing Islam...Wa Allahi, Wa Allahi, Wa Allahi, (by God, by God, by God), I will slaughter all of you."

Click here to listen to the actual recording of the death threat

If you recognize the voice on this threatening phone message, please contact Toronto Police, 51 Division, at (416) 808-5100

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March 22, 2007

 

Death threat targets moderates
 

Message naming two community

leaders being probed by police

By Michelle Shephard

The Toronto Star 

 

OTTAWA–Toronto police have launched a hate crime investigation into a phone call from a man who vowed to "slaughter" members of a local Muslim group unless they stop speaking publicly about Islam.

 

A message left Monday on the voice mail of the secretary general for the Muslim Canadian Congress warned that organization members must "cease from your campaign of smearing Islam" or "I will slaughter you."

 

The message mentioned congress founder Tarek Fatah and current president Farzana Hassan-Shahid by name. Both have openly criticized the politicization of Islam and alleged influence of Iran and Saudi Arabia in Canadian mosques.

[ To read the full Toronto Star report, click here ]
 

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March 9, 2007

CBC TV documentary:
How the moderate Muslim
voice in Canada is being stifled

On March 6, CBC TV's The National aired a special documentary  by Joan Leishman exposing the violence and intimidation being used to silence Canada's secular and liberal Muslims. The documentary outlines the inner struggles within Canada's Muslim communities, pitting those like the MCC who promote the seperation of religion and state against fundamentalists and extremists who say there is no room for such seperation in Islam and who want to introduce Shariah Law in Canada.

See the report here, in two parts

How the Moderate Muslim voice is being stifled: Part One
How the Moderate Muslim voice is being stifled: Part Two
 

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October 11, 2006

MCC asks Attorney General to Intervene
in apostasy and blasphemy charges

Moderate Muslims being silenced by death threats

TORONTO�The Muslim Canadian Congress has written to the Ontario Attorney General Michael Bryant, asking him to intervene, following "the recent pattern of allegations against moderate and liberal Muslims by Islamic fundamentalists, who accuse the former of being "anti-Islam" or "smearing Islam."

In the letter, the President of the MCC said, "It seems these tactics from overseas are now being imported into Canada where ordinary liberal and moderate Muslims are being bullied into silence by well funded Islamist organisations." She wrote that in one case, "the name of a Muslim broadcaster was circulated to tens of thousands of people after labelling him as the top anti-Islam individual in the country."

The letter said that on the surface this may seem to be an innocuous dispute within a minority community, but the danger such allegations present to individuals accused of apostasy and blas-phemy is serious, and are "thinly veiled death threats."

The letter said the Muslim Canadian Congress has been in the cross hairs of the Islamists ever since they opposed the proposal to introduce Shariah in Ontario. "It seems we are being targeted to avenge the defeat of their campaign," wrote Ms. Hassan.

The letter appealed to the Ontario AG asking him "to look into this matter with law enforcement agencies and your federal counterparts to work towards an end to the use of religion to silence and threaten poltical opponents."

Ms. Hassan said, she was asking "for help and hoping that as Ontarians we can count on our government to ensure our safety. We also hope that allegations of apostasy and blasphemy are outlawed as they are nothing more than death threats against fellow Muslims."

Click here to read Farzana Hassan's letter to the Attorney General of Ontario

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February 21, 2007

CBC Radio reports on the threats and
bullying inside the Muslim community:
Muslim vs. Muslim in Canada

Recently, Canada's public broadcaster, CBC Radio ran a series on censorship and intimidation of writers and journalists. As part of the series, CBC radio reported on the threats some Muslims in Canada face from within their own community.

The host of the show, Anna Maria Tremonti wrote on the CBC website:

"Usually, when we talk about journalists being threatened for what they write or broadcast, we're talking about places other than Canada. But today we aired a story of how powerful forces of censorship are actively at work here at home ... a story that begins two years ago with the debate over Sharia law. We heard from some Canadian Muslims with their divergent views on a proposal to allow Sharia law arbitration decisions to be legally enforceable in the settlement of divorce and custody issues for Muslims living in Ontario...But the debate revealed a deep divide within the Muslim community and accusations from some in the community that their voices were being suppressed and they were even facing threats."

Here is the CBC Radio report highlighting the bullying that some moderate and secular Muslims face at the hands of their Islamist detractors.

CBC Radio: The Current with Anna Maria Tremonti
 

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March 8, 2007

International Women's Day:
Muslim women struggling
for their basic human rights

By Raheel Raza
The Toronto Star

As women globally celebrate International Women's Day today and rejoice in the strides they've taken in leadership, technology, education and employment, where do we stand as Muslim women?

• The widows of Afghanistan are still struggling to become educated, find three meals a day and have a roof over their heads.
• After an ethnic cleansing campaign, mass rape and genocide, the women of Bosnia and Herzegovina are trying to rebuild their lives with little or no international support.
• Women in Iraq are caught up in sectarian violence and continue to be killed at an alarming rate.
• United Nations Development Program statistics show high illiteracy rates among women in the Arab world.
• Sudanese women are suffering at the hands of extremists who want to enforce their own brand of Islam.
• Blatant misuse of sharia laws in many countries have left Muslim women vulnerable and unprotected.

The ‘erroneous view’ is the idea that a Muslim woman’s authenticity is now determined by her way of dress or a head covering. The hijab has become a political tool which is used against women who chose not to wear one. The danger in Pakistan is that illiterate zealots take it upon themselves to physically harm women who don’t appear as ‘good Muslims’.

[Click here to read the entire article]

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March 6, 2007

Girls wearing hijab on the soccer field:
How much diversity
should Canadians accept

By Farzana Hassan
The Montreal Gazette

The latest subject of a clash of identities within the cultural mosaic of Canada is an 11-year-old Muslim girl by the name of Asmahan Mansour. Asmahan, who wears the hijab and leaves it on even when she plays soccer, was recently barred from participating in a tournament in Laval by a referee.

[Click here to read the entire article]

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February 12, 2007

 
CBC TV's Mosque Sitcom:
Little masquerade on the prairie

By Tarek Fatah
and Farzana Hassan
The Toronto Sun

Fifteen minutes into the first episode of the Little Mosque on the Prairie, we looked at each other in bewilderment. A small group of us had decided to watch the premiere, but midway through it, we had still not had our first laugh.

"This is worse than my son's high school play," gasped a Muslim playwright known for his wit and cutting humour. "How could CBC put this farce on air in the name of Muslims."

After giving the series the benefit of the doubt and going through the first four episodes, we feel we must expose this travesty being committed in the name of serving Canada's Muslim communities. Nothing could be further from the truth.

[Click here to read the entire article]

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October 24, 2006
 "The niqab, or the face
veil, terrifies me"
Faith dressed in tribal garb as
Muslims debate British ruling on niqab

By Mona Eltahawy
Director, Progressive Muslim Union of North America

The niqab, or the face veil, terrifies me. I am a Muslim woman for whom the niqab says very little about religion but a whole lot about the erasure of a woman's identity, her very existence as a human being in any society.

I am the first to admit that my views on the niqab are thoroughly grounded as much in my own very personal struggles with the Hijab, which I wore for nine years, as they are more generally with the obsessive focus on how Muslim women dress - an obsession shared by Muslims and non-Muslims alike.

An argument I had years ago - while I still wore Hijab - on the Cairo subway with a woman who wore niqab helped seal for good my refusal to defend the niqab. The woman, dressed in black from head to toe, began by asking me why I did not wear the niqab. I pointed to my headscarf and asked her "Is this not enough?"

I will never forget her answer.

"If you wanted a piece of candy, would you choose an unwrapped piece or one that came in a wrapper?" she asked.

"I am not candy," I answered. "Women are not candy."

[To read the full article, click here]

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October 14, 2006

"Let's Pull the Veil off our Minds"
Muslims are at risk of ghettoizing ourselves

By Raheel Raza
Director, Inter-faith Affairs, Muslim Canadian Congress

Britain�s Cabinet Minister Jack Straw took a risk with his political future (his riding has a large Muslim population) by his suggestion that Muslim women should consider removing the veil from their face.

Instead of a knee jerk reaction, Muslims should accept Mr. Straw�s comments at face value, take our heads out of the sand and pull the veils off our minds. His intention was to invoke a debate, not start fireworks!

This dialogue is long overdue and it comes at a critical time for Muslims in the West. Unfortunately some ignorant and bigoted people have misused this situation to vent their angst at Muslims (e.g. the person who pulled the veil off a woman�s face in England ) and others will use it as a political tool and this has to be addressed.

For better understanding of the issues at stake, let me start the discussion.

[To read the full article, click here]

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September 10, 2006

Five Years after 9/11, the Bush-Blair
"War on Terror" is a Colossal Failure
 

While Osama Bin Laden lives, over 100,000
have died at the hands of terrorists and the
Anglo-American war machine

TORONTO - Five years after Al Qaeda terrorists attacked the United States and killed thousands in New York, innocent Muslims around the world continue to pay the price for no other reason than sharing a common faith with Osama Bin Laden.

And while Bin Laden lives, nearly a hundred thousand of his co-religionists have died, and more die every day, and no end to the killing is in sight.

On the eve of the 5th anniversary of 9/11, 37 Muslims died in India in an attack on a mosque. In the month leading up to this date, 1,500 Iraqis have been killed in sectarian violence. In Gaza, while the world was distracted by the crisis in Lebanon, over 200 Palestinians died in attacks by Israel as a UN official reported that "living conditions for Palestinians have reached breaking point." From Yemen to Pakistan and Nigeria to Indonesia, the last five years have brought untold misery to Muslims everywhere.

To read the full article, click here

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September 19, 2006

The Papal Insult:
MCC says, "comments unwise, but Muslims should learn to turn the other cheek"

By Raheel Raza
and Tarek Fatah
The Toronto Star

TORONTO - It's ironic that while more than 1,000 delegates met at a congress in Montreal called World's Religions After September 11, where they discussed initiatives aimed at building greater understanding among followers of all faiths, halfway across the globe Pope Benedict XVI was making a speech that would have the opposite effect.

Now, despite his apology, the inflamed responses to his remarks continue worldwide. Like all Muslims, we too felt deep anguish as once more our faith had been ridiculed by no less a figure than the leader of the world's 1 billion Catholics.

Click here to read the full article

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September 18, 2006

MCC denounces the killing
of Catholic Nun in Somalia

TORONTO - The Muslim Canadian Congress has expressed horror and shock at the senseless and vicious murder of a Catholic nun stationed in a hospital in Mogadishu, Somalia.

Sister Leonella, 60, part of an SOS contingent engaged in an effort to provide care and education to women and children in the hospital, was shot dead by gunmen on Sunday. She had been associated with the Somali relief effort for the last 38 years in a struggle towards the alleviation of poverty and illiteracy in Somalia.

Click here to read the full statement

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September 9, 2006

We Shouldn't Nuke Iran ... or Coren
"Michael has mocked the memory of those innocent people killed in Hiroshima and Nagasaki"

By Tarek Fatah
and Farzana Hassan
The Toronto Sun

When Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad asked for "wiping Israel off the map of this world," we recoiled with horror at his lunacy. Was he out of his mind?

The Iranian president's remarks were rightly slammed across the world. Barring Islamic radicals, most Muslim and non-Muslim commentators and columnists in Canada condemned them as war-mongering and hate propaganda.

However, last week we were shocked to read an equally bizarre comment on Iran. This time the proposal was not to nuke Israel, but to nuke Iran, and it came from one of Canada's most politically incorrect -- and hence refreshing -- media personalities, Michael Coren.

To read the full article, click here

NOTE: On September 3, 2006, Toronto SUN columnist Michael Coren wrote a piece in that newspaper headlined, "We should Nuke Iran." The Muslim Canadian Congress was shocked and upset at the call to nuke Iran. Here is the MCC response to Coren's article authored by President Farzana Hassan and MCC founder Tarek Fatah that appears in the Toronto SUN.

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September 4, 2006

MCC urges Ottawa to reassess mission
in Afghanistan: "If they cannot build peace, bring our troops home"
 

MCC deeply saddened by the increasing number
of Canadian casualties in Afghanistan: "Our sons and daughters do not need to die or kill, to build a democratic Afghanistan"

TORONTO - The Muslim Canadian Congress has expressed deep concern over the deteriorating situation in Afghanistan where Canadian troops are fighting their biggest battle since World War II.

Farzana Hassan, president of the MCC, in a letter to Prime Minister Harper said Muslim Canadians stand behind our troops, but we cannot watch silently as we see the dead bodies of our sons and daughters come back from the battlefield.

n the letter, Ms. Hassan said, "if our troops cannot contribute to the building and reconstruction of war ravaged Afghanistan, then we should seriously re-asses our mission and mandate in Kabul. If there are no chances of building peace, then we should bring our troops back home."

To read the full statement, click here

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September 2, 2006

Free Jailed Muslim Canadian in China:
MCC urges Ottawa to intervene vigorously for
the release of Huseyincan Celil

TORONTO - The Muslim Canadian Congress has called on Foreign Affairs Minister Peter McKay to pressure the Chinese government for access to Huseyincan Celil, a Canadian citizen, currently being held illegally in China , where he faces a possible death sentence.

Mr. Huseyincan Celil of Burlington was admitted to Canada as a political refugee after escaping a Chinese prison. His crime was to form a political party and argue for the democratic and human rights of an oppressed minority group of Muslims in the western part of China , not far from Tibet . Canada rightly saw that such political activity is no crime, rather an acknowledged human right.

To read the full statement, click here

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August 26, 2006

Farzana Hassan on the split in the MCC: We are Working toward the same Goals
"Members of the MCC see themselves as
Canadians first, and will defend this country's security and honour with force and integrity"

By Farzana Hassan

As the new president of the Muslim Canadian Congress, I wish to address the concerns of the newly formed Canadian Muslim Union as well as those of the larger Muslim community. I truly hope that my explanations will be received in a spirit of tolerance, good faith and sincerity.

The Muslim Canadian Congress is a progressive Muslim group committed to fighting extremism, gender apartheid and violations of the human rights of marginalized communities. The organization has nothing but the interest of the diverse Muslim communities living in Canada at heart, though we acknowledge that at times the MCC has taken positions that run counter to the aspirations of Muslims who identify themselves as conservative or traditional.

To read the full article, click here

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Salaam Alaikum.

After being in business for five years and changing the way how Canadians see their Muslim citizens, we are now ready to embark on new initiatives which would enhance and expand our existing mission and objectives.

For the Muslim Canadian Congress, the interests of Canadian Muslims are paramount. Members of the MCC are first and foremost Canadians, and this acknowledgment of our common citizenship with other Canadians is above any other identity that we hold dear to our hearts.

To read the full statement, click here

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July 22, 2006
MCC demands Israel & Hizbollah heed
UN call for an Immediate Ceasefire
Urges Hizbollah to hand over captured Israeli soldiers to the Lebanese Government

TORONTO - The Muslim Canadian Congress has condemned the wholesale destruction of Lebanon and the killing of hundreds of innocent Lebanese by Israel. In a statement today, the MCC urged both Israel and Hizbollah to heed the call of UN Secretary General Kofi Annan for an immediate cease-fire and a complete cessation of all hostilities.

In the statement, the MCC called on Hizbollah to hand over the two captured Israeli soldiers to the Lebanese government, after the ceasefire takes into effect, so that the issue of prisoner exchange can be resolved between the governments of the two countries. Such an exchange should and must lead to the freedom of all Lebanese prisoners currently held in Israeli prisons. click here for full statement

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July 11, 2006
MCC condemns Mumbai train bombings as a crime against humanity
Letter to Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh describes attack as "cowardly and barbaric"

Dr. Manmohan Singh
Prime Minister of India
Prime Minister's Office
New Delhi - 110011
India

Dear Prime Minister Singh,

I am writing on behalf of the Muslim Canadian Congress to offer my deepest condolences to you, the people of India and above all the families of those who died in the terrorist attacks in Mumbai today.

We condemn this cowardly and barbaric act of terrorism without reservation. We consider this action as a crime against humanity. Those responsible for the bombings of the Mumbai trains are individuals devoid of all humanity. click here for full letter

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June 23, 2006
MCC joins Hindu Council and Jewish Congress to demand British Imam not be allowed to enter Canada
Communities say there is no place for hate mongers in Canada

Honourable Monte Solberg
Minister of Citizenship and Immigration
365 Laurier Avenue West
Ottawa, Ontario
K1A 1L1

Dear Honourable Minister Solberg:
Muslim Canadian Congress (MCC); Canadian Council of Hindus (CCH); Egale Canada, a national equality seeking group for lesbians, gay men, bisexuals, trans-identified (LGBT) people and their families; and Canadian Jewish Congress (CJC) urge you to take prompt action to refuse entry to Canada to Shaykh Riyadh ul Haq, a British cleric who is scheduled to deliver a series of lectures in Canada. We submit that Shaykh ul Haq is inadmissible to Canada pursuant to sections 34 and 36 of the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act (IRPA).

The content of Shaykh ul Haq's public statements in his country of citizenship, the United Kingdom, and elsewhere is readily accessible online. An examination of this material raises a legitimate concern that he has in the past and/or is likely to contravene provisions of the Criminal Code of Canada, promoting hatred against identifiable groups on the basis of their religion or sexual orientation (s. 319). click here for full letter

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June 19, 2006
Muslim Canadian Congress
condemns Islamic extremism
Demands an end to foreign funding of religious institutions

TORONTO - The Muslim Canadian Congress has condemned the rise of Islamic extremism among a small group of youth in Canada and has urged Muslim Canadians to root out religion-inspired political activity.

In a statement released in Toronto today, in wake of the recent arrests of 17 Muslim men who are alleged to have planned terrorist acts, the MCC urged Canadian Muslims that they need to be vigilant against the spread of extremist interpretations of Islam in mosques, schools and universities by a section of misguided fanatic youth and their mentors. click here for full statement

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June 12, 2006
The Poverty Of Fanaticism
Islamic Spirituality: the forgotten revolution
by Shaikh Abdal-Hakim Murad

'Blood is no argument', as Shakespeare observed. Sadly, Muslim ranks are today swollen with those who disagree. The World Trade Centre, yesterday's symbol of global finance, has today become a monument to the failure of global Islam to control those who believe that the West can be bullied into changing its wayward ways towards the East.

There is no real excuse to hand. It is simply not enough to clamour, as many have done, about 'chickens coming home to roost', and to protest that Washington's acquiescence in Israeli policies of ethnic cleansing is the inevitable generator of such hate. It is of course true - as Shabbir Akhtar has noted - that powerlessness can corrupt as insistently as does power. But to comprehend is not to sanction or even to empathize. click here for full article

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June 7, 2006

Keep politics out of our mosques
Muslims cannot sit still while a fascist cult of Islamic supremacy takes over places of worship
by Tarek Fatah

Three years ago when Kuwaiti Islamist scholar Tareq Al Suwaidian told a Toronto crowd that "Western civilization is rotten from within and nearing collapse ... it (the West) will continue to grow until an outside force hits it and you will be surprised at how quickly it falls," he was lustily cheered by the nearly 2,000 young Muslim men and women.

I was deeply offended by the hostile remark, but the thunderous approving applause of the young audience simply stunned me. All I could do was muster the courage and stage a polite walkout.

That day I resolved to fight this hostility toward the modern nation-state and Western civilization that was engulfing a section of Canadian Muslim youth; one that was being fanned by the leadership of the traditional Muslim organizations and Islamic radicals who took inspiration from the ruling elites of Iran and Saudi Arabia. click here for full article

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June 3, 2006
MCC expresses relief at arrest
of alleged terror cell
Urges community to confront extremism and radical ideas

TORONTO - The Muslim Canadian Congress has expressed relief at the arrest of suspected members of a terror cell in Toronto.

In a statement released today, the MCC said the Muslim Canadians are in a state of shock to learn that young members of their community would contemplate carrying our terror attacks on fellow citizens.

"Thank God these men were stopped before they could carry out their alleged plot," said Niaz Salimi, President of the MCC.

"We would like to commend the RCMP for pre-empting this action by apprehending the suspects, but we hope that those accused will be tried with due process, the presumption of innocence, and with full guarantees that their constitutional rights and will be protected," she added. click here for full statement

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June 1, 2006

Misled by multiculturalism
Dogma of diversity has only created ghettos

by Tarek Fatah

One recent Friday, I attended an Iranian Canadian event in Toronto where I was, perhaps, the only non-white, non-Iranian among the 1,000 immaculately turned out guests. When I asked friends at the table why there were no black, Chinese or Arabs at the event, I drew blank stares of bewilderment. Unsaid, but easily understood in the silence was the answer: "Why would a Chinese Canadian or an Indian Canadian be interested in an Iranian event?"

So, I pushed the envelope further and asked: "If you feel a black or Chinese Canadian would not understand Iranian issues, why do you feel white Canadians would? Are they better disposed to grasp international issues than, say, an Arab Canadian?" I asked. click here for full article

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Wednesday, May 3, 2006

Why are we Muslims so silent on Darfur?

by Tarek Fatah

The remark by a prominent Muslim refugee-rights activist troubled me greatly: "Zionists [are] abusing this issue," he announced curtly when he said he would not be joining me and hundreds of other people on Sunday at a "Scream for Darfur" rally at Queen's Park in Toronto.

This line of thinking, that Jews have somehow stolen the issue of Darfur's genocide by actively campaigning against it, has been making the rounds in cyberspace and needs a rebuttal. click here for full article

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February 28, 2006

Don't be silenced by extremists
A plea from 11 Canadian Muslim academics and activists

A curtain of fear has descended on the intelligentsia of the West, including Canada. The fear of being misunderstood as Islamophobic has sealed their lips, dried their pens and locked their keyboards.

With hundreds dead around the world in the aftermath of the now infamous Danish cartoons, Canada's writers, politicians and media have imposed a frightening censorship on themselves, refusing to speak their minds, thus ensuring that the only voices being heard are that of the Muslim extremists and the racist right." click here for full article

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February 24, 2006

MCC questions motives behind
demand to ban debate on religion
Accusations of Apostasy and Blasphemy should be outlawed

by Niaz Salimi

On February 23, Muhammad Elmasry of the Canadian Islamic Congress and Syed Soharwardy of the Islamic Supreme Council of Canada told the Toronto Star they want to see changes in Canada's Hate Laws that would make it possible to jail writers who, in their opinion, insult or mock religious beliefs.

Both Mohamed Elmasry and Syed Soharwardy are asking for changes in Canada's hate laws "so that offensive remarks or depictions of any religious figure are considered a crime." click here for full letter

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February 19, 2006
MCC condemns burning of Churches in Pakistan and Nigeria
MCC urges Muslims across the world to call off demonstrations

TORONTO - The Muslim Canadian Congress has condemned attacks on Churches in Pakistan and Nigeria that have led to the death of 15 Christians, including women and children.

In an appeal to Muslims across the world, the MCC is urging them to resist the temptation of participating in public demonstrations to express their anger at the publication of the demeaning and insulting cartoons of Prophet Muhammad in Denmark.

"We understand their pain, but Muslims should channel their anger not by burning and pillaging, but by following the example of Prophet Muhammad himself, who urged restraint and calmness in the wake of provocation," said Tarek Fatah, spokesperson of the MCC. click here for full statement

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February 22, 2006
Enough is enough

by Raheel Raza

A non-Muslim friend from my interfaith group has just left me a voice mail thanking me for guiding him to a seminar about the life of Mohammad, which was held in response to the cartoon controversy. Eric says "I found it enlightening and moving. This is a heavy time for you so keep your dignity and humour and you'll get through it." Thank you Eric. The past two weeks have been spiritually, emotionally and physically trying for many of us caught up in the jihad (struggle) to uphold respect and reverence for our Prophet while condemning irrational and violent reactions in some parts of the Muslim world.

Now that the furor and fury is dying down a bit, I'm eating a Danish in solidarity for ordinary Danish people who have been swept into the current cartoon controversy. Just like I don't want to be blamed for the actions of a few radical extremists, similarly I don't think all Danes should be blamed for the mischief of an editor and an Imam.

I also have a message for Muslims, non-Muslims and Media. "Enough is enough - grow up and let's learn to live together!" Why? Because the world is now a global village and a joke in Denmark can have ripple effects causing tremors from Delhi to Dakkar. As the Sufi poet Saadi wrote: Human beings are like parts of a single body; if one part is wounded, the rest hurts. You, unmoved by the pain of others, are not worthy of being called human. click here for full article

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February 10, 2006

Using a cartoon crisis to promote a conservative Muslim agenda

by Natasha Fatah

Last week, in the midst of violent protests and heightened emotions over the Danish cartoons of Prophet Muhammad, a conservative Muslim imam in the Middle East went on television and told more than 200 million people that Danes were burning copies of the Qur'an.

He was lying.

There were only rumours, and no proof, that some Danish Nazis threatened to burn Islam's holy book.

This is just one example of how conservative Muslims are manipulating the Muslim population. click here for full article

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February 7, 2006

What point to ban?

by El-Farouk Khaki

The boycott of Danish cheese by some Muslim owned stores is just another example of how easy it is to provoke our community into validating the stereotypes that exist about us.

Muslim Canadians must express their outrage not only at the cartoonist, but also the extremists in the Middle East who say, "The solution is the slaughter of those who harmed Islam and the Prophet."

The Muslim Canadian Congress strongly believes that as reprehensible as the cartoons were, the issuing of death threats and asking for the killing of journalists and cartoonists, must be condemned with vigour, as it is contrary, not only to the letter and spirit of Islam, but also offensive to the civil society we have chosen as our home. click here for full article

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Friday, February 3, 2006

Danish Cartoon Controversy:
What would the Prophet have done?

by Tarek Fatah

Keep to forgiveness (O Mohammed), and enjoin kindness, and turn away from the ignorant.
- The Koran, Chapter 7, Verse 199

During his lifetime, Prophet Mohammed endured insults and ridicule on a daily basis. His opponents mocked his message and used physical violence to stop him from challenging the status quo.

At no stage during this ordeal did the Prophet lose his temper or react to these provocations. Tradition has it that he would, instead, offer a prayer of forgiveness to those who showed contempt for him.

Today, however, many followers of Prophet Mohammed are acting the exact opposite. Reacting to the provocative Danish cartoons about the Prophet, they are burning newspapers, threatening journalists, issuing bomb threats, yet claiming they are standing up for the Prophet himself. click here for full article

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October 26, 2005

Sharia opponents demand apology
for Elmasry's critical remarks

by Marina Jiminez

The Ontario government cancelled sharia tribunals last month, but the controversy has not gone away.

Yesterday, in the latest salvo in the war of words over sharia, a Muslim organization called on the leader of a rival group to retract accusations that critics of sharia law are smearing Islam. click here for full story