August 24, 2006

Directors of Muslim group quit en masse
Split occurs in protest of Lebanon war
But group alleges Hezbollah support

TAMARA CHERRY
The Toronto Star

Eight board members of the Muslim Canadian Congress have resigned their positions, apparently over internal disagreements about a Lebanon war protest at which Hezbollah flags and photos were displayed.

"They resigned after the board passed a non-confidence motion against them," said Tarek Fatah, the congress' former communications director who is speaking for the organization until his position is filled.

"We went to the (Aug. 12) demonstration and found that there were Hezbollah flags and pictures of the Iranian president," Fatah said.

"They (the resigned members) are Canadian supporters of Hezbollah ... This sort of blind following is not acceptable to us."

But former congress legal adviser Arif Raza called Fatah's charges "nonsense," saying, "There were allegations, but they were simply not true."

Instead, Raza said, every single member of the executive quit because the congress is increasingly out of step with the opinions of mainstream Muslim-Canadians.

"The message (MCC) was sending out was ... to make those who are opposed to the (Muslim) community, make them feel comfortable for themselves. We could not support that type of message," Raza said.

The congress was founded in October 2001 and has 300 dues-paying members out of a national Muslim population of more than 750,000.

It has acted as a voice for progressive Muslims, especially following the recent arrests of terror suspects in the GTA and during the Israel-Hezbollah war.

Weekend marches in Toronto protesting Lebanese casualties in the war included a small number of demonstrators who burned Israeli flags and carried posters supporting Hezbollah, the militant Shiite group outlawed in Canada as a terrorist organization.

Besides Raza, members who resigned include president Niaz Salimi, vice president Rizwana Jafri, secretary-general El-Farouk Khaki, chief financial officer Abbas Syed, and directors Gary Dale, Atique Azad and Suhail Alsameed. Fatah's departure from his job earlier this month was unconnected to the dispute.

"(They) have been working with the community for numerous years," Raza said.

"It is a matter of separation from MCC. It doesn't mean that they will stop working with the community.

"We wanted to make sure that we were not associated with MCC, that we do not support the current deviation in the position of the Muslim Canadian Congress."

The departing members planned to meet last night to discuss establishing the Canadian Muslim Union, which "will be far more responsive to the issues being faced by the community at large, rather than having a very single agenda that the MCC (has)," Raza said.

Fatah said a new congress executive has already been put in place, with Farzana Hassan as president.