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Moderates say their voices are being silenced by extremists in the community By San Grewal and
Rick Madonik Since Sept. 11, Tarek Fatah has kept two bags packed and his passport ready. "I have told my wife that mentally we have to hope for the best but prepare for the worst." Fatah hosts The Muslim Chronicles on CTS-TV in Toronto and says the threats he's received are from local Muslim leaders and community members. According to Fatah, they want to stamp out his moderate point of view, one that is very critical of Islamic extremism and of any Muslim who has "overtly or tacitly accepted what the Taliban in Afghanistan and the Wahhabis in Saudi Arabia have been doing." He is referring to the radical Wahhabi movement, a sect that originated in the 18th century that is now the state-sanctioned doctrine of Saudi Arabia. It was Wahhabi religious instructors who trained the Taliban in Afghanistan, instructed them to destroy Buddhist statues and to prevent women from being educated. Osama bin Laden, the prime suspect in the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, was raised in Saudi Arabia and is an adherent of Wahhabism. The struggle among various ideologies of Islam has unfolded for decades. The government of Turkey, which has embraced a secular Western ideology, strongly opposes the fundamental practice of Islam. The Taliban in Afghanistan imposes an extreme, sectarian version of Islam. And in Egypt, a moderate government renounces fundamentalism, while many religious and educational institutions embrace it. Meanwhile, at taxi stands, mosques, university campuses and anywhere else Muslim Canadians gather, people representing the entire spectrum of the faith now wonder who speaks on behalf of Islam in their country. And, with every new report of air strikes against Afghanistan and new declaration of holy war against the United States, the voices of moderation feel silenced. Fatah says he and the majority of his viewers are liberal Muslims. But he says it's the extremists who are winning the struggle to control the public voice of Islam, and their views are spreading far beyond the Middle East and Asia, into North America. "I've been getting death threats right here in Canada and moderate leaders in the U.S. have also faced fierce criticism for opposing extremist regimes and North American organizations that condone the actions carried out by extremists in the name of Islam. The moderate voice is almost non-existent." Since Sept. 11, organizations Fatah speaks of, such as the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) and its Canadian chapter, based in Ottawa, have taken centre stage, receiving invitations from U.S. President George W. Bush to the White House and frequently being quoted in news stories on behalf of Muslims across North America. "But look at the allegations against that group," Fatah says, referring to comments by the FBI's chief of counterterrorism Steven Pomerantz, who in the 1990s said the council had been indirectly involved in aiding international terrorist groups. "It saddens me that CAIR Canada has become one of the leading organizations speaking on behalf of Muslims," Fatah says. "And they won't even come out and formally denounce the people we know are behind the terrorism, because they have indirect support from the same groups. This nonsense of condemning the act and then wriggling out of their responsibility needs to be confronted." The only official statement on the Sept. 11 attacks on the main page of the council's Canadian Web site reads: "The Canadian office of the Council on American Islamic Relations [ellipsis] today condemned the terrorist attacks in New York and Washington and offered condolences to the families of those who were killed or injured. "We offer our heartfelt condolences to all those who lost loved ones and join with all people of conscience in calling for the swift apprehension and punishment of the perpetrators. No political cause could ever be assisted by such immoral acts. We further call on media professionals to exercise restraint and not draw premature conclusions as to who was responsible for the apparent attacks until those facts become clear." Riad Saloojee, executive-director of the council's Canadian chapter, says accusations against the group in the U.S. are unfounded and come primarily from non-Muslims such as Daniel Pipes, a former U.S. State Department aide who runs the Middle East Forum, a U.S. think-tank. Pipes has said that 10 to 15 per cent of the global Muslim population is "Islamist," or extremist. "People like this say that (the council) and other Muslim organizations help fund Hamas (the Islamic Resistance Movement), and are essentially terrorists, but they have been discredited," says Saloojee, who declined to talk about Osama bin Laden on the Taliban on the record. His opinion, which reflects that of other Islamic organizations, is that no prime suspects should be named until they are tried in an international court. Perhaps the most visible moderate Muslim in the U.S. is Sheikh Hisham Kabbani, who was invited to testify before Congress and the U.S. State Department in 1999. Kabbani, a Muslim scholar and head of the Islamic Supreme Council of America, warned about groups such as the Council on American Islamic Relations and the American Muslim Council, another organization with alleged ties to terrorist activities. He testified that bin Laden and other individuals with ties to extremist groups, some operating in North America, posed an immediate threat to U.S. security but was publicly vilified by organizations such as the Council on American Islamic Relations. "Ten years ago, I used to travel in Canada, and in Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver I was starting to see the Wahhabi influence," Kabbani says. "Wahhabi books were in the mosques, they were in the bookstores and I met many imams (clerics) in Canada whose salaries were being paid by the Wahhabis." One of the organizations Fatah accuses of extremism is the Islamic Society of Toronto, which operates one mosque, has helped fund three others in the GTA and runs an evening Islamic school. Abdul Ingar, president of the society, explains his views by saying that Islam and Islamic law cannot be understood from a Western context. "Here, there is no punishment for adultery, which is haram (sin). Adultery or fornication, if it's done with consent, according to Canadian law, it's okay. Human beings are subjected to satanic acts, but there is no recourse. Whereas if you live in Afghanistan, the Taliban will punish you for fornication - it's a very severe punishment." Ingar was quoted earlier this week in The Star as saying: "Whatever happens, we have to make sure it (the terrorism of Sept. 11) doesn't happen again. This sort of thing, in my opinion, doesn't happen overnight[ellipsis]. We have to look into the reasons and root causes." But when later asked to explain what he means by reasons and root causes, Ingar takes a different tack. "Who is responsible for the act of the 11th?" he asked The Star. "We don't know. No one has been tried in an international court of law. But now Afghanistan is being attacked. The U.S. is using its mighty power to now kill innocent people in Afghanistan. Anyone who rises against this injustice, are they going to be called terrorists? "Osama bin Laden's interview was being broadcast in the Arab world. He said that the U.S. will not see peace until Palestine sees peace. We have to put ourselves in their shoes before deciding if that equation is wrong or right. (The Council on American Islamic Relations) in Ottawa has been pointing out these double standards." Tariq Ali, a Pakistani-English journalist who has written extensively on Islamic fundamentalism, spoke recently at the University of Toronto about the roots of extremism. "The biggest problem in the world of Islam is the Wahhabi cult or sect. But why hasn't moderate public opinion been able to be voiced?" he asks. Ali says there have been numerous examples of Muslim moderates who have suffered for speaking out. "In a democracy, Muslim organizations cannot remain silent when radical interpretations are used to justify acts that strip away individual rights," Ali says. "That silence may as well be an admittance of complicity with radical elements of Islam." Kabbani, who has received numerous death threats, says extreme Islamic beliefs will continue to spread across the Middle East, Africa, Asia and North America. In his 1999 testimony before Congress, he said 80 per cent of the 3,000 mosques in the U.S. were controlled by organizations with ties to extremist groups. And he says more and more mosques in Canada are under the control of similar groups. "The moderate Muslim cannot speak. The microphone has been hijacked by the extreme groups [ellipsis] these extreme groups will not change their beliefs; they may change their words to appear moderate when the government is more sensitive during these times." Fatah says the message being sent to thousands of Muslims in Toronto through mosques and other organizations has effectively silenced moderate voices in this community. "My feeling is that the religion (Islam) is being attacked by certain members of the extreme view - the religious clergy - and no one dares speak out against them. I can't compete with organizations funded by Saudi Arabia and others with deep oil pockets." 'I've been getting death threats right here in Canada and moderate leaders in the U.S. have also faced fierce criticism for opposing extremist regimes.'
Copyright 2001 Toronto
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