Kathianne
02-18-2008, 02:53 AM
http://www.canada.com/calgaryherald/columnists/story.html?id=5162d29c-ffe4-4f4a-8d25-fe5e097c0963&p=2
Imam undercuts himself by twisting his own words
Licia Corbella
For The Calgary Herald
Saturday, February 16, 2008
Earlier this week, Calgary Imam Syed Soharwardy spent nearly two hours with the Herald's editorial board before announcing he would withdraw his two-year-long Alberta human rights complaint against Ezra Levant, the publisher of the defunct Western Standard magazine.
Soharwardy lodged the complaint after Levant published Danish cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad that were central to murderous protests around the world by Muslims, including renewed violence in Denmark on Friday.
Soharwardy is trying to take back his complaint, but it's already too late. Levant's resolve is too strong and freedom of expression too fundamental a right to be so easily shrugged off after the microscope of world attention ended up being turned on Soharwardy.
The founder of the Islamic Supreme Council of Canada (ISCC) asked for a meeting with the Herald's editorial board via an e-mail, arguing that Levant was "attempting to paint me as a hate-mongering, anti-Semitic, Wahabi radical who wants to see Canada governed under sharia law. Nothing could be further from the truth."
While preparing for the meeting, a quick search on Canwest's library system showed a Jan. 17, 2004, column written by the cleric.
In it, he wrote: "Sharia cannot be customized for specific countries. These universal, divine laws are for all people of all countries for all times."
In the same column he also boasts: "I am one of the founding members of the Islamic Institute of Civil Justice. The mandate of the institute is to resolve disputes within existing Canadian laws by using the principles of conflict resolution from Islamic Law, or sharia."
His column is clear. He wanted to bring sharia to Canada and even helped found the organization that spearheaded the drive to do so.
But in our meeting, Soharwardy denied his own column. "I never asked to bring sharia in Canada," he now insists.
....
Imam undercuts himself by twisting his own words
Licia Corbella
For The Calgary Herald
Saturday, February 16, 2008
Earlier this week, Calgary Imam Syed Soharwardy spent nearly two hours with the Herald's editorial board before announcing he would withdraw his two-year-long Alberta human rights complaint against Ezra Levant, the publisher of the defunct Western Standard magazine.
Soharwardy lodged the complaint after Levant published Danish cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad that were central to murderous protests around the world by Muslims, including renewed violence in Denmark on Friday.
Soharwardy is trying to take back his complaint, but it's already too late. Levant's resolve is too strong and freedom of expression too fundamental a right to be so easily shrugged off after the microscope of world attention ended up being turned on Soharwardy.
The founder of the Islamic Supreme Council of Canada (ISCC) asked for a meeting with the Herald's editorial board via an e-mail, arguing that Levant was "attempting to paint me as a hate-mongering, anti-Semitic, Wahabi radical who wants to see Canada governed under sharia law. Nothing could be further from the truth."
While preparing for the meeting, a quick search on Canwest's library system showed a Jan. 17, 2004, column written by the cleric.
In it, he wrote: "Sharia cannot be customized for specific countries. These universal, divine laws are for all people of all countries for all times."
In the same column he also boasts: "I am one of the founding members of the Islamic Institute of Civil Justice. The mandate of the institute is to resolve disputes within existing Canadian laws by using the principles of conflict resolution from Islamic Law, or sharia."
His column is clear. He wanted to bring sharia to Canada and even helped found the organization that spearheaded the drive to do so.
But in our meeting, Soharwardy denied his own column. "I never asked to bring sharia in Canada," he now insists.
....