Arar's homecoming mired in controversy
A Canadian citizen, Maher Arar, deported to Syria by the Americans has been released after a year of imprisonment in his homeland.
  www.freemaherarar.com

Born Agains and Self-Haters: Muslims Have them too
By: Mohamed Elmasry, President CIC                         
When self-hating Muslims write books or op-ed articles, they have little or nothing good to say about Islam and its nearly two billion global adherents. They attribute every failure of Muslims in both the past and present to the beliefs of Islam, the teachings of the Qur'an, or the sayings of the Prophet.

In the Shadow of 9/11 ISLAMIC CONGRESS Polls Canadian University Studients:
More than one-third associate 9/11 with Islam, but more than three-quarters feel neutral toward Muslims
     More...

Linking Immigration Infractions with Terrorism prematurely does all of us a disservice
By Riad Saloojee

"We didn't jump the gun" is the latest government talking point in the case of the 19 men recently detained in Toronto under immigration and terrorism-related suspicion. The RCMP is now indicating that there is no evidence that Canada's national security is at risk.

Silent Patriotism Is Not An Option
By: Mohamed Elmasry, President CIC                         
Within less than four months of September 11, 2001, the federal government managed to draft, refine, and approve one of the most oppressive laws of any modern democracy -- Bill C-36. Against an unmistakable background of American pressure, it was rushed through, without consulting the Supreme Court, and without a free vote in the House of Commons

The Evolution of 'Jihad' in Islamist Political Discourse
Muslim intellectuals need to show that our struggle in the present-day has more to do with striving for economic development, modernisation and the creation of civil society.

Mahathir's speech on a changed world
The Prime Minister of Malaysia, gave this speech on June 20, 2003 at the opening of the 54th General Assembly of UMNO

Are Independent Journalists Now Targeted "Unlawful Civilians"?
Tariq Ayob was killed by an American missile while working in Al-Jazeerah's Baghdad office. The Americans knew exactly where the popular Arabic satellite TV station was, because its own network executives, only a few meters away from U.S. central command in Doha, Qatar, told them.

 

The Arab world at a Turning Point
With the ongoing American-led invasion of Iraq, the Arab world is facing one of the most serious moments in its modern history.

Prayer of Peace
O God, Lord of all dominion! - You give power to anyone You wish - and take away power from anyone You wish. - You exalt anyone You wish - and humble anyone You wish. - Good lies within Your hand; - You are Capable of everything! Quran 3:26
   more.....
 

Waging Peace, One Dollar at a Time
Just imagine: An army of young Canadians, inspired by the likes of our late Nobel laureate Lester B. Pearson, working year round for peace, ready to be dispatched at any moment to engage warring parties  in mediation and negotiation

An Islamic New Year
This Tuesday, March4, 2003, Muslims will mark the start of a new Islamic year, 1424 A.H. The beginning of the Islamic era proper was set as July 16, 622 A.D.

Layton and McDonough respond to Preston Manning on Iraq

Eid Festival 2003
Approximately 2000 people attended the Eid Festival to celebrate Eid Al-Adha, the 'festival of sacrifice' celebrated at the end of the Pilgrimage to Mecca (the Hajj). Samosas, chaplikabab, biryani, shwarma, pizza, Pilaow, borek, and wings

Democracy, Islam, and Oil
"Democracy cannot be imported because it is not a finished product or a commodity that can be delivered or assembled on site. Nor it can be imposed from the top down; it grows from the bottom up, building from grassroots of each distinct hosting culture.
 

Ottawa Muslims Awarded Queen's  Jubilee Medal
Muslims among 32 outstanding Canadians awarded the Queen’s  Jubilee Medal for services to Canada and the community at a ceremony on Parliament Hill
 

Family of Canadian detained in Syria still waiting for  answers
Maher Arar, a Canadian citizen for the United States on Sept 26th after a stop-over in New York on route to Montreal. He was detained, interrogated for 9 hours, and threatened with deportation to his place of birth, Syria. Mr. Arar was then transferred to the Metropolitan Detention Center (MDC) in Brooklyn and was deported to Syria on Oct 10th. The case has become a political issue, but one must not forget the human side 0f the issue - a happy family is being destroyed.

Plight of Maher Arar - Litigation
Edelson & Associates have been retained on behalf of Maher
Arar to seek his release from imprisonment in Syria. Visit this
site to lend your support to this worthwhile cause.

Muslims Celebrate Eid al Fitr
Ramadan has come to an end and Muslims in the Ottawa area celebrate Eid al Fitr.  Giving thanks and spiritual awakening for the challenges ahead.




THE WEST'S "WAR" IS AGAINST IMAGINARY MUSLIMS
By Mohamed Elmasry
The U.S. is attempting to impose a strange new type of democracy on Muslims: "elect the political parties of our choice, not yours". 

The Arar Case has shown that Canadians can look beyond Race and Religion When Basic Rights are at Stake.
By Riad Saloojee

Is it time for Neo-Zionism?
By: Mohamed Elmasry, President CIC 
There is good news and bad news for Palestinians. The good news is that their struggle for freedom will end with the creation of an independent Palestinian state. The bad news is that this will likely not happen for a very long time.

MSA Graduation - Knowledge is Power
The Muslim Students Association (MSA) hosts a dinner for Muslim students graduating from Universities and Colleges in Ottawa and Hull.

Finding Inspiration at ISNA-CANADA's Annual Convention
How can Muslims establish themselves? By upholding principles of peace and justice.

April 17 - No Cause for Celebration
By Mohamed Elmasry
Our Charter is barely into adulthood, but we have already compromised its foundations, spirit and purpose with the passing of the infamous Anti-Terrorist Bill, C-36, which seriously undermines the civil liberties of all Canadians, but especially those of Muslim and Arab heritage.

No Justice! No Peace! Rally for Palestine
Supporters of Palestinian cause rally on the Hill to protest Israel's occupation.

Is the Saudi Plan good for Peace?
Mohamed Elmasry says Yes
The approval of the Saudi peace proposal by the 22-member Arab League last week is historic.

Imam suspects spy agency of tampering
Police investigate apparent break-in at cleric's office
The Ottawa Citizen, Monday, December 03, 2001
Ottawa police are investigating a mysterious break-in at the offices of the city's most prominent Muslim cleric, Imam Gamal Solaiman, who believes Canada's spy agency may be responsible for the act.

The break-in was reported to police Saturday afternoon after Imam Solaiman and a friend went to change an old roll of film in his fax machine. They found, however, that the machine's roll of film was brand new and improperly installed.

There is no excuse for this savagery
We too are responsible for the massacre at Qala-i-Jhangi fort
Isabel Hilton
Thursday November 29, 2001, The Guardian
We know how it ended, the prisoners' revolt in Abdul Rashid Dostam's Qala-i-Jhangi fort. Yesterday journalists were allowed in close enough to see the grotesque litter of dismembered bodies. But there were other things Dostam did not want them to inspect: a field, for instance, in which the bodies of some 50 Taliban fighters lay, their hands tied behind their backs

Robert Fisk: We are the war criminals now
'Everything we have believed in since the Second World War goes by the board as we pursue our own exclusive war'
29 November 2001, The Independent
We are becoming war criminals in Afghanistan. The US Air Force bombs Mazar-i-Sharif for the Northern Alliance, and our heroic Afghan allies – who slaughtered 50,000 people in Kabul between 1992 and 1996 – move into the city and execute up to 300 Taliban fighters.

A time to reflect and renew
The holy month of Ramadan poses both a challenge and an opportunity for today's Muslims
Raheel Raza SPECIAL TO THE STAR, November 24, 2001
It's Ramadan, but Rehana Begg, a devout Muslim, isn't fasting  Begg, 32, currently on leave from her job as assistant editor at Homemaker's magazine, is exempt from fasting because she's breast-feeding her daughter. She appreciates that pregnant women, the elderly and sick, nursing mothers, travellers and young children are excused from keeping the Ramadan fast, but she still feels odd about it.

American Islamic Media: Assorted and Aspiring
By GUSTAV NIEBUHR, New York Times, November 24, 2001
When a visitor stopped by his office, Ahmed Osman pointed to a table laden with paperbacks that Amana Publications, a publisher of Islamic books, had been producing at its headquarters in Beltsville, Md., a Washington suburb, where Mr. Osman is director of publications.  "Muslim Teens: A Practical Islamic Parenting Guide" was one title. Others dealt with marriage, conversion and more. But the big seller was the Koran, in the English-language translation by Abdullah Yusuf Ali, Mr. Osman said.

Was the Taliban right about the real agenda of aid
workers Heather Mercer and Dayna Curry? 
By Deborah Caldwell, beliefnet.com
When the Taliban captured humanitarian relief workers
Dayna Curry and Heather Mercer in August, religious and
political leaders in the United States were aghast. The
Taliban accused the aid workers of being on a secret
campaign to convert Muslims.

The Demonization of Islam
By: David Barsamian, IslamiCity.com
November 6, 2001 - Political Social - Article Ref: IC0111-360
Dr. Eqbal Ahmed in an interview with David Barsamian traces when Islam became a 'threat' to the West. A certain notion of demonizing Islam started in the 10th century. This time it's more organized and sustained, because the means have changed. Today there is mass communication. 

The Politics of Equality
Haroon Siddiqui, COLUMNIST, The Torornto Star, November 6, 2001.
Haroon Siddiqui, The Star's Editor Emeritus, gave this speech on Friday at York University where he received an honorary Doctor of Letters degree.
In these times of trouble, in the midst of a war when our spirits are low and our fears high, when we feel as one with our American neighbours in this hour of our common grief, I wish to rekindle our core belief that Canada is a beacon to a troubled world. It is not that we are perfect. The battle for equality and fairness never ends. I earn part of my living waging it.

Muslims, Arabs denounce Canada's anti-terror bill
Tue Nov 6, 2001, by CBC News Online staff
OTTAWA - Prominent Arab groups denounced the anti-terrorism bill at a Justice Committee hearing in Ottawa Tuesday, calling Bill C-36 "obscene" and an act of terrorism itself.  Dr. Mohamed Elmasry, national director of the Canadian Islamic Congress, said the anti-terrorism bill would make Muslim and Arab Canadians "the most targeted group" in the country.

A Stronger Voice for Muslims
Several American Muslim leaders in California are at the forefront of an emerging political movement.
By MARY ROURKE, TIMES STAFF WRITER
The Los Angeles Times, Oct 29, 2001
On Sept. 26, two weeks after the attacks on the Pentagon and World Trade Center,
 President George W. Bush met with 15 American Muslim leaders at the White House.   The event was a watershed moment. Suddenly, a cause for which the men had long  toiled--Muslims' civil rights--had captured the public's attention, and the president was  calling on them to help with the national crisis.

American Muslims call for peaceful efforts to end the conflict in Afghanistan
10/27/2001 - Religious Social Political - Article Ref: IC0110-355
By: US Islamic organizations,  IslamiCity.com 
We pray to the universal God of all to bestow His mercy, healing and peace on all humanity.

Islam Attracts Converts by the Thousands,
Drawn Before and After Attacks
AMERICAN MUSLIMS
By JODI WILGOREN, The New York Times, October 22, 2001
With some 6 million adherents in the United States, Islam is said to be the
nation's fastest-growing religion, fueled by immigration, high birth rates and
widespread conversion. One expert estimates that 25,000 people a year
become Muslims in this country; some clerics say they have seen conversion
rates quadruple since Sept. 11.

Muslims must reclaim their faith
Haroon Siddiqui Editorial Page Editor, The Toronto Star, October 18,2001
THE CHALLENGES confronting the world's 1.3 billion Muslims do not quite fit the Western model of moderate vs. militant Islam.  Not all bearded men in flowing robes are fonts of sectarian hatred nor are they anti-West. Not all the secular suit-and-tie people are decent or make ideal allies. Some are worse violators of human rights than past Latin American dictators. Many exploit Western anti-Islamic prejudices to extract military and monetary concessions. Yet others seek the good graces of our gullible media by pretending to stand up to intolerant hordes.  The first problem Muslims face is ignorance of their own faith, what it was designed to be, was for centuries and what it has become.

Robert Fisk: Promises, promises
Independent.co.uk Argument, 17 October 2001
Colin Powell tells Pakistan's General Musharraf that he will help solve the problem of Kashmir. Tony Blair offers Yasser Arafat the vision of a Palestinian state. But should we take them at their word? History shows that assurances made in wartime aren't always everything they seem.

War no reason to ration civil rights
Dalton Camp, STAR COLUMNIST, October 17, 2001
In one of my morning papers, I took note of novelist John le Carré's heartfelt wish that politicians would stop praying for God's blessings to fall upon them in their war.  That the Diety is an interventionist force, on our side, seems to be taken for granted, at least in the Republican party. But evidence of such Divine aid is, to say the least, uneven. If God was with us in the two Great Wars, one must ask where He was when we needed Him in Vietnam. But it is obvious that the God who sees each sparrow fall does not answer every prayer or, put another way, that His answer will satisfy every supplicant.

Islam as American as other religions
GREGORY KANE, The Baltimore Sun, Wednesday, October 10, 2001
The roots of Islam run deep in America, dating back nearly as far as Judaism and Christianity. Islam arrived with Africans who were forcibly brought to these shores.  The most renowned of them was Kunta Kinte, made famous when his descendant Alex Haley penned Roots in the  1970s. Haley also wrote the autobiography of Malcolm X, whose great-great-grandfather, Ajar, was a Muslim from the Bambara people of Mali.

Say what you want, but this war is illegal
By MICHAEL MANDEL, The Globe and Mail, Tuesday, October 9, 2001
A well-kept secret about the U.S.-U.K. attack on Afghanistan is that it is clearly illegal. It violates international law and the express words of the United Nations Charter.  Despite repeated reference to the right of self-defence under Article 51, the Charter simply does not apply here. Article 51 gives a state the right to repel an attack that is ongoing or imminent as a temporary measure until the UN Security Council can take steps necessary for international peace and security.

CANADIAN LIBRARIES AND MEDIA BOOK EDITORS
The Canadian Islamic Congress, September 27, 2001
The Canadian Islamic Congress is urging libraries across Canada to establish a special section on Islam to meet a growing demand for information by the general public and students at all levels.

Using Pakistan to Strike Afghanistan Would Fuel More Violent Cycles
By Zulf M Khalfan, September 16, 2001,Nepean-Ottawa
OTTAWA---The United States' request to Pakistan to use its air space for an impending strike on Afghanistan, and the latter's reported acceptance, forces Pakistan between a rock and a hard place.  Pakistan's pledge to aid the US in its strike on Kabul, or accept US troops there, would only fuel regional and international cycles of violence. It is understandable that refusing to go along
would earn Pakistan the wrath of its super power ally and a tacit label of protecting terrorists.

Don't scapegoat Canada for Terrorism in America
Haroon Siddiqui, September 15, 2001, the Toronto Star
WHILE WE GRIEVE with Americans in the aftermath of their single biggest death toll since the Civil War, and pray for the dead as well as the living, it needs to be said that Canada's border is no more porous than America's. In fact, Canada has a tighter perimeter than the United States; far fewer illegal immigrants come here, even proportionately speaking, than there.

No time to hide
 By Hebah Abdalla, September 14, 2001, www.iviews.com
The Muslim community has undoubtedly suffered a serious public relations blow from the ensuing days of September 11.  And undoubtedly in the coming weeks, possibly years, our civil liberties may be curtailed.  So instead of going into hiding, we must come together and put aside the petty differences that often divide our communities.  We have a great deal of work ahead of us for it is only us who are capable of reversing this growing trend of Islamophobia. 

War isn't a game after all
By Naomi Klein, The Globe and Mail , September 14, 2001 
Now is the time in the game of war when we dehumanize our enemies.  They are incomprehensible, their acts unimaginable, their motivations senseless. They are "madmen," their states are "rogue." Now is not the time for understanding -- just better intelligence.

Terrorism's Tragic Fallout Leaves Canadian Muslims Feeling Guilty By Association
By Mohamed Elmasry, CIC, September 14, 2001
Never in my life have I felt so much apprehension and fear, anger and despair, shock and disbelief, such as I -- and countless Canadian Muslims -- experienced during the early hours of Tuesday, September 11,2001.

Global Justice, Not Global Economy, Should Be Canada's Agenda 
By Mohamed Elmasry, Friday August 24, 2001
Most Canadians rightly believe that this great, unique, and distinct nation of ours has a mission in the world to promote global justice and fight against hunger, poverty, desperation and human misery.  Most Canadians also believe that justice is necessary for the achievement of true world peace and they will, therefore, support their government on policies which effectively promote this two-fold goal, both at home and abroad.

CAIR CAN Calls For Investigation into Prayer Room Raid
(Ottawa, Canada - 07/13/01) (Ottawa, Canada - 07/13/01) - The Canadian office of the Council on 
American-Islamic Relations today filed a formal complaint with the Ottawa Police and called on the Minister of Immigration and Citizenship, Elinor Kaplan, for an 
investigation into her department's role in a police raid of Mecca Musallah, a prayer apartment  located in Ottawa.

Canadian Muslims seek better image
Karlene Nation, CFTO News Sat. Jun. 30 2001 5:32 PM
When we think of Islam and Muslims the images that often come to mind are those of Islamic fundamentalists, Muslim extremists and terrorists.Muslim Canadians say they're tired of being portrayed in a negative light in movies, print and on the evening news.

Police unit disrespectful during arrest: Islamic group
Tactical team broke into prayer room
Jean-Francois Bertrand, The Ottawa Citizen, June 22
The Canadian Islamic Congress is charging that an Ottawa police tactical team showed disrespect during a late-night immigration operation last week.  
But police say the operation was warranted, and they were acting on the best information available. The tactical unit broke into a prayer room, called a musallah, in an apartment building on Clarence Avenue, where eight Muslims in their 20s had just finished praying.
 

We are Muslims, not invaders
Samah Sabawi, The Ottawa Citizen, Friday May 18, 2001
When we came to Ottawa, we were never told to strip ourselves of our identities so that we could be welcome. I have been in Canada for 10 years, but I still hold my Australian citizenship. I give money to Muslim and non-Muslim charities and, yes, I do give money to my family when I can. Is that a crime?