The Clarkson woman who heads the Muslim Canadian Congress says a controversial Toronto mosque’s website has posted comments on its website that are “in contravention of what a moderate Muslim should stand for.”
President Farzana Hassan said the Muslim Canadian Congress is calling on Ottawa to strip the charitable status of the Somali Islamic Society of Canada, which owns the Khalid Bin Al-Walid mosque in Etobicoke that was founded in 1990 and serves more than 10,000 worshippers.
It’s the same mosque that stirred controversy six years ago when it warned its members to avoid wishing others “Merry Christmas,” equating the traditional Christian greeting with murder.
Hassan was particularly concerned about the website’s statements about women.
“They say female circumcision is honourable and yet they find piercing your ears reprehensible, wearing high heels reprehensible, laughing objectionable. It’s very disconcerting that their priorities are where they are.”
But the mosque defends its postings, arguing in a statement posted on its website that “different scholars of Islam may have differing opinions on the same subject.”
The statement, signed “Khalid Bin Al-Walid Mosque Management and the Board of Directors,” continues: “We try our best to enrich Islamic knowledge for anyone who visits our website and show to them the differing views of Islamic scholars on a particular subject.”
And, it adds: “We make it clear to all readers of our website that unless the answers are provided by the Khalid mosque, the answers do not necessarily reflect the views of Khalidmosque.org.”
Len Rudner, the Canadian Jewish Congress’s Ontario director, contacted the mosque’s board Friday to ask that they remove “material that we deem offensive.”
The mosque’s statement, Rudner said, “in essence ... says there are points of religion where scholars are going to disagree. And that’s fair.
“But what really draws my attention on the website ... is one particular section where they talk about, for want of a better way of putting it, the ongoing historical efforts of Jews to destroy Muslim society.”
Rudner said he’s already heard back from the mosque and a meeting is planned to resolve issues.
And, late Friday, the mosque emailed Rudner to “apologize without reservation to the CJC and the Jewish community at large for any and all comments that they have found offensive on our website, which we never intended in the first place.
“All of the writings to which offence has been taken have been or will be removed from our site immediately,” added the email, signed by Said Omar, acting chair of the Khalid mosque’s board.
On Friday, Omar argued the mosque is not responsible for the offensive material, contending it had merely posted the opinions of scholars, and that mosque officials were well within the Charter of Rights and Freedoms in disseminating information about Islam on their website.