A Muslim imam deemed too controversial to speak at National Defence headquarters in Ottawa will speak on Thursday at another event promoted by the RCMP.
This event will be held at the Government Conference Centre across from Parliament Hill.
Zijad Delic, the president of the Canadian Islamic Congress, had his speech at military HQ cancelled earlier this month by Defence Minister Peter MacKay. MacKay’s office said Delic and his organization were too controversial.
On Thursday, Delic will moderate a panel on the topic, “Just and Sustainable Peace – A Global Challenge.”
The conference is organized by a group called the Ottawa Group of Four and is scheduled to include Bloc MP Richard Nadeau among its speakers.
The main speakers, however, come from Iran’s Tehran University. Sayeh Hassan, a Toronto criminal lawyer and activist for the Iranian democratic movement, told QMI Agency these professors are not dissidents in the regime of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
“These are all professors that are closely linked to the regime, they are not dissidents,” Hassan said.
“People like myself that have escaped the regime and the propaganda are concerned that now they’re bringing these professors promoting the regime to Ottawa.”
Another one of the speakers is Dr. Davood Ameri of the Islamic World Peace Forum. The website for that organization features graphic anti-Semitic cartoons including one showing an Israeli soldier shooting a baby next to a sign that reads Gaza. The website’s front page focuses on what it deems human rights abuses in America and labels the U.S. a terrorist state.
The conference has been promoted within the RCMP by the federal police force’s “ethnic liaison officer.”