Author:
Publication: CBC News
Date: June 9, 2006
URL: http://www.cbc.ca/story/canada/national/2006/06/09/conferences-muslim.html
Critics are warning that some spiritual conferences
held by Muslim organizations in Toronto and elsewhere in Canada provide platforms
for extremist views that could radicalize young people.
One such conference, Reviving the Islamic
Spirit, which was held at the CNE grounds in Toronto last December, bills
itself as organized by young people for young people to celebrate Muslim identity
and faith.
But along with lectures on how to be a better
Muslim were others like the one by Indian doctor and cleric Zakir Naik, who
suggested how Sharia law could help Western countries.
Naik talks about capital punishment for those
who commit rape and also for a person who is "involved in homosexuality."
Tarek Fatah, who hosts a weekly television
program The Muslim Chronicle, said such talk is dangerous, particularly for
thousands of young men in the audience. More than 14,000 Muslims gathered
for the Reviving the Islamic Spirit conference.
"What it does is it legitimizes the undemocratic,
authoritarian and sometimes supremacist views of the Saudi and Wahhabi view
of Islam, which negates anything that is modern," Fatah said.
The concern about the radicalization of young
Muslims has surfaced in wake of the arrest of 17 people, mostly young men,
in connection with an alleged bomb plot in Ontario.
Steven Emerson, who runs the Investigative
Project on Terrorism in Washington, has been monitoring Muslim conferences
for more than a decade. He said the conferences today have a dual purpose.
"Well, traditionally, radical Islamic
conferences -at least in the post 9/11 environment - have been careful not
to be too overt in terms of their extremist ideology, but have used it for
more secretive meetings behind closed doors or to disseminate materials that
are quite radical."
Audio and videotapes, pamphlets and books
with titles such as How to be a good Muslim and Muslims living in non-Muslim
lands can be found at the conferences, with the theme of providing guidance
for young men and women.
But there are also titles that talk about
conspiracies to blame the September 11 attacks on Muslims.
The Investigative Project sends people all
over North America to monitor conferences. One man, identified as "Mahmoud"
to protect his identity, said the material he buys at the conference bazaars
is often offensive and racist.
"There is anti- Semitic literature that
I picked up. There was one theme in these bazaars, they denigrate Christians
and Jews," he said.
Organizers of Reviving the Islamic Spirit
say they don't vet the material that is sold at their conference.
But Mahmoud calls that unacceptable for a
gathering aimed at young people, and says Muslim organizations should take
responsibility for the materials that are sold if they are serious about keeping
radicals out.
