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BY SARAH MCGINNIS, CANWEST NEWS SERVICE, WITH FILES FROM REUTERSMAY 16, 2009
A Calgary imam who once made headlines for filing a human rights complaint over the publication of the infamous Muhammad cartoons is now calling on all Muslims to support the war against the Taliban in Pakistan.
Syed Soharwardy and three other Calgary imams on Friday issued a fatwa, or religious decree, against the Taliban's actions in Pakistan.
"A fatwa has been issued by the Calgary imans about the aggression of the Taliban and their ideology, which is not Islam; it is against Islam and the beliefs of Muslims," said Soharwardy, founder of the Islamic Supreme Council of Canada.
"It is the ideology of hate."
More than 900,000 people have fled from the military offensive in Swat Valley, northwest of Islamabad, launched last week in a Pakistan's government in attempt to roll back expanding Taliban influence.
They are joining about 565,000 displaced by earlier fighting in the northwest.
The imams also called Friday for Muslims to support the refugees.
The imams said they want the Canadian government to provide disaster relief to the victims in the conflict and help Pakistan in producing educational programs to create awareness of the "un-Islamic and inhumane" nature of the Taliban's ideology.
They are also collecting donations to aide those displaced by the fighting.
"Until last week, we did not see there would be so much huge exodus of people from the Swat area. Everyday things are deteriorating and the conditions are getting very very serious," Soharwardy said.
Soharwardy is well known for lodging a human rights complaint against Alberta publisher Ezra Levant.
In February 2006, Levant published the notorious Danish cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad in the now-defunct Western Standard magazine.
At the time, Soharwardy argued the cartoons were a form of hate speech.
Soharwardy eventually backed out of the complaint, and has since renounced the process.
Calgary Herald
© Copyright (c) The Regina Leader-Post
A Calgary imam who once made headlines for filing a human rights complaint over the publication of the infamous Muhammad cartoons is now calling on all Muslims to support the war against the Taliban in Pakistan.
Syed Soharwardy and three other Calgary imams on Friday issued a fatwa, or religious decree, against the Taliban's actions in Pakistan.
"A fatwa has been issued by the Calgary imans about the aggression of the Taliban and their ideology, which is not Islam; it is against Islam and the beliefs of Muslims," said Soharwardy, founder of the Islamic Supreme Council of Canada.
"It is the ideology of hate."
More than 900,000 people have fled from the military offensive in Swat Valley, northwest of Islamabad, launched last week in a Pakistan's government in attempt to roll back expanding Taliban influence.
They are joining about 565,000 displaced by earlier fighting in the northwest.
The imams also called Friday for Muslims to support the refugees.
The imams said they want the Canadian government to provide disaster relief to the victims in the conflict and help Pakistan in producing educational programs to create awareness of the "un-Islamic and inhumane" nature of the Taliban's ideology.
They are also collecting donations to aide those displaced by the fighting.
"Until last week, we did not see there would be so much huge exodus of people from the Swat area. Everyday things are deteriorating and the conditions are getting very very serious," Soharwardy said.
Soharwardy is well known for lodging a human rights complaint against Alberta publisher Ezra Levant.
In February 2006, Levant published the notorious Danish cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad in the now-defunct Western Standard magazine.
At the time, Soharwardy argued the cartoons were a form of hate speech.
Soharwardy eventually backed out of the complaint, and has since renounced the process.
Calgary Herald
© Copyright (c) The Regina Leader-Post
