On a recent Friday at the Salaheddin mosque, Imam Aly Hindy spoke to his followers about how homosexuality was “invented,” calling it “nonsense” and “garbage” to believe anyone could be born that way.

He went on to talk about “illegal sexual acts” but added a qualifier: “Illegal means illegal in Islam, not illegal in the Canadian law, because everything is legal in the Canadian law, except children. Other than that, they allow everything.”

The Toronto imam has long been known for his controversial comments. He called the 9/11 attacks a joint CIA operation, refused to join other imams in signing a statement condemning the 2005 London bombings and referred to the Toronto 18 terrorists as good people.

But while he remains as provocative as ever, the institution that serves as his platform has undergone a notable shift: According to federal charity records, the Salaheddin Islamic Centre is being increasingly financed by foreign patrons.

Almost a quarter of the centre’s revenues came from outside Canada in 2010, figures posted on the Canada Revenue Agency website show. Three unnamed foreign donors provided $931,000 of the centre’s almost $4-million in revenues that year.

In 2009, the centre got $250,000 from overseas, less than a tenth of its total revenues that year. Charities have only been required to publicly report their foreign revenues since 2009. Figures for 2011 are not yet available.

“Our policy is to follow CRA [Canada Revenue Agency] requirements and report every dollar that we receive from inside or outside Canada,” Imam Hindy said in an email response to questions.

Read more on Islamic extremism in high schools ‘A newly released intelligence report warns that teenagers are being exposed to Islamist extremism in Canadian high schools’

The CRA blacked out the names of the offshore donors for privacy reasons before releasing a copy of the tax return to the National Post. The amounts of each contribution were also obscured, along with whether the donors were organizations, governments or individuals.

But Imam Hindy said US$400,000 came from the Islamic Development Bank, which is based in Saudi Arabia and whose president is a Saudi. He said the other foreign donors were charities in Qatar and the United Arab Emirates.

Steve Mckinley for National Post files

Imam Aly Hindy, seen here at a Scarborough mosque, referred to the 18 Toronto men arrested on terrorists charges as good people.

“This is what Christian missionaries do from the West. In other parts of the world, this is their idea of doing missionary work. They give money to people they consider to be good Muslims and spreading the word,” said Christian Leuprecht, an associate professor at the Royal Military College and Queen’s University.

He said the issue raised questions about sovereignty, the role of foreign funding in aiding those intent on breaching liberal democratic values, and whether mechanisms were needed to ensure that Western freedoms were not exploited to advance illiberal ideas.

Another issue is that, despite their willingness to finance Imam Hindy’s centre in Canada, neither Saudi Arabia nor Qatar allows religions other than Islam to be preached in their own countries.

“This has always been the argument against: If we are going to let charities accept outside money, it should only come from countries that would allow us to do likewise, basically on the principle of reciprocity.”

Imam Hindy said his centre was “not so dependent on foreign revenues.” He said it was simply going through an expansion phase that cost more than he was able to raise in Canada.

“We have purchased a building in Mississauga for $1.7-million and renovated by about $150K. We expanded our building in Scarborough so far by $1.5-million. We have now a full time elementary and secondary School up to Grade 12.

“We have built an additional 10 classrooms, science lab, computer lab and building a gym with the most updated equipments for the school and local community. Also we have built a travel centre, washing facility for the deceased and in the process of building a new commercial kitchen to serve a banquet hall use at the gym.”

Tahir Gora, secretary general of the Muslim Canadian Congress, said he was not impressed when he attended Imam Hindy’s recent sermon. He said the imam had made “humiliating remarks” about homosexuals, and had tried to make the case that it didn’t matter if Canada accepted homosexuals because Islam did not.

“He should respect Canadian values,” said Mr. Gora, a writer who fled Pakistan after his critiques of religious intolerance brought death threats. “If he’s getting so much funding from different corners, he should try and assimilate Muslims in the society rather than trying to alienate them from the society.”

He said following Imam Hindy’s prayer, youths stood outside the mosque entrance handing out pamphlets that claimed that “hatred of Islam” was behind recent media coverage of the so-called honor killings murder trial in Kingston, Ont.

“The case was exploited by the agenda driven media to vilify Islam and Muslims,” it read. It went on to claim the “role of the media is to put pressure on Muslims living in the West to abandon Islamic values and adopt secular-liberal values instead.”

But Muslims should know, it continued, that “these assaults” were a test from God. It advised talking to other Canadians “to show how Islam is a comprehensive way of life that provides an alternative to the capitalist system.”

Imam Hindy denied any pamphlets were distributed and said he did not follow murder cases. Asked about the concern over his preaching, he responded by quoting passages from the Koran, including one that read, “For ye practise your lusts on men in preference to women : ye are indeed a people transgressing beyond bounds.” Said the imam, “These are words of God.”

On its tax forms, the Salaheddin centre describes its programming as, “Place of worship. Prayers, religious and educational teachings, the charity operate two schools teaching Ontario curriculum, beside couple of hours a week of Islamic teachings.” It also counsels families and youth and assists “the large east Toronto community when help is needed.”

Listed as director and president, the Egyptian-born Imam Hindy calls himself a fundamentalist, not an extremist. An RCMP report refers to him as a “focal point for Toronto area Islamic radicals,” and a New York Police Department report calls Salaheddin “a known radical mosque.”

Matthew Sherwood for National Post

The sign for Salaheddin Islamic Centre at 741 Kennedy Road in Scarborough, Ont.

Imam Hindy does not preach violence and says he steers youths away from radicalism. But some of the centre’s former worshippers have been linked to terrorism. A former founder, Hassan Farhat, left Canada to join an al-Qaeda-linked group in Iraq, where he allegedly commanded a squad of suicide bombers. Ahmed Khadr, a senior Canadian al-Qaeda figure, visited the mosque when he was in Toronto and his family worshipped there.

The former principal of the mosque school, Mahmoud Jabballah is undergoing deportation proceedings after the government alleged he was a member of the Egyptian terrorist group Al Jihad. The ringleaders of the Toronto 18 terrorist group, which plotted attacks in Southern Ontario, were also worshippers, as was a man arrested last year at the Toronto airport as he was allegedly on his way to join the Somali terrorist group Al Shabab.

When Mohamed Mahjoub, whom the government alleges was a member of the Egyptian terrorist group Vanguards of Conquest, applied to be released from detention, Imam Hindy offered to act as a surety but was rejected by the judge, in part because “his published statements are open to the inference that he is sympathetic to or at least defensive of the threats of Islamic terrorism towards Canada.”

But the Ontario Superior Court of Justice rejected the notion the Salaheddin centre was involved in terrorism. “I accept that, over the years, there may have been persons, involved in questionable activities, with questionable associations, who have passed through the Centre from time to time,” the court wrote in 2008. “In my view, this in itself is not sufficient to taint the centre in any way.”

The centre’s financial supporters seem to agree. From a budget of $372,000 in 2000, the centre now reports an annual revenue more than 10 times that amount and says in its latest tax return it intends to expand into Clarington, Ont., east of Toronto.

The charity’s financial growth is at least partly the result of significant contributions from abroad. Imam Hindy sees the outside money as a good thing. It’s creating work for the construction industry as well as education jobs while saving the public school system money, he said.

He declined to discuss the controversy surrounding the centre. “I am not going again to talk about this controversy that you are talking about. I already answered this question to you many times. The centre is continuing to serve the community in the best way possible.”

National Post sbell@nationalpost.com

Muslim Extremists Number One Terror Threat, Canada Warns

BBC has discovered the problem group in the UK.

Canadians.

H/T YB

BBC:

Al Amin Dhalla had been engaged to Alison Hewitt

A former City worker convicted of stalking his former fiancee and her family has been convicted of two further charges.

MOGADISHU — Gun-toting Al-Shabab insurgents staged rallies across Somalia Monday to celebrate their group’s recognition by Osama bin Laden’s successor as a member of the Islamist Al-Qaeda network.

“The unification of Al-Shabab with Al-Qaeda breaks the hearts of the enemy,” Shabab spokesman Sheikh Ali Mohamud Rage told a crowd of several hundred in rebel-held Afgoye, just outside Somalia’s war-torn capital Mogadishu.

Extremists chanting anti-Western slogans ordered people to attend the rallies, witnesses said.

“At least 600 people gathered carrying placards supporting the unification of the two groups — people chanted Allahu Akbar (God is great)” said Abdikarin Adan, a witness.

“Businesses were shut after Shabab fighters in cars with loudspeakers ordered people to attend the demonstration,” said Mohamed Sufi, another witness.

Al-Qaeda chief Ayman al-Zawahiri announced in a video message posted on jihadist forums last week that Shabab fighters had joined ranks with the Islamist network.

Shabab insurgents, fighting to overthrow the weak Western-backed government in the war-torn Horn of Africa country, proclaimed their allegiance to then Al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden in 2009.

“Mujahideen fighters worldwide, I promise you that the unification is a sign of the return of the Islamic caliphate worldwide,” Rage added.

Several demonstrations also took place across Shabab-held southern Somalia including the port city of Merka, where the extremist gunmen ordered people to shut down businesses to attend the rally.

“Sheikh Ayman al-Zawahiri has regional leaders in Iraq, Afghanistan, and sub-Saharan Africa,” Rage added. “Here, where we are today, we will strengthen the unification of the mujahideen fighters.”

Shabab fighters still control large parts of central and southern Somalia but are facing increasing pressure from regional forces, with Kenya in the far south, Ethiopia in the south and west, and African Union troops in Mogadishu.

Kenya army spokesman Major Emmanuel Chirchir said the rallies were a “forced demonstration.”

Somalia’s embattled government — which controls only Mogadishu with 10,000 AU troops from Uganda, Burundi and Djibouti — repeated calls Monday for the lifting of a United Nations arms embargo so it can “defend the country.”

“We ask all the young people that have been misled by Al-Shabab to stop working with them,” the government statement added.

“The Somali government will not take lightly the danger from their official union and will put all its forces, as well as the general public, on the highest alert.”

There are about 200 foreign fighters in Somalia with the Shabab, Britain’s Royal United Services Institute for Defence and Security Studies said in a report earlier this month.

However, analysts have warned previously that Al-Qaeda faces significant challenges operating in Somalia, with its lack of resources, basic infrastructure and potential hostility from rival clan-based power structures.

Hamza Kashgari, the young Saudi blogger whose foolhardy tweets about Prophet Muhammad left conservative clerics baying for his blood, is a poet and a dreamer, says a former colleague.

“Hamza always liked being alone, he wasn’t a social person,” said a senior editor at Al Bilad, the newspaper Mr. Kashgari used to work for.

“He had a broken look in his eyes and I think that was a sign of sadness or depression. He’s a poet and had a lot of philosophical ideas.”

He said the young writer had learned the Koran by heart and always had good manners, and none of his columns had touched on controversial religious ideas.

Now, the 23-year-old is Saudi Arabia’s most reviled man and could even face execution for blasphemy.

It’s all because of three tweets of an imagined conversation with the Prophet Muhammad.

Writing on the Prophet’s birthday, he said he “loved the rebel in you” and he “loved some aspects of you, hated others.”

The reaction on the Internet was swift and vitriolic.

First, there was a flurry of angry comments on Twitter — estimated at more than 30,000 in 24 hours. A Facebook page, “Saudi people want punishment for Hamza Kashgari,” has quickly grown to more than 20,000 members.

“The only choice is for Kashgari to be killed and crucified in order to be a lesson to other secularists,” commented Abu Abdulrahman, an online reader of al-Madina newspaper.

A YouTube video of a tearful Nasser al-Omar, a Saudi cleric, calling for Mr. Kashgari to be arrested and tried went viral.

Abdul-Aziz Khoja, the Saudi Information Minister, responded to the incident via Twitter.

“When I read what he posted, I wept and got very angry that someone in the country of the Two Holy Mosques attacks our Prophet in a manner that does not fit a Muslim.

“I have given instructions to ban him from writing for any Saudi newspaper or magazine, and there will be legal measures to guarantee that.”

In Saudi Arabia, home to Islam’s two holiest sites in Mecca and Medina, such comments could be considered blasphemy and punishable by death under the kingdom’s strict interpretation of Islam.

Spooked by the reactions, Mr. Kashgari deleted the postings after only six hours. But it was too late.

His attempt to flee to New Zealand was foiled by authorities in Malaysia, who detained him in transit. He is now back in Saudi Arabia.

Some observers suggest the country’s conservative clerics seized on Mr. Kashgari’s tweets as a way of pushing back against the modest reforms enacted by King Abdullah. These include allowing women to vote in local elections and to work in lingerie stores.

They also point out Saudi clerics have been quick to realize the potential of the Internet as a tool for proselytizing. They are now among some of the country’s most active tweeters.

Mr. Kashgari is a graduate of the University of King Abdulaziz, with a major in Islamic studies. He left Al Bilad newspaper five weeks before the incident because of disagreements over money and his writing.

Before his arrest, Mr. Kashgari said in an interview with the U.S. news website the Daily Beast he did not think he could ever go home because of the death threats, but was also defiant.

“I view my actions as part of a process toward freedom. I was demanding my right to practise the most basic human rights — freedom of expression and thought – so nothing was done in vain,” he said.

“I believe I’m just a scapegoat for a larger conflict. There are a lot of people like me in Saudi Arabia who are fighting for their rights.”

National Post, with files from Reuters and news services

By Amanda Stephenson

CALGARY — A Calgary imam will take the bold step of issuing a fatwa — an official religious edict pronounced by a scholar of the Muslim faith — against honour killings and domestic abuse on Saturday.

Imam Syed Soharwardy, who is head imam at the Al-Madinah Calgary Islamic Centre as well as the founder of the Islamic Supreme Council of Canada, will deliver the fatwa at a mosque in Mississauga, Ont. He will be backed by more than 30 imams and Muslim scholars from across North America who want to send a strong message to other members of their faith.

“Within the Muslim community, there are a few clergy people — it’s a very small number, no doubt about it — who misinterpret the Qur’an and say it is OK to beat a wife,” Soharwardy said. “That kind of mentality has to be changed, and has to be confronted.”

Soharwardy said that while he has been doing research into the issue of misogyny in Islam for a long time, it was the recent high-profile Shafia murder trial that prompted him to take action.

Mohammad Shafia, his second wife Tooba Mohammad Yahya and the couple’s eldest son, Hamed, were found guilty of first-degree murder earlier this week in Kingston, Ont. The prosecution’s case was built around the premise that the Shafias murdered four of their relatives because they had stained the family’s “honour.”

Court handouts

Zainab Shafia, left, Sahar Shafia, top-right, and Geeti Shafia

“Those people who justify these crimes in the name of Islam, they are dead wrong,” Soharwardy said. “There is no place for these crimes in our faith.”

Soharwardy said the fatwa will contain evidence of verses in the Qur’an where mistakes in translation from the original Arabic may have led some people to believe that Islam accepts violence against women.

“In some cases, we are coming back with a translation that conflicts with the rest of our understanding of the Qur’an,” Soharwardy said. “I don’t think it’s acceptable . . . The Prophet Mohammed never did these kinds of things, he never said you can hit your wife.”

By issuing the fatwa, Soharwardy said he and other scholars also hope to make non-Muslims understand that anti-female sentiment has no place in the true teachings of Islam.

This is not the first time Soharwardy has taken a stance on a current event by issuing a formal edict. In 2010, the Calgary imam and other imams associated with the Islamic Supreme Council issued a fatwa condemning terrorist attacks by Muslim extremists.

While not legally binding, fatwas carry substantial weight within Islam, particularly with followers of the Shia branch of the faith.

Postmedia News

Canadian Television Gag Irks Muslims

By Elad Benari

First Publish: 1/30/2012, 3:15 AM