ACTION ALERT!!!

Call On The Government Of Canada To Clear The Good Name Of Kassim Mohamed, Stop Racial Profling, And Stop Giving Information About Canadian Citizens To Foreign Intelligence Agencies

Issued by Montreal Muslim News - Sept 21, 2004

Please send Canada's Foreign Affairs Minister Pierre Pettigrew and cc PM Paul Martin the following letter or a similar one regarding the case of Canadian citizen Kassim Mohamed.

For background reading please see: http://www.yourmailinglistprovider.com/pubarchive_show_message.php?montrealmuslimnews+2757

Foreign Affairs Minister Pierre Pettigrew e-mail: Pettigrew.P@parl.gc.ca

PM Matin's e-mail: Martin.P@parl.gc.ca

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Dear Mr. Pettigrew,

I read with great shock and dismay the story of Canadian citizen Kassim Mohamed. What is of major concern to me is that why - after being questioned by CSIS and the RCMP for 10 days in Canada - was Kassim then detained by Egyptian officials in Cairo and asked why he was being questioned back in Canada? Who fed the Egyptian authorities the information that Kassim was being questioned in Canada?

It is already disturbing enough that Kassim was racially profiled after filming Toronto landmarks for his family back in Egypt, but now to find out that CSIS and the RCMP may have fed Egyptian authorities information on Kassim - which led to his two week detention in Egypt - is rather shocking and disconcerting.

In light of this case, and others like it, Canada's Muslim community will be interested in knowing about what kinds of information Canadian authorities are feeding foreign intelligence agencies regarding Canadian citizens. Muslim Canadians will no longer feel safe travelling abroad not knowing in advance if they will be detained or not, and possibly tortured in order to extract information from them. Muslims in this country are beginning to lose confidence in the government - whose duty is to serve and protect all of its citizens - and are placing them in harms way by participating in such irresponsible and dangerous actions.

It seems to me that CSIS and RCMP felt they could not obtain the information they wanted from Kassim, so they sub-contracted their work to Egyptian authorities who are not a bit shy about resorting to torture to extract information from detainees.

It is now crucial that Kassim's name be cleared of all wrong doing and that the Canadian government should apologize for what he has been put through. The Canadian government must also come clean once and for all regarding how information on Canadian citizens is shared with foreign intelligence agencies as this places Canadians travelling abroad at great risk. In addition, the practice of racial profiling, which according to a recent report from Amnesty International is widespread in the US (see http://www.amnestyusa.org/racial_profiling/report/ ), is racist, morally wrong, and may actually constitute a threat to Canada's national security as it does not provide any meaningful information.

I expect and demand more from my government.

Sincerely,

Your Name Here