LAW STUDENTS RESPOND TO MACLEAN’S CHIEF EDITOR WHO PREFERRED BANKRUPTCY OVER BALANCE

MARGINAL MUSLIM GROUP WITH DIRECT MACLEAN’S TIES SPREADING DISINFORMATION RE: HUMAN RIGHTS COMPLAINTS

The Canadian Islamic Congress Media Communiqué

December 7, 2007

http://www.montrealmuslimnews.net/lawstudentsrespond.htm  

TORONTO – Four Osgoode Hall law students who have filed human rights complaints against Maclean's Magazine re-affirmed today that they met with Kenneth Whyte, Maclean’s Editor-in-Chief, prior to formally submitting their complaints.

The complainant group, comprising current students and recent graduates, asked that Maclean’s publish a balanced response from a mutually acceptable author (from inside or outside the Muslim community) to the Islamophobic content of “The Future Belongs to Islam” by staff writer Mark Steyn, published by Maclean’s in October 2006.

Mr. Whyte responded by indicating that Maclean’s Magazine would rather go bankrupt than publish such a response.

“Mr. Whyte’s recent statement suggesting that he offered to consider a reasonable request, but we wanted to pick an author of our choice, is a complete fabrication,” said Khurrum Awan, a recent Osgoode graduate. “We put forward an initial proposal in the hope of discussion. However, Mr. Whyte clearly stated without qualification that he preferred bankruptcy to any response. Our entire group of law students was present and we are looking forward to testifying before the BC Human Rights Tribunal in June.”

Mr. Whyte’s unreasonable response has formed a fundamental basis for the group pursuing its complaints against Maclean’s, Awan continued. “This is the reason why there is no open debate on issues related to Muslim Canadians. We are standing up for the Muslim community’s right to participate in free speech in this country.”

The statement on Maclean’s website also cited a press release from the Muslim Canadian Congress, a fringe organization with direct links to Maclean’s, which has been supporting the magazine’s “right” to continue publishing anti-Muslim content while refusing to permit the mainstream Muslim community to respond.

Maclean’s conveniently failed to cite the next paragraph of the MCC press release which states: “Mark Steyn’s article was definitely alarmist, but the answer to his challenge is to write a counter piece and demand Macleans publish it, not to … use the human rights commission,” said Osgoode graduate Naseem Mithoowani.

“Well that is exactly what we did,” Mithoowani continued, “but we learned that Maclean’s would rather go bankrupt.”

“What is of greater concern is that a magazine of Maclean’s reputation would open itself up to further criticisms of journalistic integrity by propping itself with a press release that goes on to allege that the Ontario Human Rights Commission has been taken over by ‘Islamist commissioners’,” said Osgoode graduate Muneeza Sheikh. “The press release continues to make even more outlandish claims by referring to respected journalists like Sheema Khan and Haroon Siddiqui as ‘regular columnists who push the Islamist agenda non-stop since 9/11’.”

In this case, there also exists a significant conflict of interest, added Awan. “Tarek Fatah, who is a regular contributor and writer for Maclean’s, is also the Founder and former Communications Director of the MCC. In fact, he has continued to co-author articles with executives of the MCC, even after supposedly leaving the organization. So it is no surprise that the MCC is on the scene.”

Controversy befell the MCC during summer 2006, through a series of resignations from its board, caused by the Congress becoming increasingly out of step with the opinions of mainstream Muslim Canadians. "Instead of engaging the Muslim community, [the MCC] was provoking it," said former MCC legal adviser Arif Raza to the Globe and Mail in August, 2006. Raza was among those who quit the group.

“It is ironic that the only Muslim organization Maclean's was able to find to support its Islamophobic publications and its subsequent refusal to publish a balanced response, is a fringe one that sees Muslim conspiracies everywhere – as do some of Maclean’s regular columnists,” added Osgoode student Daniel Simard.

The full text of the MCC press release is attached below at the end of this communiqué.

Osgoode law graduates Khurrum Awan, Naseem Mithoowani, and Muneeza Sheikh – along with current Osgoode students Ali Ahmed and Daniel Simard – are individual complainants and the driving force behind human rights complaints that have been submitted to the British Columbia, Canadian, and Ontario Human Rights Commissions.

The students have jointly published a report entitled “Maclean's Magazine: A Case Study of Media-Propagated Islamophobia,” which can be accessed at:

http://www.canadianislamiccongress.com/ar/Report_on_Macleans_Journalism.pdf  

Also at: Doc:
http://www.montrealmuslimnews.net/rom.doc

pdf:
http://www.montrealmuslimnews.net/rom.pdf

Html:
http://www.montrealmuslimnews.net/rom.html

CONTACT: Khurrum Awan (416) 712-5209

CIC email: cic@canadianislamiccongress.com

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MCC Press Release

December 3, 2007

MCC defends Macleans Magazine

//Human Rights complaint is thinly veiled attack on freedom of the press///

TORONTO - The Muslim Canadian Congress has criticized the Canadian Islamic Congress for filing a complaint against Macleans magazine at the BC and Ontario Human Rights Commission based on their reading of one article as "flagrantly Islamophobic. "

"Labelling Canada's premier weekly news magazine as a carrier of Islamophobic literature is a thinly veiled attack on freedom of press that will serve no purpose other than to reinforce the stereotype that Muslims have little empathy for vigorous debate and democracy," said Farzana Hassan, president of the MCC in a statement today.

In the complaint submitted to Human Rights Commissions in B.C. and Ontario the CIC states that an article by Mark Steyn in Macleans "subjects Canadian Muslims to hatred and contempt."

"Mark Steyn's article was definitely alarmist, but the answer to his challenge is to write a counter piece and demand Macleans publish it, not to threaten legal reprisals and use the human rights commission to stifle debate and attack the freedom of the press," Ms Hassan added.

The most offensive part in Mark Steyn's story was a comment from Mullah Krekar, a Norwegian imam who took pride in comparing high Muslim birth rates to the breeding of mosquitoes. The Muslim cleric was quoted as saying, "Just look at the development within Europe, where the number of Muslims is expanding like mosquitoes." If at all the CIC should be offended at anyone, they should target their anger at the Norwegian mullah, not Macleans.

An attack on Macleans by the CIC is an attack on a 100-year old Canadian institution. One does not have to agree with what is written in newspapers or magazines, but that is the cost of living in a democracy, said Ms Hassan.

Sohail Raza, the MCC Communications director said, "Today, two of Canada's leading newspapers have regular columnists who push the Islamist agenda non-stop since 9/11 offending the sensibilities of many Canadians and most all secular liberal Muslims, yet despite the fact secular and liberal Muslims have been shut out of these newspapers, we don't go and file human rights complaints against these newspapers."

The statement asked the Ontario Human Rights Commission to reject the CIC complaint as frivolous and not succumb to the manipulation of Islamist commissioners who serve on the OHRC. The Muslim Canadian Congress rejects the CIC notion that the Macleans article was "flagrantly Islamophobic" or their premise that it was an attack on Canada's Muslims.

The MCC will defend the right of Macleans magazine and all media to engage in a debate on one of the burning issue of our time. Stifling debate by waving the threat of legal action will only ensure that Muslims are seen as a people who cannot withstand the scrutiny of our beliefs and actions.

MCC@MuslimCongress.ca