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com/servlet/Page/document/common/c hewy/nav-all_sections_frame Back off Muslims, imam warns Ottawa By COLIN FREEZE Monday, July 25, 2005 Updated at 5:15 AM EDT From Monday's Globe and Mail A controversial Toronto imam warned Public Safety Minister Anne McLellan at a closed-door meeting to stop "terrorizing" Canadian Muslims. "If you try to cross the line I can't guarantee what is going to happen. Our young people, we can't control," Aly Hindy, the head of Scarborough' s Salaheddin Islamic Centre, recalls telling the minister at the May mee ting she held in Toronto with dozens of Muslim leaders. The meeting was part of an effort by Ms McLellan to reach out to Canadia n Muslims amid complaints that the RCMP and Canadian Security Intelligen ce Service are engaging in racial profiling. The minister and her officials have been meeting community leaders to exp lain they are not targeting Muslims generally, only individuals with pos sible terrorist links.
click here By many accounts, the meetings have been positive and are contributing to a thaw in relations between Muslims and security agents, even if the ex change in May was a little heated. Mr Hindy, who has long complained that CSIS is spying on him, his family and his mosque, told Ms McLellan that a young Muslim woman complained to him she was roughed up by Canadian spies while her husband was away a t prayers. This allegation could spur reprisals because "our women are t he most valuable thing to us" and "for a Muslim, honour is more importan t than his life," Mr Hindy said in a recent interview. Several people who attended shrugged o ff the imam's remarks, but some Muslims and government agents later appr oached Mr Hindy asking him to explain himself. "The police came to me and said, 'This is a kind of threat,' and I said y es," he said. "We believe CSIS should stop terrorizing us," he says in a flyer he is ci rculating to mosques.
Toronto's Coalition of Muslim Organizations arranged the meeting, and sai d about 100 Muslim leaders attended. While COMO president Adam Esse note d that, "some people, when they talk, they get a little heated," he said the ministerial visit was "a sign of respect" and was worthwhile overal l "If you talk, you remove a lot of misconceptions, a lot of misunderst andings." "We feel it was constructive, positi ve," Alex Swann said. Even Mr Hindy said that despite his differences with security agencies " the Deputy Prime Minister, she was very understanding." In the wake of the London bombings, Ms McLellan has said that Canadians must become "psychologically prepared" for such an attack. She has also suggested such strikes are not related to the US-led war i n Iraq, in which Britain is a strong partner. Mr Hindy believes the war in Iraq has caused young Muslims to want to fight against the United St ates and Britain. The imam said six or seven young men have approached him to discuss "figh ting overseas" in place such as Iraq and Afghanistan. He said he told them "people fighting in Iraq, they don't need more peopl e" Instead, Canadian Muslims can wage non-violent jihads (holy struggles) at home. "You have a very good chance to serve Islam here," he said he tol d them.
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