LETTER TO THE EDITOR: Tarek Fatah does not represent the Muslim community - By Karen Sun
February 1, 2008
To whom it may concern,
I am writing you today because I am tired of hearing from my Muslim friends about how angry they are every time Tarek Fatah is presented as a progressive Muslim leader by the mainstream press.
I have a number of friends who are progressive Muslims. Some are practicing Muslims, some are more secular, most were brought up in Canada and have the typically moderate views that 1.5 or 2nd generation Canadians have. None of them feel that Mr. Fatah’s views are representative of them or their faith.
There is a Facebook group called “Tarek Fatah does not represent me” with 738 members. The frustration and outrage from Muslims, that I have contact with, every time they see Mr. Fatah in the media represented as a “Muslim leader” is palpable.
My question to you is: why do you continue to present Mr. Fatah as a progressive Muslim leader? Certainly you have contact with other leaders that are actually respected by the Muslim community. I fail to understand why you would continue to print Mr. Fatah’s opinions at the expense of alienating the Muslim community, who from what I understand, think that he is crazy.
I would ask that in the future, you seek an opinion from other Muslim organizations before printing Mr. Fatah’s word as the “voice of the Muslim community”. For the sake of journalistic integrity and some objectivity, I feel that you owe us (all of us, not just the Muslim community) a decent counter argument to Mr. Fatah’s rantings. I would like to introduce you to a few other progressive Muslim organizations who are more representative of the community, and would encourage you to find others:
Muslim Association of Canada http://www.macnet.ca/national/index.php
Council on American-Islamic Relations - Canada http://www.caircan.ca
Muslim Welfare Centre http://www.muslimwelfarecentre.com
Canadian Muslim Lawyers Association http://www.muslimlaw.ca
Salaam, The Queer Muslim Community of Toronto http://www.salaamcanada.com
Fundamentalist Films http://www.fundamentalistfilms.com/about.php
IslamBank.Community http://IslamBank.com/unity
If you are looking for opinions from community leaders, I think that Uzma Shakir would be an excellent choice for a progressive Muslim voice. http://www.ideasthatmatter.com/people/2003shakir.html http://www.atkinsonfoundation.ca/updates/Document_1195738816317
Another good place to look for progressive community leaders is through the Maytree Foundation’s abcGTA program: http://www.abcgta.ca/index2.asp
Thank you for considering this request. If you would like to contact me to discuss this further, please leave a comment below.
Sincerely,
