Muslim Lookout

A youth convicted of being part of a terrorism plot has been sentenced, and then released:

The first person convicted under Canada’s terrorism laws was sentenced Friday to 2½ years in prison for his involvement in the group dubbed the Toronto 18, which authorities accuse of plotting to blow up targets in the city’s downtown.

The judge in Brampton, Ont., who sentenced the 21-year-old declared that, with credit for his time already spent in custody, the man had served his time. He walked free hours later and was back home Friday. (Read more)

The mosque in Dorval, Quebec, has been vandalised – for the third time in less than a year:

The Dorval Mosque is now tarnished with graffiti that reads: “Koran 8, 12″.

“This thing should not happen in a country called Canada,” said Karim Chadal, a member of the Muslim community with strong ties to the mosque. [...]

The graffiti sprayed on the wall of the mosque refers to verses in the Koran that include the following excerpt:

“I will instill terror into the hearts of Unbelievers: Smite ye above their necks. And smite all their finger-tips off them.” [...]

The president of the mosque, Mehmet Deger, said the vandals are simply attempting to spread stereotypes about Islam.

“They are trying to give a violent message of Islam to the public,” said Deger.

He added that the words were written nearly 1,500 years ago, and can be easily taken out of their historical context. (Read more)

Muneeb Nasir writes for The American Muslim about the “imam problem” in Canadian mosques:

The Canadian Muslim community continues to agonize over their religious leaders.

In a recent study done by Karim H. Karim for the Institute for Research on Public Policy, he found that Muslims in Canada and other Western countries “seek religious leadership that can guide them as they navigate spiritual and worldly matters in a knowledgeable and insightful manner. They expect their imam to have not only an intellectually sophisticated understanding of Islamic sources but also a keen appreciation of the Western contexts in which they are living.”

Very recently, the congregation of the main mosque in Ottawa, the Ottawa Muslim Association, has been caught up in a debate around such issues as a result of the choice of a new Imam.

The Imam, who was brought in from Al Azhar University in Egypt, is being criticized by segments of the community for his communication skills, his lack of experience and familiarity with Canadian social conditions.

The debate has become very public with the articles being written in the local press and even eliciting an editorial in the Ottawa Citizen. (Read more)

Zaynab Khadr’s marriage to the son of an Ottawa judge draws public attention:

They are among the most unusual of couples. Joshua Boyle, 25, is the son of a tax judge whose empty home was shot up. Zaynab Khadr, 29, is the sister of Guantanamo Bay detainee Omar Khadr — and Osama bin Laden attended her wedding in Afghanistan a decade ago.

The divorced, single mom and the research fanatic met over the Internet – their mutual interests in Wikipedia and the War on Terror helping them stake out common ground. They married – quietly – but their romance was soon propelled into the public’s eye, after thieves fired several .22-calibre bullets into the groom’s family home.

Today, for the first time, they talk about their marriage, the break-in, and overcoming prejudice – including a suspicion that Mr. Boyle was a spy. A rally outside an abortion clinic, they said, also helped bring them together. (Read more)

The Toronto Star profiles a young comedy duo of Pakistani and Christian Lebanese background, and the work they do in mocking stereotypes of Muslims and of people from the Middle East and South Asia:

They may aspire to be comic terrors. But terrorists, no, definitely not.

In fact, Dave Merheje and Ali Rizvi are born-and-raised Canadian lads with a similar issue: they don’t look like your archetypical Canadians so their family backgrounds – one from the Middle East, the other from South Asia – mean people often don’t know what to expect when they take the stage.

But that rush to judgment brings with it a whole range of comic possibilities and that’s part of the fun behind We Ain’t Terrorists, playing tomorrow night at Second City.

Merheje came up with the show’s title three years ago to be deliberately provocative and to point out the obvious: that appearances can be deceiving. (Read more)