Muslim Lookout

A GTA Sheikh implements a 12-step “detox” program to address any signs of radical thinking among young Muslims. See what you think.

The program involves promoting peace and tolerance and challenging a narrow-minded brand of the faith that prevents activities such as listening to music and celebrating the Prophet Muhammad’s birthday. Often, it is parents who bring their children to Amiruddin. Read more.

Court judge has ruled that Canadian PM, Stephen Harper, must press the US for the return of Omar Khadr to Canada. Captured at 15 he is now 22.

Khadr’s charter challenge involved the Canadian government’s decision not to request his repatriation from Guantanamo Bay. His lawyers argued the Canadian government was complicit in the detainee’s alleged torture and mistreatment while in U.S. custody, and obliged under international law to demand his return.

The ongoing refusal of Canada to request Mr. Khadr’s repatriation to Canada offends a principle of fundamental justice and violates Mr. Khadr’s rights,” Justice James O’Reilly said in his 43-page decision. Read more.

On a related note, The Federal Court of Canada has ordered that Abousfian Abdelrazik, a Sudanese-Canadian stranded at the Canadian embassy, be allowed to return to Canada. The Canadian government has thus far refused to let him back into Canada, despite him being cleared of any criminal charges.

The Federal Court of Canada on Thursday ordered the federal government to allow the return of a Montreal man stranded in Sudan for six years as an al-Qaeda suspect, ruling his charter rights have been breached.

Abousfian Abdelrazik, 47, was arrested and detained while visiting his mother in Sudan in 2003 and for the last year has been living in the Canadian Embassy in Khartoum.

Both the RCMP and Canadian Security Intelligence Service have cleared Abdelrazik of any terrorist connections, but the Conservative government refuses to issue him travel documents to return home because his name was added to a UN Security Council list banning travel for terrorist suspects. Read more.

” Pandora theme allows female artists to play with personal and political” including a little reference to the hijab. Hey, it ain’t much but it’s something

New York artist Ghada Amer was born in Egypt. Her work French Kiss appears to be a canvas full of abstract, embroidered vertical squiggles and splashes. Look very closely, though, and a repeated image of two people kissing hides behind the “veil” of embroidery — a reference to the Muslim hijab. Read more.

Haroon Siddiqui writes of the importance of Saudi Arabia to the US and, citing Juan Cole’s new book, Engaging the Muslim World, explains the difference between Wahhabism and extremism.

Barack Obama was in Saudi Arabia yesterday, the land of oil and Wahhabism. He had a lot to say about the first (lower the price, please) but nothing about the second. For good reason.

The U.S. has come a long way from the post-9/11 hypothesis, peddled by both the right and the left, that Wahhabism equalled terrorism.

Weren’t 13 of the 19 hijackers Saudi, and also Osama bin Laden? Didn’t the Saudis impose gender apartheid and proscribe churches, temples, synagogues? Weren’t they narrow-minded and intolerant?

Yes. But that didn’t prove that Wahhabism promoted anti-Americanism, let alone terrorism, says Juan Cole in his just-released Engaging the Muslim World. Read more.