Imam undercuts himself by twisting his own words
Licia Corbella, For The Calgary Herald
Published: Saturday, February 16, 2008
But here’s what his Jan. 23, 2005, news release actually said: “ISCC . . . strongly condemns the exploitation of tsunami victims by the Christian missionaries. There have been several reports that the Christian missionaries are kidnapping Muslim children in Indonesia. . . . It is now proven that the Christian missionaries do not help people on humanitarian grounds. They help people in order to exploit their needs and convert them to Christianity.”
Even though it was mostly “Christian” countries and organizations that came to the aid of these devastated people, these kinds of news releases caused many Indonesian Christians to be attacked and killed, including three Christian school girls who were beheaded by Muslim men.
Soharwardy explained: “I wanted to use that news to send a message to Muslim governments.” In other words, he knew his news release would find its way overseas. Perhaps he was hoping to join the lecture circuit there, too.
* * * *
Soharwardy is a charmer. He convinced me that I must have misread his columns. But relistening to the tape of our meeting and rereading his original texts, one thing is clear: he cannot be believed.
To us, he said he lodged his complaint with the AHRC because he felt Muslim “youth were getting alienated” not because the cartoons subjected him to hatred.
This man with two master’s degrees in engineering, who has lived in North America since 1980, now says he has just realized how important free speech is. For a fella who practises outrageous forms of it — you would hope so.
To the CBC’s The National on Wednesday, however, Soharwardy gave a different reason for dropping his complaint against Levant, who has spent two years and $100,000 in legal fees fighting this Orwellian battle: “People were looking at Ezra Levant as a martyr of freedom of his speech . . . taking this into a different direction that I did not want.”
Soharwardy wanted to be the hero and martyr in his campaign against Levant.
It backfired on him.
Now he’s the subject of a human rights complaint by women claiming sex discrimination at his mosque, Levant is planning an abuse of process lawsuit against him and he’s being scrutinized on CNN and across Canada.
Soharwardy fell into his own trap. Changing his words, as is his way, won’t likely be the salve to his reputation that he’s looking for this time.
lcorbella@theherald.canwest.com
© The Calgary Herald 2008