Muslim religious leaders are condemning people who promote hatred under the banner of Islam during the holy month of Ramadan.
“Ramadan is a time of discipline, self restraint and improvement,” Imam Mohammad Tawhidi told reporters at a press conference in Ottawa on Feb. 27, shortly before Ramadan began. “We fast, not just from food and drink, but from arrogance, hatred and division.”
Tawhidi is a governing member of the Global Imams Council, an organization of imams and Muslim scholars from the Sunni and Shiite branches of Islam. In December, the council opened its western headquarters in Toronto. It chose Toronto because of Canada’s good reputation among Muslims, the council said at a press conference at the time.
The council has repeatedly spoken against people who use Islam to promote hatred and terrorism.
Tawhidi said these concerns are even more relevant during Ramadan, which began Feb. 28 and ends March 30.
Ramadan is considered one of the holiest months in Islam because it commemorates when the Prophet Mohammad received the Qur’an from God. During the month, Muslims fast from food, drink and sex between dawn and dusk. Giving to the poor and acts of charity are also emphasized.
But some people use this holy month to promote hate, Tawhidi said.
He specifically singled out marches and rallies held on Al-Quds Day, which is on the final Friday of Ramadan. The day, which was first recognized by the Iranian government in 1979, recognizes Palestinians and opposes Israel’s control of Jerusalem. Pro-Palestinian marches are often held on this day.
Many of these protests are organized by groups that the Canadian government has designated as terrorist entities, Tawhidi says.
“Let me be unequivocal, the Al-Quds march is not a religious event,” said Tawhidi. “It is a political demonstration that glorifies terrorism.”
A 2023 Al-Quds march in Toronto featured a speaker from the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, which the Canadian government lists as a terrorist organization.
The imams’ council is not the only group to condemn the march. B’nai Brith Canada, a Jewish human rights organization, wants cities across Canada to ban events associated with the day. The day is “inherently antisemitic” and “an affront to Canadian morals and values,” Richard Robertson, director of research and advocacy at B’nai Brith said in an April 2024 press release.
“This march has no place in Canada,” said Tawhidi, who called on the Canadian government to ban the march.
Governments across Canada have taken some positive steps recently to reject Islamic groups that promote terrorism and hate, Tawhidi said.
He pointed to the city of Burlington, Ont., which recently banned a conference that had planned to feature a prominent Muslim British preacher who promotes antisemitism.
He was also happy to see the radical Muslim group Hizb ut Tahrir cancel a recent conference in Ontario.
The government is currently reviewing whether it will designate that group as a terrorist organization. The Ministry of Public Safety did not answer questions from Canadian Affairs about whether that review is completed. Instead, it provided an emailed statement describing the process the government uses to review organizations before listing them as terrorist groups.
“The Government of Canada is committed to protecting the safety and security of people in Canada,” the ministry’s statement says.
Religion and politics
Tawhidi repeatedly stressed the need to keep religion separate from politics.
“The law which governs Muslims in Canada is the law of the land captured in the laws of this great nation,” he told reporters. “Religion remains a personal matter, a spiritual relationship between an individual and God, and must never be used as a tool to impose beliefs on society.”
Religion is best practised in houses of worship, like mosques, community centres or at home with one’s family, he said.
There is a big difference between Islam, the religion, and Islamism, says Tawhidi. Islamism “seeks to use Islam as a tool in government institutions to further a particular organization’s agenda,” he said.
Radical groups like the Muslim Brotherhood and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps have made themselves spokespeople for Islam, even though they promote hate and terrorism, not the religion, Tawhidi said.
“No community is a monolith, but a loud and vocal minority has been falsely putting themselves forward as if they [speak for all Muslims],” said Kevin Vuong, independent member of Parliament for the Toronto riding of Spadina-Fort York.
“They’re spreading hate under the deceitful guise of religion,” said Vuong, who organized the Global Imams Council press conference.
Tawhidi criticized the way some people use religion to shut down questions or criticisms. “I believe everything can be criticized, including our religion,” he said.
Ever since Hamas attacked Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, many people fear they will be called Islamophobic if they do not support all the views expressed by some pro-Palestinian organizations, Tawhidi said.
“‘Phobia’ is an irrational fear,” he said. “It is very rational to fear ISIS; it is very rational to fear Hamas. It is very rational to fear all terrorists.”
Those organizations should be challenged and questioned, he said. Many members of the Global Imams Council fled countries that were being ruled by severe, Islamist dictatorships and terrorists, he said.
“We cannot be considered Islamophobes for rejecting the hatred that threatens us and our communities,” he said.
What the imams reject is hating someone simply because they are a Muslim, he said.
Yet Tawhidi rejected the idea that Muslims in Canada overwhelmingly suffer from inequality and discrimination.
“The whole idea of complaining about inequality has been taken a bit too far,” he said. “I think Muslims are doing really well in Canada. I think Canada has given our communities what the majority of Muslim countries has not, be it education, health care, human rights, freedom of expression.”
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