Monday, October 31, 2011

Canadian Media Still Missing the Real Story About Edmonton Imam's Arrest During Hajj?

The Edmonton Sun either ignores or is ignorant of the imam's Shia affiliations and anti-Saudi activism:
Mohamed Hayward told reporters the situation escalated as they made their way across the courtyard of the nearby mosque.
A member of the religious force began calling Al-Atar a thief in Arabic, he said, and that led to Al-Atar being swarmed by a group of people.
“He virtually choked, we could see him go black and blue,” Hayward said. “We’re absolutely still in shock.”
A member of the religious force, huh? Sounds to me like he knew exactly who the imam was, and yelled thief so's he had an excuse to arrest him. Of course, you'd never suspect that from the Sun's account, which doesn't explicitly mention that the imam is a Shia (but which you could extrapolate from the fact that he's "originally from the Iraqi city of Karbala"), and which highlights his secular scientific endeavours:
Al-Atar is a well-known cleric with several publications in the fields of Diabetes and Cancer research.
Now, why would anyone want to arrest him, a man of science? Anyone? Bueller? Bueller?
Officials at Edmonton’s Islamic Centre University, and Downtown Islamic Centre both declined to comment or offer reaction on the alleged injustice.
Gee, I wonder why.

1 comment:

gama said...

Al-Atar , a multi-faith activist according to his brethren , ahhhhhhhhh yesssssssssss , interesting that when Islam rules the roost , multi-faith, freedom of conscience and inclusiveness has no currency at all.
Al-Atar taking his multi-culti-faith activism { does not resonate in Islamic states } to the bowels of Saudi Arabia during hajj where it's all Islam all the time , has offended the keepers of Islam's holy shrines !
Al-Atar's brethren need to turn a jaundiced eye to the ' righteously ' guided, sharia inspired committee for the promotion of virtue { cover the women } and the prevention of vice { cover the women } rather than lecture us on that most benevolent and most merciful myth. That sharia compliant intolerance is a flavour of Islam whether they like it or not ~!?!