doors-open-for--muslim-brotherhood

By Tarek Fatah ,Toronto Sun

First posted: Sunday, June 01, 2014 09:47 PM EDT | Updated: Sunday, June 01, 2014 09:54 PM EDT

Author John Goddard is a history buff of sorts. His latest book, Inside The Museums: Toronto’s Heritage Sites and Their Most Prized Objects, is an in-depth tour of our history ranging from the battle at Fort York to the Upper Canada Rebellion.

In his quest to discover Toronto’s past recently, Goddard participated in the annual “Doors Open Toronto” city-wide festival.

The tour offers what the City of Toronto calls “free, rare access to more than 155 architecturally, historically, culturally and socially significant buildings across Toronto.”

Goddard discovered this year’s festival included many mosques, at least one of which had a unique and pleasing architecture, with a tall minaret.

But on arrival at the Islamic Foundation mosque in Scarborough, Goddard found the organizers using the event not so much to showcase the architecture of the institution, as to offer free literature proselytizing about Islam, prohibited by the policies of Doors Open.

One book called on Muslims to wage armed jihad.

Towards Understanding Islam was written by the late radical Islamist, Sayyid Mawdudi, who in 1941 founded the Muslim Brotherhood affiliate in the Indian subcontinent known as the Jamaat-e-Islami.
In the book, Mawdudi exhorts Muslims to launch jihad against Islam’s oppressors, meaning armed struggle against non-Muslims.

The book states: “… this word (jihad) is used particularly for a war that is waged solely in the name of Allah … This supreme sacrifice of life devolves on all Muslims.”

Mawdudi labels Muslims who refuse the call to engage in armed jihad apostates:

“Jihad is as much a primary duty of the Muslims concerned as are daily prayers or fasting. One who shirks it is a sinner. His very claim to being a Muslim is doubtful.”

I asked Julian Sleath, programming manager of Doors Open Toronto, why such literature was allowed to be distributed.

Responding to my e-mail, Sleath, acknowledged the book on jihad was distributed, but added: “In our Doors Open letter of agreement there is the clause: “Proselytizing of a political or religious nature is not permitted during The Event."

Another mosque known as “Masjid Toronto” had young hijabi women serving sweets and tea during the Doors Open event with tables offering free Islamic literature and DVDs.

There were titles like Islam – Faith and History where the narrator claims Islam came at “a time when the true teachings of Jesus and Moses had been all but forgotten.”

This mosque is run by the Muslim Association of Canada (MAC).

MAC’s website until recently said it “strives to implement Islam, as … understood in its contemporary context by the late Imam, Hassan al-Banna, the founder of the Muslim Brotherhood.”
It has now been changed to express admiration for “the writings of the late Imam Hassan al-Banna and the movement ... commonly known as the Muslim Brotherhood.”

The Brotherhood has been identified by Tom Quiggin, a former Privy Council intelligence analyst, as having established a “significant presence” in Canada, where, he argues, it seeks to undermine freedom politically and replace open societies with the ideas of Hassan al-Banna.

Quiggin lists MAC as one of the “examples of Muslim Brotherhood adherent organizations in North America.”

MAC says it is a wholly Canadian organization, although much of its philosophy comes from “the heritage of the Muslim Brotherhood.”

So, was “Doors Open Toronto” used as an open door for the Brotherhood to help establish what Quiggan calls a “significant presence” in Canada?