PM Stirs Debate By Cozying Up to Moderate Muslims

But some Muslim-Canadians are upset the prime minister has started a debate over which version of Islam is the best for Canada.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper gave an enthusiastic—and controversial—endorsement of peaceful, moderate Islam at the weekend opening in Calgary of Canada's largest mosque.

But while some Muslims-Canadians have applauded Mr. Harper's boosting of the moderate but theologically isolated Ahmadiyya Muslims, others fear the government is wading into a messy debate over which version of Islam is the best.

At the inaugural opening of the Baitun Nur mosque in Calgary, Mr. Harper praised the global Ahmadiyya Muslim community for its moderate, tolerant and peaceful disposition.

"Calgarians, Albertans and Canadians will see the moderate, benevolent face of Islam in this mosque and the people who worship here," Mr. Harper said. "You understand at a profound level that promoting religious freedom is an essential building block for peace and stability here and throughout the world."

The prime minister also praised the Ahmadiyyas for their peaceful interpretation of jihad.

"However we define God, it is wrong to kill in his name," Mr. Harper said.

Tens of millions of Ahmadi Muslims live in 190 countries around the world. Their faith broke from mainstream Islam in 1889, due to the teachings of a Punjabi prophet named Mirza Ghulam Ahmad.

For their belief in this prophet, among other things, Ahmadi Muslims are not considered Muslim by many other sects of Islam and have faced persecution as heretics.

Earlier this week, Islamic Supreme Council of Canada founder Imam Sayed Soharwardy told the Canadian Press he does not consider the Ahmadis to be Muslim.

But Mr. Harper said that this history of oppression has instilled in the Ahmadi Muslims profound tolerance.

"This community knows first-hand what it is to experience persecution and discrimination based on your religious beliefs," he said. "So you understand at a profound level that promoting religious freedom is an essential building block for peace and stability here and throughout the world."

The 48,000-square-foot mosque was inaugurated by the head of the worldwide Ahmadiyya Muslim community, Hadhrat Mirza Masroor Ahmad, who met with Mr. Harper at a private audience.

The event was also attended by a slew of Canadian government officials. Among them were Opposition Leader Stéphane Dion, the mayor of Calgary, the deputy premier of Alberta, 20 members of the Alberta legislature, leaders of other faiths, and a half dozen federal MPs, including Conservatives Deepak Obhrai and Rahim Jaffer.

On conditions of anonymity, one Conservative insider told Embassy that the prime minister intended to make a point to the broader Muslim community with his appearance and speech at the mosque.

"It's an important signal the prime minister is sending, not just to militant Islamists abroad, but to their sympathizers here at home, that he's perfectly prepared to ignore them and side with persecuted minorities within the faith," he said.

The Ahmadis were chosen, he said, because "as a Muslim community, they've taken a strong stance against a violent interpretation of jihad, so in many ways they are a model for Muslims across country and around the world."

The insider added, however, that the government has "no desire to tell [Muslims] what form of Islam they should practice" and that it is not "trying to create a category of good Muslims and bad Muslims."

He described these overtures as similar to the government's courting of Ismaili Muslims and their leader, the Aga Khan.


Ahmadi Applause

Farhan Khokhar, director of communications for the Ahmadiyya Muslim community in Canada, welcomed the prime minister's praise.

Mr. Khokhar said in an interview on Monday that loyalty to the host state, wherever it may be, is an essential tenet of the Ahmadiyya doctrine.

"One of the key messages conveyed to the community across Canada is loyalty to the country. We take it very seriously...because the teaching of the holy prophet Mohammed is that loyalty to your homeland is part of faith, and your faith is not complete unless you truly are loyal to the country you live in," he said. "A Muslim cannot be a hypocrite: You can't take benefits from this country and not be loyal subjects of it."

Mr. Khokhar stressed that Ahmadi Muslims have a sterling record of peaceful co-existence and loyalty.

"There's not a single instance in our teaching or practice where we have been disloyal to the country or not been peaceful or not co-existed in the community we live in," he said. "That's a matter of track record."

He added that his community is financially independent and self-directed.

"We don't take monies from foreign governments or petro dollars, and that keeps our message," he said. "Whoever pays the pipers calls the tunes, and we are not obligated to anybody outside Canada to toe their line."

Notably, the full $15 million cost of the new Baitun Nur mosque was paid in full by Ahmadiyya community members even before it opened.

Mr. Khokar added that the Ahmadiyya community has a longstanding "peaceful interpretation of jihad," and said that it "is essential that in this present day political and socio-economic situation, that any country clearly identifies any organization, particularly Muslim organizations, that are peaceful and loyal to the country."


'Divisive' Comments

While the Ahmadis are pleased at the prime minister's fulsome endorsement, Muslim-Canadians appear split on whether such messaging is appropriate.

Mohamed Boudjenane, executive director of the National Arab Association, said he thought Mr. Harper's comments were divisive and unbecoming of a prime minister.

"As a prime minister I can remind people of the danger of extremism in religion or ideology, but you don't try to describe one Islam as better than another," he said. "It's just backward. It's not intelligent in my view.

"You expect the leader of this country to bring a more unifying, balanced and rallying tone to [his] comments, rather than starting to make differences [like] 'Oh, this Islam is better than the other one.' Who are you to say that?"

Mohamed Elmasry, president of the Canadian Islamic Congress said, "It is inappropriate for the prime minister to politicize a celebration in a mosque," and that this "was not the time and place to talk politics."

Mr. Elmasry said the prime minister's message was "confusing" and that it associated moderation "with one sect in Islam."

He added that the prime minister needs a better understanding of Muslim issues, "instead of relying on overnight experts supplying him with one or two pages [of information]."

But Tarek Fatah, a secular Muslim-Canadian activist and writer, welcomed Mr. Harper's comments.

He said he thought Mr. Harper was trying to "to send a message to the ultra-orthodox extremist groups that there is room for Muslims in this country, but only if religion is kept as a private affair."

He added that he thought Mr. Harper extended a hand to the Ahmadis because they, like the Ismaili community are, "very successful, very averse to extremism...and they don't mix their politics with religion."