Tarek Fatah
Tarek Fatah is a Pakistani-Canadian journalist and author. A founder of the Muslim Canadian Congress and served as its communications officer and spokesperson, Fatah advocates LGBT rights, a separation of religion and state, opposition to sharia law, and advocacy for a "liberal, progressive form" of Islam. Some of his activism and statements have been met with criticism from right-wing Muslim groups and the Indian liberal left. He calls himself an Indian born in Pakistan, a Punjabi born in Islam and is a vocal critic of Pakistan. To this end, Fatah has criticized the partition of India.
Life
Fatah was born in Karachi, Pakistan into a Punjabi family which had migrated from Bombay to Karachi following the Partition of India in 1947. Fatah graduated with a degree in biochemistry from the University of Karachi but entered into journalism as a reporter for the Karachi Sun in 1970, before becoming an investigative journalist for Pakistan Television. He was a leftist student leader in the 1960s and 1970s and was imprisoned twice by military regimes. In 1977, he was charged with sedition and barred from journalism by the Zia-ul Haq regime.He left Pakistan and settled in Saudi Arabia, before emigrating to Canada in 1987.
Of himself, Fatah asserts:
Political activity
Tarek was a long-time member of the Ontario New Democratic Party and had unsuccessfully ran for the 1995 provincial elections from Scarborough North. He subsequently worked for Rae's successor as Ontario NDP leader, Howard Hampton.In July 2006, he left the NDP to support Bob Rae's candidacy for the Liberal Party of Canada's leadership. In an opinion piece published in Toronto's Now Magazine, Fatah wrote that he decided to leave the NDP because of the establishment of a "faith caucus" which he believes will open the way for religious fundamentalists to enter the party. However, after Rae's defeat by Stéphane Dion, Fatah condemned similar racial and religious organizing activity in the Liberal Party, arguing in a Globe and Mail editorial that Tamil, Sikh, Kurdish and Islamist Muslim leaders had engaged in "blatant efforts to wield political muscle," "bargaining the price of their cadre of delegates" and creating a "political process that feeds on racial and religious exploitation." "I respect the diversity of Canada," he wrote, "but I want to celebrate what unites us, not what divides us into tiny tribes that can be manipulated by leaders who sell us to the highest bidder."
At a press conference on 2 October 2008, Fatah sharply criticized the New Democratic Party. Fatah stated that he was a lifetime social democrat who had supported the NDP for 17 years but that he could no longer be affiliated with that party. He claimed that the NDP began opening its doors to Islamists under Alexa McDonough and that, under Jack Layton, he had seen them "flood" into the party. Fatah stated that Islamists in the NDP have pursued a campaign to instill a sense of victimhood in Muslim youth.
In early 2011, Fatah said that he received a threat via Twitter. Fatah contacted Toronto Police Service and later met with two police officers from 51 Division. Fatah said that police intelligence officers, one a Muslim officer who had shut down a previous investigation into a death threat, shut down the investigation and claimed there was no threat. Fatah criticized the Toronto Police over the incident.
In a 2015 Toronto Sun article, Fatah wrote that he would be voting for Conservative leader Stephen Harper in the 2015 federal elections, while calling himself a social democrat. Fatah has also favoured both Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders for the United States presidential race in 2016. He said that many Muslim groups, and he himself, have recommended curbs on immigration from countries that harbour Islamist sympathisers, similar to policies promised by Trump.
Media activity
From 1996 until 2006 he hosted Muslim Chronicle, a weekly Toronto-based current affairs discussion show on CTS and VisionTV, which focused on the Muslim community.In February, 2011, Fatah was scheduled to have a debate with Sheharyar Shaikh of the North American Muslim Foundation, after Shaikh issued an open challenge to Fatah to debate him. Fatah cancelled at the last minute and failed to show up. Shaikh, who had defended polygamy and opposed secular educations for Muslims, was a critic of Fatah's views. Fatah stated that he had cancelled his appearance because the moderator was changed shortly before the event was to begin, and because the audience was "hostile". Fatah also claimed that he was warned by police of threats to his safety. Fatah and Shaikh later appeared together in an interview for Sun News debating the role of Islam in ISIS.
Views
Fatah has been a critic of Pakistan. He has questioned the legitimacy of the state and has advocated support for Baloch separatists. He believes that after Balochistan wins independence, the remainder of Pakistan will reunify with India. In February 2013, after the website of the Toronto Sun was blocked in Pakistan; Fateh claimed credit. He rejects anti-semitism as incompatible with Islam and has supported Israel's "right to exist" and Zionist projects; he has however called for an end to the illegal and "immoral" Israeli occupation of Palestine and anti-Arabism.Fatah has criticized the partition of India, calling the division of the country "tragic" and lamenting that his homeland of Punjab was "was sliced in two by the departing British to create the new state of Pakistan." He states that the British partitioned India so that they might be able to combat Soviet influence through the establishment of British military installations in what was then northwestern colonial India.
Fatah is a critic of Sharia law. In a discussion hosted by The Globe and Mail in 2007, Fatah claimed that "most of the Islamic radicalism that you see today stems from the empowering of Saudi based Jihad groups that were funded and backed by the U.S. and the CIA throughout the Afghan war against the Soviet Union."
In response to the Quebec City mosque shooting, Fatah endorsed the discredited conspiracy theory that Muslims had participated as perpetrators in the 2017 Quebec City mosque shooting that killed six people.
According to the National Post he has also said "Islam is riddled with termites... and if we don’t cleanse ourselves with truth, the stench of our lies will drive us mad", and that there are "hateful sermons in almost every mosque" in CanadaFatah himself does not attend a mosque and encourages Muslim parents to keep their children out of mosques because they have become, in his view, schools for fanaticism.
In November 2011, 60 Muslim groups and two dozen imams endorsed a statement that called for action against domestic violence, condemned honour killing as a notion that had "absolutely nothing to do with Islam". Fatah refused to endorse the statement, according to the National Post, arguing that the statement didn't address gender inequality and that honour killing has roots in Islam. According to Fatah, Islam deems the relationship of an unmarried woman as "adultery" and imams must distance themselves from punishing such actions by death.
In April 2008, the Ontario Human Rights Commission dismissed a complaint about allegedly Islamophobic articles in Maclean's magazine. However, the commission criticized the newsweekly for publishing articles that were "inconsistent with the spirit" of the Ontario Human Rights Code, and doing "serious harm" to Canadian society by "promoting societal intolerance" and disseminating "destructive, xenophobic opinions." Fatah said that for the Commission "to refer to Maclean's magazine and journalists as contributing to racism is bullshit, if you can use that word" and that the Commission has unfairly taken sides against freedom of speech in a dispute within the Canadian Muslim community between moderates and fundamentalists.
Reception
, a critic of Islam, has praised Fatah for being "brave" enough to admit the "faults and failings" of Islam. Wael Haddara, president of the Muslim Association of Canada, said that he "respect" Fatah for his passion but that it was "hard, if not downright impossible, to find something positive that he has ever said about Muslims." As a result, Haddara argues, Muslims are no longer listening to Fatah. Syed Soharwardy, president of the Islamic Supreme Council of Canada, noted Fatah's views to be valuable but rejected his stereotyping of Islam by extrapolating from the behavior of a few extremists. In February 2007, Fatah was included by Maclean's magazine on a list of 50 Canadians described as "Canada’s most well known and respected personalities.". In December 2008, the Toronto Star suggested that Prime Minister Stephen Harper appoint Fatah to one of the vacant seats in the Canadian Senate. Toronto Star senior editor Bob Hepburn wrote that Fatah is "A prominent spokesperson for secular and progressive Muslim issues who would bring a much-needed unique perspective to the Senate."‘Fatah ka Fatwa’ was well-received by the masses; radical Islamist organisations have protested against the show and urged for his assassination.
Tarek Fatah has been criticised for spreading fake news on multiple occasions. Amid the Delhi Assembly Election in 2020, he tweeted an old communally-charged video, and claimed it to be from Delhi. In Jan 2020, he tweeted another video of Burqa-clad persons dancing to a Bollywood number, hinting that the video is from Shaheen Bagh CAA-NRC protest, whereas, it was found that Fatah had tweeted the same video twice in the past, each time spreading a different lie against Muslims. Because of his continued pattern of spreading fake news on Twitter, especially in sectarian lines, some critics have argued that he is an external agent who wants to create communal disturbances in India. Writing about his targeting of Indian Muslims, AltNews.in accused him of "blurring the lines between rational scepticism and contempt toward the Muslim community."
In 2016, after delivering a talk at Panjab University in India, he entered into a verbal altercation with some students. This was after he called a student from Kargil "a Pakistani Terrorist" and then called a Sikh student a "Khalistani". He also told a Hindu girl in the same event, “You are the real patriot because of your religion.” He criticised the students for standing up to show respect when the librarian came in. He told them, "Indians need to stop giving such treatment to their seniors".
Advocacy groups
Muslim Canadian Congress
Fatah was one of the founders of the Muslim Canadian Congress in 2001, after the September 11 attacks and served as its communications director and spokesperson until 2006. He spoke out against the introduction of Sharia law as an option for Muslims in civil law in Ontario, Sharia banking in Canada, which he has described as a 'con-job', promoted social liberalism in the Muslim community and the separation of religion from the state, and endorsed same-sex marriage.In July 2006, Fatah was the subject of an email campaign at Canadian media over his views. Fatah resigned as the communications director of the MCC in August 2006, citing concerns about his safety and his family member's safety.
Canadian Islamic Congress (CIC)
Mohamed Elmasry
In October 2004 CIC President Mohamed Elmasry stated that all Israelis over 18 are legitimate targets for suicide bombers. Fatah, along with other Jewish and Muslim organizations, called on Elmasry to quit.In June 2006, Elmasry said that Fatah is "well known in Canada for smearing Islam and bashing Muslims." Fatah responded that "his is a classic threat to label anyone as an apostate and then marginalize them," … "and this is what Mr. Elmasry has done by listing me as the top anti-Islam Muslim." Fatah said he saw the label from Elmasry as tantamount to a death sentence. Leonard Librande, professor of religion at Carleton University, told CTV News "There's nothing particularly Islamic in this… There are differences of opinion frequently in the community. It doesn't mean somebody is going to kill you."