Author: Art Moore
Publication: WorldNetDaily.com
Date: October 31, 2002
URL: http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=29483
Canadian to resume hate-crimes sentence
under Muslim direction
An Ontario man convicted of promoting
hatred against Muslims says his community-service sentence has included
indoctrination into Islam.
After losing an appeal to Canada's
Supreme Court on Oct. 17, Mark Harding must resume his sentence of two
years probation and 340 hours of community service under the direction
of Mohammad Ashraf, general secretary of the Islamic Society of North America
in Mississauga, Ont.
Harding, 47, said he had one session
under Ashraf in 1998 before an appeal process stayed the sentence.
Ashraf, according to Harding, said
that instead of licking stamps and stuffing envelopes, "it would be better
if you learned about Islam."
The cleric made it clear, Harding
recalled in an interview with WorldNetDaily, that during the sessions nothing
negative could be said about Islam or its prophet, Muhammad.
"He said he was my supervisor, and
if I didn't follow what he said, he would send me back to jail," recounted
Harding, who had been prevented from speaking publicly about his case under
a gag order.
Harding was convicted in 1998 on
federal hate- crimes charges stemming from a June 1997 incident in which
he distributed pamphlets outside a public high school, Weston Collegiate
Institute in Toronto. Harding - who said that until that point he spent
most of his time evangelizing Muslims - was protesting the school's policy
of setting aside a room for Muslim students to pray during school hours.
In one of his pamphlets, Harding
listed atrocities committed by Muslims in foreign lands to back his assertion
that Canadians should be wary of local Muslims.
The pamphlet said: "The Muslims
who commit these crimes are no different than the Muslim believers living
here in Toronto. Their beliefs are based on the Quran. They sound peaceful,
but underneath their false sheep's clothing are raging wolves seeking whom
they may devour. And Toronto is definitely on their hit list."
"The point I was trying to make
is you shouldn't have a violent religion like Islam allowed in a school
when Christianity or Hinduism or Buddhism is not allowed," he told WND.
Harding, an evangelical Protestant,
insists he has love rather than hatred toward Muslims and wants to see
them go to heaven.
A lawyer for Harding, Jasmine Akbaralli,
says she is trying to obtain permission for her client to serve out his
sentence in an Islamic community closer to his current home in Chesley,
Ont., north of Toronto and about a three-hour drive from the Islamic Society
of North America.
The plea is based on humanitarian
grounds, she said, due to her client's poor health.
Harding said he has suffered four
heart attacks since 1997, and he and his wife and two children are penniless
because his health has prevented him from maintaining his trade as a cabinetmaker.
Akbaralli said she would not comment
on Harding's previous experience with Ashraf, noting that she was not representing
him at the time. Calls to Ashraf and others at the Islamic Society of North
America on Tuesday and Wednesday were not returned.
Understanding Islam
During his 1998 session with Ashraf,
Harding was told to read a book called Towards Understanding Islam, by
Sayyid Abul A'la Maududi.
On page 12 of the book, Harding
noted, it gives a description of a "kafir," or infidel, a person who does
not follow Islam.
"Such a man ... will spread confusion
and disorder on the earth," the book says. "He will without the least compunction,
shed blood, violate other men's rights, be cruel to them, and create disorder
and destruction in the world. His perverted thoughts and ambitions, his
blurred vision and disturbed scale of values, and his evil-spelling activities
would make life bitter for him and for all around him."
"It was obvious that he intended
to make sure I understood that I was a kafir," Harding said of Ashraf.
Harding's 1998 conviction on three
counts of willfully promoting hatred was commended by Canadian Muslims.
"The verdict sends a message to
Christians, Muslims and Jews that personal views of that nature can't be
allowed in a public forum," said Shahina Siddiqui, coordinator of community
relations and social services for the Manitoba Islamic Association, in
a report by the Canadian evangelical publication Christian Week. "There's
a fine line between freedom of expression and hatred. Harding crossed that
line."
Mohamed Elmasry, president of the
Canadian Islamic Congress, said after the verdict that "spreading hate
is against Canadian values and against Canadian law, and it doesn't matter
the group that is victimized."
The verdict was not a suppression
of free speech, Elmasry insisted, according to Alberta Report magazine,
arguing that he would not consider scholarly books in the library that
criticize Islam to be hate literature. Harding "is just trying to stereotype
and put out hate literature, and he was found guilty by the courts," he
said.
Harding asserted at the time that
he meant to criticize only Islamic terrorists, not all Muslims. But he
added that faithful Muslims will always engage in jihad, or holy war, against
non- Muslims because it is required by Islamic teachings.
Many Muslim scholars in North America
argue that jihad essentially means "struggle" and is not necessarily violent.
But Harding said that after his
case became public, he no longer felt safe, due to threats from Muslims.
When he entered court for the first time for his trial, he required police
protection as a large crowd of Muslims gathered, with some chanting, "Infidels,
you will burn in hell."
Harding said he received many death
threats among more than 3,000 hate-filled calls that came to his answering
service in 1997. Similar calls were received by police and the Ontario
attorney general, he said.
"I had a call from someone who said
they were from (Louis) Farrakhan's (Nation of Islam) group, and they were
going to break my legs," he said. "Another caller said he would rip out
my testicles."
The Islamic Society of North America
in Canada, where Harding is required to fulfill his community service,
describes itself as a "broad- based unity of Muslims and Islamic organizations
committed to the mission and movement of Islam: nurturing a way of life
in the light of the guidance from the Quran and Sunnah for establishing
a vibrant presence of Muslims in Canada."
The organization shares facilities
with the Canadian Council on Islamic Relations, an affiliate of the controversial
Council on Islamic- American Relations, or CAIR, in Washington, D.C.
CAIR spokesman Ibrahim Hooper indicated
in a 1993 interview with the Minneapolis Star Tribune that he wants to
see the United States become a Muslim country.
"I wouldn't want to create the impression
that I wouldn't like the government of the United States to be Islamic
sometime in the future," Hooper told the Star Tribune. "But I'm not going
to do anything violent to promote that. I'm going to do it through education."
Hate crimes
Judge Sidney B. Linden's 1998 ruling
against Harding was based on Canada's genocide and hate-crimes law. The
judge determined he was guilty of "false allegations about the adherents
of Islam calculated to arouse fear and hatred of them in all non-Muslim
people."
The law bars a public statement
that "willfully promotes hatred" against groups "distinguished by color,
race, religion or ethnic origin." The code has an article that excuses
statements expressed in "good faith," including religious expression. But
the trial judge found that Harding had either "tried to incite hatred or
was willfully blind to it," according to lawyer Akbaralli.
Canadian Christian groups are fighting
a bill reinstated this month by a homosexual parliament member that would
add "sexual orientation" as a protected category in the hate- crimes statutes.
Known previously as bill C-415, it is now registered as C-250.
Evangelicals have supported Harding
in principle, though many have signaled their opposition to his aggressive
tactics or have expressed reservations.
Harding said he's received support
from Christians who immigrated to Canada from Muslim countries, where minority
religions experience discrimination and persecution.
"I have a lot of Pakistani and Egyptian
friends helping me through this because they understand what Islam is all
about," he said. "When they heard about me in the news, they called to
offer their support."
