I am a great admirer of Tarek Fatah the Canadian Islamic reformer. If positive change is to come to Islam and if it is to become a religion fit for the modern world, then that change will come from individuals like Mr Fatah and their supporters. Unfortunately, reformers like Mr Fatah face constant threats of violence from other more orthodox Muslims and currents in Islam.
One of the latest threats made against Mr Fatah has come from the leader of a putative Islamic political party based in Ontario. In a communication in October 2018 the leader of this party, Jawed Anwar, accused Mr Fatah of being an ‘Islamophobe’ and an ‘enemy of Islam’. Writing in the Toronto Sun (h/t ROP), Mr Fatah outlined just how serious and subtle such a threat really is. Although these sort of threats could be safely ignored by members of more sensible religions if they were uttered by the clerics of such religions, when these statements are uttered in Islam and a Muslim is fingered as an apostate, it can have awful real world consequences as some Muslims will believe that they can get a fast track to paradise by murdering an apostate.
Mr Fatah spoke about how 2019 began for him as 2018 had done, which was with a death threat, He then went on to detail the threat made by Anwar and the sort of Islamist politics promoted by the Islamic Party of Ontario. Mr Fatah said of this party:
It operates with a mandate to introduce Islamic rule in Ontario and Canada because, according to the fledgling party, “We understand and believe that Islam is the native DEEN (religion) of Ontario and Canada.”
The Islamic Party of Ontario is headed by one Jawed Anwar, who operates out of the Toronto neighborhood of Thorncliffe Park.
In a column posted at the end of October targeting American activist Laura Loomer, Anwar described me as “… Islamophobe Tareek (sic) Fatah in Toronto Sun. Tareek is an open enemy of Islam and a hate-purveyor.”
Non-Muslim readers, even police and politicians, would not know the significance of the allegation, but every Muslim on earth is aware of the implications of accusing a Muslim of being an ‘Islamophobe’ or being “open enemy of Islam.”
An allegation such as the one labelled against me is the equivalent of declaring me an ‘apostate,’ which makes it a duty of other Muslims to kill me and thus secure a place in Paradise for themselves.
For those who are living in 2019 and the 21st century, this may sound like a joke. But those who are still living as if it is 1019 in the 11th century, the beheading of an alleged Muslim apostate is part of their heritage and faith.
This is a terrible position for an Islamic reformer to be in but I’m afraid that it is the position that many other Islamic reformers also face. There is a strong current of violent orthodoxy in Islam that is not present to anything like the same degree in other faiths. There is no free choice in Islam to either leave it or to attempt to reform it and all those who wish to reform Islam from the inside will face similar or worse threats to that which Mr Fatah faces. Reformers like Mr Fatah and those of similar views are the last best hope of an Islam that the civilised world can live peacefully alongside. I believe from my own contact with individual Muslims over the years that there is an appetite for reform of the worst aspects of Islam among Muslims, but these Muslims fear to speak too openly because of the sort of violent reaction that Mr Fatah and others regularly get for doing so. I have come to the conclusion that if Islam is to be reformed then the reformers should be backed by people from across the political spectrum.
At present these reformers are hung out to dry by politicians who are so greedy for Islamic votes at election time that they toss people like Mr Fatah by the wayside. This policy is extremely short sighted because if you pander to Islamic extremists then what you will get is more Islamic extremism but with enhanced political power. If that happens then not only will Islamic reformers like Mr Fatah lose, but we all will. We must protect the Islamic reformers and the apostates that live among us as they represent the sort of future Islam that may not be as much of a threat to us as the current version. The more that politicians see extremist or very conservative Islam as authentic Islam the more that the reformers and the questioners become sidelined and it is in nobody’s interest to see that happen.
