...born with the gift of laughter and a sense that the world was mad

Another  CIC “moderate”: I was curious about the other “Religious Counsel” listed along with Hamid Slimi on the CIC site. Turns out he’s an Ottawa imam who had an, ahem, interesting perspective back when the U.S. was getting set to invade Iraq. From WND (I’ve put the tastier bits in bolds):

North American Muslim leader says he supports Saddam Hussein's call for jihad and believes Middle East Muslims should take up arms to expel U.S. troops from Iraq.

"If I were there, I would fight with them," said Gamal Solaiman, imam of the mosque in Canada's capital, Ottawa.

"I would fight the Americans with my nails and teeth," he declared Sunday in an interview with the CanWest News Service.

Middle East scholar Daniel Pipes told WorldNetDaily he does not recall hearing such explicit support for holy war against the U.S. from any other North American cleric.

"This statement is an overt manifestation of something that typically stays overt, and as such it is useful as a sign of the beliefs in at least some mosques," said Pipes, director of the Philadelphia-based Middle East Forum.

Solaiman's interview came after an appearance on the Canadian current affairs television show "Ottawa Inside Out."

On that program, he expressed support for the call for a jihad against the United States issued by Iraqi President Saddam Hussein and many Middle Eastern religious leaders.

"I do [support the jihad]," Solaiman told the television panel. "Because to my mind [the U.S.-led action] is not a war for justice. It is not a war for principle."

On April 1, Iraq's information minister read a statement purportedly from Saddam Hussein that declared: "The aggression that the aggressors are carrying out against the stronghold of faith is an aggression on the religion, the wealth, the honor and the soul and an aggression on the land of Islam."

"Therefore, jihad is a duty in confronting them," said the statement, read by Mohammed Saeed al-Sahhaf in a national television broadcast.

Al-Sahhaf added: "Those who are martyred will be rewarded in heaven. Seize the opportunity, my brothers."

Not on American soil

Solaiman clarified that he does not advocate terrorist attacks against Americans on U.S. soil.

"Not every American is against Arabs," he said. "So it is not open to go and kill Americans. No. The Americans who are coming to kill you, yes, you can face them to defend your country."

He added, "When any Arab goes to America and makes mischief, that is totally objectionable."

Solaiman said Middle East Muslims should fight alongside Saddam because, he believes, Iraq is only the first step in an American plan to overthrow Arab countries…

Yummy.

Posted by: scaramouche at 20:38 | link | comments (1)

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