CALGARY JEWISH COMMUNITY COUNCIL DISASSOCIATES ITSELF FROM JEWISH FREE PRESS AFTER CARTOON PUBLICATION
-- CIC APPEALS TO THE WESTERN STANDARD NOT TO REPRINT THEM
Following a televised news report on Saturday that Western Standard (Calgary, AB) publisher Ezra Levant plans early next week to reprint cartoons from a Danish newspaper mocking the Prophet Muhammad, the Canadian Islamic Congress has issued a strong appeal urging Levant not to do so. Last week Levant published an op-ed in the National Post (Feb 10) calling the cartoon "innocuous" and criticizing the federal government for issuing a statement he considered too sympathetic to Canadian Muslims.
The CIC is also asking another Calgary-based publication, the Jewish Free Press, to apologize in its pages for having run the offensive cartoons last Thursday (Feb. 9). "Otherwise Canadian Jewish-Muslim relations could be seriously damaged," CIC warned.
"This is a devastating setback to Canada's credibility as a moderate, reconciling voice amid the global tragedy these cartoons have already caused," the CIC statement said. "How can people of faith and conscience even consider reprinting such hate literature, after what has unfolded during the past several weeks?"
From the beginning of the cartoon controversy, CIC has also appealed to Muslims in Canada and world wide not to allow the hurt caused by the Danish newspaper to be used to harm Muslim relationships with people of other faiths.
"To allow self-serving opportunists anywhere in the world to negatively influence our response to these cartoons is to give away our powers of reason and understanding; it is nothing short of admitting defeat," the CICstatement continued. "Instead, let us focus on issues of professional ethics and address those in the media who make the editorial decisions."
"Canadians should persuade Canadian editors to reconsider their position and to not be seduced by historical hatreds and political biases in the irresponse to the Danish cartoons. This is the right thing to do," the statement concluded.
CIC acknowledged that the Calgary Jewish Community Council has since issued a statement disassociating itself from the Jewish Free Press.
CONTACTS:
Dr. Mohamed Elmasry
(519) 746-4107 (O)
(519) 498-1350 (Cell)
e-mail:
np@canadianislamiccongress.com
Mrs. Wahida Valiante
(905) 771-1023
e-mail:
nvp@canadianislamiccongress.com 
