Toronto Mosque Troubles

(Toronto, Ontario) The Khalid Bin Al-Walid Mosque is being criticized by the Muslim Canadian Congress for disseminating slurs against Jews and Western societies while warning Muslims not to integrate into society.

And now the Muslim Canadian Congress is calling on Ottawa to strip the charitable status of the Somali Islamic Society of Canada, which owns the Khalid Bin Al-Walid mosque in Etobicoke, founded in 1990 and serving more than 10,000 worshippers.

Congress president Farzana Hassan said postings on the mosque's website are "in contravention of what a moderate Muslim should stand for."

Asked for specifics, Hassan cited the site's "statements about women." For example, she said, "they say female circumcision is honourable and yet they find piercing your ears reprehensible, wearing high heels reprehensible, laughing objectionable. It's very disconcerting that their priorities are where they are."

But the mosque defends its postings, arguing in a statement posted on its website that "different scholars of Islam may have differing opinions on the same subject."

So, Canada's Muslims are getting conflicting guidance because of religious spat between two leading Islamic organizations. However, it's not clear that the two organizations disagree on philosophy, rather their conflict appears to be disagreement on what should be spoken and written.