To whom it may concern,

I am writing you today because I am tired of hearing from my Muslim friends about how angry they are every time Tarek Fatah is presented as a progressive Muslim leader by the mainstream press.

I have a number of friends who are progressive Muslims. Some are practicing Muslims, some are more secular, most were brought up in Canada and have the typically moderate views that 1.5 or 2nd generation Canadians have. None of them feel that Mr. Fatah’s views are representative of them or their faith.

There is a Facebook group called “Tarek Fatah does not represent me” with 738 members. The frustration and outrage from Muslims, that I have contact with, every time they see Mr. Fatah in the media represented as a “Muslim leader” is palpable.

My question to you is: why do you continue to present Mr. Fatah as a progressive Muslim leader? Certainly you have contact with other leaders that are actually respected by the Muslim community. I fail to understand why you would continue to print Mr. Fatah’s opinions at the expense of alienating the Muslim community, who from what I understand, think that he is crazy.

I would ask that in the future, you seek an opinion from other Muslim organizations before printing Mr. Fatah’s word as the “voice of the Muslim community”. For the sake of journalistic integrity and some objectivity, I feel that you owe us (all of us, not just the Muslim community) a decent counter argument to Mr. Fatah’s rantings. I would like to introduce you to a few other progressive Muslim organizations who are more representative of the community, and would encourage you to find others:

Muslim Association of Canada
http://www.macnet.ca/national/index.php

Council on American-Islamic Relations – Canada
http://www.caircan.ca

Muslim Welfare Centre
http://www.muslimwelfarecentre.com

Canadian Muslim Lawyers Association
http://www.muslimlaw.org

Salaam, The Queer Muslim Community of Toronto
http://www.salaamcanada.com

Fundamentalist Films
http://www.fundamentalistfilms.com/about.php

IslamBank.Community
http://IslamBank.com/unity

If you are looking for opinions from community leaders, I think that Uzma Shakir would be an excellent choice for a progressive Muslim voice.
http://www.ideasthatmatter.com/people/2003shakir.html
http://www.atkinsonfoundation.ca/updates/Document_1195738816317

Another good place to look for progressive community leaders is through the Maytree Foundation’s abcGTA program: http://www.abcgta.ca/index2.asp

Thank you for considering this request. If you would like to contact me to discuss this further, [please leave a comment below].

Sincerely,

Karen Sun

Note: CLICK HERE TO READ THE ORIGINAL ARTICLE….

Tags: Karen Sun, Progressive Muslims, Tarek Fatah

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