Race-relations committee stifles open debate

Toronto Star July 25, 2001 Wednesday

Copyright 2001 Toronto Star Newspapers, Ltd.
Toronto Star

July 25, 2001 Wednesday Ontario Edition

SECTION: LETTER; Pg. A23

LENGTH: 247 words

HEADLINE: Race-relations committee stifles open debate

BODY:
Re Holocaust curriculum attack threatens progress, July 15.

I write to set the record straight with respect to Michele Landsberg’s column.

As a columnist for Impact International, the internationally circulated monthly from London, England, which published the alleged anti-Semitic book review that Bader Abu Zahra distributed, I take offence to the publication being called the “Islamic World News Service.”

The people who showed up to support Abu Zahra were not an “angry crowd of 100 Muslim militants.” They were parents who wanted a more inclusive curriculum – one that focused on all the genocides, not only the Holocaust.

To this day, nobody has explained why the review is anti-Semitic. Landsberg simply states that the York school board “unanimously condemned” the review. When I queried the board’s public affairs officer, Ross Virgo, he said that the “board is not prepared to debate whether the material was anti-Semitic or not.”

Sure there are limits to freedom of expression and there should be when it comes to incitement of hatred, promotion of violence, slander and defamation of individuals or a community. Debate and argument must never be muzzled simply because it makes those in positions of authority uncomfortable.

How would a race-relations committee iron out controversial issues if dissenting opinion is punished by expulsion?

How can truth surface if controversial and uncomfortable issues cannot be debated?

Faisal Kutty

Toronto

Tags: Race Relations

Short URL: http://tinyurl.com/yaxt4jd