Another Woman Silenced: Vancouver Imam Attacks Muslim Candidate for Canadian Parliament

By Ahmed Nassef

When Itrath Syed entered her local mosque in Vancouver last Friday, she expected to get a chance to let her fellow congregants know about her campaign for the Canadian parliament representing the Delta-Richmond East Riding south of Vancouver on behalf of the New Democratic Party (NDP).

After all, not only is Syed the sole Muslim candidate in her province, but she and her family have been long-time supporters and members in the British Columbia Muslim Association (BCMA), the main mosque in Vancouver.

Syed is a graduate student in Women’s Studies at the University of British Columbia and a veteran peace and justice, civil rights and anti-violence activist, having worked for 7 years at a battered women and children shelter and leading her province’s anti-war efforts.

However, instead of an opportunity to address the other Muslims there, Syed sat through a scorching sermon that charged her with “working against the community.”

The sermon, delivered by Imam Zijad Delic, focused on the issue of same-sex marriage. Although never mentioning her by name, Syed says that Delic repeatedly derided “Muslims who are running for politics,” a clear reference to her.

Those Muslims who support a “fahisha” (i.e. grave sin), Delic reportedly continued, will never get the community’s support.

On the verge of tears, Syed stood in the mosque parking lot with a friend after the prayers feeling humiliated and betrayed.

According to Syed, Daud Ismail, the president of the BCMA, which operates the mosque, had promised her a chance to address community members two weeks prior, but that was subsequently postponed until this past Friday, June 11. Meanwhile, she was never warned that she would be the focus of a religious sermon opposing her while not being given a chance to respond afterwards.

Although Ismail told me that he would not comment on the matter, Delic was unapologetic. While denying that he targeted Syed in his sermon, Delic repeatedly attacked her during a telephone interview.

“My problem is not with NDP. My problem is with her… support for [same-sex marriage],” he told me.

In an angry, almost vengeful tone, Delic at once seemed to challenge Syed’s faith—at one point, he went on about how she should not be called a “Muslim” candidate—while at the same time asserting that, since Syed wears the head-covering, she should be bound by stricter standards than non-Muslim candidates.

Apparently in Delic’s world, the choice to don the head covering, or hijab, gives Muslim women the added burden, one not borne by men of course, of having to conform to Delic’s vision of true Islam.

For Delic, the gay marriage issue is so important that it justifies the public humiliation of a highly respected human rights activist in the Greater Vancouver community. When asked if he would give Syed a chance for a rebuttal, he insisted that she should not be given a chance to address the mosque attendees unless she first comes out with a statement retracting her support of her party’s positions on same-sex union. Delic also insisted that he has nothing to apologize for.

Many Canadian Muslims, however, don’t share Delic’s views.

“The community has every reason to be proud of Itrath Syed,” says Tarek Fatah, co-founder of the Muslim Canadian Congress. “Her crime is that she believes in universal human rights for all minorities, including gays and lesbians. For this principled stand, this young observant Muslim woman is paying the price.”

Monia Mazigh, a Muslim running for office with the NDP in Ottawa, is disturbed that some are making one’s position on same-sex marriage a litmus test for a vote. Mazigh became something of a media star throughout the country because of her courageous battle on behalf of her husband, Maher Arar, a Canadian citizen who was detained by US authorities then handed over to Syria, where he spent 374 days in a Syrian jail before finally being released.

“It is very dangerous to endorse or oppose a candidate just because he supports or opposes same sex marriage,” Mazigh said. “We should not mix religion and politics.”

But the blurred line between religion and politics is at the core of the issue for Imam Delic. When confronted with whether he supported the separation of religion and state in Canada, Delic wavered. After first responding, “No, I don’t,” he continued, “I support Canada. What can I do. There is no choice right now.”

In the meantime, at the Vancouver mosque, where women are not allowed to vote for any of the male mosque leaders, a Muslim woman’s voice is being silenced.

“I am not willing to subject myself to be judged,” says Syed. “The mosque space should belong to all Muslims, but they have this complete control over who can speak and who can’t.”

Ahmed Nassef is editor-in-chief of MWU! He can be reached at anassef@muslimwakeup.com.