Alberta Human Rights Commission Chief Asked to Step Down Over Accusations of Islamophobia from Muslim Brotherhood Group

Cana­di­an media is report­ing that the Alber­ta Jus­tice Min­is­ter has asked the province’s Human Rights Com­mis­sion Chief to step down over alle­ga­tions of mak­ing Islam­o­pho­bic state­ments in a 2009 book review. The actions came fol­low­ing an open let­ter of 28 Mus­lim orga­ni­za­tions call­ing for his res­ig­na­tion. Accord­ing to an arti­cle by CTV News:

Sep­tem­ber 14, 2022 Alber­ta’s jus­tice min­is­ter has asked for the res­ig­na­tion of the province’s chief of the Alber­ta Human Rights Com­mis­sion just months after he assumed the posi­tion. Lawyer Collin May was appoint­ed chief of the com­mis­sion in May this year, after three years of being a mem­ber. He was to begin his duties as chief effec­tive July 14 and serve a term of five years. (…)

Read the rest here.

On 12 Sep­tem­ber 2022, the Nation­al Coun­cil of Cana­di­an Mus­lims (NCCM) released an open let­ter it sent to Alber­ta Jus­tice Min­is­ter Tyler Shan­dro signed by 28 Mus­lim orga­ni­za­tions and mosques in Alber­ta call­ing for Collin May’s res­ig­na­tion over com­ments he made in a 2009 book review. Accord­ing to the let­ter, May had reviewed Israeli-British his­to­ri­an Efraim Karsh’s book “Islam­ic Impe­ri­al­ism: A His­to­ry,” where May said Islam was not a “peace­ful reli­gion mis­used by rad­i­cals” but is “one of the most mil­i­taris­tic reli­gions known to man.” Since then, the NCCM said it unsuc­cess­ful­ly tried to work with May to rec­on­cile and build trust with Mus­lim communities.

The Alber­ta Human Rights Com­mis­sion is a qua­si-judi­cial human rights body in Alber­ta that was cre­at­ed by the provin­cial gov­ern­ment and is tasked with reduc­ing dis­crim­i­na­tion “through the res­o­lu­tion and set­tle­ment of com­plaints of dis­crim­i­na­tion, and through human rights tri­bunal and court hearings.”

The NCCM, for­mer­ly known as CAIR Cana­da, is the Cana­di­an branch of the Coun­cil on Amer­i­can-Islam­ic Rela­tions (CAIR), among the most promi­nent Mus­lim advo­ca­cy orga­ni­za­tions in the US and which has close ties to the Glob­al Mus­lim Broth­er­hood (GMB). The most impor­tant leader of NCCM has been Jamal Badawi, who is also a leader in many of the most impor­tant GMB orga­ni­za­tions. He is the son-in-law of the late Ahmed el Kadi, one of the ear­li­est lead­ers of the Mus­lim Broth­er­hood in the US.