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. (…)
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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.