Tue. Feb. 14 2006 11:30 AM ET
CTV.ca News Staff
The national leader of the Canadian Islamic Congress wants an Alberta-based magazine charged with distributing hate literature after it published controversial caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad.
The publisher of the Western Standard, Ezra Levant, decided to republish cartoons which have provoked angry riots around the world, saying "freedom of speech trumps political correctness."
The president of the Islamic congress, Mohamed Elmasry, said Levant's argument doesn't hold water.
"We believe the Western Standard actually did transgress many limits. Although the Canadian Islamic Congress and the Canadian Jewish Congress did appeal to the magazine not to republish these offending cartoons they did go ahead and do it," Elmasry said on CTV's Canada AM.
He said the cartoons propagate a negative stereotype of Muslims, and the decision to publish them goes against the will of the Canadian people and "actually affects the well being of minorities in this country."
Elmasry also said the Muslim people have been unfairly targeted, and said he believes the magazine would have acted differently if the cartoons were anti-Semitic.
"I'm sure the Western Standard would not be able to publish and hide behind free press, publishing Holocaust denials or anti-Semitic cartoons, so we have here a big problem," Elmasry said.
The caricatures originally appeared in a Danish newspaper almost six months ago. In January they were reprinted by several European newspapers, prompting rioting in the Middle East and controversy around the world.
Most Canadian publications have chosen not to print the cartoons, opting instead to describe the images.
Levant also appeared on Canada AM and was bluntly unapologetic about his decision to publish the cartoons. He said the cartoons have become a legitimate news item, and as such his magazine has the right to publish them under the principles of free speech.
"Freedom of speech trumps political correctness," Levant said. "I would say our magazine would publish an anti-Semitic or Holocaust denying cartoon if it meant Jews around the world were rioting because of it and burning embassies because of a cartoon. We would want to show our readers what all the fuss was about."
He added: "It's a real news story, and if someone would be offended, well it's a historical artifact, we're going to show it."
The magazine has a circulation of about 40,000, and will appear on newsstands in about 10 days.
Levant, who is Jewish, had some harsh words for Elmasry. He described him as an "idiot" several times, and said he has no moral high ground to lecture him on journalistic integrity.
Levant pointed to controversial comments Elmasry made in October, 2004, when he said all Jews over the age of 18 are fair targets for suicide bombers. Elmasry made the comments on The Michael Coren Show, an Ontario program that runs on Burlington's Crossroads Television System.
Elmasry later repeated the comments in a Globe and Mail interview, but eventually claimed he was expressing a widely-held Palestinian view, not his own personal belief.
The comments sparked outrage at the time, and police launched a probe to determine whether the comments constituted a hate crime.
"He should be lucky we have freedom of speech in Canada because if we were in a country that didn't, he'd be in jail," said Levant.
Meanwhile, a number of bookstores have decided not to run this month's edition of the Western Standard.
"We felt it was deemed offensive by Muslims and that it doesn't serve freedom of expression to flout Muslim sensibilities," Colleen Boschmann, manager of the McNally Robinson store in Calgary told the Canadian Press. McNally Robinson has three stores in Winnipeg and Saskatoon, but none will carry the magazine.
Boschmann said people who wish to view the cartoons can easily find them on the Internet, and putting the magazine on shelves would be an offensive and unnecessary gesture.
The magazine sells fewer than a dozen copies in the Calgary store.
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