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Magazine piece on Islam sparks heated debate in Canada

A complaint by Canadian Muslims against a leading local news magazine has sparked a national debate on the limits of press freedoms in this country often cited as a beacon of multiculturalism.

“Protest while you still can,” shouted this week’s edition of Maclean’s, a publication similar to US magazines Time or Newsweek, saying in an editorial that human rights boards are undermining free speech in Canada.

The controversy dates back to October 2006, when Maclean’s ran an article excerpted from noted author and journalist Mark Steyn’s book America Alone, titled “Why the Future Belongs to Islam.”

A self-described agitator, Steyn argued that demographics and Muslims’ global ambitions ensured Islam’s eventual world domination and that Europe was “too enfeebled to resist its remorseless transformation into Eurabia.”

For four Toronto law students, Maclean’s had crossed the line by proposing that “Muslims are part of a global conspiracy to take over Western society and impose an oppressive form of Islamic law,” said Khurrum Awan, one of the students.

“We did some research and realized that Maclean’s had published 19 articles with such a tone,” he said, adding that his group asked for but was denied the opportunity to publish a response when they met with the magazine’s editors.

Maclean’s, which is defending itself against accusations at a human rights tribunal that its articles incited hate, said the students’ demands for a 5,000-word rebuttal and to direct the magazine cover art were unacceptable.

“This is a complete fabrication,” Awan said, insisting the editor-in-chief told them he would rather see the magazine go out of business than publish a response, or, according to the magazine, hand over editorial reigns.

The students, backed by the Canadian Islamic Congress, lodged a complaint with the federal human rights commission and two of its provincial counterparts in Ontario and British Columbia.

The federal and British Columbia tribunals are still mulling over the case.

The Ontario panel declined to hear it, yet offered a stern rebuke of Maclean’s on April 9 that prompted indignation from the magazine.

In a statement, the Ontario Human Rights Commission said the contents of press articles were beyond its purview, but added it “has serious concerns about the content of a number of articles concerning Muslims” published by Maclean’s and other media outlets that were “identified as contributing to Islamophobia and promoting societal intolerance towards Muslims.”

Supported by several media outlets, Maclean’s said it was “deeply troubling” that a public official would castigate the press without offering it an opportunity to defend itself at a hearing.
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