DAR AL HARB - CANADA/U.S.A.: A CONTROVERSIAL MOSLEM SCHOLAR IN TORONTO

Controversial imam in Toronto
Scholar's passionate speeches often draw overflow crowds of young Muslims
Isabel Teotonio

There is little difference between the politician who orders an attack on unsuspecting civilians and the radical fundamentalist who boards a public bus with explosives strapped to his chest.

That's the view of an immensely popular and controversial Muslim scholar from the United States who will be speaking in Toronto this evening.

"Anyone who kills innocent life to advance their political agenda is a terrorist," said Imam Zaid Shakir in a telephone interview this week before departing for a three-day speaking tour in southern Ontario. "It doesn't matter if you're a government or a local group of thugs."

"Murder is murder," said Shakir, whose tour, `Making of a Martyr,' kicked off yesterday in St. Catharines.

Shakir is an African-American who converted from Christianity to Islam in 1977. He's the author of Scattered Pictures: Reflections of an American Muslim, and also lectures at San Francisco's Zaytuna Institute, a Muslim centre for learning.

A true martyr, said Shakir, who denounces violence and terrorism in the name of Islam, is "someone willing to give one's life or to lose one's life for what they believe in, as opposed to someone willing to kill someone and be killed in the process."

It's a message that will surface at tonight's event, where he will also encourage Muslims to become more politically active in shaping Western foreign policy.

"We have a stake in the destiny of these societies," he said. "We have to really stand up and play our part in working for the betterment of societies and not see them as enemies or anti-Islamic forces that are hell-bent on destroying us," said Shakir.

Instead, Muslims must engage in the "process of negotiation" because "society is generally eager to try and accommodate Muslims, even in these somewhat challenging times." Proof of that, the 50-year-old said, was the further decline in support for the U.S.-led war in Iraq after Muslims, and others, worldwide spoke out against it.

Shakir, a traditional Muslim who is neither conservative nor liberal, was invited to speak by the North American Spiritual Revival, a not-for-profit organization made up mostly of young professional Muslims.

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