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| Elmasry offers apology, resignation |
Contributed by: saforrest on Thursday, October 28 2004 @ 08:16 PM CDT
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Mirko Petricevic of The Record is reporting that UW computer engineering professor Mohamed Elmasry has apologized for his remarks last week on The Michael Coren Show, and has offered to resign as president of the Canadian Islamic Congress. This offer has not been accepted by the CIC leadership.
Elmasry issues apology for his remarks The Record 28 Oct 2004
[...]
In a news release issued by the congress yesterday, Mohamed Elmasry said, "I sincerely apologize for the way I expressed myself last on The Michael Coren Show and I offer my resignation."
Elmasry gave his apology during an emergency meeting, held by eight board members by conference call, Tuesday evening.
"I apologize for any public remarks I made which offended Canada's Muslim, Jewish, Palestinian, and Arab communities and Canadians at large."
[...]
Halton regional police are investigating Elmasry's comments to see if there is enough evidence to lay charges for spreading hate propaganda.
"It has always been a core belief of mine that killing civilians -- any civilians, for any cause -- is an immoral act of the worst kind and I will never change in this conviction," Elmasry said in the news release.
"Failing to articulate my beliefs clearly, completely, and forcefully on that occasion, was the biggest mistake in my 30 years of public life."
Wahida Valiante, vice-president of the Canadian Islamic Congress, said all board members involved in Tuesday's meeting turned down the resignation offer because of Elmasry's lengthy record of speaking out for social justice issues.
"One unintentional mistake does not wipe out an exemplary record of more than 30 years."
Ed Morgan, national president of the Canadian Jewish Congress, said the Islamic congress has marginalized itself by not accepting the resignation.
"We've considered them to be a mainstream spokeperson for the Islamic community," he said yesterday.
"But it seems to me that now they've marginalized themselves and so we will prefer to work with more mainstream organizations."
[...]
The University of Waterloo, where Elmasry has been a professor since 1974, didn't comment on yesterday's apology. The university's dean of science is reviewing Elasmry's remarks to see if his conduct warrants discipline from the university.
"We're not issuing a statement at this time," Martin Van Nierop, direct of communications for the university, wrote in an e-mail to The Record.
"The Elmasry statement/apology will be added to the information regarding the ongoing investigation."
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| Authored by: HK on Thursday, October 28 2004 @ 09:16 PM CDT |
I'm surprised that the Canadian Islamic Congress has refused his offer to resign. Perhaps even worse is that they have recieved numerous letters of support from their members!
Is it possible then that Elmasry was stating what is a widely held belief in his community? I hope not.
He did claim as much when he stated that he was just articulating an argument supported by many Palestinians.
In anycase I think its URGENT that the "moderate majority" of muslims start speaking up because elmasry and the CIC are tarnishing the name of the community they claim to represent.
This time the excuse that it is a "minority of extremists" who distort Islam cannot fly when the man in question is the head of the largest canadian muslim organization and that organization does not believe he should step down and neither do most of its members apparently.
[ Parent ]
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| Authored by: Litigator on Thursday, October 28 2004 @ 09:33 PM CDT |
Well, I at least have to give him credit for dropping the whole "I was presenting other people's view" nonsense.
However,
I apologize for any public remarks I made which offended Canada's Muslim, Jewish, Palestinian, and Arab communities and Canadian at large.
How about the Israeli community, since that is who his remarks were aimed at?[ Parent ]
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| Authored by: saforrest on Friday, October 29 2004 @ 11:35 AM CDT |
Here are some additional recent stories about the Elmasry issue in the media. I've left out stories to sites which require subscriptions (National Post, Globe and Mail).
[ Parent ]
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| Authored by: Anonymous on Friday, October 29 2004 @ 02:18 PM CDT |
You forgot to give the official press release for the CIC.
Are you sure you're not biased?
www.canadianislamiccongress.com/mc/media_communique.php?mcdate=2004-10-27
Apparently,
"Dr. Elmasry's track record for the past 30 years is exemplary. He has spoken out on social justice issues in Canada, including senior citizens' rights, the elimination of child poverty, the crisis of homelessness, right of access to free universal health care and education, and for basic human rights. He worked for civil rights issues nationally and internationally and has been vocal and proactive in anti-hate and anti- discrimination campaigns. We also all recall his tireless efforts to achieve the noble goal of world peace with justice."
...
"The Board was overwhelmed by the calls, emails and letters from many Canadians including those from the Muslim, Jewish, Christian and Arab communities who expressed their support and solidarity for the work that CIC and Dr. Elmasry have been doing for peace and justice."
From the earlier comments in the first discussion, its sad to say that very few carefully analyzed his statements. I believe he was wrong, but I don't think he was trying to be racist or anything. He was asked a question, and his logical response was based upon international law. However I think his logic was flawed. The Geneva convention, which I assume he means when he refers to international law, gives military personnel who have laid down their weapons as "civlians". This and other reasons were why he was wrong. That doesn't mean we should butcher him for making a mistake and sacrifice the man for the purpose of "damage control".[ Parent ]
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| Authored by: ac on Friday, October 29 2004 @ 08:56 PM CDT |
"I sincerely apologize for the way I expressed myself last on The Michael Coren Show and I offer my resignation."
Apologizing for the method, not the substance.
"It has always been a core belief of mine that killing civilians -- any civilians, for any cause -- is an immoral act of the worst kind and I will never change in this conviction," Elmasry said in the news release.
Note that he is not backtracking, and the above really has nothing to do with his earlier statement:
"Anybody above 18 is part of the (Israeli) army [and therefore not a civilian]"
"Failing to articulate my beliefs clearly, completely, and forcefully on that occasion, was the biggest mistake in my 30 years of public life."
Again, this is about method, and not substance.
[ Parent ]
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| Authored by: Anonymous Alpha on Friday, October 29 2004 @ 11:13 PM CDT |
Its me again, the one who gave the link to the CIC site.
Another way to look at it is that he was trying to use "international law" to legitimize his position.
That may be so, but my point is:
everyone in the media jumped on him for the sake of damage control. People left and right were accusing him of targetting Jews (whereas he was only talking about Israeli nationals becuase of their specific situation), people were calling him racist (even though his message was only logical, most reserved, and his history is examplary in speaking up against racism, violence, etc.)
If you look at his record, you would see that he has an extremely high standing in both his field and in representing moderate Muslims. And so, I don't believe that after 30 years of doing good work we can sacrifice him like this. Its a big loss to the academic and moderate religious community.[ Parent ]
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| Authored by: Howcanthisbe on Sunday, October 31 2004 @ 01:31 AM CST |
| Milk, milk, lemonade, press the button, chocolate cake. [ Parent ]
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| Authored by: AF on Wednesday, November 03 2004 @ 11:25 AM CST |
From Toronto Star:
www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_Type1&c=Article&cid=1099435812344&call_pageid=968332188492&col=968793972154
A B'nai Brith official has resigned his post and apologized over comments he made on a Toronto television talk show backing state use of terror to protect its citizens.
Adam Aptowitzer, who was Ontario chairperson of the B'nai Brith Institute for International Affairs, made the remarks when he appeared on the Oct. 19 edition of Michael Coren Live, titled "What is a Terrorist?"
On the show, Aptowitzer said, "When Israel uses terror ... to destroy a home and convince people ... to be terrified of what the possible consequences are, I'd say that's an acceptable use to terrify somebody.
"Israel does make use of, I know I'm going to be misquoted, but the truth is that terror is an option to be used by states in order to prevent deaths of their own citizens and of others. Acts that take place in Gaza and West Bank, you might want to classify them as terrorists sponsored by the state. But when that is being done to prevent deaths, are we going to say that that is wrong?"
His remarks were challenged only this week in a joint news release from the Canadian Council on American-Islamic Relations, the Canadian Arab Federation and the National Council on Canada Arab Relations.
The groups asked why the words had not attracted the same flurry of media attention as what was said on the same show by Mohamed Elmasry, national president of the Canadian Islamic Congress.
Aptowitzer said yesterday he "certainly did not intend that it come across that I support the killing of innocent people in any form. I did not mean to advocate violence of any kind."
B'nai Brith Canada said Aptowitzer's statements do not reflect the position of the organization. The lawyer said he had been chair of the B'nai Brith institute for only a few months.
On the same show, Elmasry said that since all adult Israelis are part of their country's army, they are not bystanders in the conflict, and so are valid targets.
Elmasry later apologized for his remarks. Though he offered his resignation, it was refused.
[ Parent ]
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| Authored by: David Mandelzys on Wednesday, November 03 2004 @ 08:11 PM CST |
"Okay, 'totally programmed' is extremist. (If he had simply said 'largely dominated' I would not think so, however.)"
Really? where do you get your expertise on Judaism from?
[ Parent ]
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| Authored by: old man on Friday, November 12 2004 @ 02:46 PM CST |
from thestar.com :
Media launched relentless attack
Arab group got the rest of the story
Opinion, Nov. 6.
Thanks to ombud Don Sellar for helping to clear the air over the controversy arising from the Michael Coren Show of Oct. 19 and the media shortcomings in dealing with it. But he did not go far enough.
Canadian news media — including the Star — launched a relentless and unfair attack against the Canadian Islamic Congress (CIC) and me while covering up for weeks the outrageous statements made on the same show by Adam Aptowitzer, then the Ontario chairman of the B'nai Brith Institute of International Affairs. While never referring to Aptowitzer's statements, the media used news stories, editorials, op-ed pieces, columns, photos, front-page coverage, cartoons, and radio and television commentaries to paint a negative picture of CIC and myself which seriously distorts and falsifies the truth. It was widely reported, for example, that "Elmasry said all Israelis over 18 were legitimate targets for suicide bombers." This is totally false.
The media never questioned the completeness or the accuracy of the radio show transcript that was given to them. Instead, they totally and completely relied on the heavily selective one provided to them, which was one-sided and referred only to my remarks, but not to those by Aptowitzer.
Later, his resignation was quietly accepted. The media ran no photos of him, no cartoons, no extensive front-page coverage, no editorials, etc. He was allowed to be anonymous.In my book, journalism is a distinguished profession. I can only hope and pray that journalists do the right thing. And if they do not, they should apologize to their readers.
Dr. Mohamed Elmasry, National President, Canadian Islamic Congress, Waterloo, Ont.[ Parent ]
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