The Muslim Canadian Congress is an organization established in 2001 that seeks to represent the Muslims in Canada who are not currently represented by another organization. The Congress aims to give them a voice, to make their opinions heard and to have a positive effect on the community. Their goal is to bust all of the outdated myths and misconceptions regarding the Muslim faith, beliefs and customs, and in doing so distinguishing themselves from Islamism and alleviating islamophobia.

Origins and Inception

The attacks on September 11th 2001 had a horrible effect on a lot of people, even those that weren’t directly affected by them. Three thousand families lost their loved ones, and America mourned with them. A country that previously stood proud as the Western giant of the world now found itself as vulnerable as any other, gripped in the vice of fear and paranoia. But one of the biggest repercussions of the attack was that an entire religion was vilified overnight just because nineteen out of its millions of followers decided to launch a misguided attack in its name. As horrible as it is, fear often turns into aggression, and in this case the target of said aggression were people who had absolutely nothing to do with what happened on 9/11. This islamophobia quickly spread out of the United States and into other countries where Muslims are a minority, including Canada. Fearing the safety of their community, in December of 2001 many Canadian Muslims from the Toronto area, under the leadership of Tarek Fatah, decided to unite and create the Muslim Canadian Congress. Their hope was to distinguish themselves and the Muslim community from the Islamist movement by promoting “separation of religion and state in all matters of public policy” – in other words, the exact opposite of what the Islamists are fighting for.

Goals and Stances

The Muslim Canadian Congress quickly established itself as a more liberal-thinking (as opposed to the highly conservative Islamism movement) with their stances on various controversial subjects. Their only belief is that all Muslims should adhere to the 5 commandments of the Qur’an – faith in God, regular prayers, paying a tax to the poor, fasting for a month every year and a once in a lifetime visit to Hajj. In their own words, all other rules and laws that are commonly associated with Islam, such as burkas and Shariah Law, are not actually rules from the prophet Mohammed and, if they cause more harm than good, need to be eliminated from practice.

The Congress firmly believes in freedom of speech and freedom of expression. They hold the distinction of being the very first Muslim group that has openly supported the rights of gays and lesbians, going as far as to write op-eds on the subject in newspapers. Another one of their core ideologies is that men and women are completely equal, which is very different from more conservative Muslim organizations that often do not allow men and women to pray on the same floor of their mosques, with some communities even requiring them to wear burkas (black clothes that only expose the woman’s eyes).The Congress has openly fought to ban this practice, citing not only gender equality, but also security concerns over how easy a woman could conceal her identity by wearing a burka.

A notable example of their stance in action is the 2007 controversy surrounding author Mark Steyn, whose magazine column was called “Islamophobic” and attacked by several members of the Canadian Islamic Congress. The MCC contested the allegations, or rather, the Islamic Congress’ reaction to the column, stating that it “has only given credence to [Steyn’s] premise – that Muslims in the West cannot accept the values of individual freedom, a free press and the right to offend…”