Ezra Levant's accuser's taqiyya exposed

Licia Corbella has a great column this morning in the Calgary Herald (Didn't she used to work for the Calgary Sun?) in which she exposes how the man who took Ezra Levant before the Alberta Human Rights Commission, Imam Syed Soharwardy, engaged in taquiyya during an appearance before The Herald's editorial board this week.

On bringing sharia law to Canada.

While preparing for the meeting, a quick search on Canwest's library system showed a Jan. 17, 2004, column written by the cleric.

In it, he wrote: "Sharia cannot be customized for specific countries. These universal, divine laws are for all people of all countries for all times."

In the same column he also boasts: "I am one of the founding members of the Islamic Institute of Civil Justice. The mandate of the institute is to resolve disputes within existing Canadian laws by using the principles of conflict resolution from Islamic Law, or sharia."

His column is clear. He wanted to bring sharia to Canada and even helped found the organization that spearheaded the drive to do so.

But in our meeting, Soharwardy denied his own column. "I never asked to bring sharia in Canada," he now insists.

On using tsunami relief efforts to attack Christians.

Some of Soharwardy's most vile words came after the 2004 Boxing Day tsunami that killed more than 280,000 people.

While Christians from around the world were emptying their wallets to help the victims of this natural disaster, Muslim leaders were blaming the disaster on immoral Christian tourists in their countries.

Soharwardy seemingly got swept up in the wave of anti-Christian rhetoric and sent out a news release accusing Christians of kidnapping Muslim orphans in Indonesia. Again, he denied his own written words.

"I don't believe that, I just quoted what was in the newspaper and asked where are the wealthy Muslim governments, why are they not helping."

But here's what his Jan. 23, 2005, news release actually said: "ISCC . . . strongly condemns the exploitation of tsunami victims by the Christian missionaries. There have been several reports that the Christian missionaries are kidnapping Muslim children in Indonesia. . . . It is now proven that the Christian missionaries do not help people on humanitarian grounds. They help people in order to exploit their needs and convert them to Christianity."

On the imam's credibility, she writes.

Soharwardy is a charmer. He convinced me that I must have misread his columns. But relistening to the tape of our meeting and rereading his original texts, one thing is clear: he cannot be believed.