August 22, 2006: For immediate release!

This statement is the resignation of the following Board members from the Muslim Canadian Congress (MCC):

• Niaz Salimi, President;
• Rizwana Jafri, Vice President;
• El-Farouk Khaki, Secretary General;
• Arif Raza, Legal Advisor;
• Abbas Syed, Chief Financial Officer;
• Gary Dale, Director & webmaster;
• Amr Malik, Director;
• Atique Azad, Director;
• Jehad Aliweiwi, Director;
• Nadine Estrada-Karachi, Director;
• Suhail Alsameed, Director;
• Imtiaz Popat, Regional Coordinator, B.C.

It is also signed by the following people who have recently resigned from the MCC Board and who share our concerns:

• Nadia Awad;
• Hanadi Loubani.

The MCC was intended to be a voice of "Muslims not represented by other organizations, organizations that are sectarian or ethnocentric, largely authoritarian, and influenced by a fear of modernity and an aversion to joy."

Over the years the MCC has made significant strides in offering a voice to many. Recently, however, the public face of the MCC has deviated from its stated priorities. The message that MCC has been giving out is "not addressed to Muslims, it is aimed at making Muslim haters feel secure in their thinking".

As a result, many in the Muslim community have been alienated from the MCC as a viable voice for the community. Sadly many progressive Muslims and others perceive the MCC as being holier-than-thou, arrogant and enclosed in an ivory tower.

This was never our intention. The signatories to this statement believe that to combat the grips of fundamentalism and social isolation, we must engage and involve the Muslim community, and in particular the progressive and liberal voices within it.

For these reasons, we have chosen to leave the MCC, an organization which we have devoted ourselves to for several years.

We have decided to establish the Canadian Muslim Union (CMU), an organization which while advocating a separation of religion and state, will also work with and within the Muslim community.

The CMU will seek to engage the larger Muslim community in issues of human rights, human dignity, social justice and alternate progressive and inclusive visions of Islam. In so doing, we aim to instil joy in the celebration of our identities as Muslims and as Canadians with social consciences and a commitment to social justice and human dignity.

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Contact: Arif Raza, 416 558-4777