The Sheraton Centre hotel will not host a Muslim religious conference that was to feature speakers who have expressed anti-gay and anti-Semitic views.


Good move toronto, do not tolerate hate speech of any kind.

IERA CANADA RESPONDS TO BASELESS ACCUSATIONS OF HOMOPHOBIA AND ANTI-SEMITISM




13th October 2011
On the 12th October 2011, an article appeared in The Toronto Star, accusing the Islamic Education and Research Academy (iERA) of hosting speakers who have expressed homophobic hatred and incitement to violence as well as anti-semitic views. Similar views have been aired on broadcast media, such as The Arena show anchored by Michael Coren. iERA unequivocally rejects these accusations as being false and misleading. Similar allegations were made in the run up to another international conference hosted by iERA in January 2011 entitled Changing the World Through Dawah. At this conference, which took place in London, United Kingdom, iERA clearly demonstrated the baseless nature of the accusations and the conference, which was held at the Hotel Ibis (part of the international Accor chain of hotels) passed without incident.

iERA wishes to make it abundantly clear as part of its goal to educate the world about the religion of Islam that we encourage positive civic engagement through dialogue and action. iERA and its international team of speakers, staff and volunteers have never called for violence or hatred towards members of the Jewish or Homosexual communities. These accusations are antithetical to our work in thought and deed. iERA has been working very hard to empower the Muslim community to engage with people of all persuasions in a peaceful manner and to serve humanity.

The aim of the upcoming conference, far from promoting hatred, will focus on getting Muslims to pro-actively engage with the wider society by sharing the true essence of the Islamic faith in both word and deed. This is what the Quran teaches. This message is simply to believe in and worship God and through this, work to improve the welfare of all Canadian citizens regardless of race, colour, culture or creed. The message that iERA aims to deliver is not unique. Muslim communities, in Canada and elsewhere are already contributing immensely to the social welfare of our society, and that is through remaining loyal to the basic tenets and values of their faith. This is the very theme of our conferences.

Most, if not all major religions forbid homosexuality and Islam is no different. To give the issue further context, Islamic ethics forbid any sexual activity outside of marriage. This very point has been discussed by iERA’s speakers with respect to criminal law in an Islamic state.

iERA urges all members of society, especially Muslims to be model citizens and therefore should obey the law of the land. We believe Muslims need to do more to reach out to their Jewish neighbours with whom they share so much in terms of tradition.

The Qur’an, the book of the Muslims contains many stories and information about the biblical prophets, as it is a core part of the Islamic faith to believe that they received revelation from One, All Powerful God, known in Arabic as Allah. Therefore, Muslims believe all the prophets came with one, universal message, with the final messenger being Muhammad, peace be upon him. This universal message was for human beings to voluntarily surrender their will to the Perfect Divine will of God; this submission is known in Arabic as Islam. Therefore, Islam considers all believers of this one, universal message to be as those who submit to God, i.e. Muslims.

iERA is an organisation dedicated to conducting research and educating humanity about Islam.We welcome open and frank discussion on these key issues, and would like to extend an open invitation to all our detractors from the Jewish Defence League and LGBT activists to come and meet us to find out what we really believe as opposed to using innuendo to stifle debate. As part of this, iERA would also offer them gift boxes which contain accurate and authentic information on the Islamic faith. These are made free of charge to members of the general public as well as media or lobby groups.

yeah again the star was correct this is spin to debunk the star's article.

No hate speech. If jagdeo want to hire the peanut butter crew which is basically a buggering fraternity so be it.

Let people live their lives.