Mohamed  Elmasry is a well respected professor of Electrical Engineering from the University of Waterloo. He has written commentary for the Globe and Mail and published more than 500 research papers and 16 books in the field of electrical engineering. Obviously, Dr. Elmasry is a well established academic.

Elmasry is the complainant behind three lawsuits raised last year against Maclean’s on grounds of freedom of speech human rights. During this time, he was President of the Canadian Islamic Congress: the ‘independent voice of Canadian Muslims’ (off their website). Does Elmasry speak for Canadian Muslims?

For Canadian Muslims sake, I sure hope not… (video below)

If that isn’t enough, he has also defended Robert Mugabe, saying

Mugabe was trying to implement a land reform; to redistribute the land of about 5,000 white farmers to his country’s poor black people. And that is a great sin. So he was and still is in the West called a dictator, an arrogant, aging autocrat who has run the economy into the ground, fanned racial hatred and abused his power to suppress political foes, the courts and media, etc. etc.

Western media seldom report that Mugabe was and still is popular especially in the rural areas; his land reform has won him support among his own people. When Zimbabwe gained independence in 1980, 70 per cent of the country’s farm land was in the hand of 5,000 European settler landowners.

In a 2004 poll conducted by the popular monthly magazine New African, for the most influential African leaders of the 20th century, Mugabe came third after Nelson Mandela and Ghana’s Kwame Nkrumah.

Following the presidential elections in March this year the opposition claimed Morgan Tsvangirai, leader of Zimbabwe’s opposition Movement for Democratic Change was the winner with 50.1 per cent of the votes. The government claimed it was a tie.

Mugabe decided to hold a run-off election last month. But Tsvangirai pulled out and sought refuge in the Dutch embassy, which to some observers is a proof that he is a stooge of Western powers.

I had to refrain myself from just reprinting the entire absurdity that is an article from the Montreal Gazette. I would recommend giving it a full read though though here.

There is a great need for the Canadian Muslim community to have leaders who represent them to the Canadian public. They should however, pick individuals who are going to build bridges, not tear them down. ‘Representatives’ like Elmasry should be denounced by the community and their legitimacy removed. So why hasn’t this happened?

Elmasry’s remarks make me sick to my stomach. But if that is the price I pay for free speech, I for one, will take it.

Found through www.ezralevant.com.