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By Lloyd Mackey
 | | Calgary imam Syed Soharwardy finished in Victoria. |
IT WAS a ‘jihad’ – against violence.
This was the reasoning behind a Muslim’s cross-Canada journey.
Syed Soharwardy, a Calgary imam, completed a six-month
walk across the country in late October, ending in Victoria. He was joined
by a fair number of Muslims and Christians.
He was inspired by a video entitled The Imam and the Pastor –
which tells the story of a Pentecostal minister and Muslim imam in Nigeria
who overcame hatred and vengeance.
Soharwardy’s walk began April 20 in Newfoundland
and ended October 27 at Mile Zero of the Trans-Canada Highway, when he
dipped his feet into the waters of the Juan de Fuca Strait, below the
cliffs fronting Beacon Hill Park.
Speaking to BCCN November 4, Soharwardy was careful to explain his
‘jihad’ comments. He maintained violence is an evil condemned
in both Muslim and Christian scriptures.
He noted that since first floating the idea of the
anti-violence walk over two years ago, he has formed friendships with many
Christian and Jewish people and leaders across Canada.
Among them are the Roman Catholic Bishop of Calgary,
Fred Henry, and Michael Ward, senior minister of Central United Church,
also in his home city.
Soharwardy’s anti-violence stance has been fairly
well-known in Calgary. But he first came to national prominence last year,
when he filed a human rights complaint against Western
Standard publisher Ezra Levant –
because of Levant’s republishing of Danish cartoons considered by
Muslim leaders to be blasphemous of the prophet Muhammad.
The Calgary imam later withdrew his complaint,
maintaining that he had, after wide consultation with religious and civil
rights leaders, concluded that human rights commissions were not
appropriate bodies to hear such plaints.
Asked about the dicey issue of Muslim and Christian
competition for converts in some African and Asian nations, Soharwardy
allowed that “Muslim conversion has always been a difficulty –
and it will continue to be. There are several reasons . . . related to
tight control – the lack of freedom.”
These conditions, he said, are created both by
religious fanatics and corrupt or dictatorial leaders.
Soharwardy explained that he is of the Sufi form of
Islam, which practices a mystical form of contemplation and worship. It is
part of the Sunni branch of the religion.
He leads the Madinah Calgary Islamic Centre, which
usually attracts about 1,500 to its Friday prayers, and is home to at least
5,000 on special holy occasions.
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The process of taking on the walk involved some careful
thought, he said. He does not draw income from his role as an imam, but
rather, earns his living as an IT consultant.
In arranging his financial affairs, he remortgaged his
house, so he would have income during the walk. And he is grateful, he
said, for the support of his family – his wife Shaheen and their
two young adult children.
At times, he has received a fair amount of flack from
other Muslim leaders; but the twin factors of fanaticism and secularism
help to fan such opposition, he said.
If people of his faith would return to the root of the
Prophet’s teachings, rather than trying to interpret it in either a
violent direction, on one hand, or a secular bent on the other, Islam would
be better understood.
Some of his critics, he said, accuse him of
“getting too cozy to Christians.”
While he appreciated the support he has received from
many Christian leaders, Soharwardy allowed that there is more building work
to do. At one point during the walk, he said, he met some Mennonites
– who held, within their faith, to many of the same ideas with
respect to peace and non-violence that he sees to be a part of his own
outlook.
Where does the imam go from here?
“Now we want to concentrate on getting churches
and faith groups in every town and city going, to stay engaged and try for
annual days of walk against violence in those places,” he said.
“They will be multi-faith, walking together,
trying to change people’s hearts.
“Through this walk, what I tried to achieve was
by the grace of God. There is no place [else] on earth where one can walk
6,500 kilometres, through different areas, among conservatives and
liberals, and no one said ‘I don’t like you because of who you
are.’”
December 2008
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