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Zafar Bangash is a noted Islamic movement journalist and commentator and a leader of the Muslim community in Toronto, Canada, and a strong advocate of Muslim unity.
Bangash is Director of the Institute of Contemporary Islamic Thought (ICIT), and president of the Islamic Society of York Region, a suburb of Toronto. He is Imam at the Islamic Society of York Region's Mosque and community centre in Richmond Hill, Ontario. He is a former editor of Crescent International newsmagazine, and a Trustee and formerly assistant director of the Muslim Institute, London, where he worked with Dr Kalim Siddiqui (1931–1996), the founder of the Muslim Institute and Leader of the Muslim Parliament of Great Britain. Bangash is also co-founder of the Muslim Unity Group.
He is best known for his commentaries current affairs while editor of Crescent International. Though he stepped down as editor since joining the ICIT, he continues as a columnist and contributor to Crescent.
In 2007, as a spokesperson for the Muslim Unity Group in Toronto, Bangash appeared with other Muslim leaders at a Toronto press conference calling for the Ontario government and Toronto District School Board to address the problem of increased harassment of Muslims and racial minorities since 9-11.
He was the keynote speaker at a 2007 Marxist conference in Toronto prompting Bangash critic
Tarek Fatah of the liberal Muslim Canadian Congress to comment "For atheists, considered worthy of the death penalty by Islamists, to team up with their ultimate opponents in attacking Canadian civic society, demonstrates the fundamental bankruptcy of these two political ideologies." Bangash justified his collaboration with secular leftists saying "The issues of justice, inequality and poverty are common themes we can work together on. They are concerns of conscience."
Bangash was the focus of controversy when his association with a planned mosque in Newmarket, Ontario was used as a rallying point by opponents attempting to convince the municipality to rescind zoning approval for the building. A group called "Concerned Citizens Against Terror for Citizens of Newmarket" led by Ron Banerjee of the Hindu Conference of Canada and Meir Weinstein of the Jewish Defence League organized protests and a public meeting against the mosque's construction. Banerjee claimed that Bangash himself posed a "clear and present danger to the safety and security" of the country. The protest group was accused by one community member of not being members of the community and coming in from outside for the purpose of "stirring the pot". Mosque leaders have said that while Bangash is president of the Islamic Society of York Region to which the new mosque belongs, he is not the mosque's imam and has no direct involvement with the facility.
In June 2007, the Canadian Arab Federation (CAF) honoured Bangash at a gala dinner for his "unwavering" support of Palestine. CAF President Khaled Mouammar also defended Bangash, stating that "he is a man of dignity" and that "he has no blood on his hands like those Israeli war criminals who come to Canada and are received by our politicians, like Ariel Sharon."
On February 14, 2010, at a conference entitled "Media War on Islam," Bangash stated the "Israeli-owned" International Consultants on Targeted Security runs security at Amsterdam airport, and therefore "the Israelis are in control of security," and thus allowed Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab to board a Detroitbound plane with concealed exposives.
Bangash is a staunch supporter of the 1979 Islamic revolution in Iran and has called for Islamic revolutions in other countries, stating that "Muslims must strive to overthrow the oppressive systems in their societies through Islamic revolutions, and not by participating in fraudulent elections organized by the elites operating through various political parties that actually divide the people." Tarek Fatah describes him as the "unofficial spokesperson for the Iranian regime in Canada." However, Bangash has denied being an advocate of creating an Islamic theocracy telling the Toronto Star "I am suggesting not necessarily an Iranian-style theocracy but I am advocating that people in the Muslim world should get rid of their corrupt regimes in the same way as the people of Iran got rid of the corrupt regime of the shah, of course."
Source : Wikipedia
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