B.C. Premier John Horgan has withdrawn a certificate of recognition sent to a controversial Vancouver imam, following a month-long advocacy campaign by B\u2019nai Brith Canada. In an email sent to B\u2019nai Brith supporters, the premier\u2019s office confirmed it had rescinded the certificate bestowed upon Tarek Ramadan, while adding, \u201cWe strongly condemn any racist, antisemitic, homophobic or discriminatory language.\u201d The email further asserted that the premier\u2019s office was unaware of Ramadan\u2019s \u201cconcerning statements\u201d before issuing the certificate and reiterated that Ramadan had also \u201creceived certificates from previous governments in past years.\u201d<\/p>\n
B\u2019nai Brith first publicly called on the premier to rescind the certificate on May 16, noting that Ramadan was exploiting the governmental plaudits to vindicate his chants against \u201cmalevolent Jews\u201d and insistence that \u201call of Palestine should only be in the custody of the Muslims.\u201d<\/p>\n
B\u2019nai Brith exposed further antisemitism and homophobia on Ramadan\u2019s part and called on its followers to contact the premier\u2019s office. Ramadan had publicly posted, then later deleted, a video on Facebook that accuses the Jewish Rothschild family of controling the world\u2019s banks and media, while justifying the Holocaust on the basis that \u201cthe Jews sold Germany down the river.\u201d<\/p>\n
Another post by Ramadan, still visible on Facebook, describes Israeli soldiers as \u201cfags,\u201d a homophobic slur.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are relieved that the premier\u2019s office has finally done the right thing,\u201d said Michael Mostyn, chief executive officer of B\u2019nai Brith Canada. \u201cNo one who has been exposed as a hatemonger should receive recognition from a high government official in any province.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe look forward to working with all parties in B.C. and across the country to prevent similar situations from arising in the future.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Muslim Association of Canada, which runs the mosque where Ramadan preached, described his conduct as \u201cinappropriate\u201d in a November 2017 statement.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
B.C. Premier John Horgan has withdrawn a certificate of recognition sent to a controversial Vancouver imam, following a month-long advocacy campaign by B\u2019nai Brith Canada. In an email sent to B\u2019nai Brith supporters, the premier\u2019s office confirmed it had rescinded the certificate bestowed upon Tarek Ramadan, while adding, \u201cWe strongly condemn any racist, antisemitic, homophobic […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[801,6422,6887,7499,8181],"class_list":["post-28980","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local","tag-antisemitism","tag-british-columbia","tag-john-horgan","tag-michael-mostyn","tag-tarek-ramadan"],"blocksy_meta":{"styles_descriptor":{"styles":{"desktop":"","tablet":"","mobile":""},"google_fonts":[],"version":8}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28980","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28980"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28980\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28980"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28980"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28980"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}