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By Lloyd Mackey
 OTTAWAWATCH readers who recall the July 10 piece about 'Muslim Mormons' might find the July 16 issue of Maclean's magazine interesting.
In the July 10 piece, I wrote about the visit of the prime minister to a new mosque in Calgary. In positioning the mosque's congregation on the Muslim continuum, I quoted prominent moderate imam, Syed Soharwardy, as suggesting that its adherents were sort of a Muslim equivalent to what Mormons are to Christians. That is, Soharwardy explained, because this particular mosque is a part of the Ahmadiyya group, which draws its perspective from a "latter day" 19th century prophet known as Mirza Ghulam Ahmad.
Having followed the dustup between Maclean's and the rather more accusative spokesperson for a rather smaller segment of Islam, Mohamed Elmasry of the Canadian Islamic Congress (CIC), I was intrigued with what the magazine did in the July 16 issue.
Elmasry, guiding the actions of four law students, had launched an action with the Canadian Human Rights Commission against Maclean's and one of its columnists, Mark Steyn, for what they viewed to be hate-engendered writing against Muslims.
Last week, the CHRC ruled against the Elmasry group in refusing to proceed against the magazine.
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One of the demands of the CIC had been to insist that Maclean's be required to run a long and minimally-edited rebuttal to Steyn's article. Understandably, Maclean's editor and publisher Ken Whyte said, in effect, that in the interests of a free press, he would rather the magazine go bankrupt than accede to such a demand.
I wondered what the magazine would do to avoid the browbeating that it was taking on this issue from the CIC. I did not have to wait long. The ink was hardly dry on the CHRC ruling when I received my answer.
On July 16, Maclean's ran a two page question-and-answer interview with Soharwardy, in which he had fair opportunity to explain his decision to withdraw a similar accusation of Islamaphobia against Alberta journalist Ezra Levant. (I referred to that case in the 'Muslim Mormon' OttawaWatch.)
In addition, Soharwardy, who has been walking across Canada in efforts to raise awareness for Muslims who are against terrorism, had an opportunity to answer questions about passages in the Koran that support moderation and oppose violence.
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All of which is to suggest that I feel affirmed, these days, that sometimes, a soft answer turns away wrath, and the peacemakers and peacekeepers have some reason to hope that their work is not in vain.
True, the soft answer must sometimes follow some moments of anger, rage, misunderstanding and all of that other neat stuff of which conflict is manufactured. But follow it will, in God's good time.
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Lloyd Mackey is a member of the Canadian Parliamentary Press Gallery in Ottawa and author of Stephen Harper: The Case for Collaborative Governance (ECW Press, 2006). He can be reached at lmackey@canadianchristianity.com.
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July 24/2008
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