Chasing Tarek Fatah, the Mirage

Saturday, 12 February 2011 00:00 Sheharyar Shaikh Editorial Dept - Americas
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In Urdu, 'Tarek' literally means 'quitter'. - Interestingly, we saw this definition play in reality on Saturday, January 29, 2011, when Tarek Fatah backed out from a debate with me at the last minute without informing anyone at the venue.

Shamefully, he has still not spoken a word to the organizers about his uninformed absence. All they have to go by is a 'press release' by some organization he knows friends in, but one he does not officially represent in any way.

Assuming the press release letter voices Mr. Fatah’s views (the truth of which we may never know) it makes for an engaging read (see PDF attachment).

The clown on the letter by the name of Sohail Raza accuses NAMF of “turn(ing) a debate into a public inquisition”. This is a serious charge. How was this to be a public inquisition, I wonder? And why would it be public? Doesn’t the general public identify with Mr Fatah against the Big, Bad Islamists? Or perhaps, it is the public, not NAMF, which is full of anger toward you, Mr. Fatah, for the propaganda damage you cause them.
 

And since when did Mr. Fatah tie a “condition” of taking part at NAMF only after he approved of the moderator? Even if true, why did he confirm his attendance by phone 2 hours before the event? All we know is that he consistently made noise – Yes – over many things: the language, the venue, the format, his approval before any video recording, and the choice of moderator.

Hardly a martyr for his cause, he seemed to try every possible way to weasel out of this debate. (We have the entire email correspondence proving this, which we plan to make public soon).

I can go on about the lies of cameras not being allowed at NAMF, or of NAMF withdrawing police officers, or of conspiring to “ambush” Tarek Fatah through an “inquisition”, but I won't (all this is extensively covered in an open letter by one organizer of the event).

I only want to express sympathy with those well-meaning, yet naïve folks before whom Tarek Fatah masquerades as some kind of Martin Luther of Islam boldly battling the Islamist boogiemen; folks who believed he would show up to uphold the very principles he keeps saying he fights for.

On his Facebook page, Mr. Fatah wrote:

This Saturday, January 29, I face another Islamic cleric in a public debate. Please do come and see for yourself the danger of allowing Islamism to spread its fascist cancer among the born-in-Canada Muslim youth in our country.

Consider the sympathy he gathers on the same page among some very simple-minded people:

“Tarek, you are a brave man and God is with you and he will protect you from evil”

“Tarek is one of the sane Muslims out there who is willing to smite down the terrorists who plague it”

“I am really horrified at the extent of threat Tarek is facing”

“Tariq. You are a brave man. We are with you be not afraid of these two bit molvis”

“@Tarek – I’m surprised the threat took this long but be well, my friend. Be safe & be blessed by Allah and continue on with your moral courage. The world needs you”


In my honest assessment, Tarek Fatah is inauthentic. He, like many self-styled Islamic reformers these days, wants to cash in on the publicity and martyr-status, but not at the expense of being exposed.

Alas, I truly believed the man, however wrongly guided, carried the potential to serve his community. But with his rude and shameful absence exposing his moral cowardice to face an opponent in debate following a challenge that he threw in November, 2010, and worse, getting others to lie to defend him, that hope has all but disappeared.

Image Courtesy of The Star - Tarek Fatah



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