By Jake Scott
The Ryerson Muslim Students’ Association (MSA) says a speaker it had invited to speak on campus Thursday has pulled out last minute, one day after a support group for ex-Muslims branded him as an “extremist,” who holds “inflammatory views.”
Ex-Muslims of North America (EXMNA) sent out a press release Wednesday saying Abdurraheem Green’s “extremist views…further feed into the anti-Muslim bigotry that we at EXMNA have vowed to stand against.”
The Ryerson MSA invited Abdurraheem Green to speak at the Student Campus Centre. In a Facebook post Thursday, the MSA said Green cancelled due to “unforeseen reasons.”
Sadaf Ali, director of community development for the EXMNA said Green’s cancellation still leaves questions unanswered.
“It still stands that they to invited [Green] in the first place,” said Ali. “The onus is on Ryerson and the MSA to explain why they wanted to invite him.”
The EXMNA release alleged that “hardline” Muslim preachers like Green and his organization, the Islamic Education and Research Academy, condone “Female Genital Mutilation, the stoning and beheading of apostates (ex-Muslims) and adulterers, advocating the death penalty for LGBTQ peoples, and using violence as means for controlling women.”
The EXMNA shared its release on Twitter Wednesday and Thursday. Green responded to one of the tweets with a link to a page on his website titled “clarifications.” The page, posted in May, states that he “[has] condemned and will continue to condemn domestic violence.”
“There are beliefs that I have held that I have realised were completely either wrong, or sometimes misplaced. My opinions about many matters have changed with both knowledge, insight and experience.”
The Eyeopener has put in an interview request to Green but did not receive a response as of publication.
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