Mark Carney and the Muslim Association of Canada

Mark Carney chose to speak at an Eid al-Adha celebration at the Muslim Association of Canada (MAC) yesterday. It’s a holiday marred by sadness for the community since it’s also the anniversary of the murder of the Afzaal family in London Ontario by a white nationalist. Appropriately, Mr. Carney sought to mark the occasion with the Muslim community. But he chose the Muslim group most closely associated with the Muslim Brotherhood (MB) in Canada, the ideological progenitor of Hamas.

Mark Carney addresses MAC Eid celebration on June 6, 2025

Although MAC denies any association with MB on their website in Canada in English, they clearly state that they adhere closely to the teachings of Hassan al Banna. They don’t clearly state that al-Banna was the founder of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt and influenced millions to adopt armed resistance. He warned Muslims not to prioritize “jihad of the heart” over “jihad of the sword.” Haviv Rettig Gur had a brilliant podcast describing how al-Banna and Rashid Rida turned a modernizing Islamic movement into the genocidal, anti-Semitic, Nazi influenced organization of the Muslim Brotherhood with the help of Haj Amin al-Husseini. Is this a case of Hamas’ initial plan to dissimulate, to “pretend you are walking away when walking forward” that was described at their 1993 meeting in Philadelphia?

Watch the Youtube video released by cpac.  Until I saw it, I would have suggested the vetting of this group was poorly done. But Mr. Carney seems totally comfortable in that setting where his introduction includes that anti-Semitic blood libel of genocide in Gaza. He is unfazed that about a quarter of the participants are wearing keffiyehs, a symbol closely associated with terror and the murder of Jews. He reiterates the horrors of Gaza described by his introducer but fails to blame them on their true source, the Muslim Brotherhood. Their armed militia, Hamas is the one sacrificing civilians for the establishment of a worldwide caliphate.

On their website, MAC claims to be moderate and intolerant of any hate speech but their behaviour reveals an entirely different style. According to their community builders’ page, they have $65 million in donations to run schools and mosques. They organize annual conferences, including a Scholars Summit, which invites noted antisemites to teach young leaders. In 2021 Tareq al-Suwaidan, the Jew hating, homophobic imam was welcomed. He is the author of the anti-Semitic “Jewish Encyclopedia.” Here are a few of his quotes:

1. “All the mothers of the Islamic nation – not only Palestinian mothers – should suckle their babies on the hatred of the sons of Zion. We hate them. They are our enemies. We should instill this in the souls of our children until a new generation rises and wipes them off the face of the earth. “

2. “We want all the young people who are skilled in the use of Twitter, Facebook, and other technological media to think about what we call ‘Electronic Jihad.'”

3. “The blood (we) sacrifice is undoubtedly precious, but the equation is: ‘our dead are in Paradise, and theirs are in the Hellfire.’ We are not afraid of martyrdom. We have no problem with death. We are different from the Israelites. ‘You should find them to be the people most eager to protect their lives,’ while we desire death, desire martyrdom. The difference is very clear.”

4. “All the wars throughout history – from the time of our Prophet Muhammad and to this day – were started by the sons of Zion. All of them! Our struggle with will continue until one of the two civilizations reigns supreme. Our struggle with them requires Jihad and not plain efforts.”

5. “The most dangerous things facing the Muslims is not the dictatorships. The absolutely most dangerous thing is the Jews. They are the most dangerous. They are the greatest enemy.”

Al- Suwaidan was barred entry from Belgium and Italy. He gave a lecture in 2020 to MAC.

Another guest at the Scholars Summit was Mohammed Rateb Al-Nabulsi, who has justified death sentences for LGBTQ2S+ on Hamas TV. The proof has been removed from Youtube due to hate speech. He supports terror and stated “all Jewish people are combatant.”

MAC supported the appointment of Amira Elghawaby to her position as special envoy to combat Islamophobia. Elghawaby went on to defend thugs chanting genocidal slogans and blocking the entrance to Mount Sinai Hospital. She supports the adoption of Anti-Palestinian Racism policy by our government that would serve to criminalize Zionism.

In 2023, MAC again invited antisemitic imams to their annual conference. Nashaat Ahmed was pulled from the line up after inquiries from the National Post. Terry Glavin wrote about it and was then tarred as Islamophobic by MAC. Ahmed justified wife beating and suicide bombing. In MAC’s response to the National Post they said that while they do not endorse supplications against Jews, “it is a well established Islamic theological position to invoke the help of God against oppressors.” MAC cancelled his talk while they vociferously defended him. MAC claimed that Ahmed’s objectionable comments were made over twenty years ago but Honest Reporting Canada has a long list of his ongoing invocations to destroy all Jews.

There are moderate Muslims that Mark Carney could have sought out instead, Raheel Raza of Canadian Muslims against Antisemitism or The Global Imam’s Council. If MAC is the company that Mark Carney prefers to keep, Jews should fear for the future.