Tarek Fatah

Fatah was born in Karachi, Pakistan into a Punjabi family which had migrated from Bombay to Karachi following the Partition of India in 1947.[7] Fatah graduated with a degree in biochemistry from the University of Karachi but entered into journalism as a reporter for the Karachi Sun in 1970, before becoming an investigative journalist for Pakistan Television.[8] He was a leftist student leader in the 1960s and 1970s[9] and was imprisoned twice by military regimes. In 1977, he was charged with sedition and barred from journalism by the Zia-ul Haq regime.[9]

He left Pakistan and settled in Saudi Arabia, before emigrating to Canada in 1987.[2][9]

Of himself, Fatah asserts:

"I am an Indian born in Pakistan, a Punjabi born in Islam; an immigrant in Canada with a Muslim consciousness, grounded in a Marxist youth. I am one of Salman Rushdie’s many Midnight’s Children: we were snatched from the cradle of a great civilization and made permanent refugees, sent in search of an oasis that turned out to be a mirage."[9]

Tarek was a long-time member of the Ontario New Democratic Party (NDP) and had unsuccessfully ran for the 1995 provincial elections from Scarborough North.[10] He subsequently worked for Rae's successor as Ontario NDP leader, Howard Hampton.

In July 2006, he left the NDP to support Bob Rae's candidacy for the Liberal Party of Canada's leadership. In an opinion piece published in Toronto's Now Magazine, Fatah wrote that he decided to leave the NDP because of the establishment of a "faith caucus" which he believes will open the way for religious fundamentalists to enter the party.[11] However, after Rae's defeat by Stéphane Dion, Fatah condemned similar racial and religious organizing activity in the Liberal Party, arguing in a Globe and Mail editorial that Tamil, Sikh, Kurdish and Islamist Muslim leaders had engaged in "blatant efforts to wield political muscle," "bargaining the price of their cadre of delegates" and creating a "political process that feeds on racial and religious exploitation."[12] "I respect the diversity of Canada," he wrote, "but I want to celebrate what unites us, not what divides us into tiny tribes that can be manipulated by leaders who sell us to the highest bidder."[12]

At a press conference on 2 October 2008, Fatah sharply criticized the New Democratic Party (NDP). Fatah stated that he was a lifetime social democrat who had supported the NDP for 17 years but that he could no longer be affiliated with that party. He claimed that the NDP began opening its doors to Islamists under Alexa McDonough and that, under Jack Layton, he had seen them "flood" into the party. Fatah stated that Islamists in the NDP have pursued a campaign to instill a sense of victimhood in Muslim youth.[13]

In early 2011, Fatah said that he received a threat via Twitter. Fatah contacted Toronto Police Service and later met with two police officers from 51 Division. Fatah said that police intelligence officers, one a Muslim officer who had shut down a previous investigation into a death threat, shut down the investigation and claimed there was no threat.[14][15] Fatah criticized the Toronto Police over the incident.[14]

In a 2015 Toronto Sun article, Fatah wrote that he would be voting for Conservative leader Stephen Harper in the 2015 federal elections, while calling himself a social democrat.[16] Fatah has also favoured both Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders for the United States presidential race in 2016. He said that many Muslim groups, and he himself, have recommended curbs on immigration from countries that harbour Islamist sympathisers, similar to policies promised by Trump.[17][18][19]

From 1996 until 2006 he hosted Muslim Chronicle, a weekly Toronto-based current affairs discussion show on CTS and VisionTV, which focused on the Muslim community.[20]

In February, 2011, Fatah was scheduled to have a debate with Sheharyar Shaikh of the North American Muslim Foundation (NAMF), after Shaikh issued an open challenge to Fatah to debate him. Fatah cancelled at the last minute and failed to show up.[21] Shaikh, who had defended polygamy and opposed secular educations for Muslims, was a critic of Fatah's views. Fatah stated that he had cancelled his appearance because the moderator was changed shortly before the event was to begin, and because the audience was "hostile". Fatah also claimed that he was warned by police of threats to his safety.[22] Fatah and Shaikh later appeared together in an interview for Sun News debating the role of Islam in ISIS.[23]

Fatah has been a critic of Pakistan. He has questioned the legitimacy of the state and has advocated support for Baloch separatists.[24] In February 2013, after the website of the Toronto Sun was blocked in Pakistan; Fateh claimed credit.[25] He rejects anti-semitism as incompatible with Islam and has supported Israel's "right to exist" and Zionist projects; he has however called for an end to the illegal and "immoral" Israeli occupation of Palestine and anti-Arabism.[26]

Fatah is a critic of Sharia law.[27][28] In a discussion hosted by The Globe and Mail in 2007, Fatah claimed that "most of the Islamic radicalism that you see today stems from the empowering of Saudi based Jihad groups that were funded and backed by the U.S. and the CIA throughout the Afghan war against the Soviet Union."[29]

In response to the Quebec City mosque shooting, Fatah endorsed the discredited conspiracy theory that Muslims had participated as perpetrators in the 2017 Quebec City mosque shooting that killed six people.[30][31]

According to the National Post he has also said "Islam is riddled with termites ... and if we don’t cleanse ourselves with truth, the stench of our lies will drive us mad", and that there are "hateful sermons in almost every mosque" in Canada – Fatah himself does not attend a mosque and encourages Muslim parents to keep their children out of mosques because they have become, in his view, schools for fanaticism.[32]

In November 2011, 60 Muslim groups and two dozen imams endorsed a statement that called for action against domestic violence, condemned honour killing as a notion that had "absolutely nothing to do with Islam". Fatah refused to endorse the statement, according to the National Post, arguing that the statement didn't address gender inequality and that honour killing has roots in Islam. According to Fatah, Islam deems the relationship of an unmarried woman as "adultery" and imams must distance themselves from punishing such actions by death.[33]

In April 2008, the Ontario Human Rights Commission (OHRC) dismissed a complaint about allegedly Islamophobic articles in Maclean's magazine. However, the commission criticized the newsweekly for publishing articles that were "inconsistent with the spirit" of the Ontario Human Rights Code, and doing "serious harm" to Canadian society by "promoting societal intolerance" and disseminating "destructive, xenophobic opinions."[34] Fatah said that for the Commission "to refer to Maclean's magazine and journalists as contributing to racism is bullshit, if you can use that word" and that the Commission has unfairly taken sides against freedom of speech in a dispute within the Canadian Muslim community between moderates and fundamentalists.[34]

Michael Coren, a critic of Islam, has praised Fatah for being "brave" enough to admit the "faults and failings" of Islam.[32] Wael Haddara, president of the Muslim Association of Canada, said that he "respect[s]" Fatah for his passion but that it was "hard, if not downright impossible, to find something positive that he has ever said about Muslims." As a result, Haddara argues, Muslims are no longer listening to Fatah.[32] Syed Soharwardy, president of the Islamic Supreme Council of Canada, noted Fatah's views to be valuable but rejected his stereotyping of Islam by extrapolating from the behavior of a few extremists.[32] In February 2007, Fatah was included by Maclean's magazine on a list of 50 Canadians described as "Canada’s most well known and respected personalities.".[35] In December 2008, the Toronto Star suggested that Prime Minister Stephen Harper appoint Fatah to one of the vacant seats in the Canadian Senate.[36] Toronto Star's senior editor Bob Hepburn wrote that Fatah is "A prominent spokesperson for secular and progressive Muslim issues who would bring a much-needed unique perspective to the Senate."

‘Fatah ka Fatwa’ was well-received by the masses;[37] radical Islamist organisations have protested against the show and urged for his assassination.[38][39][40]

Tarek Fatah has been criticised for spreading fake news on multiple occasions.[41][42] Amid the Delhi Assembly Election in 2020, he tweeted an old communally-charged video, and claimed it to be from Delhi.[43] In Jan 2020, he tweeted another video of Burqa-clad persons dancing to a Bollywood number, hinting that the video is from Shaheen Bagh CAA-NRC protest, whereas, it was found that Fatah had tweeted the same video twice in the past, each time spreading a different lie against Muslims.[44] Because of his continued pattern of spreading fake news on Twitter, especially in sectarian lines, some critics have argued that he is an external agent who wants to create communal disturbances in India.[45][46][47] Writing about his targeting of Indian Muslims, AltNews.in accused him of "blurring the lines between rational scepticism and contempt toward the Muslim community." [41]

In 2016, after delivering a talk at Panjab University in India, he was attacked by students. This was after he called a Kashmiri student "a Pakistani Terrorist" and then called a Sikh student a "Khalistani".[48] He also told a Hindu girl in the same event, “You are the real patriot because of your religion.” He criticised the students for standing up to show respect when the librarian came in. He told them, "Indians need to stop giving such treatment to their seniors".[48]

In 2017, Indian police arrested two men who were hired by Chhota Shakeel to assassinate Fatah.[55]

• Tahir Gora

• Transcript of Fatah being interviewed by CNN's Glenn Beck
• Transcript - Tarek Fatah's address to Canada's Senate Committee on National Security and Defence