Prime Minister Paul Martin meets with Islamic religious leaders from across the country, Thursday.

Naresh Raghubeer of the Canadian Coalition for Democracy said he believed that such criticism of CSIS at this time is off-track.

PM meets prominent Canadian Islamic leaders

CTV.ca News Staff

Prime Minister Paul Martin sat down with Islamic religious leaders from across the country Thursday night to discuss how they can work together to combat terrorism. 

Last week a coalition of prominent imams made an unprecedented public declaration against terror and threatened to turn in extremists.

"It is very important that the government respond, to show the importance of that statement and that we recognize the truth of their statement so we can build on that statement,'' Martin told reporters after a 90-minute meeting with 19 imams at a Toronto hotel.

Earlier in the day, at a public meeting in Halifax, Canadian Islamic Congress president Mohamed Elmasry, repeated his message of cooperation.  Elmasry spearheaded last week's initiative.

But Elmasry also called Thursday for improved relations between Muslims and Canada's spy agency. He said the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) must exercise care in dealing with Muslims.

His words follow a controversial interview published Monday in The Globe and Mail. In it, Aly Hindy, the imam of the Salaheddin Islamic Centre in Scarborough, alleged that CSIS agents roughed up a young woman while her husband was away at prayers.

The normally secretive CSIS public affairs department took the unusual step of denying the allegation, which was first raised months ago.

Naresh Raghubeer of the Canadian Coalition for Democracy said he believed that such criticism of CSIS at this time is off-track.

Raghubeer said he believes CSIS and mainstream Muslims are not doing enough, together, to head off the possibility of terrorist activity in Canada.

Raghuber went on to allege that members of some of the groups that met with Martin preached hatred, and their leaders don't do enough to condemn such comments. "So we need to be asking some serious questions before we meet these people."

Tarek Fatah of the Muslim Canadian Congress also took exception to the meeting, saying that restricting participation to religious leaders was an error.

"This is diminishing our entire community to look as though there are 18 imams, and that's who represents us,'' Fatah said. "It's giving credibility to the very people who liberal and progressive Muslims are fighting.''

With files from CTV's Denelle Balfour, ATV News and Canadian Press