Daniel Lang: The Senate did not call for imams to be ‘licensed.’ Nor were we fretting about nothing

Senator Lang struggles to justify the Senate report and its messaging on the licensing of Imams:

Contrary to the suggestion made in a recent National Post editorial, the Standing Senate Committee on National Security and Defence did not propose that government intervene to certify or establish a registry of Islamic or other clerics.

The carefully crafted recommendation asks that “the federal government work with the provinces and the Muslim communities to investigate the options that are available for the training and certification of imams in Canada.”

This is a very important distinction because the recommendation is made in response to testimony from members of the Muslim community as well as experts who confirmed that radicalization begins with person-to-person or person to group contact.

The witnesses who appeared before the committee over the past nine months continuously brought up the fact that radicalizing messages mixed with religious ideology was being advocated by some foreign-trained imams in Canada.

Interesting, however, to see that Imam Soharwardy, demonized by Ezra Levant, is now brought forward as a government witness (he has been consistent and reasonably in his messaging).

Daniel Lang: The Senate did not call for imams to be ‘licensed.’ Nor were we fretting about nothing