Magazine apologizes for 'hateful' blog comments
Last Updated: Friday, December 21, 2007 | 5:41 PM MT
CBC News
The Islamic Supreme Council of Canada cancelled a protest planned for Friday in Calgary over anti-Muslim comments made on a Western Standard blog site, after receiving an apology from the magazine's owner.
"Mr. Matthew Johnston, who is the new owner of the Western Standard, he called me last night and he apologized on the phone," Imam Syed Soharwardy, president of the Islamic council, said Friday.
Earlier this month, a user calling himself 'Templar' posted comments on a blog section of the Western Standard's website. The user wrote that there "is no such thing as innocent Muslims" and went on to make violent threats.
Soharwardy launched two human rights complaints against the magazine earlier this week, calling the comments hate-mongering and an abuse of freedom of speech.
The imam said Johnston told him the statements were hateful and offended not only Muslims but also the management and readers of the Western Standard, and that the magazine would try to better monitor what's posted on its site.
"They will have responsible journalism and editing and monitoring of their blog," Soharwardy said. "I thank him for his recognition of the problem and doing exactly what we wanted him to do, is to apologize and make sure it does not happen again."
The human rights complaints have now been withdrawn, he said.
