A Muslim cleric from Britain, accused of preaching hate, still doesn't know whether he will be allowed into Canada. 

Sheik Abu Yousef Riyadh ul-Haq is scheduled to speak at a Muslim youth conference in Toronto this weekend.

Sheik Abu Yousef Riyad ul-Haq is scheduled to speak to a Muslim conference in Canada this weekend, but is still waiting to find out if he'll be allowed into the country.
(CBC)

He was interviewed in London on Thursday by officials from the Canadian High Commission.

Several groups in Canada, including the Canadian Jewish Congress and its Muslim equivalent, want ul-Haq barred from entry, claiming his speeches incite hatred of Jews, Hindus, gays and even moderate Muslims.

Ul-Haq said he was surprised, even shocked, when he heard the high commission wanted to question him before he boarded a plane to Canada. 

The cleric has preached in Canada on four occasions and attracted little attention. But in the wake of  the arrests of 17 Muslims, suspected of conspiring in a bomb plot against targets in Toronto, a Canadian lobby group known as the Canadian Coalition for Democracies visited ul-Haq's website. 

The lobby group, which was founded three years ago with the aim of influencing Canadian foreign policy, discovered audio files it alleges demonstrate ul-Haq is anti-Semitic, anti-Hindu and anti-gay.

But in an interview to be aired Friday on the CBC Radio program The Current, ul-Haq insists the information was taken out of context.

He accuses his critics of lifting a short segment from a longer speech and says he was actually condemning extremists of every religious persuasion who misinterpret their holy books to justify terrorism.

"There are reasons for some of the oppressive tactics and policies against the Palestinians in Jewish scripture. That's not to say all Jews believe it, far from it," he said.

But the head of the group that started the whole uproar isn't backing down. 

"His words did not refer to Jewish zealots or Hindu zealots," said Alistair Gordon. "He referred to Jews and Hindus."

Gordon said the Coalition of Democracies was careful to have ul-Haq's speeches translated by a fluent Arabic speaker and he maintains nothing was taken out of context.

Ul-Haq's speeches, he said, are intolerant. 

"He says in his own sermon, 'Please forgive me for polluting the mosque,' before he would even utter the word homosexual."

Gordon said the legal basis for keeping ul-Haq out is Canada's hate laws.

So far, Immigration Minister Monte Solberg is keeping his head down. An official in Solberg's office said in the past, the minister has said people who preach hate aren't welcome in Canada. But Solberg isn't saying whether he will deny ul-Haq entry.

For his part, ul-Haq promises if he does come to Canada, he will steer clear of controversial themes. He said he plans to address Muslim youth at the Toronto conference on the topic of social etiquette from the Islamic point of view.