Hussein Hamdani refuses to be held responsible for the actions of other Muslims, equating it to collective guilt

The Agenda with Steve Paikin
Theme: Fear and Censorship

Date: The show was broadcast on May 31, 2010 and the video uploaded on June 3, 2010.

Contrary to what appears on a TVO presentation of the show, the fourth guest was Yaser Haddara and not Julian Falconer.

The whole exchange between Yaser Haddara, Hussein Hamdani, Raheel Raza, Tarek Fatah and host Steve Paikin is available HERE

13:05 – Steve Paikin

I do have to put that to Hussein (Hamdani). I think it’s fair to say, and you’ll tell me if I’m wrong, that you can poke fun at and satirize almost anything in Judaism, Christianity, any other number of different religions around the world without taking your life into your hands. It seems as if, the fact is you can’t do it with Islam, with some people because you do take your life into your hands. Why is that?

13:33 – Hussein Hamdani

I think there are two points, two points I wanna make to that. One is, I as a Muslim, am a little exhausted from being responsible for the acts of all other Muslims around the world. There are 1.5 million of us and if a handful of people do something, somewhere in the world, I should be found guilty and it’s not the collective punishment, it’s the crime. So, that’s one thing.

Muslims tend to get lumped together often, universally condemned for the actions of, all the people around here would say are, extremists, zealots and criminals. And, they should be tried as individuals in a court of law.

Later in the show [17:00], Tarek Fatah pointed out that the principles of individualism and liberalism, being invoked by Hamdani in this case, contradict the notion of Ummah [Muslim nation] advocated by Islamist organizations like the Muslim Brotherhood and its sister organization in Pakistan, the Jamaat-e-Islami. In classic liberalism, the individual is supreme but in the dominant version of organized Islam in Canada today, the notion of Ummah [Muslim nation] negates the individual.

In the past, Hamdani has invited numerous leaders linked to the Muslim Brotherhood that adheres to the collectivist concept of Ummah to speak at conferences that he was organizing but Hamdani’s past endorsements were not discussed during the show.

As for Yaser Haddara who was siding with Hamdani during the debate, he was then Board member of the Muslim Association of Canada, the main Muslim Brotherhood representative in Canada.