{"id":170159,"date":"2026-08-16T17:19:16","date_gmt":"2026-08-16T17:19:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/170159\/"},"modified":"2026-08-16T17:19:16","modified_gmt":"2026-08-16T17:19:16","slug":"muslim-association-of-canada-apologizes-for-jew-free-phrase-at-may-convention","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/170159\/","title":{"rendered":"Muslim Association of Canada apologizes for \u2018Jew free\u2019 phrase at May convention"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Muslim Association of Canada has apologized for the phrase \u201cJew free<\/a>\u201d appearing during an interactive word-cloud exercise at its recent convention.<\/p>\n

During the three-day conference in May 2026, MAC carried out \u201ca public, anonymous audience-participation exercise\u201d that produced a word-cloud image, built on responses to the question of what kind of community the participants wanted. Among the 50 entries that appeared in the cloud was the phrase \u201cJew free.\u201d<\/p>\n

This was widely shared, with groups such as HonestReporting<\/a> condemning it as an act of \u201cnormalized Jew hate.\u201d<\/p>\n

In a recent statement, MAC announced it has completed an internal investigation into the incident.<\/p>\n

It acknowledged that the phrase was \u201coffensive and hurtful to Jewish Canadians<\/a>\u201d as well as \u201cMuslim Canadians and to anyone committed to a pluralistic society.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"PeoplePeople attend a rally to highlight Islamophobia, sponsored by the Muslim Association of Canada, June 2021. (credit: REUTERS\/ALEX FILIPE)MAC rejects antisemitic word cloud entry, says submitter could not be traced<\/p>\n

It added, \u201cOffensive and discriminatory statements of any kind have no place in the Muslim community, and MAC unequivocally states that the submission of this word was unacceptable and does not represent its values.\u201d<\/p>\n

MAC<\/a> said the phrase was submitted to the word cloud by an \u201canonymous, bad-faith\u201d actor. However, despite the internal inquiry, MAC said it was unable to identify the person behind the \u201cantisemitic\u201d phrase as all submissions were anonymous.<\/p>\n

It further claimed that the investigation found that the phrase did not reflect the views of the Muslim youth participants of the session, but it did not state how this conclusion was reached.<\/p>\n

MAC concluded that the incident would have been preventable had controls been in place to screen submissions within the third-party application. The organization promised to implement additional training for youth facilitators ahead of future sessions, in order to ensure that any attempt \u201cto express hate during a live session is identified and addressed in the moment.\u201d<\/p>\n

MAC defends Hasan al-Banna discussion as study of Islamic history<\/p>\n

The word cloud was not the only point of contention regarding the conference. HonestReporting noted that, prior to the workshop, speaker Khaled Al-Qazzaz of Canadian Muslim Public Affairs Council (CMPAC) spent 20 minutes praising Muslim Brotherhood founder Hassan al-Banna as a youth organizing model for Islamic revival.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis isn\u2019t just a disturbing and all-too familiar phrase on a screen,\u201d HonestReporting said. \u201cIt\u2019s a warning sign of what happens when Jew-hatred is institutionalized and normalized in spaces meant to shape the next generation.\u201d<\/p>\n

MAC defended the speech, saying it was \u201ca historical biographical session using Imam Hassan al-Banna\u2019s life to educate attendees.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cImam Hassan al-Banna built a movement significant in the modern history of the Muslim world. The message was that Canadian Muslim youth with far more access and freedom should not underestimate themselves,\u201d MAC said on Substack.<\/p>\n

\u201cImam Hassan al-Banna is a renowned figure in Islamic history, and his life is taught in Islamic studies programs across Western universities. Discussing his biography is part of studying Islamic tradition.\u201d<\/p>\n

Qazzaz publicly responded, saying: \u201cI spoke in my personal capacity about a letter written by Imam Hassan al-Banna to Muslim youth in the early 20th century, using his words to inspire young people to positively contribute to their communities.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAll Canadians, including Muslim Canadians, have the right to explore ideas and draw from their heritage. That is what free societies protect. I will not accept attempts to censor this exercise, least of all from fringe pseudo-journalists whose priority is Islamophobic smear campaigns.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Muslim Association of Canada has apologized for the phrase \u201cJew free\u201d appearing during an interactive word-cloud exercise…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":170160,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[12165,17,13815,27484],"class_list":["post-170159","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-canada","tag-anti-semitism","tag-canada","tag-canadian-jewry","tag-hate-speech"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/170159","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=170159"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/170159\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/170160"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=170159"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=170159"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=170159"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}