Canadian Muslims are being urged not to cooperate with authorities, by radical Islamist front group CAIR-Canada and the Young Muslims of Canada: Know your rights, Muslims urged. (Hat tip: sr_soph.)

Not enough young Muslims know the law and risk having their rights trampled by law enforcement agencies in Canada, Muslim activists said yesterday in a City Hall meeting geared towards Islamic youths.

Individual Muslims also must stand up for their rights, and take a more proactive role in addressing how they’re portrayed in the media, activists said at the Know Your Rights seminar, held in council chambers last night.

CAIR representatives said Muslims should work to show the community that terrorism has nothing to do with Islam—by belligerently refusing to apologize, and by claiming harassment whenever possible.

Karl Nickner, executive director of CAIR-CAN, said Muslims should work together to show the larger population that terrorism has no place in Islam. “The community shouldn’t have to apologize for 17 people who may have had extremist ideas,” Nickner said. “Do we ask the Italian community to apologize for the Mafia? No, we don’t, and we shouldn’t.”

Lawyer Faisal Kutty — a well-known activist in the Muslim community — said that while Muslims should respect the authorities, who have Canada’s security in mind, nobody is obligated to speak with police or let them into their home, especially if they feel they’re being wrongly targeted, profiled or harassed.

Those words resonated with Syed Reza, 24, national co-ordinator of the Young Muslims of Canada, who helped organize the seminar. It was just after 9/11 when a teenaged Reza was visited by an RCMP agent, he said.

Reza, who was involved with Young Muslims of Canada then, thought it was odd the RCMP officer had come to his family’s home. Still, he opened the door to the agent, who then offered him money to be a paid informant who would infiltrate parts of the Muslim community to find potential terrorists and extremists.

Reza said he was insulted. Had he known his rights, he wouldn’t have had the conversation with the officer, he said. Reza was offended by the assumption he would even have a close proximity to potential terrorists, solely because he was a young Muslim.

UPDATE at 7/17/06 2:44:45 pm:

The Young Muslims of Canada appeared at LGF in 2003, when we discovered the archetypal jihad manual by Syed Qutb, Milestones, posted on their web site: lgf: Syed Qutb’s Mein Kampf.