Imam Syed Soharwardy is the founder of the Calgary-based Islamic Supreme Council of Canada and Muslims Against Terrorism.
He is often invited by CBC (Canadian Broadcasting Corporation), Canada’s Public Broadcaster, as a guest expert to discuss issues related to terrorism and radicalization.
On July 23, 2018 Syed Soharwardy posted on his Facebook page:
Islam is the most feminist religion which requires equality and justice for both genders. No gender based superiority, only piety
On April 2, 2017, Soharwardy delivered a speech at Christ Church Scraborough Village in Toronto. Here are excerpts from Soharwardy’s speech entitled “Interfaith Dialogue – Understanding Islam and Muslims”:
Prophet Mohammad’s wife, she used to teach male companions after the prophet passed away… Prophet’s grandson’s daughter, Nafisa bint Al-Hassan, she used to teach in the mosque male people and female about the religion of Islam… Women leadership in Islam has been from the start. In the holy Quran the relationship between husband and wife is described so beautifully that I don’t think you’d find such a description in any scripture… The is no gender-based superiority in Islam. Only superiority in Islam is based on piety… When the Taliban were ruling Afghanistan they were beating a burqa woman and they were hitting her with lashes… and the reason was that she was wearing white socks. That is so stupid, it’s cruel, it’s unjust, it’s wrong. Islam does not forbid women from wearing white socks… In Saudi Arabia women cannot drive… During the time of prophet Mohammad… there were women who used to ride camels. If the woman could ride camels at that time today the camel is our cars… If I would say that Islam is the most feminist religion it’s not untrue. Yes, there are people, there are people of clergy also, they misinterpret, they definitely have different mindset, but they are very, very small minority.