Mustafa Farooq is Executive Director of the National Council of Canadian Muslims (NCCM). A lawyer by profession, Mustafa completed his Juris Doctor at the University of Alberta and Osgoode Hall (York University) and later earned his Master of Laws (LLM) at UC Berkeley in California.
Mustafa Farooq describes Omar Khadr as a “child soldier, who was tortured into a “confession.” Omar Ahmed Sayid Khadr (born September 19, 1986) is a Canadian who at the age of 15 [15 years 10 months 8 days] was detained by the United States at Guantanamo Bay for ten years, during which he pleaded guilty to the murder of U.S. Army Sergeant 1st Class Christopher Speer and other charges. On July 27, 2002, at age 15 [15 years 10 months 8 days] , Khadr was severely wounded during fighting between U.S. soldiers and Taliban fighters in the village of Ayub Kheyl; Khadr is alleged to have thrown the grenade that killed Speer. He later appealed his conviction, claiming that he falsely pleaded guilty so that he could return to Canada where he remained in custody for three additional years. Khadr sued the Canadian government for infringing his rights under the Charter of Rights and Freedoms; this lawsuit was settled in 2017 with a CA$10.5 million payment and an apology by the federal government. (Wikipedia)
Ezra Levant has a different view on Omar Khadr. On February 10, 2020 he tweeted:
Omar Khadr was on my Air Canada flight 608 from Toronto to Halifax — flying first class. He hid his face from me when I got on, but I see him now. Why is a convicted Al Qaida terrorist on the no-fly list allowed on a passenger plane?
In response to Ezra Levant, Mustafa Farooq posted two tweets:
[Tweet no. 1] Disgusting tweet.
[Tweet no. 2] Let me be clear. If you have a problem with a child soldier, who was tortured into a “confession”, speaking about his experience, your outrage is only indicative of one thing. That fact that you need to take a hard look in the mirror.
Later Mustafa Farooq retweeted a statement by Mustafa Farooq by Michael Bueckert, recent PhD in sociology and political economy from Carleton University:
Omar Khadr is a national hero who did nothing wrong. Ezra Levant, on the other hand, poses an actual public safety threat by instigating racist hatred and violence against minorities.
