Imam of Peace: Mohammed Tawhidi and his surprisingly controversial message

In a black outer robe trimmed with a thin golden line and a traditional white turban, Imam Mohammad Tawhidi warmly greeted and welcomed guests to a hall on the second floor of a modest two-storey building in Toronto, even personally escorting some to their seats. The occasion , on March 31, was an Eid reception to mark the end of Ramadan, Islam’s holiest month of fasting and prayer, and it was the first such reception of the Global Imams Council ’s new western headquarters in Canada. The charismatic Tawhidi serves as a governing member of the council, comprised of faith leaders and scholars of all Islamic sects. The group advocates against Islamic extremism and promotes peaceful and meaningful relations with Jewish people and the Jewish nation. Inside, the room buzzed with diversity, as community leaders, activists and even Jewish rabbis came to hear Tawhidi’s powerful speech calling for peace and unity among all faiths. Widely known as the “Imam of Peace,” Tawhidi was born in Qom, a religious city in Iran, but his parents are from Iraq. The cleric later fled the regime of Saddam Hussein and eventually settled in Australia. Coming from a long line of Shia clerics, he proudly says, “We are Shia Orthodox — orthodox in our beliefs and conservative in our traditions.” Educated in Islamic studies, Tawhidi is pursuing a doctorate in Islamic jurisprudence. He was ordained as an imam in Qom, Iran, in 2010, and again in Iraq in 2013. Unlike other Muslim imams, Tawhidi has sat with Jewish rabbis in synagogues, and Christian priests in churches. He has publicly denounced groups such as Hamas and Hezbollah, calling them terrorist organizations. He says Jerusalem rightfully belongs to the Jewish people, which earned him praise from interfaith advocates around the world, and threats from extremist Muslims. National Post sat with Tawihidi to learn more about his views. The following interview has been edited for length and clarity. Why are you known as the Imam of Peace? Why not? That’s my question. Why not? In fact, every imam should be an imam of peace, not just me. An imam is someone who represents the teachings of God, the wishes of God, and everything that comes down from God should be (about) peace, and what revolves around peace and what helps us reach either inner peace or social harmony, to make our lives better, not to turn our lives into misery, right? So, anyone who says (they) represent anything to do with religion and God should be a representative of nothing but peace and positivity. So why not? But the reasons for the name are multiple. Initially, I was referred to as an Imam of Peace in Australia. Why? Because putting me in a box was very necessary, at least for the Western world. I didn’t fit with the fundamentalists, and I didn’t fit with the extremists, and I didn’t fit with the traditionalists, and I didn’t fit with the political Islamists. So, I found myself in my own corner with my own followers and friends, and so I adopted the name. It helped me greatly in identifying myself. It’s a question of who is this guy and what does he do? In the Middle East, people know where you stand either by knowing your tribal positions, or they know which school of thought you associate with, or they know your teachers, so they can put you in a box. But in the West, they don’t know. They see a guy with a turban and a beard — is he good? Is he safe? What’s the deal? And someone with a message like me, who is an imam and a preacher, it’s important for me to make it easier for them to understand because I am in their society. They’re not in my society. I’m in the West. So, I’m speaking to an audience that is both Muslim and Western, and I’m speaking in their language, and they have the right to know who’s talking about their affairs and issues in society, providing advice and so on. It helps everyone that I identify myself proudly as what I stand for. In my social media profiles, I describe myself with two words: peace advocate. (Those) two words explain exactly who I am. What is the Global Imams Council (GIC)? What are you doing with your colleagues as a governing member? The Global Imams Council is a council of Sunni and Shia Muslim clerics, imams, jurists, some of them are diplomats, representing all Muslim schools of thought, sects and denominations with no discrimination. We are a very, very diverse council, and the only one of its kind in the world. There are Sunni councils and there are Shia councils and there are Sufi councils. We are the only imam council in the world that is international and embracing of all Muslims. This, in itself, is a huge achievement. We represent Islam and Muslims through the organizations, schools and institutes that our imams have and run, and the pulpits they have, and through our affiliations with the seminaries and grand muftis around the world, and the grand Ayatollahs who are aligned with our view of peace. Why did GIC move its Western headquarters to Toronto? Firstly, as a global council, you need to maintain your global presence. And in the West, the city that has one of the largest numbers of diplomatic corps and diplomatic missions in the world is Toronto. Through Toronto, we have been successful in engaging multiple countries over the last two years, starting with Kosovo, Albania, North Macedonia, the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Georgia; and in the future, we’re talking to Azerbaijan and other countries. Also, some Muslim groups, Muslim schools of thought, and their leaders all begin from Toronto. I am also married to a Canadian, and I have a Canadian daughter. I have been active in Toronto since 2018 and got married in Canada in 2022. You have attracted criticism from a number of corners. For example, you said Jerusalem is a land for Jews and were labelled a pro-Israel imam. You have also been called “far right” and other things. What is your response to that? I have not said anything. God said Jerusalem belongs to the Jews. In the Holy Qur’an, Chapter Five, Verse 20 onwards, God tells Moses to take his people into the Holy Land and to never leave. So, who are the people of Moses? The people who follow the Torah, who are Jews, the nation of Moses. That’s God’s wish. I don’t care if they went or they didn’t go; that’s not my concern. My concern is God’s wishes. That is what God wants. This is a land title for where the Jews should exist on this Earth. I am not pro-Israel. I’m not a politician. I am pro-Qur’an. I am pro my Qur’an. I am pro the wishes of my God. This is a very different distinction, and I do not care a single bit about political narratives. I only care about what is in my Qur’an. That is my constitution in life. God doesn’t care about human politics or useless arguments between humans. God cares about what he ordered us to do and if we abided by it or not. That’s what I believe. On the Day of Judgment, God is not going to ask me about any political view. He’s going to ask me how did I receive his book and what did I do with it? So, I am a defender of God’s book. If the Jewish people were claiming Mecca is theirs, it would be a different argument. But they’re not. They’re claiming what God gave them, and the land title is in my book, so how can I refuse it? So, I did not say anything from myself. I am quoting the Qur’an, and I’m allowed to quote the Qur’an. When it comes to “far right,” I am not far right. I did not even know what the term “far right” meant until 2015. I grew up in a Muslim society, largely speaking Arabic, and I went to a Muslim private school. I lived in the Middle East for most of my teenage years, and I studied in the Middle East. The first time I heard the term “far right” was when Donald Trump was running for office in 2015, and the headlines were saying, “far right,” “far right.” I did not know anything about left wing and right wing in the West. To me, the West was of two categories: the Westerners who liked us and our Prophet, and the Westerners who hated us and our Prophet. That’s how we understood it, that’s how we were raised in Muslim private schools in Australia. We didn’t get into political terminologies — leftists and socialism and the right and capitalism. This is very foreign to us, but we became accustomed to these terminologies after 2015 because of the news and headlines. So, I don’t have an ideology that is political. I have an Islamic ideology. My belief system is Islamic. It’s not political Islam. It’s purely Islamic. I cannot be right wing or left wing, because I put my religion first. I have a quote about this. I say, “Listen, I’m not left wing or right wing. I am human wing.” And if you really come down to my views on things, you will find that I have a lot in common with people who are in the centre. I believe in family values. I also believe in lower taxes. I’m an immigrant, right? So, I cannot be anti-immigration. The real issue is who I am now, the person I am. I have to be accessible, and I have to engage people of all backgrounds, because my message is universal. As an imam, you’re visiting synagogues, churches, you’re meeting with rabbis. Isn’t that quite rare among Muslims? Do you vote green? Red? Blue? I don’t ask. I go and I sit with the Jews, and I sit with the Christians, and we don’t even speak politics. We only speak about peace and interfaith and what is common between us. We don’t engage in cheap talk. Political talk is cheap talk. It changes, and we cannot measure our friendships based on political positions, right? But there are some exceptions. For example, we must all agree that Hamas is a political entity and should be destroyed. Hezbollah is a political party, and the militia to the political party must be destroyed. These are views on political organizations that we care about. We care about where people stand when it comes to these Islamist Muslim Brotherhood extremist organizations, right? I’m not interested in arguing about things that change. No, I’m only interested in discussing what concerns the principles that cannot be violated. Health care and taxes and wage gaps — these things will always be in the political sphere, discussed and argued and written about. These are harmless topics. But there are principles one should never violate. Hamas is a terrorist organization. The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps is a terrorist organization. Hezbollah is a terrorist organization, and this is what I ensure is common between us and whoever we sit with. Otherwise, we don’t sit with them. We don’t sit with anyone who disagrees that Hamas is a terrorist organization. This is as political as we go. We don’t have any other politics or political views. Thanks for inviting me to the opening of GIC. I listened to your speech about fighting extremism. How closely are you working with communities here? Firstly, what we are doing is we are representing Muslims in a professional way that has never been done before. We are doing so through Parliamentarians, through the media, through provincial governments, through meetings with the federal government, with the police. And we’re also representing the Muslim diaspora in Canada while having our activities in the Middle East. So, we explain to Muslim leaders in the Middle East — jurists and grand muftis — the situations and challenges and needs of the Muslim community in the West. Secondly, we are making sure — and this is very important — that the extremists are not the only voices representing the Muslim community, because in a democracy you cannot silence people. They will always have the right to freedom of speech and belief and expression, but the extremist should never be the only voice that represents Islam and the Muslim community. Thirdly, we are actually working on projects that are needed in the Muslim community. We are working on an education curriculum that revolves around a culture of peace that is in line with the Abraham Accords (agreements between Israel and several Arab nations to foster mutual understanding and co-operation) and the teachings that make the Abraham Accords a real, lived reality in Canada. The Abraham Accords mirror the values of Canada. What are Canadian values? Harmony, peace, coexistence, bridge-building, interfaith, multiculturalism, diversity, acceptance of one another. All these values are literally what formed the Abraham Accords. So, it’s very important to make that link with the Muslim world that is shifting and changing toward peace and harmony. The GIC in Canada is translating that into a Canadian context for the Muslim community and the broader, tolerant Canadian majority.

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