A controversial Islamic cleric who referred to Palestinian militants as “so-called terrorists,” and who also called for the world to give the Taliban the “benefit of the doubt,” has been honoured with a standing ovation by Albertan Parliamentarians.

On Tuesday, Dr. Musharraf Hussain was invited as an honoured guest of the Albertan Legislative Assembly by Rod Loyola, MLA for Edmonton-Ellerslie. Loyola is an immigrant from Chile who recently converted to Islam and is known to espouse extreme communist views.

“Please rise, and give them the warm welcome of this assembly,” Loyola said as he introduced Hussain and two other individuals.

The invitation is particularly alarming in the wake of Hamas’ October attack on Israel, which resulted in around 1,300 deaths and 3,300 injured. It is even more shocking that it was allowed to happen following the Speaker of the House of Commons inviting an SS officer for a similar applause earlier this autumn, as well as the fact that Canada has labelled Hamas a terrorist organization.

“Egregious” concerns

Just two years ago, Hussain was flagged in a report by the UK government as an  “egregious” case of having views sympathetic towards terrorist groups, including Hamas.

“In one of the most egregious cases, [Hussain] was found to have publicly made statements in 2021 that were sympathetic to the Taliban, and referred to militant Islamist groups – whose military wings were proscribed in the UK – as ‘so-called ‘terrorists’ of the legitimate resistance groups’,” the report read.  

The report was referring to a 2021 blog by Hussain from his own website that still exists today in which he said, “Despite its claims to the contrary, Israel’s targets are civilians as well as the so-called “terrorists” of the legitimate resistance groups.”

In the same blog Hussain referred to Hamas as “the Palestinian Islamic Resistance Movement.” 

Hussain’s Taliban sympathizing comments came during an interview with the BBC in 2021 when he said that the Taliban has changed since the early 1990s and it’s time for people to “give them the benefit of the doubt.” 

According to Human Right’s Watch, “since taking power in August 2021, the Taliban have carried out summary executions and enforced disappearances, and have imposed policies that severely restrict the rights of women and girls.”

During his BBC interview, Hussain also said that citizens in Afghanistan haven’t fled the country due to Taliban barbarism but instead because they wanted to seize on the opportunity to be an economic migrant. 

The Counter Signal reached out to Hussain for comment given recent allegations of kidnappings and gang rape by the Taliban, but did not hear back before publication. 

Organizations controlled by Hussain have also been charged with “hate speech” in 2018 in the UK.

Following all of his other statements on the subject, Hussain specifically condemned the October 7th attack against Israel.

“And now, we also condemn those so-called Muslims who have killed innocent citizens as well. I’m not going to be mini-mouthed about that either. Ok? That is injustice as well. That those who killed citizens of Israel, that is wrong as well,” he said, adding, “Whoever does it is wrong, and is a murderer.”

NDP radicalism

Loyola isn’t the only NDP member to support far-left views. Last month at the federal NDP convention, MP Matthew Green praised the radical group Antifa for being “on the front lines against hate.”