It is extremely disappointing to see this disagreement and splitting and the harm that it has caused and continues to cause. I ask Allaah that He puts an end to this tribulation and returns the affair to one of unity and harmony, Ameen.
I read with interest the response of Harun Cole and his associates after following the posts in this thread, hoping to see another side of the story in order to make proper sense of what is going on in this confusion and discord. After reading the third document, I was surprised to see that Harun Cole and the brothers with him used a letter of recommendation written by Ahmad Assing in June 2010 for Said Ali. The purpose of quoting this tazkiyah was to defend Said Ali in his capacity as an elder and senior in the da'wah and to defend his integrity.
This is the letter:
Which is found in the following PDF file:
3who.pdf
Before continuing, I should say that I do not know Harun Cole or Said Ali, I have never met them or spoken to them and I have no grievance with them and they have not harmed me in anything. Likewise, I do not know any of the others with these brothers except perhaps Maruf Kedir whom I have met and spoken to very briefly. I have had no dealings with them, and nor is there any grievance between me and them, and nor have they harmed me in any way and I hope I have not caused any harm to them in any way, despite the fact that I do not know them.
After this is clarified, the problem in Harun Cole's position is that by using this letter from Ahmad Assing, it is established that up to 2010 and afterwards Ahmad was the president, and Said Ali was happy to solicit this letter of recommendation from Ahmad Assing in his capacity as president. Just as Harun Cole and the other six writers of the document are happy to use this letter as evidence to argue for the integrity and da'wah efforts of Said Ali, implying they accept Ahmad Assing's writing of this letter in his capacity as president.
Ahmad wrote that Said Ali was president for five years (until 2000). If Said Ali was happy to accept this letter of recommendation from Ahmad Assing
in his capacity as president and showed no objection to the content of the letter which states that he served as president for five years from 1995 (until 2000) and was therefore no longer president, and if Harun Cole and the brothers with him are happy to use this letter as proof to defend the person and integrity of Said Ali, it renders baseless the position taken by Harun Cole and those with him. By hastily using the above letter to defend Said Ali in a subsidiary matter (his historical da'wah efforts and integrity), these brothers have not realized the wider implication it has on their position as a whole. In my view, their position is highly questionable, if not suspicious.
The reason is their use of this letter leaves them no real choice but to claim Ahmad Assing was appointed fraudulently
AFTER this letter of recommendation. This is because you can't approach Ahmad Assing in his capacity as a director or president and ask for a recommendation letter from the organization (TROID) for your own personal and private benefit and at the same time claim that Ahmad Assing's appointment was fraudulent and that he has no legal position in the organization. In fact, it is implied by your action that you acknowledge Ahmad Assing's legitimacy in the organization, otherwise you would not approach him in the first place. Unless of course, you are just a person of self-interests.
The brothers (Harun Cole and those with him) who wrote these recent documents against Ahmad and Umar stated (2nd document, page 1):
Readers should note at this point that Umar al-Hashimee has no legal position in this organization. His appointment as a Secretary and Ahmed Assing's appointment as the President were fraudulent, punishable by law.
The question raised here is when exactly did Ahmad Assing and Umar al-Hashimee's appointments as president and secretary take place? It is upon Ahmad and Umar to provide evidence of the dates of their appointments and not to conceal these facts.
There are only three situations. a) Ahmad and Umar were appointed fraudulently as Harun Cole and others claim after June 2010 (after writing that letter of recommendation), or b) shortly before writing that letter of recommendation for Said Ali by months, or a year or less or c) a very long time before writing that letter of recommendation (five, seven, ten years). No matter which of these three situations are chosen, they all cause a huge problem for Harun Cole and those with him who have unwittingly used this letter thinking it is in their favour when it in fact undermines their entire position and seriously questions their entire story and their credibility along with it.
The first option a) is impossible. Since you can't be requesting a letter of recommendation from a president of an organization who hasn't fraudulently appointed himself as president of that organization yet such that he has the position and authority to be writing a letter of recommendation for you. The second option b) is not possible either, because why would Said Ali ask for a letter of recommendation from someone who has just recently fraudulently appointed himself as president? And if it is c) where Ahmad (and Umar) were appointed fraudulently a long time ago (five years, seven years, ten years), the question arises: Why has it taken Said Ali and Harun Cole all those years to claim these appointments were fraudulent? And if that truly was the case, why is it that Said Ali is happy to solicit and receive a letter of recommendation from the supposedly fraudulently appointed president, Ahmad Assing, in 2010? And why is Said Ali happy to put his name to a document in which it is claimed:
Readers should note at this point that Umar al-Hashimee has no legal position in this organization. His appointment as a Secretary and Ahmed Assing's appointment as the President were fraudulent, punishable by law.
And from the time that Ahmad and Umar fraudulently appointed themselves as is claimed, where was Said Ali and Harun Cole in all that time. Were they involved with TROID? What were they doing for the da'wah at TROID? Were they involved with a fraudulently appointed director and secretary all that time and did not see it fit to start asking questions until 2011? What does the Salafi community in Toronto know of Harun's and Said Ali's involvement in the day to day runnings at TROID? If it is established that they continued to have involvement from the time that Ahmad and Umar were alleged to have been appointed fraudulently, then it undermines their position. And if it is established they had very little, if no involvement at all, and for all that time showed absolutely no rejection, and Said Ali was happy to solicit a letter of recommendation in 2010, then this puts a question mark over the motives of Harun Cole and Said Ali.
I ask each of Harun Cole, Ahmad Assing and Umar al-Haashimee to provide evidence for
the exact dates of their appointments, so the relevance (or irrelevance) of these very important question becomes known, because through them I believe the truthful will be distinguished from the dishonest and untruthful.
This is just one issue (of many I have come across) which on its own, makes the position of Harun Cole and those with him highly questionable if not outright suspicious. If they have a good and acceptable answer to this, then alhamdulillaah, it is a misunderstanding on my behalf, and I would very much like to hear the explanation so that the questions raised here become non-issues. And if there are no reasonable answers, there is strong reason to doubt the motives of Harun Cole and those with him.
Finally, I advise myself firstly and then all the brothers and sisters to fear Allaah in this month, to correct and rectify their intentions and seek nothing but Allaah's pleasure, and to be truthful in every way, in intentions, speech and actions, and know that Allaah is watcher of what is both seen and hidden.