Mohammed Al-Masry

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Mohammad Al-Masry (Arabic: محمد المصري‎) (born December 24, 1943) is an Egyptian-Canadian professor of computer engineering at the University of Waterloo and activist for Muslim causes. He is the current president of the Canadian Islamic Congress.

Born in Cairo, Egypt in 1943, he earned a B.Sc. degree from Cairo University in 1965. After moving to Canada, he continued his studies at the University of Ottawa, and in 1974 earned a Ph.D. in electrical engineering.

His area of specialty is digital integrated circuits and system design. From 1972 to 1974 he worked at Bell-Northern Research (which later became Nortel). Since 1974, he has taught at the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Waterloo. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada and Fellow of the Canadian Academy of Engineers.

As a spokesman for Muslim causes through the Canadian Islamic Congress, he has been a regular contributor to the Globe and Mail. His remarks, especially those concerning the Israel-Palestine issue, have sometimes aroused controversy in Canadian media.

[edit] October 2004 Controversy

On October 19, 2004 he appeared in a panel discussion on The Michael Coren Show to discuss the topic of "What is a terrorist?". The other members of the panel were Irfan Syed, a Muslim lawyer, Peter Merrifield, described as an expert on terrorism, and Adam Aptowitzer, representative of B'nai Brith, a Jewish advocacy group. During an exchange with the show's host, Michael Coren, he appeared to suggest that any adult Israeli citizen was a justifiable target of Palestinian attacks, since all adult Israelis are "part of the Israeli army, even if they have civilian clothes. The same, if they are women in the army . . . anybody above 18 is a part of the Israeli popular army." These remarks prompted harshly-worded responses from representatives of the Canadian Jewish Congress and several prominent Canadian Muslims. At first, Elmasry defended his remarks by insisting that he was merely sharing the standard Palestinian point of view. This only managed to infuriate his critics, who accused him of using the Palestinians as a scapegoat. He later apologized for these remarks and offered to resign as president of the Canadian Islamic Congress. The board of directors rejected his offer of resignation and Elmasry continues to be its head.