Johnstown imam forced to resign over comments

Thursday, May 10, 2007

JOHNSTOWN, Pa. -- The leader of a Muslim center has resigned after telling a newspaper that, in the eyes of the Islamic community, a death sentence was warranted for the best-selling author and critic of radical Islam Ayaan Hirsi Ali, who recently visited the area.

Fouad ElBayly said yesterday he had stepped down as imam and president of the Islamic Center of Johnstown. He said the center's board members requested his resignation.

The request came in response to Mr. ElBayly's comments about Ms. Hirsi Ali, who spoke April 17 at the University of Pittsburgh-Johnstown.

Mr. ElBayly, a native of Egypt who came to the United States in 1976, and Mahmood A. Qazi, the center's founder, had tried to get the university to cancel Ms. Hirsi Ali's appearance, saying her criticisms were unjustified and could create dissension in their community.

"She has been identified as one who has defamed the faith. If you come into the faith, you must abide by the laws, and when you decide to defame it deliberately, the sentence is death," Mr. ElBayly was quoted saying in an April 22 newspaper story.

In a letter to newspapers in Pittsburgh and Johnstown, the center's attorney, Dennis J. Stofko said Mr. ElBayly's comments did not reflect the views held by board members.

"The Islamic Center of Johnstown was established to foster religious tolerance, education and the exercise of its religious beliefs," Mr. Stofko said. The center, he said, "sincerely respects the rights of individuals to speak their opinions openly and freely without the fear of reprisal."

"I've said enough already," Mr. ElBayly said about his resignation.

Ms. Hirsi Ali, a native of Somalia and former member of parliament in the Netherlands, wrote the script for the film, "Submission" -- a fictional study of abused Muslim women, with scenes of near-naked women with Quranic verses written on their bodies. While some Muslims called it blasphemous, Ms. Hirsi Ali said it expressed her dream of an Islamic Age of Enlightenment.

The film's director, Theo van Gogh, was murdered on an Amsterdam street in 2004, and his killer thrust into his chest a letter threatening Ms. Hirsi Ali's life. She has moved to the United States, joined the conservative think tank American Enterprise Institute in Washington, D.C., and written the best-selling autobiography, "Infidel," a graphic account of how she rejected her faith and the violence she said was inflicted on her in the name of Islam.

Source: AP, May 10, 2007