MONTREAL - An Islamic group whose presence in Montreal sparked controversy insisted Friday night that its message has been misunderstood.
The Islamic Education and Research Academy (iERA) is a UK-based group that describes itself on its website as an "international dawah organization committed to educating and informing humanity about the truth and noble message of Islam."
However, a speech by the group's chairman Abdurraheem Green, where he suggested it is alright for a husband to use physical force on his wife, drew a lot of negative attention to the group.
It led Concordia University's Muslim Students' Association to cancel a planned speech that was to be held Friday night, but a Montreal group affiliated with the Muslim Association of Canada found another venue for another iERA lecturer to speak.
And Hamza Andreas Tzortzis drew quite a crowd, with roughly 500 people packing the hall on Laurentien Blvd.
Tzortzis defended his chairman, saying Green's statements were taken out of context.
"We say not only are they misquotes," he said, "they are full of innuendos, almost like gossip."
The words peace and love were repeated many times during the conference. One of the speakers started by pointing to all the scrutiny surrounding the group in the past few days, saying while it's disappointing it has also motivated them to get their message out and get that message straight
David Alexanderson came from Toronto to hear the conference and said he feels all the attention may not be a bad thing.
"It makes me feel very happy to see that you guys are coming out and creating dialogue," he said. "So hopefully you can take this and go back to your community and people can feel whatever they feel from those comments."
