Human rights tribunal sides with TMU teaching assistant who decried ‘desecration by the Jews’

The Ontario Human Rights Tribunal has sided with a Muslim former teaching assistant who was fired after publicly denouncing “desecration by the Jews,” awarding him $7,000 for injury to “dignity, feelings and self-respect.”

Although adjudicator Cyndee Cherniak rejected Ayman Elkasrawy’s claim that he had been fired due to Islamophobia, she nevertheless approved the cash award due to “circumstantial evidence” that some discrimination may have inflected his dismissal.

In 2016, Elkasrawy was videotaped delivering an Arabic-language prayer at the Masjid Toronto mosque where he called for Jews to be slayed “one by one,” and for none to be spared.

The prayer was condemned at the time by both Masjid Toronto and the Muslim Association of Canada, who called it “an inappropriate supplication that was offensive to those of Jewish faith.”

It also prompted Elkasrawy’s dismissal from Ryerson University (now Toronto Metropolitan University) where he was working as a teaching assistant in the school’s engineering faculty.

“One of Ryerson’s core values is our commitment to community and inclusion … your comments are in contravention of this core value, do not foster a respectful learning environment and reflect adversely on, and are to the detriment of the University,” read his dismissal letter, according to Tribunal filings.

Clips of Elkasrawy’s prayer were first circulated by the now-defunct outlet CIJ News, which translated its lines as “Oh Allah! Count their numbers; slay them one by one and spare not one of them. Oh Allah! Purify the Al-Aqsa Mosque from the filth of the Jews!”

In front of the Ontario Human Rights Tribunal, Elkasrawy’s counsel said that this was a mistranslation, and that the comments had been “twisted, to make them appear inappropriate, violent and anti-Semitic.”

According to Elkasrawy, what he actually said was “Oh Allah; has full cognizance of them, slay them one by one, and don’t let one escape your punishment. Oh Allah; cleanse the Aqsa Mosque from the desecration by the Jews.”

He testified that the “slay them one by one” statement was unrelated to the second, and referred to members of Syria’s Assad regime.

As for the second, Elkasrawy confirmed that he was referring to Israeli control of Jerusalem and the Al-Aqsa mosque, but that if he could say it again he would change the prayer to “the occupying Jews.”

These explanations were accepted by Cherniak, who characterized the prayer as a “human moment.”

“Who amongst us has not, at some point in their lives, said something they wish they could take back and learned a life lesson because of it,” wrote Cherniak, who ruled they ultimately didn’t represent “his sincerely held beliefs.”

Elkasrawy had taken his case to the Ontario Human Rights Tribunal on the grounds that he had been the victim of an “Islamophobic attack.”

Cherniak largely rejected this, however, writing “I find that his identity as a Muslim is not the reason he was terminated because there is no evidence to support such a conclusion.”

Elkasrawy similarly claimed to have been the victim of an Islamophobic attack after unattributed posters were pasted up on the Ryerson University campus bearing his photo and the caption “fire him now.”

The posters — which stayed up only a short while before being removed by university staff — bore his image, the CIJ translation of his prayer, and a caption reading “Ayman Elkasrawy is a teaching assistant at Ryerson University. In 2016, he publicly made extremely hateful statements about Jews.”

Elkasrawy told the tribunal the posters were created by “the Islamophobia industry,” and that Ryerson had “participated in the Islamophobic attack” by acceding to their demand.

Wrote Cherniak, “I find that Dr. Elkasrawy has not presented clear, cogent and convincing evidence that the poster was made by the Islamophobia industry or is Islamophobic on its face.”

She added, “In my view, the poster is not Islamophobic.”

Although Cherniak rejected Elkasrawy’s claims that he had been fired because he was a Muslim, she did deem him to be a victim of discrimination over a Feb. 28, 2017 email sent by Ryerson president Mohamed Lachemi.

The Jewish group B’nai Brith had sent a Feb. 21 letter to Lachemi calling for Elkasrawy’s firing.

When Elkasrawy’s termination was finalized a week later, Lachemi sent a reply to B’nai Brith saying that Elkasrawy was “no longer employed by the university” and that “we remain actively engaged in addressing antisemitism in our community.”

Cherniak ruled that Lachemi’s decision to comment on a specific case violated the university’s usual privacy regulations. And from this, she inferred that this was because Elkasrawy was a “Muslim religious leader.”

Although it’s not explicitly mentioned in the tribunal decision, Lachemi is Muslim himself. His appointment in 2016 marked the first time a Muslim had led the school.

“I am satisfied that Dr. Elkasrawy’s creed was a small factor in President Lachemi’s decision to breach Ryerson’s confidentiality policy and send an email about Dr. Elkasrawy’s employment status to B’nai Brith Canada,” wrote Cherniak.

“I award Dr. Elkasrawy a remedy in the sum of $7,000.00 as compensation for injury to dignity, feelings, and self-respect for this Code violation.”