Tarek Fatah
| Tarek Fatah | |
|---|---|
Tarek Fatah
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| Personal details | |
| Born |
20 November 1949 Karachi, Sindh, West Pakistan |
| Nationality | Canadian |
| Spouse(s) | Nargis Tapal |
| Children | 2 including Natasha Fatah |
| Alma mater | University of Karachi |
| Occupation | political activist, writer, broadcaster |
| Religion | Reformist Islam |
Tarek Fatah (born 20 November 1949) is a Canadian writer, broadcaster, secularist and liberal activist.
Fatah is a founder of the Muslim Canadian Congress and served as its communications officer and spokesperson. Fatah advocates gay rights, a separation of religion and state, opposition to sharia law, and advocacy for a "liberal, progressive form" of Islam. Some of his activism and statements have been met with criticism from Muslim groups.
Tarek Fatah was born in 1949 in Karachi, Pakistan, where his family had settled following the Partition of India. Fatah is of Punjabi origin. He was a leftist student leader in the 1960s and 1970s.
Although he graduated with a degree in biochemistry from the University of Karachi, Fatah entered journalism as a reporter for the Karachi Sun in 1970, and was an investigative journalist for Pakistan Television. He was imprisoned twice by military regimes. Finally, 1977, he was charged with sedition by the General Zia-ul Haq regime and barred from journalism in Pakistan.
He left Pakistan and settled in Saudi Arabia, before emigrating to Canada in 1987.
His own introduction to himself says:
"I am an Indian born in Pakistan, a Punjabi born in Islam; an immigrant in Canada with a Muslim consciousness, grounded in a Marxist youth. I am one of Salman Rushdie’s many Midnight’s Children: we were snatched from the cradle of a great civilization and made permanent refugees, sent in search of an oasis that turned out to be a mirage."
In context of religion, he says:
"I write as a Muslim whose ancestors were Hindu. My religion, Islam, is rooted in Judaism, while my Punjabi culture is tied to that of the Sikhs. Yet I am told by Islamists that without shedding this multifaceted heritage, if not outrightly rejecting it, I cannot be considered a true Muslim."
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