The Muslim Canadian Congress () was organized to provide a voice to Muslims who support a "progressive, liberal, pluralistic, democratic, and secular society where everyone has the freedom of religion." Origins It was formed in December 2001, in the wake of 9/11 by a group of Toronto area liberal and secular Muslims led by Tarek Fatah. It is a Muslim organization in Canada that stands for "separation of religion and state in all matters of public policy." The group gained prominence by opposing the implementation of Shariah law in civil law in Ontario and supporting the country's same-sex marriage legislation. The group also promotes gender equality and was involved in organizing a Muslim prayer session in which the prayers were led by a woman, Raheel Raza. It has also been critical of Islamic fundamentalism and has urged the government to ban donations to Canadian religious institutions from abroad arguing that doing so will curb extremism. Split The Congress suffered a serious split in the summer of 2006 when several of its members and leaders left to form the Canadian Muslim Union. According to reports, the split occurred over questions of how the group engages with the broader Muslim community. The issue came to head over the MCC's position on the arrest of 17 Muslims in the 2006 Toronto terrorism case and objections by some MCC leaders to the MCC's participation in anti-war demonstrations during the 2006 Israel-Lebanon War where flags of Hezbollah and Hamas were raised along with posters of Iranian leader Ahmedinejad and Hezbollah leader Nasrallah. The entire executive and most of the board members eventually resigned. The CMU was formed the next day. CMU's philosophy of Liberal Islam is similar to the MCC's but with what they claim is their intention to work "within the Muslim community". CMU has been dormant since 2011. The slate of its officers is not available online. Despite this split, MCC continued its work of promoting secularism, and its members and directors continue to face opposition from those following political Islam. Some of its members have also received serious threats from unknown individuals. Tarek Fatah was its communications director and spokesperson until he resigned from the board in August 2006 and Farzana Hassan was the MCC's president from August 2006 until April 2010. Munir Pervaiz assumed the position of President in 2015. Farzana Hassan and others continued to be its director with Fatah