I am deeply disappointed and offended by the National Post’s decision to publish the article “Montreal Web site used to recruit Islamic terrorists” by Stewart Bell, about the popular website Islamway.com.

Islamway is one of the largest Islamic educational websites available on the Internet, providing informational materials about the Muslim religion to any and all who are interested to learn.

The allegations of ‘terrorist’ recruitment are utterly shocking and constitute a distortion that must either be characterized, at best, as journalistically reckless or at worst, intentionally slanderous.

The post cited by the B’nai B’rith, and subsequently by Mr. Bell, apparently without any investigation of his own, was posted on an open discussion forum by a private individual, and can in no way be responsibly regarded as a reflection of Islamway itself, of its position, or its purpose.

The article accepts as fact the allegations of the B’nai B’rith, without a single statement from Islamway or its parent organization, Islamic Assembly of North America, and even links Islamway to the case of convicted terrorist Ahmed Ressam. This is absolutely unacceptably biased, if not outright bigoted, journalism, and I request that you print a retraction of the story and an apology, not only to Islamway, but to the Muslim community of Canada, who were made immediately suspect by Mr. Bell’s statement that Canada was becoming a base for terrorist activity because of its “diverse immigrant population and weak counter-terrorism laws.”

I expect better from a professional newspaper, and hope that you will live up to these expectations with a published apology and retraction.

Thank you