Zijad Delic, national executive director of the Canadian Islamic Congress, was to deliver a speech earlier this week at a National Defence headquarters event marking Islamic History Month. But his invitation was withdrawn by Defence Minister Peter MacKay who accused the CIC of inciting hatred and said that Imam Delic had no place at an event honouring Muslim contributions to Canada.

The CIC has now posted the text of the speech that Delic would have made at the Islamic History Month event on their website, so the public can make up their own minds about the accuracy of MacKay’s charge that Delic and the CIC are guilty of promoting “extremist views”.

The campaign that resulted in the ban on Imam Delic appears to have been led by right-wing bloggers, but MacKay’s decision to cancel the speech was also warmly welcomed by an outfit calling itself the Muslim Canadian Congress.