Muhammad Robert Heft

Muhammad Robert Heft (born November 4, 1972, in Winnipeg, Manitoba Canada) is a Canadian Muslim activist and writer.

Biography

Coming from a German and Irish background, Heft spent his childhood and majority of his life in a small town outside of Toronto. Raised as a nominal Protestant Christian,[1] Heft converted to Islam in 1998 after which he studied Islam with qualified scholars for over 7 years. He began his community involvement in 2003, and since then, has gone on to take part in a variety of government and community initiatives.

Involvement

In 2007 Heft was made a representative for the Shaikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Humanitarian and Charity Est. for all of Canada, and he holds this position today.[2]

In 2008 he started the Stop Terrorism cause, which is a global and online cause which claims to have 20,000 members.[3]

In 2009 Heft formally started working with “youth at risk” and designed a 3-step "de-radicalization" program for Muslim Canadians. Through this program he has helped many youth who have turned towards radicalization and brought them away from that destructive state.

Judge Dawson court approved Heft in 2010 as a de-radicalization counsellor in for Steven Vikash Chand, one of the “Toronto 18” arrested for involvement in the 2006 Ontario terrorism plot.[4]

Heft continues to support government agencies on efforts of de-radicalization and is also supported by former MPs of the federal government, Derek Lee and Dan McTeague.[5]

References

  1. http://www.islamreligion.com/videos/2465/
  2. Shaikh Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum Humanitarian and Charity Est. Archived August 29, 2011, at the Wayback Machine.
  3. Stop Terrorism cause
  4. Toronto 18
  5. Supported by former MPs

External links

Media appearances

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Thursday, April 28, 2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.