Salim Ahmad has started a petition objecting to a mural on the side of a mosque on Gerrard St. east Monday October 7, 2013.
The city-funded piece of art on the wall of a building housing the Al-Tawakal mosque, in the city's east end, incorporates a verse from the Qur'an, which is written in Arabic and scrawled in modern, urban-style graffiti.
TAREK FATAH: Jihadi battle cry on Toronto mural
Critics charge it is a jihadist battle-cry against the West -- an assertion disputed by the artist and at least one academic.
"There was an extensive amount of community consultation that went into the design of the mural and there were no issues raised at that time," city spokesman Lynne Kyle said in an e-mail in which she also confirmed staff are investigating the matter.
Taken from a chapter of the Muslim holy book, it is a verse that talks of Allah's blessing and an Islamic victory of some kind being close at hand.
Salim Ahmad, a member of the Muslim Canadian Congress, has launched a petition calling on Mayor Rob Ford to remove the contentious image.
"It's an excerpt from the Qur'an, (and) it is used as a slogan when you're fighting a jihad," he said.
In the petition, Ahmad claims the verse is used by both the Taliban and al-Qaida.
Adrian Hayles, a non-Muslim artist commissioned to come up with the mural, said Tuesday he chose that Qur'an verse because he was attracted to the look of the Arabic script and felt the English translation conveyed a positive message.
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