Faisal Kutty

Faisal Kutty is a lawyer, academic, writer, public speaker and human rights activist.

He served as an adjunct professor at Osgoode Hall Law School and is an Associate Professor of Law Emeritus at Valparaiso University.

He has previously taught at Dwayne O. Andreas School of Law of Barry University and guest lectured at dozens of universities around North America.

His columns regularly appear in The Toronto Star, Middle East Eye, Al Jazeera English, and the National Observer (Canada).

His columns previously appeared in Madhyamam Daily, The Express Tribune, Washington Report on Middle East Affairs and the National Post.

He blogged at the Huffington Post.

His articles have appeared in other publications around the world, including The Globe and Mail, Toronto Star, Arab News, Counterpunch, The Indian Express, The Jakarta Post, Al-Ahram Weekly and Al Jazeera.

Faisal Kutty is a Canadian.

His parents are Shaikh Ahmad Kutty and mother Zuhra Kutty.

According to his website www.TheMuslimLawyer.com He grew up in Kerala, Montreal and Toronto.

He also spent some time in Ottawa.

Kutty first practiced law with a major downtown Toronto law firm, and on his own before co-founding a law firm with Khalid Baksh.

They appear to have parted ways and Kutty was joined by Naseer (Irfan) Syed and Akbar Mohamed.

Kutty, alleged on behalf of the CCPJ that Canada was in breach of its international commitments pursuant to various provisions of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights; the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights; the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights; the Standard Minimum Rules for Treatment of Prisoners adopted by the First United Nations Congress in 1955; and the Basic Principles for the Treatment of Prisoners adopted by the United Nations General Assembly in 1990.

He called on the Human Rights Council to investigate these allegations.

Kutty told The New York Times that whatever the outcome of the current trial, police and national security agencies have lost the trust of many Muslims in Toronto.

"They've gone from one plus one equals two to one plus one equals five," said Kutty, "We're not questioning their right to try these individuals, if there's evidence. But there is an ethical issue here about taking troubled young teens who had certain beliefs and thoughts and then sending in someone who is young and charismatic to egg them on."

Kutty has been a spokesperson and advocate against the excesses of anti-terror legislation and policies.

He co-founded the Canadian Muslim Civil Liberties Association in 1994 while still a law student.

He helped co-found and served as legal counsel and vice chair of the National Council of Canadian Muslims (NCCM), a Muslim civil liberties & advocacy organization in Canada.

The NCCM was previously known as the CAIR-CAN, the Canadian Council on American Islamic Relations.

He has been critical of the Canadian Security Intelligence Service and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.

He attacks CSIS practices targeted at the Muslim and Arab communities, and includes police, the government and the media:

Kutty along with his partner Akbar Sayed Mohamed acted for the CMCLA and CAIR-CAN in their intervention in the Commission of Inquiry into the investigation of the bombing of Air India Flight 182.

Kutty was also involved with the case of Maher Arar, a Canadian accused of terrorism by the United States and held without charges in both the United States and Syria.

A Canadian commission later cleared Arar of any links to terrorism, and the government of Canada later settled out of court with Arar.

Kutty was in the forefront of a number controversial and high-profile legal issues, including the introduction of anti-terror laws in Canada, the Maher Arar fiasco, the no-fly list (Passenger Protect), the religious law arbitration controversy, the 2006 Ontario terrorism plot, and the Niqab controversy, among others.

His strong positions on controversial topics has attracted both admirers and critics.

Kutty served as the first Islamic culture and practice content consultant for Little Mosque on the Prairie, a Canadian sitcom that aired on the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation.

Kutty was responsible to provide advice and feedback on accuracy in terms of the portrayal of Islamic normative practices and Muslim culture.

On July 17, 2006, Kutty was invited by the Consulate General of the United States in Toronto to meet with four members of House Homeland Security Subcommittee on Intelligence, Republicans Rob Simmons of Connecticut and Jim Gibbons of Nevada, along with Democrats Zoe Lofgren of California and Donna Christensen of the U.S. Virgin Islands.

The group on a "fact-finding" mission met with senior officials of the Canadian Security Intelligence Service, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and the Ontario Provincial Police for technical briefings on the operation that led to the 2006 Ontario terrorism plot arrest of 18 suspects in an alleged "homegrown" terrorist cell.

According to a Toronto Star report the politicians also spent time with several members of Toronto's Muslim community, including Faisal Kutty, who was vice-chair of the Canadian Council on American Islamic Relations and general counsel for the Canadian Muslim Civil Liberties Association.

At the one-hour meeting at the Royal York Hotel, they were told that "Canada is neither a breeding ground nor a safe haven for terrorists."

Kutty told Robert Benzie of the Toronto Star that "we basically said you have to look at the root causes of these things."

He added that you can have security concerns, "but if you don't (act) within the confines of the rule of law and due process and within a democratic model, you're going to breed more terrorists and not less," said Kutty.

Kutty was active in the 2006 Ontario terrorism plot case.

Initially he represented an individual who negotiated with the RCMP and CSIS to serve as a witness for the state against one particular accused.

He was later retained by various family members and community organizations to assist with the Canadian Coalition for Peace and Justice (CCPJ).

The CCPJ filed submission on behalf of some of the arrested with the United Nations Human Rights Council, Fourth Universal Periodic Review Canada (2008).