Faisal Kutty

"I came here as an independent Human Rights monitor, an independent Human Rights lawyer from Canada to provide my support to make sure that this will come to an end. We want Egypt to have more respect to the International community, and much more respect to Human Rights. And my support here is not to any political party or political movement at all, it’s rather for human rights, the universal principles of Human Rights which Egypt, in my opinion, transgressed in 1982, and is doing that again now for political aims."

Arar settlement in Canada does not close the book. It only opens a new chapter of a book that is about more than Maher Arar — it is about the erosion of civil and human rights in Canada as a result of the "War on Terror." The Arar saga brought into focus the unintended victims of draconian laws and policies hastily enacted post 9/11 in Canada and south of the border. It also shed light on the potential of religious and racial profiling inherent in such laws and practices. We can only hope that Arar's second wish which was to "make sure this does not happen to any other Canadian citizens in the future," will also come true. For this to happen, however, more people must realize that due process and fundamental rights must be respected at all times and more so during times of real or perceived crisis when society has a tendency to overreact.

He also entered the same-sex marriage debate fray in an article titled "Muslims and Same Sex Marriage: Why the Banning of Gay Marriage May Not Be Required by Islamic Legal Norms" published by the Huffington Post on March 27, 2014. The piece argues that there is sufficient basis within Islamic jurisprudence to not oppose same-sex marriages in a liberal democratic context. The article notes that the current debate is not about changing Islamic marriage (nikah), but about making "sure that all citizens have access to the same kinds of public benefits." The piece argues that while same-sex marriage advocates can demand their full constitutional entitlements, they should not interfere in the religious dogma of others by forcing them to approve of what they sincerely believe is wrong.

He has criticized the abuse of blasphemy laws in Muslim countries but has also pointed out the hypocrisy and double standards of Western free speech laws. He argues that existing blasphemy laws in Muslim nations are anti-Islamic and must be reformed. In an article titled "Why Blasphemy Laws Are Actually Anti-Islamic" published by the Huffington Post on April 15, 2014. he wrote:

Despite the cloud of suspicion raised by critics, in 2013, Kutty's law office was instrumental in facilitating the tip off from a Toronto Imam which led to the arrests of two suspects in an alleged terror plot. He wrote in the Toronto Star that a tipoff from a prominent Imam facilitated through his office played a role in the arrests:

In another two-part article titled "Free Expression and An Elusive Middle Ground: Part One" published by the JURIST on December 21, 2012. he wrote:

Kutty married Sana Mirza, who hails from Pakistan, in a private ceremony in 2011. He has three children. He has two sisters and one brother.

Kutty was included in The 500 Most Influential Muslims in the World in 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015 and 2016. The List is compiled by The Royal Islamic Strategic Studies Institute and is affiliated with the Royal Aal al-Bayt Institute for Islamic Thought.

Some point to his invitation in 2007 to serve as international trial observer at military trials of political dissidents who were allegedly members of the then banned but tolerated Muslim Brotherhood. He was reportedly invited by the opposition members of the Egyptian Parliament, International Human Rights Groups and the Egyptian Lawyers Syndicate. Initially 226 were going to face these military trials but the number was reduced to 40. On April 15, 2008 a military tribunal at the Haikstip military base on the outskirts of Cairo sentenced Muslim Brotherhood Deputy Supreme Guide Khairat el-Shater and 24 other civilians, seven of them in absentia, to prison terms of up to 10 years. The tribunal acquitted 15 others. The court also ordered the seizure of millions of dollars in assets belonging to the convicted men and their businesses. When Faisal was in Egypt he told a press conference:

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 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.

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.

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). 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.

During the visit he reportedly met with Mohamed Morsi who went on to become the fifth president of Egypt and was subsequently deposed by the military. His Facebook also shows that he met with Mohamed Beltagy a member of parliament from 2005 to 2010, and current the general secretary of the Freedom and Justice Party which is linked to the Muslim Brotherhood. The Facebook photos also reveal that he met with Dr. Dr. Ahmed Abu Baraka the Freedom and Justice Party's former legal adviser and a senior party leader at the time; Prof. Islam Lofty a former MB youth leader who has since been excommunicated; and other leaders of the movement.

In 2003 a group of Muslims in Ontario attempted to set up a tribunal to help Muslims resolves disputes using Islamic principles under the Arbitration Act. A huge outcry resulted and the Ontario government appointed former Attorney General Marion Boyd to look into the matter. In December 2004, Marion Boyd released a study that recommended that the Ontario government permit the adoption of sharia tribunals for Muslims who wished to have family arbitration disputes settled in that manner. Kutty commented on this report on behalf of various Muslim groups. He wrote that the purported banning of faith-based arbitration was a delayed opportunity for the indigenization of Islamic law in the North American context.

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.

Faisal Kutty immigrated to Canada in the mid-1970s with his parents, Shaikh Ahmad Kutty and mother Zuhra Kutty, a homemaker from India. According to his website www.TheMuslimLawyer.com He grew up in Kerala, Montreal and Toronto. He also spent some time in Ottawa.

Derogatory, disrespectful and inflammatory," were the words used to describe this exercise of free expression. These words were not used to describe the Innocence of Muslims movie, but were uttered by Judge Jane Goodwin in criminally convicting British teen Azhar Ahmed two months ago for a Facebook status update celebrating the deaths of six British soldiers in Afghanistan. As distasteful as the status update was, it did not constitute a "threat." As blogger Robert Sharpe rhetorically asks regarding this case: is the sacredness attached to soldiers who give their lives in the West any more worthy of protection than those attached to icons of Islam?...The statement from the British court is just one example of the trite, but easily glossed over, idea that free expression is not only limited in the supposedly uncivilized Muslim world. Every society places limits on free speech. These limitations may be legally imposed or may be effected through social disapprobation, or both. It is generally acknowledged that the free speech doctrine enjoys its widest berth in the US thanks to First Amendment jurisprudence. The doctrine evolved from a unique experience shaped by conflicting political, social and legal worldviews and compromises in the US. It was not until 1969 when the US Supreme Court, in striking down the conviction of a Ku Klux Klan member, established the Brandenberg v. Ohio standard, whereby speech can only be suppressed if it is intended and likely to produce "imminent lawless action." But before we get too smug that we do not easily ban free speech, it would serve us to remember the conviction in the US earlier this year of Tarek Mehanna, a 29-year-old pharmacist born in Pittsburgh, of material support for terrorism. He was convicted for what he said, wrote and translated. The prosecution was based on the troubling standard of having the intent to support a foreign terrorist organization and not the Brandenburg standard of incitement.