Muslim ‘Million Person March’ organizer in Canada calls for interfaith unity against wokeness amid Middle East conflict

Last September, he organized the Million Person March for Children to protest gender ideology and support parental rights – and he wasn’t kidding. At protests across Canada, from Vancouver to Halifax – Muslims, Christians, Jews, Sikhs, Hindus and people of any faith – congregated at mayor’s offices, provincial legislatures and Parliament Hill in numbers that did not disappoint the promise of a million people being present.

Then came Oct. 7 and Hamas’ brutal invasion of Israel, followed by Israel’s reaction to Hamas, and many Canadians became distracted by the war in the Middle East. El-Cheikh decided to cancel an Oct. 21 follow-up march because he was concerned that the foreign war would become the inevitable focus and divide a multi-faith community that had come together to promote their mutual interests.

“Christians and Muslims came together in this country nine months ago,” El-Cheikh told The Post Millennial. “And it was a match made in heaven. It was beautiful.”

He believes it’s time to move beyond the conflict in Gaza, “You know, a lot has happened since Oct. 7, but a lot has happened in the Middle East since 1948. And I don't want to go down that rabbit hole. It's a big one.”

He wants to bring people of all faiths together again in epistemological unity.

“When is the next Million Person March? We're working for part two this September. Right. And June is pride June. So, we're naming this new campaign for parents ‘My Child June.’”

El-Cheikh says he has been quietly working behind all the street protests for the next Million Person March.

“And guess what we were doing in the six months, we were expanding the Million People March organization, you're seeing some of the activities, we're adding mortgage agents to it. More Christians, we've added Sikhs to the organization … and, you know, I think any good organization, for it to grow, they need to be able to navigate through the tribulations of what society throws, and you need to be patient, you need to be level-headed and you need to be calm at all times, even when you are getting the heat yourself,” said El-Cheikh.

Although the Muslim leader says he and the Million Person March are and will remain strictly non-partisan, he applauds recent statements from Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre when he has stated that he wants any upcoming Conservative government to be “mind your own business” style of government that respects parental rights.

“I'm nonpartisan [but] I like to applaud politicians when they say the right things in this context, what Pierre Poilievre said. Everybody's on that, right? We like what he says, you know, freedom …freedom to raise your kids however you want.”

“And he's right; the Liberal Party has transitioned into some kind of a dictatorship. And he just wants to bring it back to common sense politics.”

As much as El-Cheikh fights for parental rights, he says he is also promoting “children’s rights.”

“A child cannot make a decision at six years old, whether they're male or female. You know, I, when I was six, and you probably remember when you were six, at some point you wanted to be SpiderMan or a dinosaur or whatever, you were all over the place …”

“So, we play a lot of things, but we can't take them seriously until the kid grows up at least until 18 or 19 years old.”

El-Cheikh also expressed anxiety about Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s latest volley of censorship, the Online Harms Bill that includes a thought crime component that would put people under house arrest for something they might say in the future.

“Again, if you're going to suppress free speech, then really you don't have a free society. You know, I get people in our movement, as leader of the movement, I get people disagreeing with me. So, I need to hear that”

“There's an element of humility – you have to listen, even when the opinion you are listening to is something you don't like – this is how we expand consciousness. This is freedom for God's sake.”

The activist says it is time to stop using flags to divide Canadians.

“Why are you forcing your ideas in the schools?” he asks.

“You as an evangelical Christian, you have your own flag, me as a Muslim on my mosque, there's a Muslim flag, but there's also a Canadian flag. And that tends to be a little bigger than anything else. So why don't we just agree and just put the Canadian flag in public schools that represents the LGBT, the evangelical Christians, the Muslims and the Hindus and everybody else?”

“Why can't we just have that flag?”