A Calgary Muslim leader has filed a human rights complaint against the Western Standard regarding comments on the publication’s blog that say Muslims should be killed. “What they were trying to do is just promote hate in Calgary and Canada,” says Syed Soharwardy, national president of the Islamic Supreme Council of Canada (ISCC).

The comments in question were written in response to a December 2 posting on the Standard blog by former publisher Ezra Levant. (The print edition of the magazine stopped publishing in October.) In his post, Levant argued Maclean’s magazine should fight human rights complaints filed against it by another Muslim group, the Canadian Islamic Congress. Those complaints were sparked by a book excerpt published in Maclean’s by author and former Standard columnist Mark Steyn.

In response to Levant’s posting, one commenter wrote “that [U.S. columnist] Ann Coulter was right — Muslims have to be converted to Christianity or killed if we are to survive.” The same writer likened Muslims to “disease-laden mosquitoes.” Another wrote that Muslims “must be KILLED. ALL OF THEM.”

Soharwardy says the comments crossed the line of free speech. “This is definitely not acceptable,” says Soharwardy, who filed his complaint with the Alberta Human Rights Commission on December 18. “This is hatemongering.” Soharwardy says he contacted Calgary police to complain about the comments, which he considers hate crimes, but was told there’s nothing they could do. “They said, ‘No, nobody has threatened you by your name, so this is not a hate crime,’” he says. “Why it is not seen as a hate crime is beyond my imagination.”

Soharwardy and the ISCC plan to protest the comments in front of city hall on Friday, December 21 at 3 p.m. “The message we are going to send is there is no place for hate in Canadian society,” he says. “We are equal Canadians. Our rights should be respected.”

Soharwardy also filed an Alberta Human Rights Commission complaint against the Standard last year after the magazine published the controversial Danish cartoons depicting the prophet Muhammad. That complaint is currently pending.

Fast Forward left a phone message on the Standard’s voice mail, but hadn’t heard back by press time.