For over forty-eight hours, Seyed Moosa Osman Hasti has been on a hunger strike inside a Guelph mosque.
He is protesting what he calls unfair treatment by the management of the mosque towards certain ethnic groups.
His supporters say Uzbeks are in control of the mosque are trying to push Pashtuns out.
The Uzbeks are a Turkic-speaking ethnic group in Central Asia. Pashtuns are an Eastern Iranian ethnic group with populations primarily in Afghanistan and Pakistan.
Through the help of a translator, Seyed Moosa Osman Hasti told CTV News "The original members of the mosque, they have been kept distance and they've not been allowed to come here."
Seyed's supporters are calling for the mosque's president and Chairman Mohamed Chaarani to step down.
Chaarani flatly denies any accusations that certain ethnic groups are being treated better than others. He says anyone is welcome to worship at the mosque and he also says the man in question has a history of making false accusations and being disruptive during prayer services. Chaarani says that's the only reason he's ever asked anyone to go.
"We're not trying to say you're out or you're out, we didn't do that. There's no evidence that we've ever done this," said Chaarani. "There's two people that's been asked to leave, and this guy is being asked to leave."
Chaarani says he knows he can ask the police to remove Seyed at any time. But he's been hesitant to do so because he says the whole affair has brought enough trouble to the community.
"Our kids our wives, and everybody has stopped coming to the place to pray and this is unfair" said Chaarani.
When we asked Seyed about allegations that he was disruptive and making false accusations, he denied them.
"I have never spoken person to person with Chaarani so where is he coming from?" said Seyed.
Seyed says he'll continue the strike as long as it takes to resolve the problem.
