An elderly Guelph man's health is deteriorating as he enters the 4th day of a hunger strike at a Guelph mosque. He's protesting what he says is unfair treatment of certain ethnic groups by the management of the mosque.
Seyed Moosa Osman Hasti is diabetic and on a number of medications but continues to refuse any food or drink until his dispute is resolved.
As his hunger strike continues he's speaking less and his age and poor health worry his supporters.
"If this thing goes too far it could damage him, it could damage him without repair", says Lal Mohammad Safi through a translator.
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.
Yesterday, the mosque's President and Chairman, Mohamed Chaarani, told CTV News that there was no mistreatment of any ethnic group. He also says that Seyed and a few other people were asked to leave the mosque because they were being disruptive during prayers and making false accusations.
"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. There's two people that's been asked to leave and this guy is being asked to leave", says Chaarani.
Guelph Police Service is monitoring the situation and have been in touch with both sides of the dispute says Sargeant Doug Pflug, "If he does get into a situation where he goes into medical crisis we would obviously enlist the assistance of the fire department and Guelph EMS."
Both parties have asked authorities not to intervene, however. They don't want to cast even more negatively on their community says Hasti supporter, Nadia Kaker, "Police been called in here, we don't want that. Why? Because we don't westernized people to feel that Islam is not peace."
Although obviously weakened, Seyed says he'll continue the strike as long as it takes to resolve the problem.
