Tarek Fatah, a well-known Pakistani-Canadian journalist, has passed away at the age of 73. Fatah was known for his sharp criticism of Islamic extremism and the Pakistani establishment. He called himself a “Midnight’s Child,” born in Karachi in 1949, a month after India’s Independence, to parents who had migrated from Bombay. Fatah was a self-described “Indian born in Pakistan, a Punjabi born in Islam; an immigrant in Canada with a Muslim consciousness, grounded in a Marxist youth.”
Fatah was a biochemistry graduate from the University of Karachi, but he later became a journalist. He joined Karachi Sun as a reporter in 1970 and later became an investigative reporter with Pakistan’s state broadcaster, Pakistan Television. In 1977, he was charged with sedition by the Zia-ul Haq government, and he subsequently migrated to Saudi Arabia. He finally settled in Canada in 1987, where he joined Toronto radio station CFRB Newstalk 1010 as a broadcaster. Fatah worked in various media outlets in Canada before becoming a columnist for the Toronto Sun.
Fatah’s politics were controversial. He criticized the Partition and questioned the Pakistani military’s influence over the government. He was outspoken against Islamic extremism and American funding of terrorist groups in Saudi Arabia during the Afghan war. Fatah supported both Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders in the 2016 US presidential race and recommended immigration curbs for countries harboring Islamic terrorists.
However, Fatah often came under fire for spreading disinformation on social media. For instance, in 2017, he endorsed a later debunked theory of Muslims participating in a mosque shooting in Quebec. In 2018, he tweeted a doctored photo of a madrassa teacher teaching children that Islam is superior to Hinduism, before it was debunked. During the 2020 Delhi Assembly elections, he tweeted a 2018 communally charged video from Udaipur, claiming it was recently recorded in Delhi. During the anti-CAA protests, he tweeted a video of burqa-clad women dancing, claiming it was from the Shaheen Bagh protest site, before others pointed out that he had already tweeted it twice in 2017.
Despite his polarizing views, Fatah was respected for his courage and conviction. Tributes poured in on social media from politicians, actors, and directors. His daughter confirmed his death from cancer. Fatah’s legacy as a journalist and commentator will be remembered, along with the controversies that accompanied his political views and social media presence.
