On a recent Friday at the Salaheddin mosque, Imam Aly Hindy spoke to his followers about how homosexuality was “invented,” calling it “nonsense” and “garbage” to believe anyone could be born that way.

He went on to talk about “illegal sexual acts” but added a qualifier: “Illegal means illegal in Islam, not illegal in the Canadian law, because everything is legal in the Canadian law, except children. Other than that, they allow everything.”

The Toronto imam has long been known for his controversial comments. He called the 9/11 attacks a joint CIA operation, refused to join other imams in signing a statement condemning the 2005 London bombings and referred to the Toronto 18 terrorists as good people.

But while he remains as provocative as ever, the institution that serves as his platform has undergone a notable shift: According to federal charity records, the Salaheddin Islamic Centre is being increasingly financed by foreign patrons.

Almost a quarter of the centre’s revenues came from outside Canada in 2010, figures posted on the Canada Revenue Agency website show. Three unnamed foreign donors provided $931,000 of the centre’s almost $4-million in revenues that year.

In 2009, the centre got $250,000 from overseas, less than a tenth of its total revenues that year. Charities have only been required to publicly report their foreign revenues since 2009. Figures for 2011 are not yet available.

“Our policy is to follow CRA [Canada Revenue Agency] requirements and report every dollar that we receive from inside or outside Canada,” Imam Hindy said in an email response to questions.

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The CRA blacked out the names of the offshore donors for privacy reasons before releasing a copy of the tax return to the National Post. The amounts of each contribution were also obscured, along with whether the donors were organizations, governments or individuals.

But Imam Hindy said US$400,000 came from the Islamic Development Bank, which is based in Saudi Arabia and whose president is a Saudi. He said the other foreign donors were charities in Qatar and the United Arab Emirates.

Steve Mckinley for National Post files

Imam Aly Hindy, seen here at a Scarborough mosque, referred to the 18 Toronto men arrested on terrorists charges as good people.

“This is what Christian missionaries do from the West. In other parts of the world, this is their idea of doing missionary work. They give money to people they consider to be good Muslims and spreading the word,” said Christian Leuprecht, an associate professor at the Royal Military College and Queen’s University.

He said the issue raised questions about sovereignty, the role of foreign funding in aiding those intent on breaching liberal democratic values, and whether mechanisms were needed to ensure that Western freedoms were not exploited to advance illiberal ideas.

Another issue is that, despite their willingness to finance Imam Hindy’s centre in Canada, neither Saudi Arabia nor Qatar allows religions other than Islam to be preached in their own countries.

“This has always been the argument against: If we are going to let charities accept outside money, it should only come from countries that would allow us to do likewise, basically on the principle of reciprocity.”

Imam Hindy said his centre was “not so dependent on foreign revenues.” He said it was simply going through an expansion phase that cost more than he was able to raise in Canada.

“We have purchased a building in Mississauga for $1.7-million and renovated by about $150K. We expanded our building in Scarborough so far by $1.5-million. We have now a full time elementary and secondary School up to Grade 12.

“We have built an additional 10 classrooms, science lab, computer lab and building a gym with the most updated equipments for the school and local community. Also we have built a travel centre, washing facility for the deceased and in the process of building a new commercial kitchen to serve a banquet hall use at the gym.”

Tahir Gora, secretary general of the Muslim Canadian Congress, said he was not impressed when he attended Imam Hindy’s recent sermon. He said the imam had made “humiliating remarks” about homosexuals, and had tried to make the case that it didn’t matter if Canada accepted homosexuals because Islam did not.

“He should respect Canadian values,” said Mr. Gora, a writer who fled Pakistan after his critiques of religious intolerance brought death threats. “If he’s getting so much funding from different corners, he should try and assimilate Muslims in the society rather than trying to alienate them from the society.”

He said following Imam Hindy’s prayer, youths stood outside the mosque entrance handing out pamphlets that claimed that “hatred of Islam” was behind recent media coverage of the so-called honor killings murder trial in Kingston, Ont.

“The case was exploited by the agenda driven media to vilify Islam and Muslims,” it read. It went on to claim the “role of the media is to put pressure on Muslims living in the West to abandon Islamic values and adopt secular-liberal values instead.”

But Muslims should know, it continued, that “these assaults” were a test from God. It advised talking to other Canadians “to show how Islam is a comprehensive way of life that provides an alternative to the capitalist system.”

Imam Hindy denied any pamphlets were distributed and said he did not follow murder cases. Asked about the concern over his preaching, he responded by quoting passages from the Koran, including one that read, “For ye practise your lusts on men in preference to women : ye are indeed a people transgressing beyond bounds.” Said the imam, “These are words of God.”

On its tax forms, the Salaheddin centre describes its programming as, “Place of worship. Prayers, religious and educational teachings, the charity operate two schools teaching Ontario curriculum, beside couple of hours a week of Islamic teachings.” It also counsels families and youth and assists “the large east Toronto community when help is needed.”

Listed as director and president, the Egyptian-born Imam Hindy calls himself a fundamentalist, not an extremist. An RCMP report refers to him as a “focal point for Toronto area Islamic radicals,” and a New York Police Department report calls Salaheddin “a known radical mosque.”

Matthew Sherwood for National Post

The sign for Salaheddin Islamic Centre at 741 Kennedy Road in Scarborough, Ont.

Imam Hindy does not preach violence and says he steers youths away from radicalism. But some of the centre’s former worshippers have been linked to terrorism. A former founder, Hassan Farhat, left Canada to join an al-Qaeda-linked group in Iraq, where he allegedly commanded a squad of suicide bombers. Ahmed Khadr, a senior Canadian al-Qaeda figure, visited the mosque when he was in Toronto and his family worshipped there.

The former principal of the mosque school, Mahmoud Jabballah is undergoing deportation proceedings after the government alleged he was a member of the Egyptian terrorist group Al Jihad. The ringleaders of the Toronto 18 terrorist group, which plotted attacks in Southern Ontario, were also worshippers, as was a man arrested last year at the Toronto airport as he was allegedly on his way to join the Somali terrorist group Al Shabab.

When Mohamed Mahjoub, whom the government alleges was a member of the Egyptian terrorist group Vanguards of Conquest, applied to be released from detention, Imam Hindy offered to act as a surety but was rejected by the judge, in part because “his published statements are open to the inference that he is sympathetic to or at least defensive of the threats of Islamic terrorism towards Canada.”

But the Ontario Superior Court of Justice rejected the notion the Salaheddin centre was involved in terrorism. “I accept that, over the years, there may have been persons, involved in questionable activities, with questionable associations, who have passed through the Centre from time to time,” the court wrote in 2008. “In my view, this in itself is not sufficient to taint the centre in any way.”

The centre’s financial supporters seem to agree. From a budget of $372,000 in 2000, the centre now reports an annual revenue more than 10 times that amount and says in its latest tax return it intends to expand into Clarington, Ont., east of Toronto.

The charity’s financial growth is at least partly the result of significant contributions from abroad. Imam Hindy sees the outside money as a good thing. It’s creating work for the construction industry as well as education jobs while saving the public school system money, he said.

He declined to discuss the controversy surrounding the centre. “I am not going again to talk about this controversy that you are talking about. I already answered this question to you many times. The centre is continuing to serve the community in the best way possible.”

National Post sbell@nationalpost.com