TORONTO - Prime Minister Stephen Harper is indifferent to Omar Khadr's plight because the Guantanamo Bay prisoner is "brown-skinned" and a Muslim, the leader of one of Canada's largest Islamic groups said Monday.

Harper's resistance to calls to repatriate the Canadian citizen shows he is pandering to Islamophobes, said Canadian Islamic Congress president Mohamed Elmasry.

"In this case, Mr. Harper is playing politics because of the backdrop of Islamophobia in this country," Elmasry said.

"This is where a leader comes in to say, 'This is really wrong and I have to correct that wrong by bringing this person (back to Canada) even if I lose some political points with Islamophobes."'

In an opinion piece released to the media, Elmasry accused Harper of showing "shocking indifference" to Khadr's situation.

Khadr's lawyers and others want Ottawa to repatriate Khadr, who was 15 when he was accused of killing a U.S. army medic in Afghanistan in 2002, from Guantanamo Bay.

Harper has steadfastly refused to intervene in the case, insisting Canada has "no real alternative" but to follow a U.S. military tribunal's proceedings against Khadr.

Elmasry contrasts Khadr's case with that of dual Canadian-British citizen William Sampson, who was freed from a death sentence in Saudi Arabia in 2003.

Prior to his release, the federal Liberal government of the day made pleas on Sampson's behalf to the Saudi government.

"Why is Stephen Harper so callously indifferent to Omar Khadr's case?" Elmasry wrote.

"It's painfully obvious: William Sampson is a white Westerner while his fellow Canadian citizen, Omar Khadr, is brown-skinned and a Muslim."

Elmasry regularly writes opinion pieces as president of the CIC. The group then distributes them to the media via email and posts the pieces on its website.

Khadr, now 21, faces trial before the tribunal in October.

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