Canada's Parliament has just declared criticism of Islam off-limits. The anti-Islamophobia motion, M-103, passed by a margin of 201 to 91.— Andrew Lawton (@AndrewLawton) March 23, 2017
Showing posts with label Canada. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Canada. Show all posts
Saturday, March 25, 2017
O Canada! My home and Islamic land.....
Thursday, March 17, 2016
Canada Has a New Prime Minister. And Canadian Funding of Hamas Resumes in 3...2...1....
Sweet, huh? I'm sure Trudeau won't have any problems washing the blood of Israeli children off of his hands.
The story comes from Israel National News.
Canada to resume funding for UN 'Palestinian refugee' agency
The United Nations on Wednesday said that Canada will resume contributing funds to the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), the UN relief agency that aids and protects “Palestinian refugees”, The Associated Press (AP) reported.
In a statement, the UN said Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon is pleased that Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's government decided to restart the funding for UNRWA.
Canada discontinued the funding in 2010 during the administration of former Conservative Prime Minister Stephen Harper amid criticism that the agency funded schools that had become hotbeds of anti-Israeli extremism.
But Trudeau's Liberal government decided to resume the funding to UNRWA despite its well-documented ties to the Hamas terrorist organization in Gaza.
Ban met on Wednesday with Trudeau, who took office in November and has vowed more engagement in world affairs, according to AP.
UNRWA marked its 65th anniversary last year. Ban said at the time that the agency was never meant to exist for 65 years but "exists because of political failure."
Trudeau has raised various question marks vis-a-vis Hamas. He appointed Omar Alghabra as Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Foreign Affairs. Alghabra was previously the head of the radical Canadian Arab Federation (CAF), which ran afoul of the state for its open support of Hamas.
His behavior led Canadian journalist Ezra Levant, co-founder of The Rebel Media, to call Trudeau "stupid" in January, quipping that he doesn't know "the difference between Hamas and hummus."
Wednesday, November 25, 2015
Number of Canadian radicals kept under wraps
Hey, what right would the people have to know if someone moved in next door wants to cut their head off as long as we know who the sexual offenders are in the neighborhood, right?
The story comes from the Toronto Sun.
Number of Canadian radicals kept under wraps
The RCMP and CSIS won’t update Canadians about the number of radicals they’re tracking. It could be decreasing. It could be increasing. They won’t say.
This is no doubt cold comfort for people wondering just how safe their country is following the Paris attacks. After all, ISIS has mentioned Canada as a target.
As I reported Monday, the latest issue of the terror group’s promotional magazine reiterated calls for adherents to attack Western countries, including Canada.
At a press conference last Wednesday, neither RCMP commissioner Bob Paulson nor CSIS director Michel Coulombe gave updated numbers to reporters. Sun Media received the same response to requests made Monday.
In October 2014, Coulombe revealed to a Senate committee that there were 130 to 145 Canadians overseas engaged in terror.
Around the same time, the RCMP revealed they were watching 90 people who were either planning to go abroad for terror purposes or had already returned.
Then this past April, Coulombe again appeared before senators addressing the issue: “That overall number is slowly increasing, with the sharpest increase in Iraq and Syria. In fact, over the last three or four months, we have probably seen an increase of 50% in the number of people who have left for Iraq and Syria.”
Clearly a lot can happen over the course of a few months. The tally could be completely different now, at a time when Canadians could certainly do with assurances and more information.
Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale’s office said they wouldn’t comment on an operational matter.
But Erin O’Toole, the public safety critic, thinks the information should be disclosed.
“I think the numbers should be shared so that people know that this is a real phenomenon,” the Conservative MP said in a phone interview.
O’Toole added it’s especially important to know these numbers because Canadian Forces members abroad may end up engaging with these radicals: “We’re talking a military deployment to a region where there are actually Canadians on the ground as enemy combatants.”
What justification do our agencies have for not revealing this information?
“The number of people currently under investigation does not provide a comprehensive picture of the threat, and therefore the RCMP does not provide an updated number for now,” RCMP spokesman Sgt. Harold Pfleiderer explained to me Monday, via e-mail. “Most important is that the RCMP is always re-evaluating these files to ensure that they are prioritized according to risk.”
Senator Daniel Lang, chairman of the Senate committee on national security and defence, doesn’t agree with such rationales. A major report on countering terrorism he co-authored recommends keeping the public regularly up to speed.
The report, released in July, says the public should be provided with “clear, quantitative, and unambiguous” information. That’s not what CSIS and the RCMP currently offer.
“We feel Canadians should be updated on a regular basis in respect to the threats Canada is facing,”
Lang, Conservative senator for the Yukon, explained via phone: “I don’t think it’s too much to ask because there is updating done in other countries and there’s no reason it shouldn’t be done here.”
This past weekend, French Prime Minister Manuel Valls explained to his country that there are over 10,000 people on their country’s list of radicals who are considered a threat to national security.
So far, the only assurances concerned Canadians have received from their own government and security services are the equivalent of “Relax, we’re taking care of it.” They’re not the most relaxing words.
The Liberal government should consider adopting the Senate report’s recommendations on proactive disclosure. A little information will go a long way in the eyes of the public.
Thursday, April 17, 2014
Syrian Extremists Threaten to 'Destroy' Canada in Online Video
Syrian Extremists Threaten to 'Destroy' Canada in Online Video
The most extreme armed faction in Syria has threatened to "destroy" Canada, as Western governments are struggling to deal with radicalized citizens infatuated with Al-Qaeda ideology.
Speaking in flawless English, a member of the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant said in an online video that after fighting in the Middle East, the group would turn on North America.
"This is a message to Canada and all the American tyrants: We are coming and we will destroy you, with permission from Allah the almighty," the unidentified foreign fighter said.
While he did not divulge his nationality, he said he was an "emigrant" to Syria and his accent sounded North American. It is rare for jihadists to mention Canada in their propaganda unless they are Canadians.
Despite the threat, the young extremist did not himself seem to have the intention of travelling to Canada to conduct attacks: he followed up his brief speech by tossing his passport into a fire.
According to the Canadian Security Intelligence Service, about 30 Canadians have joined Syrian extremist factions like ISIL, which is trying to impose its militant version of Islamic law in the region.
But a Canadian who goes by the nom de guerre Abu Turab and calls himself a "jihadi" said in an online post there were "many bros from Canada" fighting in Syria. In another post, he said there were "maybe 100."
Officials are concerned about the security threat posed by foreign jihadist fighters should they return to Canada with terrorist training, combat experience and extreme anti-Western zeal.
About 130 radicalized Canadians are believed to remain active abroad, while 80 have returned to Canada from various conflict zones. "Some never achieve their intent and simply return home. Thus their depth of experience varies widely, making some individuals much more concerning than others," Michel Coulombe, the CSIS Director, testified recently.
The last Canadian known to have died in Syria was Damian Clairmont, a Muslim convert from Calgary. Another convert from Timmons, Ont., Andr? Poulin, died last summer, around the same time that Ali Dirie, a convicted member of the Toronto 18 terrorist group, was killed.
"I made hijra [emigration] to this land for one reason alone," the English-speaking jihadist said in the new video, which was posted Sunday, according to the SITE Intelligence Group. "I left comfort for one reason alone -- for Allah, glorified and exalted be He. And Allah willing, after Syria, after Iraq, after the [Arabian] Peninsula, we are going for you, Barack Obama."
Monday, February 17, 2014
In the Words of the Jihadi
In Their Own Words
by CLARE M. LOPEZ
February 16, 2014
In an unusual move, one of the suspects in the 2012-13 Via Railway terror plot has been allowed to give an interview to the Canadian National Post. That interview is remarkable because it explains the jihadist motivations behind the plot in clear and unambiguous language that leaves no room for doubt about "why they hate us." Those who would confront and defeat this hate and the terror plots it inspires would do well to listen to the words of Chiheb Esseghaier.
Esseghaier was a Tunisian doctoral student at the Institut National de la Recherche Scientifique, a branch of the Université de Quebec and a landed immigrant who'd come to Canada in 2008. His travel to Zahedan, in eastern Iran, caught the attention of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP), which launched a complex investigation that eventually led to the unraveling of a joint al-Qa'eda-Iran plot to blow up a passenger train over the Niagara River gorge. Esseghaier and fellow suspect, Raed Jaser (from the United Arab Emirates), were arrested in the conspiracy and now face terror charges in Canadian court. Over the months since their April 2013 arrest, Esseghaier has made a number of court appearances as well as public statements, of which the recent National Post interview includes just the latest.
Although thanks to good intelligence and police work, Canada to date has been spared the kind of horrific terror attacks that have made headlines elsewhere in the West (Burgas, London, Madrid, U.S.), there have been jihadist attempts, including the August 2010 Ottawa Parliament plot and the earlier 2006 Toronto 18 plot. National Post coverage of the Via Railway terror plot has been extensive and its multiple reports quoting the very vocal Esseghaier are revealing, even though it is clear the Post itself doesn't understand what he's been trying to tell them. Faced with the reality that their country, too, is a target, Canadians have been struggling to make sense out of Esseghaier's simple pronouncement: "I am a Muslim." The so-called "experts on extremism" consulted by the National Post weren't much help: Prof. Lorne Dawson, ex-director of the Canadian Network for Research on Terrorism, Security and Society, opined that Esseghaier's views were "very comparable to what one might hear from a strident anti-abortion activist coming from a Christian perspective."
In fact, Esseghaier is nothing like a Christian pro-life activist. In his own words, he has explained that he sees himself as a faithful member of the global Islamic ummah. He calls Muslim Afghans his "brothers and sisters," because according to Islamic doctrine, national borders and the world order that Canadian and other NATO members seek to defend in Afghanistan are meaningless. He believes it is his duty to follow the commands of Islam, which obligate every Muslim to wage jihad as an individual duty (fard ‘ayn) whenever non-believers (kufar) invade Islamic lands. In his court appearances, Esseghaier repeatedly has asserted his allegiance to Islamic Law (shariah) and rejected the authority of Canadian law. Challenged by the National Post to explain why he plotted to kill Canadian and American rail passengers, Esseghaier accused Canada of "[making] lawful what God made unlawful..."], which is an explicit reference to Qur'anic verse 9:29, which says
Fight those who believe not in Allah nor the Last Day, nor hold that forbidden which hath been forbidden by Allah and His Messenger, nor acknowledge the Religion of Truth, from among the People of the Book, until they pay the Jizyah with willing submission, and feel themselves subdued.
It is critical that national security experts and leadership grasp what Esseghaier is trying to tell us. Pretending that authoritative Islamic law and scripture are not the doctrinal source of justification for Islamic jihad (terrorism), as does A Guide to Refuting Jihadism, just out from the Henry Jackson Society, only serves to blind and neutralize our ability to confront the shariah threat. Likewise, getting hung up on group names and affiliations misses the point that Esseghaier describes so clearly: Islamic terrorism is conducted not just to kill people but to establish the pre-conditions for the ultimate objective which is the universal enforcement of Islamic Law. The 5 February 2014 War on Error from Foreign Policy offers another good illustration. Starting out by making a valiant effort at sorting out the many off-shoot franchises of Usama bin-Laden's original al-Qa'eda, this piece unfortunately winds up taking an already muddled topic and compounding the muddling. Terming Islamic jihadis "violent extremists" or al-Qa'eda "nihilistic" with "an outlier interpretation of Islamic Law" is to miss the point entirely. Esseghaier is obviously both well-educated and well-versed in the doctrine of his faith; he is also representative of jihadis the world over who are indeed violent, but neither extremists nor nihilists within the parameters of authoritative Islam. They seek well-defined objectives based on widely-available Islamic scriptures and do not hesitate to declare them and pursue them both openly and by guile.
It is not often that a self-avowed Islamic jihadi like Esseghaier is given this sort of platform. It behooves us all to pay attention to what he says.
Tuesday, January 21, 2014
Canadian PM Blasts CAIR-Canada for Ties to Hamas
Canada's Stephen Harper called CAIR (Council on American-Islamic Relations) out for what they are...terrorists with links to Hamas while America's Barack Hussein Obama invites the likes of CAIR and the Muslim Brotherhood to the White House.
The story comes from The Clarion Project.
Canadian PM Blasts CAIR-Canada for Ties to Hamas
CAIR's ties to Hamas are fully documented. That is not slander or libel, as CAIR says. Rather, it is the truth that CAIR wants to disguise.
The Office of Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper has responded to criticism from the Canadian affiliate of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) by pointing to its “documented ties” to the Hamas terrorist group.
The organization slammed Prime Minister Harper’s inclusion of Rabbi Daniel Korobkin of Beth Avraham Yoseph Congregation in his trip to Israel because he of his complimentary remarks towards two prominent activists critical of Islamists and sharia law. CAIR labeled them “anti-Muslim” bigots.
“We will not take seriously criticism from an organization with documented ties to a terrorist organization such as Hamas,” replied Harper’s communications director, Jason MacDonald.
CAIR was designated an unindicted co-conspirator in the trial of the Holy Land Foundation, a charity that was shut down for financing Hamas. Federal prosecutors labeled CAIR an “entity” of the U.S. Muslim Brotherhood’s secret Palestine Committee, a body set up to covertly advance the Hamas agenda.
CAIR’s bid to have the label lifted failed. A federal judge ruled in 2009 that the government provided “ample” evidence linking CAIR to the Muslim Brotherhood/Hamas network. For example, a 1991 U.S. Muslim Brotherhood memo explicitly identifies CAIR’s predecessor, the Islamic Association for Palestine, as a Brotherhood front.
The FBI officially stopped using CAIR in 2009 as a liaison to the Muslim-American community because of these Hamas links. A September 2013 Justice Department report said the policy’s objective is to “ensure that the FBI is not supporting individuals who support extremist or terrorist ideologies.”
The Canadian branch of CAIR changed its name in July to the National Council of Canadian Muslims (NCCM). Its executive director, Ihsaan Gardee, says that the comment by Harper’s office is “defamatory and libelous.”
CAIR-Canada’s name change does not absolve it of its past. Its name purposely implied it is a branch of CAIR for a good reason: It is a branch of CAIR.
NCCM says, “There was never any operating or funding relationship between CAIR.CAN and CAIR.” Its previous website said, “CAIR-CAN is a fully independent and separate organization from the Washington D.C.-based CAIR, although the two may coordinate on issues of mutual concern.”
This is a game of semantics. All of CAIR’s chapters are registered independently. This is by design. Don’t take my word for it. Look at what one of CAIR’s founders said:
“Registering an organization is easy. I can register 100 organizations in 100 cities in one day,” said CAIR founder Omar Ahmad during a secret 1993 Muslim Brotherhood meeting. It was at this meeting that the need to create CAIR was discussed.
There is plenty of documentation to prove that CAIR-CAN (now NCCM) operates as an organ of CAIR, as collected by the Point De Bascule blog.
There are CAIR-CAN press releases that explicitly identify it as CAIR’s “office in Canada,” as if the name doesn’t make it obvious enough. A 2003 affidavit by the chair of CAIR-CAN states that CAIR “has direct control over the character and quality of all activities of [CAIR-CAN] including the use of its trademark and trade name.”
One of the pioneers of the U.S. Muslim Brotherhood network (a network which CAIR is a part of) is Jamal Badawi. He remains on CAIR-CAN’s Board of Directors. The U.S. Muslim Brotherhood lists him as an operative in a 1992 document and he has a history of extremist rhetoric that includes support for Hamas.
It is condescending that CAIR-CAN would think the public is naïve enough to be tricked with a simple name change—but we shouldn’t be surprised. The manipulative use of semantics is a key part of CAIR’s modus operandi.
At the aforementioned 1993 meeting, a Brotherhood leader repeatedly stated, “War is deception.” The participants, including CAIR’s founder, discussed how to shift their language to change perceptions and brainstormed name changes.
A 2007 court filing by federal prosecutors said:
“From its founding by Muslim Brotherhood leaders, CAIR conspired with other affiliates of the Muslim Brotherhood to support terrorists … the conspirators agreed to use deception to conceal from the American public their connections to terrorists.”
These are some of the “documented ties to a terrorist organization such as Hamas” that Canadian Prime Minister Harper’s office was referring to. That is not libel, nor is it slander. It is truth that CAIR wants to disguise.
Tuesday, November 5, 2013
The Islamic Radicalization of Canada
The story comes from The Investigative Project on Terrorism.
Guest Column: Canada's Growing Islamic Radicalization a Warning Sign
The man who calls himself Abu Muslim sits with his fellow fighters, members of the group Katiba al Muhajireen, and raises his rifle for the camera. He has come to Aleppo to fight, he tells the man who has come to interview him for Britain's Channel 4. A Muslim convert, he – like some 100 others joining the jihad in Syria's civil war – has left his family at home. In Canada.
The United States' neighbor to the north is experiencing a radicalization problem, according to a confidential report by the Canadian Security and Intelligence Service (CSIS). Made public earlier this year through a Freedom of Information Act request filed by Canada's National Post, the report confirms that "Islamist extremists are now radicalizing Canadians at a large number of venues," ranging from mosques to dinner parties and even the family home.
"Parents have radicalized children, husbands have radicalized wives (and some wives have radicalized or supported their husbands," the study's authors contend, "and siblings have radicalized each other."
Indeed, according to one assessment cited by the Canadian Broadcasting Company (CBC), "with the exception of the United States, there are more terrorist groups active in Canada today than in any other country in the world." And while most of their activity is based abroad, a study published earlier this year by the International Institute for Counterterrorism (IIC) shows that 25 individuals have developed or been involved in four plots against Canadian targets since 2006. Of these, eight were Canadian born; three were converts to Islam; and 20 – nearly all – were between the ages of 18 and 35. Most were affiliated with al-Qaida. Among them:
The "Toronto 18," arrested in 2006 for plans to behead Canada's prime minister, along with a host of other schemes, including bombing the Toronto Stock Exchange, the Canadian Security and Intelligence Service office in Toronto, and other targets;
A group of three Muslims, Hiva Mohammad Alizadeh, Misbahuddin Ahmed, and Khurram Syed Sher – a physician and former "Canadian Idol" contestant – accused in 2010 of plotting terrorist attacks and making bombs;
Chiheb Esseghaier and Raed Jaser, arrested earlier this year on charges they were planning to bomb an Amtrak/Via passenger train running between New York and Toronto;
John Nuttail and Amanda Korody, converts charged with planning to celebrate Canada Day (July 1) this year by using pressure cooker bombs to blow up the British Columbia Provincial legislature in Victoria.
This does not include the hundreds more suspected of taking part in terrorist attacks abroad, including at least 100 of Canada's jihadists who, like Abu Muslim, have headed off to join the fighting in Syria. (Abu Muslim is now suspected to have taken part in an attack on an Abu Duhur military airport this past summer.) Notably, while the Muslim population of Canada is smaller than that of the U.S., more Canadian than American Muslims are thought to have joined radical groups in the Syrian conflict.
But it isn't just in Syria: Canadian radicals have also been involved in attacks elsewhere: the suicide bombing of a courthouse in Mogodishu; the bombing, by members of Hizballah, of a bus in Bulgaria carrying a group of Israeli tourists; and the attack on a gas plant in January which killed hundreds of refinery workers in Algeria.
Most visible, and certainly among the most active of these Muslim extremists, is the controversial Khadr family, most or all of whom are alleged to be members of al-Qaida. (Father Ahmed Said Khadr, who emigrated to Canada in 1977 from Egypt and was killed battling Pakistani forces in Afghanistan in 2003, was believed to be an al-Qaida founding member and financier.)
Not all of Canada's Islamic terrorist activity involves violence, however. Financing for foreign terror groups has a long history in the country, as terror expert Ilan Berman testified before the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Homeland Security in 2011. Other Canadian investigations during the 1990s also revealed connections to Hizballah that "reportedly includes the procurement of funds, human smuggling, especially into the United States, and the provision of safe houses from which future attacks can be plotted." (Whether or not those connections still exist today is unclear.)
What does seem clear, however, is that the radicalization of Canadian Muslims is not only continuing, but growing, as the ICC report indicates. It is a problem moderate Muslims can sense as well; Algerian-born Zakaria Fellah, a U. S. citizen who lived in Canada from 2000-2001, says that there are "hotbeds for – I am careful not to say extremism, but certainly an orthodox view of Islam." Indeed, several high-profile honor killings in Canada, as the IIC report also notes, would seem to confirm the solid presence of orthodox radical Muslims within the Canadian Muslim community.
Yet much of the blame for this, Fellah believes, stems not only from the Muslim community (though several mosques in Canada are known to be connected to extremist groups) but "the lax codes, the accommodation, the multiculturalism charter." That would, for instance, partly explain the 2004 efforts to introduce Sharia tribunals in Ottawa – a move shockingly supported by former attorney general Marion Boyd. (And given that a 2011 survey by Leuprecht and Winn showed that as many as 88 percent of Canadian Muslims support the idea of integrating Sharia law into Canadian society. , the subject is likely to come up again soon. The outcome is anyone's guess.
That alone is an issue that other countries will probably confront as well in the near future; and it stems, in part, from the ease with which radicalization can take place. And it's not just in Canada; as the de-classified CSIS report states, since "radicalization involves the mutual confirmation of extreme views among a group of people, it can take place wherever these people gather" – or, in other words, just about anywhere.
That viewpoint is not foreign to the international counterterrorism community, of course: it accounts for such oft-debated security measures as the monitoring of mosques and tapping of telephones – actions many condemn as "undemocratic."
And yet, consider that the authors of the International Institute for Counterterrorism review have come to one very clear conclusion: that "stopping radicalization is an impossible task." If they are right, then the challenges to world democracy may be greater than we think.
Friday, October 11, 2013
Canadian Muslims Protest ‘Honor Killing’ Label As Racist
The story comes from Family Security Matters.
Canadian Muslims Protest ‘Honor Killing’ Label As Racist
Are they willfully misleading? Or are Canadian Muslims who are fighting federal funding to investigate honor violence in the Muslim (and other) communities simply naïve victims of the same propaganda used routinely to explain away the religio-culturally-based murders of Muslim women?
Every year, according to United Nations reports, 5,000 women worldwide are killed for reasons of "honor" that relate to matters of modesty and obeyance, though most experts maintain the numbers are far higher. And the number of victims of honor violence, which can involve beatings, acid attacks, or locking a woman in her home, is literally incalculable. In the United Kingdom alone, more than 3,000 such honor crimes occurred just in 2010, according to a study by the Iranian and Kurdish Women's Rights Organization (IKWRO). The vast majority of those crimes, the organization states, were committed by Muslims, though Sikhs and Hindus have also been known to commit honor-related crimes.
In Canada, the decision to earmark funds to combat honor violence began in 2007, after a series of honor crimes over the previous two years resulted in the deaths of two women and one man. Soon after the program was announced, on Dec. 10, 2007, the father and brother of 16-year-old Toronto native Aqsa Parvez, strangled her to death. The reason: she had refused to wear the hijab, or scarf.
Yet recently, some groups have begun speaking out against the idea of specifying these crimes as "honor killings" and providing targeted programs to address them, even as two subsequent events underscore just how urgently such funds and programs are needed.
The first of these was the 2012 conviction of Mohammad Shafia, his wife Tooba Yahya, and their son Hamed in the murder of Mohammad and Tooba's three teenage daughters and of Rona Amir Mohammad, Mohammad Shafia's other wife in a polygamous arrangement - a case that received worldwide attention. That conviction confirmed the findings of a University of Sherbrooke study released earlier that year showing an exponential increase in the number of honor killings in Canada. Only three known victims were killed between 1954 and 1983. Since 1999, 12 women have died in honor killings.
All of the murders, the study reported, took place within immigrant families. (It is worth noting that the increase may or may not reflect either the growing numbers of Muslim immigrants to Canada over the years, or a better understanding of honor crimes among law enforcement and other agencies.)
Yet according to a recent report from Women's e-News, many Canadian Muslim women now are speaking out against the government's new focus on these crimes, arguing that honor violence is no different from any other form of domestic abuse. Opponents of the idea call the projects "racist," and claim they put an unwarranted and biased focus on Muslim and Hindi families. "When women of color are killed, we ask these larger questions around their culture. We ask what's wrong with their entire people - their culture, their religion - instead of a particular person," Itrath Syed, who is pursuing a Ph.D. in "Islamophobia" in Vancouver, for instance, told Women's e-News.
What is so tragic about this remark is not just the half-dozen or so ways in which it is patently untrue, but that it seeks to nullify the horror that is honor violence, to deny the profound distinctions between honor crimes and other forms of domestic violence and femicide.
It is both absurd and disingenuous to suggest that all non-white victims and perpetrators of abuse are investigated on the basis of "culture" - particularly given the fact that the majority of Canadian domestic violence victims are Canadian Aboriginese. (In the U.S., too, most domestic abuse victims are black or Native American, yet questions of "culture" or "religion" are not addressed when dealing with those cases.) Culture doesn't excuse domestic violence whether the perpetrator is black, white or brown.
What Syed really was referring to was religion, not race. Or rather, the implication that domestic abuse in Muslim families is related to Islam, and that Muslim families are therefore treated differently than everybody else. It's a common accusation, and an ongoing question: are honor crimes culturally-based, or founded in interpretations of the Koran?
It's a bit of both, according to Carla Rus, a psychiatrist in the Netherlands who specializes in working with victims of both domestic abuse and honor violence. "Honor violence involves a kind of ideology, which you don't find in domestic violence," she points out. "In [Islamic] cultures, where church and state are not separated, it's difficult to distinguish whether honor violence comes through cultural or religious motives - culture and religion are inseparable in those cases."
Moreover, not all domestic violence occurring in Muslim families (some of whom are white) is automatically categorized as an honor crime. But call a crime what it is. When Mohammad Safia curses his daughters for "dishonoring" and "betraying Islam;" when Iraqi-American Aita Altameemi's mother burns and beats her for engaging in "non-Islamic behavior" - and the family says they "are proud of it" - there is no reason not to take them at their word.
Understanding how dramatically honor violence differs from other domestic abuse is, however, critical - a point that the recent Canadian funding aims to address, as do similar efforts in the UK and the Netherlands. As Phyllis Chesler, author of the landmark study, "Worldwide Trends in Honor Killings," has noted, "Westerners rarely kill their young daughters, nor do Western families of origin conspire or collaborate in such murders." Similarly, domestic abuse in Western families does not involve brothers murdering their sisters, as happens in cases of honor killings. To the contrary, siblings most often protect one another.
Moreover, while domestic violence may relate to a man's sense of self-respect, reputation, or "honor" among his peers, it does not - despite what some Muslims argue - reflect his sense of religious honor or his sense, as patriarch, of responsibility for his family's perceived insults to his god. Yet it is precisely this mindset which incites much honor-based violence and murder - and not only on the part of the father or husband. Frequently, religious devotion and patriarchy places pressure on other family members - siblings, aunts, uncles, spouses or even mothers of a victim -to commit the act, often under threat.
That fact underscores two other critical points that opponents to Canada's focus on honor killings apparently do not wish others to see - or perhaps are too culturally blinded to see: Ordinary domestic violence is nearly always spontaneous, while honor violence (and especially honor murder) is almost always calculated, often planned out over time through numerous family meetings. And the horrific reality is that, these women simply have nowhere to run: no mothers who will shelter them from the husbands they are trying to escape, no sisters or brothers to protect them from their fathers - no one. (Indeed, the sisters and brothers are often recruited to assure a girl hiding from her family to come home, that all is forgiven. But this assertion is almost always a ruse; once she returns, the child is usually killed within days.)
It is, in other words, a long-term family affair, and one that, unlike the problems of domestic violence, can be changed.
Which is precisely why funding for, and attention to, understanding and preventing honor violence is so very critical, not only in Canada, but everywhere in the West. It is why women - and especially Muslim women - should be welcoming it, even demanding more.
And yet, countless Canadian (and other) Muslim activists and apologists remain far more devoted to shaping public vision of their culture - even if it means disguising the truth - than to protecting the lives of their Muslim sisters. In some cases, they may go so far as to contend that the very notion of "honor killings" is a "Western propagated myth," reports Darpan. Indeed, one Muslim women's advocate, Rubaiyat Karim, told Women's e-News that, "Immigration policy can be very inclusionary and preach the language of multi-culturalism. But if we really want to talk about multiculturalism, we need to address the Orientalist mentality of government."
She's wrong. What we really need to address is the refusal of some Muslim families to advance beyond medieval and barbaric religio-cultural practices - and to stop excusing them when they don't. Not to do so is to abandon thousands of women, not just in Canada or the United States, not just in countries like Pakistan and Saudi Arabia, but in every country, every city, every town across the world. We cannot let that happen.
Tuesday, July 2, 2013
2 arrested in Canadian terror plot 'inspired by al Qaeda ideology'
By the way, look at the last names below of those arrested...countdown to the American main stream media calling these two out as Christian Tea Party radical extremists....LOL
The story comes from The Long War Journal.
2 arrested in Canadian terror plot 'inspired by al Qaeda ideology'
Today the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) announced the arrest of two Canadian-born citizens, John Stuart Nuttall and Amanda Marie Korody, in a terror plot targeting a public gathering at the British Columbia Legislature in Victoria on Canada Day, July 1.
According to online court records, Nuttall and Korody appeared at the Surrey Provincial Court this morning. The two suspects face charges that include "conspiring to place an explosive in or against a place of public use, a government or public facility, with the intent to cause death or serious bodily injury, for the benefit of, at the direction or in association with a terrorist group," according to an RCMP press release.
According to Canadian officials, the investigation into Nuttall and Korody began in February 2013 following a tip from the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS). Assistant Commissioner James Malizia said in a prepared statement that although Nuttall and Korody were "inspired by Al Qaeda ideology," it was "a domestic threat, without international linkages." Additionally, officials said that there was no evidence that Nuttall and Korody had support from or were acting at the direction of a specific terrorist group.
Both Nuttal and Korody had engaged in "self-radicaliz[ing] behavior," according to authorities. In addition, the two "discussed a wide variety of targets and techniques" prior to their arrest. Assistant Commissioner Wayne Rideout said Nuttall and Korody's "self-radicalized behaviour was intended to create maximum impact and harm to Canadian citizens at the BC Legislature on a National holiday. They took steps to educate themselves and produced explosive devices designed to cause injury and death."
During today's press conference, authorities showed photos of three pressure cookers, which Nuttal and Korody intended to use as improvised explosive devices. Photos released by the RCMP show that the pressure cookers had a variety of contents, including nuts, bolts, rusty nails, and washers.
Authorities stressed that the devices were "inert" and that they "were completely under our control." The devices, authorities said, were "secured and seized" outside the BC Legislature.
When questioned during the press conference, RCMP officials said there is currently no evidence to suggest that the plot is linked to the Boston Marathon bombings, which also involved pressure cooker devices.
Today's announcement comes just over two months after authorities in Canada announced the arrests of Chiheb Esseghaier and Raed Jasser. The two, according to Canadian officials, had plotted to destroy a passenger train as it traveled between the United States and Canada. Esseghaier and Jasser had received "support from al Qaeda elements located in Iran" in the form of "direction and guidance," said RCMP Assistant Commissioner James Malizia. And May 9, US authorities announced the arrest of Tunisian national Ahmed Abassi for links to the train terror plot.
Monday, June 24, 2013
Moderate Muslim Group In Toronto, Canada Holds Rally To Protest Islamic Terrorism....24 Muslims Show Up
Well, the other day in Toronto, Canada that vast majority of moderate Muslims was to gather and show their total disdain for the violent islamic terrorist activities plaguing this world. Oh yeah, streets were blocked off as the Canadian security forces anticipated what was going to be a THRONG of those millions and millions of moderate Muslims.
24 Muslims showed up.
24.
Allahu Ackbar.
The story comes from Jihad Watch via The Religion of Peace.
Canada: Progressive Muslims group rallies against jihad terrorism, draws 24 people
One of the cornerstones of the argument over the last few days for keeping me out of the U.K. is the false claim that I "demonize all Muslims" in my critique of jihad and Islamic supremacism. In reality, I point out that Islamic supremacists claim to represent the authentic interpretation of the Qur'an and Islam, that they make recruits among peaceful Muslims with this claim, that most reputedly "moderate" organizations in the U.S. are tied to the Muslim Brotherhood (as has been abundantly established by the Justice Department), and that genuinely peaceful and non-supremacist Muslims have not effectively countered the Islamic supremacist appeal among Muslims.
All these facts are established anew by the tiny turnout at the small number of Muslim anti-terror demonstrations that have taken place. Several years ago a group called the Free Muslims Coalition held what it called a "Free Muslims March Against Terror," intending to "send a message to the terrorists and extremists that their days are numbered ... and to send a message to the people of the Middle East, the Muslim world and all people who seek freedom, democracy and peaceful coexistence that we support them." In the run-up to the event it got enthusiastic national and international publicity, but it ended up drawing about twenty-five people. And that is about as many as this demo in Toronto drew. Now the group appears to be defunct; its website hasn't been updated since December 2011.
"Progressive Muslims group launched in Toronto to reclaim ‘hijacked’ faith," by Wendy Gillis for the Toronto Star, June 17 (thanks to Rick):
Tahir Gora shouts into a microphone, cuing a response from the sparse group of supporters gathered with him at the steps of Queen’s Park.
“Terrorism,” he yells.
“Unacceptable!” they reply.
Their voices carry across the grassy Legislature grounds that are, with the exception of a few bike cops and pedestrians, deserted. A stack of unused signs, their slogans reading “Hate is not my religion” and “Love it or leave my Canada,” lean up against a nearby pole.
Mighty but small, it was not quite the turnout the newly formed Progressive Muslims Institute Canada had in mind for their first rally, held last week. As one of the organizers mused with a chuckle, there were more white faces than brown in the crowd of roughly two dozen.
But when the goal is as big as reclaiming a faith many Muslims feel has been hijacked by terrorism, you’ve got to start somewhere.
“We thought, enough is enough,” said Gora, the institute’s director and a Pakistani writer and social activist.
The quick succession of Islam-linked terrorism — the Boston Marathon bombing, the alleged plot to derail a Toronto-bound train, the killing of a British soldier in London, among others — was the final push for Gora and a handful of other activists to officially band together, Gora said. Part of umbrella think tank Canadian Thinkers’ Forum, the institute is the latest Canadian Muslim group promoting progressive ideas, including gender equality, separation of church and state, and condemnation of terrorism.
But while many Muslims have long been denouncing the actions of fundamental Islamist extremists, there remains a reticence among some to speak out.
“It’s 25 years that I’ve been in Canada, but I haven’t seen the Muslim community come out to protest,” said rally attendee Rasheed Nadeem. “There are progressive people, but they are silent. They do talk, but in their dining rooms.”
Fear plays a role, said Arshad Mahmood, honorary director of the new progressive Muslims group — “fear of being an outcast, fear of social boycott, fear of being trashed by certain extremist priests,” he said.
Saadia Ali Bokhari is a well known activist in the GTA Muslim community, and has spoken out on controversial issues including supporting the ban of face coverings in Canadian citizenship ceremonies. Because of her activism, she says she has been the recipient of hate and threats.
Last month, she participated in a downtown rally protesting the suspected vote-rigging in Pakistan’s recent election. After a photo of her at the rally was posted online, Bokhari began receiving harassing and threatening messages. She said her brother and sister in Pakistan were also contacted by people saying Bokhari needed to stop speaking out.
Bokhari believes some people are offended by the idea of a vocal, confident woman. “This is what they are doing to discourage me,” Bokhari said.
Mahmood, a Mississauga mortgage broker who moved to Canada from Pakistan in 1999, says another factor keeping Canadian Muslims from demonstrating is the false sense of security that Islamic extremism won’t affect Canada.
“That is a mentality that develops with some people to stay in a comfort zone — as long as it doesn’t happen on my street, I’m comfortable,” he said. At the rally he apologized for falling victim to this thinking, saying: “I am sorry that I didn’t stand up when my religion was being hijacked.”
For some Muslims, terrorism is so foreign to their idea of the Muslim faith that it seems odd to have to decry it, says Max Khan, an Oakville town councillor active in the Muslim community, because “we don’t identify ourselves as being a terrorist group.”
But he believes that community leaders and imams still have a responsibility to condemn terrorism.
“I do hold people who sit on the sidelines accountable,” Khan said.
There is frustration, however, that Muslim statements decrying violent extremism are falling on deaf ears. Dr. Aliya Khan is a member of an interfaith group in Peel and has been working to spread the message that Islam is peaceful. She says many imams are regularly denouncing terrorism, but the media aren’t covering their statements.
This is an oft-repeated claim, but it is absolute rubbish. The media is avid to find moderates, and routinely runs glowing puff pieces about reputed moderates, including some who turn out to be anything but. That's how Anwar al-Awlaki ended up getting praised in the New York Times, which hailed al-Awlaki on October 19, 2001 as one of "a new generation of Muslim leader capable of merging East and West."
In December, for instance, several international imams in Toronto for a large conference spoke out against extremist violence and “there wasn’t a peep from the media,” Khan said.
“The imams are feeling very frustrated, and they say ‘we’ve condemned this a billion times, we don’t know what to do,’” she said....
Act against it. Teach against it. Condemnations are not enough.
Thursday, May 2, 2013
Toronto, Canada: Sharia 1, Free Speech 0
It's not like we haven't been warning you all.
The story comes from The Clarion Project.
Toronto, Canada: Sharia 1, Free Speech 0
by Meira Svirsky
In an unprecedented move clamping down on free speech, Toronto police have threatened a rabbi that if he allows a speech to be given in his synagogue by a well-known anti-Islamist activist, he will lose his job as a chaplain with the force.
Inspector Ricky Veerappan, who is (ironically) from the police force’s “Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Bureau” confirmed that he and other officers from the hate crime division met with Rabbi Mendel Kaplan of the Chabad Flamingo Synagogue in the Toronto suburb of Thornhill. Kaplan had rented out space in his synagogue as a venue for a speech to be given by Pamela Geller.
The Toronto Sun quotes Veerappan as saying that the speech, scheduled for May 13, “would not be endorsed by York Regional Police.” Futhermore, Veerapan said that he told Kaplan, “If he did (host Geller), then we’d have to reassess our relationship with (Kaplan).”
Kaplan subsequently cancelled the talk.
Geller is an outspoken critic of radical Islam. Although she is careful not to speak negatively about Muslims or Islam itself, she is known for vocally pointing out the deceptive tactics of Muslim Brotherhood front groups, raising their ire.
The “visit” by the police force to Kaplan came after a Muslim in the community, who Veerappan refused to identify, alerted the police about the scheduled talk.
A spokesman for the sponsors of the talk, was quoted as saying, “I think the police are turning a blind eye to who they should be keeping an eye on,” referring to radical Islamists. The group will look for another venue for the talk.
Commenting on the police action, Tarek Fatah, founder of the Muslim Canadian Congress, said, “What this incident shows the depth of infiltration of Islamists in the police forces, both in Toronto, York Regions as well as the RCMP [Royal Canadian Mounted Police]. One may disagree profoundly with Pam Geller, but the police have no right to shut down speaking events citing hate laws when hate against non-Muslims has become institutionalized in many city mosques where clerics pray for the defeat of non-Muslims at the hands of Muslims.
Veerappan explained the move, saying, “We serve the needs of the entire community. Some of the stuff that Ms. Geller speaks about runs contrary to the values of York Regional Police and the work we do in engaging our communities.”
Ironically, Canadian police had no similar complaint against Tariq Ramadan, who was allowed to speak at the University of Toronto just two months earlier than the scheduled talk by Geller. Ramadan has been described by Fatah as “a man committed to the goals of worldwide Islamic jihad, as laid out by his mentor Sheikh Qaradawi, and his father, the ‘Trotsky’ of world Islamism, Said Ramadan.”
Ramadan’s grandfather, Hasan Al-Banna, was the founder of the Muslim Brotherhood.
In 2004, the United States revoked Ramadan’s visa citing the "ideological exclusion provision" of the USA Patriot Act. Later, the U.S. formally denied Ramadan's visa based solely on his actions, which included providing material support to a terrorist organization. (In 2010, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton facilitated a visa for Ramadan and he was allowed to enter the U.S.)
In addition, on May 4, convicted terrorist Leila Khaled will be given a platform to speak at the University of British Columbia. Khaled, a notorious member of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, a listed terrorist organization, is famous for her airplane hijackings in 1969 and 1970.
Toronto has been the site of a number of violent, demeaning and organized incidents against Jewish students by Muslims, with authorities doing little to stop them. In fact, the situation became so bad that a formal complaint was lodged with the Ontario Human Rights Tribunal against York University alleging that the university had actively legitimized an anti-Jewish atmosphere on campus fomented by Islamic elements.
Similar incidents of undemocratic police actions against those speaking out about radical Islam can be found in the U. S. as well. In a May 3, 2012 article, “Allegan, Michigan: Sharia 1, Free Speech 0,” The Clarion Project documented an incident where, after receiving a complaint by CAIR (the Council on American Islamic Relations), police shut down a private event in a rented room that was promoting the American constitution and the “American Laws for American Courts” legislation initiative.
Monday, April 22, 2013
Canada arrests two in al-Qaeda linked plot to derail train
RCMP Assistant Commissioner James Malizia addresses a news conference following the arrests.
Boston Marathon bombing by Islamic terrorists. Canadian plot by Islamic terrorists to destroy a train. Acts of war. Ignorance by YOUR media, America. Deception by YOUR media, America.
And I haven't even touched upon the fact that we are at war - Islam has declared war on your ass, America and your Leftist leaders who you elected have violated their oath of office by not protecting you as an American citizen.
Impeachment. Now.
The story comes from The Telegraph.
Canada arrests two in al-Qaeda linked plot to derail train
Chiheb Esseghaier, 30, and Raed Jaser, 35, were allegedly planning to carry out an attack on a Via Rail passenger train in the Toronto area, an official told reporters.
The pair are expected to appear in court on Tuesday for a bail hearing. Charges include conspiring to carry out an attack and conspiring in association with a terrorist group to murder individuals.
The Royal Canadian Mounted Police told a news conference the suspects "were receiving support from al-Qaeda elements located in Iran" but added "there's no indication that these attacks were state-sponsored."
The duo received "direction and guidance" from al-Qaeda, officials said.
Tuesday, April 2, 2013
The Two Canadians Who Were Part of Al Qaeda's Attack On the Algerian Gas Plant
See? If you want the news that counts, you need to be here at Holger Awakens or the other fine blogs that actually tell you what is happening to western civilization.
This story comes from CBC News via The Religion of Peace.
Canadians in Algerian gas plant attack identified
CBC News has learned that two Canadians linked to al-Qaeda and killed while staging a bloody attack on an Algerian gas refinery earlier this year were former high school friends in their early 20s, one from a Greek Orthodox family, and both from a comfortable middle-class London, Ont., neighbourhood.
A special CBC News investigation has confirmed the two al-Qaeda linked militants were Xristos Katsiroubas, 22, and Ali Medlej, who was believed to be about 24 years old at the time of their deaths.
The attack by the two Canadians and 30 other militants linked to al-Qaeda left more than three dozen refinery workers dead, the final 10 of whom were reportedly tied to gas plant piping and killed in a massive bomb blast.
Sources say it is likely Katsiroubas and Medlej intentionally blew themselves up in the blast; one of them could be only identified by DNA testing.
The Harper government at first denied there was any evidence Canadians had been involved in the attack, and the RCMP have continued to keep the identities of the pair a tight secret.
Now sources tell CBC News there may have been more than just the duo.
Sources say at least two more former London schoolmates of Katsiroubas and Medlej also travelled overseas with them.
But it is not yet clear whether the others are still alive, nor if they were involved in the Algerian gas plant attack.
Police sources say Katsiroubas is the likely attacker whom survivors have described as blond-haired and speaking fluent "North American English."
Canada’s intelligence service is refusing to comment.
But CBC News has learned that as long ago as 2007, CSIS agents interviewed some family and friends of the two, who were then teenagers.
A former London friend of the two men said one of their relatives called the police, complaining they were "hanging around with weirdos."
He says a CSIS agent subsequently interviewed a number of their friends.
Not under surveillance
Intelligence sources say CSIS did not have the two men and their other friends under surveillance when they left Canada sometime last year on their ultimately bloody mission.
No one will ever know all the details of how and why two teenagers who seemed rather normal ended up committing such monstrous acts.
But the details that are emerging from former friends and associates suggest theirs is a story that is becoming frighteningly more common.
"Xris" Katsiroubas grew up in a home with a backyard swimming pool in a middle-class London neighbourhood with rich ethnic diversity.
He lived with his mother after his parents divorced, and by all accounts seemed normal.
One former friend recalls that in the early years, at least, "he was like all the other kids, very smart in school, quite active."
Katsiroubas appears to have had an older brother, and at least three large families of cousins.
One relative is quoted in a 2007 news article saying he travelled all the way across London to shop at his favorite Greek pastry shop.
Little is known about Ali Medlej; he appears to have gone through most of his schooling without even a mention in most of his school yearbooks.
But sources tell CBC News that he and Katsiroubas remained friends throughout their high school years together at London South Secondary.
Medlej appears to have graduated in 2006. The next year, Katsiroubas seems to have dropped out at the end of Grade 11.
A former friend says that at some point in those teenage years, Katsiroubas converted to Islam.
One former school acquaintance who ran into Katsiroubas in 2009 recalls "it was really hard to relate to him at that point. He wasn’t the same. He had other interests — kept saying let's go to the mosque.
"It wasn’t that he wanted to take me there. It was that he wanted to go there and he thought a couple of hours spent with me [catching up] was probably a waste of time."
Shortly after they left high school, Medlej and Katsiroubas and another friend travelled out West, did some odd jobs, and finally returned to London within six months.
Medlej apparently got married sometime after 2009.
The next time most of their former school friends heard about Medlej and Katsiroubas again was about two months ago after the attack on the Algerian gas plant.
CSIS agents were back asking questions again.
The agents never mentioned the two were dead, much less that they had participated in one of the most heinous attacks in recent years.
Investigators say many of the innocent gas plant workers who died in the attack were burned alive.
Tuesday, November 13, 2012
Canadian Muslim Immigrant From Afghanistan Convicted Of Honor Killing His "too westernized" Wife
Let's not forget something in regards to the latest conviction of a Muslim man in Canada for an Islamic honor killing...Peer Khairi, who emigrated to Canada from Afghanistan, didn't just kill his wife for her "westernized" ways, no....he stabbed her to death and slashed her throat from ear to ear, nearly decapitating the woman.You see, Mohammed is pleased when the killing of a member of the Islamic club who has wandered is especially brutal. Khairi contested that he killed his wife in self defense when, he says, she attacked him with a knife - I'm wondering at what point in court did the prosecution bring up the near decapitation of his wife as a "normal" defense of one's life.
The story comes from CBC News via The Religion of Peace.
Jury convicts Toronto man who slashed throat, stabbed wife
A Toronto man who stabbed his wife and slashed her throat four years ago was found guilty of second-degree murder on Sunday.
Peer Khairi, 65, sobbed quietly with his head down when the verdict was read in court, days after the jury first began its deliberations last Thursday.
His wife, Randjida Khairi, died in March 2008. She was 53 years old.
Assistant Crown Attorney Robert Kenny said the jury heard four weeks of evidence during the trial, including three days of testimony from Khairi himself.
"We’re very happy with all the hard work that the jury went through and with the way the evidence came out," he told reporters outside court on Sunday.
Kenny credited the investigative work that police did in bringing the case to court.
"They were the ones who actually got the accused to speak the night of the murder and actually got a lot of the details of what had happened…which is what allowed us to take circumstantial evidence and to be able to tell the jury our theory of what had happened," he said.
"And I think by their verdict, they accepted that."
Toronto police Det. Sgt. Michael Barsky, who attended the scene on the day of the killing, said he was pleased with the verdict.
"Obviously things went very, very badly in that household for this to happen in the first place and those frustrations must have come to a head on March 18, 2008," Barsky told reporters.
"But I think Mr. Khairi was aware of what he was doing and why he was doing it and as a result we have this verdict today."
Sentencing to come
Following the verdict, defence lawyer Christopher Hicks was asked how Khairi reacted to the verdict.
Hicks told CBC News that Khairi is "not happy" and that it was evident that he had reacted "physically and emotionally to the decision."
Looking ahead to the sentencing process, Hicks said it was too soon to say what the defence would be recommending.
"We haven’t really thought about what we would say for a sentence in this matter," he said.
During the trial, Khairi had claimed that he killed his wife in self-defence, alleging that she had tried to attack him with a knife.
The Crown argued that Khairi was angry with his wife and children for adopting more Western values after coming to Canada from Afghanistan.
Khairi had not revealed his claim that he was attacked prior to the trial, including when questioned by police.
In court, Khairi said that he had been waiting for his trial to tell the full story.
Barsky said that the jury's verdict is a point where the Khairi family can begin to "turn the page" on a difficult chapter of their lives.
But he said that the Khairi children will still move forward without their parents in their lives.
"This is a difficult time for a family. They’ve lost both parents, essentially in one act," he said Sunday.
Friday, September 28, 2012
Chilling Account of Canadian Muslim Mother Trying To Kill Her Rebellious 19 Yr Old Daughter
Johra Kaleki (L) told Montreal police her daughter, Bahar Ebrahimi, was rebelling in the months before the alleged attack.
You really need to read this story, this horrific tale at what really could have been the latest honor killing in Canada - it literally sent chills down my spine to hear the words of a mother so brainwashed into serving Mohammed that the death of her daughter meant nothing to her. Nothing.
The story comes from The National Post via The Religion of Peace.
‘It’s for your good. Let me finish’: Afghan-Canadian mother told police she stabbed her daughter with a kitchen knife
MONTREAL – For months, Bahar Ebrahimi had been rebelling against her parents, complaining their Afghan culture and Muslim religion were suffocating her. “I want to enjoy my life. I want to feel what the other ones feel,” she told them, according to her mother’s statement to police.
It was June, 2010, Grand Prix weekend in downtown Montreal, and on two straight nights the 19-year-old stayed out past dawn against her parents’ wishes.
For her mother, Johra Kaleki, the behaviour confirmed that all her efforts to steer her eldest daughter on the right path had failed. “I felt like she would never be fixed,” she told Sgt.-Det. Alexandre Bertrand in an interrogation video played Wednesday in Quebec Court.
As her crying husband spoke to Bahar in the basement of their Dorval home, Ms. Kaleki went upstairs and grabbed a large knife from the kitchen counter, the one she used to chop meat, she recounted. “I said, ‘This is the time.’ ”
She hid the knife under her T-shirt, returned to the basement, and told her husband the problem would best be resolved between mother and daughter. “Just leave us alone for five minutes,” she said she told him. “Don’t come until I call you.”
He left and she cuddled her first-born and told her to lie on her stomach so she could give her a back massage. “Then I stab her, stab her neck,” she confessed. “She said, ‘No Mom!’ I said, ‘It’s for your good. Let me finish.’ ”
Earlier in the interrogation, Sgt.-Det. Bertrand has asked whether the knife blade was sharp. “No, it wasn’t,” she replied. “I wish it was. I wanted to give her the peace that she needed.”
Bahar survived the attack, suffering serious knife wounds to her head and shoulder. Ms. Kaleki, 40, is charged with attempted murder, aggravated assault and illegal use of a weapon.
Her husband, alerted by Bahar’s screams, rushed downstairs and grabbed the knife from Ms. Kaleki, the court heard. “I said to my husband, let me finish her.’ ” She tried to choke her daughter, she said, and after Bahar escaped, she chased her upstairs and tried to break down the locked door to the bedroom where she was calling 911.
She was arrested, and after being treated in hospital for a knife wound on her own arm, she told her story to Sgt.-Det. Bertrand.
The first night Bahar stayed out late, informing her parents she was downtown enjoying a concert, they went to the local police station to file a report, Ms. Kaleki said. The officer told them there was nothing that could be done. “He said, ‘She’s safe. Don’t worry. She’s a teenager.’ ”
But the idea of a rebellious teenage girl was foreign to her parents. They expected Bahar to be home by 11 p.m. and not to smoke, drink or have boyfriends.
After the second night, when Bahar said she had spent much of the evening walking along St. Laurent Blvd., Ms. Kaleki was horrified. “I asked her, ‘Are you a prostitute? Are you a whore?’ ” she said.
A few months earlier, when Ms. Kaleki discovered Bahar was being harassed by an ex-boyfriend, she blamed her daughter. After speaking to the boy once on the phone, Ms. Kaleki decided he sounded like “a very good Muslim guy” and told Bahar he would make a good husband. “Probably you’ve done something to drive him crazy,” she told her. “I know you. You’re my daughter.” Bahar refused the idea of marriage, calling the boy a “psycho.”
Toward the end of the four-hour interview, the detective asked Ms. Kaleki whether she had anything to add. “I hope she gets well,” she said referring to her daughter. But she did not want her to emerge unscarred.
“She live with that wound,” she continued, pointing to her neck, “she remembers me.” The experience “will make her strong and give her wisdom. . . . It means she will give up her ways of living.”
The hearing this week before Judge Yves Paradis is to determine whether the video and other statements made by Ms. Kaleki can be entered into evidence during the trial, which is scheduled to begin in January. Ms. Kaleki’s defence lawyer has said she will argue that Ms. Kaleki did not have the “operating mind” necessary to consent to the interrogation. The hearing continues Thursday.
Tuesday, July 17, 2012
Muslim street cleric wants to protect Canadian women from sex assault by forcing them to cover up
Muslim street cleric wants to protect Canadian women from sex assault by forcing them to cover up
Canadian laws should be changed to require women to "cover themselves" to prevent sexual assaults, says an Islamic street preacher in Toronto.
Al-Haashim Kamena Atangana, a 33-year-old Islamic convert, called for legal change in response to recent sex attacks at York University.
Atangana is connected with a group called Muslim Support Network and is one of a number of street-corner clerics commonly seen at the Yonge and Dundas Sts.
In an e-mail to the Toronto Sun, Atangana said "the reason ... these sex attacks are continuously happening is because (of) Canadian laws, which give too much freedom to women" when it comes to how they dress.
"You should take your example from the way Muslim women dress," he wrote. "Why does (sic) Muslim women who wear long dress and covers her head aren't targeted for sex attacks?"
The clash between western culture and values and the beliefs of some Muslim adherents has been a source of controversy and conflict across North America.
Atangana, who plans to distribute his views on paper in the coming weeks, went on to state that "the reason ... a woman gets raped is because of the way she (dresses)," and suggests that "Toronto (become) the first city in North America to introduce laws that would make it illegal for women to dress provocatively."
If Toronto did this, Atangana said in an interview, other Canadian cities would follow suit.
"If (women) want to prevent being sexually assaulted, they should cover themselves," said Atangana, adding that while he doesn't expect Western women to dress as Muslim women do, they should have a "dress code" and take note of the burka the head scarf and face veil some Muslim females wear.
Atangana says he began planning to distribute his views after a recent spate of sex assaults at York University's Keele campus, and praised Const. Michael Sanguinetti, a Toronto police officer who ended up in hot water after telling students at a York University safety forum in January 2011 that women should avoid dressing like "sluts" if they didn't want to be victimized.
The website Atangana provided for his group, Muslimsupport.net, is sparsely populated but contains links to other sites that offer advice on conversion to Islam and Islamic dress, including such advice as this:
"Men must cover their body from the navel to the knees. But when praying he must also cover his shoulder."
"Women must cover their whole body except the face, hands and feet while inside. But they are also required to cover their whole body including a part of the face while going out, according to the majority of the Madhabs (school of thought)."
Moderate Muslim writer Tarek Fatah says Atangana's view is a stark example of radical Islamist misogyny. It is an example, Fatah says, of passages taken from the Qur'an, Islam's holy book, and exaggerated to fit an antiquated, patriarchal ideology such as that of the Muslim Brotherhood.
"This is not about what women wear," Fatah said. "This is about ... some Muslim men believing that any woman whose head is uncovered is fair game because she is lustful...and doesn't belong to the pious (Islamic) sisterhood."
Fatah says it is "hogwash" to think a woman wearing traditional Islamic dress will not be sexually assaulted, and points to an on-going problem of sexual harassment in Egypt, where Muslim faith dominates.
According to a 2008 report from the Egyptian Center for Women's Rights, 83% of Egyptian women had experienced some form of sexual harassment or assault at some point. And well, over half of those surveyed around 70% wore veils of some kind, particularly head scarves.
"These results disprove the belief that sexual harassment is linked to the way women dress," the report states. "This confirms that the stereotypical ideas of a patriarchal culture that blames women even if they are victims, is opposite to reality."
But Alia Hogben of the Canadian Council of Muslim Women sees things differently: Atangana's opinions are not as much to do with Islam as much as they reflect a general patriarchal desire among some men to control women.
"There is absolutely no connection between how women dress and being sexually assaulted," Hogben said, adding that other religions from Judaism to Christianity have traditional dress codes of their own. She did agree, however, that "good, pious" Muslim women are sexually harassed, despite wearing modest and traditional clothing.
"If (Atangana) thinks good, pious Muslim women are not sexually assaulted, he's wrong. If he thinks this is not happening in India or Egypt ... it is not true."
As for Atangana, who converted to Islam in 1998 after finding the Trinity of Christianity the belief in God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit too "confusing," he remains steadfast in his views.
"Women here should have a dress code," he says. "That would prevent sexual assault."
Friday, July 6, 2012
Thousands of U.S. Veterans Being Recruited For Jobs....In Canada!
Perhaps that should be Obama's message for the 2012 campaign..."Jobs? Oh sure, there are jobs for all of you...just move across the border to Canada!"
The article comes from CNS News.
Alberta, Canada Recruiting U.S. Veterans for 114,000 Jobs
Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW) and VetJobs.com announced this week a new employment initiative with the Edmonton Economic Development Corporation in Alberta, Canada that could employ thousands of U.S. veterans to help build new infrastructure in Canada.
While the initiative had initially been misreported by some media as an opportunity for U.S. veterans to land jobs on the Canada-side of the Keystone XL pipeline – a project delayed in America by the Obama administration – many veterans were already on the short list for those potential jobs and could be hired if (or when) the pipeline is approved.
In the meantime, there is an expected shortfall of 114,000 jobs in Alberta over the next decade, and the arrangement among the VFW, VetJobs.com, and the Edmonton Economic Development Corporation should help to place thousands of Americans into those positions.
Ted Daywalt, founder and CEO of VetJobs.com told CNSNews.com, “On the [July 2] press release, that was a misunderstanding; I think somebody jumped the gun. The Edmonton Economic Development Corporation came to us for, was a shortage of labor, 114,000 people short over the next couple years in skill trades.”
“They have huge infrastructure projects going on and a bunch of industrial openings up there,” he said. “In the future, it will probably be, once the Keystone gets approved, but it’s not approved.”
He continued: “Just so you know where the Keystone thing came from, VetJobs.com originally talked to the companies that were going to be doing the Keystone project until it was canceled or postponed, depending upon how you look at it. We were getting commitments of up to 40 percent of the jobs; they were going to be trying to put veterans in to.”
Governmental approval for the Keystone XL pipeline -- in its fourth year of review -- was delayed in November 2011 by President Barack Obama until sometime in 2013, after the 2012 elections. The pipeline, built by TransCanada, would run from Alberta, Canada, down through the central part of the United States to several oil refining spots on the Gulf Coast. The project is estimated to create up to 20,000 American jobs and 118,000 spin-off jobs indirectly connected to the project.
According to the American Petroleum Institute, the pipeline would bring an extra 830,000 barrels of oil per day to U.S. refineries. Our crude imports from Canada could be 4 million barrels a day by 2020.
In an email to CNSNews.com, TransCanada Senior Communications Specialist Grady Semmens wrote that the company is "still awaiting a presidential permit for the project in the United States before proceeding with construction."
"Once we receive the necessary approvals, our Keystone XL and Gulf Coast Project pipeline projects will support the creation of at least 13,000 construction jobs -- work for pipefitters, welders, electricians, heavy equipment operators, and other skilled tradespeople in the United States," said Semmens.
“They [Edmunton Economic Development Corporation] wanted veterans because veterans would have the skill sets they are looking for,” said Daywalt. “They have put a bunch of jobs up on our site and they were kind enough to let us have an exclusive initially. The jobs haven’t been up 48 hours yet, and the traffic has been amazing.”
Daywalt emphasized how important these jobs are for members of the National Guard, who are not deployed throughout their time of service.
“The jobs are paying like 24-30 percent above what they would make here in the states,” said Daywalt. “On some of the jobs they can work there and work for like three weeks and come home a full week. Other jobs, they want you to move up there.”
“We see this as a great thing for our veterans that are looking for work,” he said. “They are used to working outside the U.S., it is something we do when we get deployed. This is pretty important for the members of our National Guard.”
“They have been called up some many times for employers to hire them, so a lot of people in the National Guard or the Federal Reserve look for contract jobs, and these are wonderful contract jobs, paying a lot of money with benefits,” he said. “So it’s a win-win-win for everybody involved and that’s why we started chasing it.”
According to a VFW press release, the skilled positions available currently for veterans in Canada are long term. Some require a move to Canada, other positions would only require commuting for several weeks and then returning home for a week. The positions available include journeyman pressure pipe welders, heavy equipment technicians, steamfitter-pipefitters, structural ironworkers, millwright, and carpenters/scaffolders.
“This is a great opportunity for veterans, transitioning military, National Guard and reservists, and their family members,” Daywalt said in the VFW press release.
“This is a fantastic opportunity and I’m proud of our affiliation with VetJobs,” said VFW National Commander Richard L. Denoyer, of Middleton, Mass.
“Helping thousands of veterans to get well-paying jobs in an important industry just further proves that no one does more for veterans than the VFW,” said Denoyer.
VetJobs.com reportedly averages more than 55,000 daily job postings by employers strictly wanting to hire veterans.
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