A Good Week For Islam In Canada

This article, originally posted in LEDEVOIR magazine in French has been translated. The original can be read here.

The general premise of the article is the shuffling of cabinet positions in Ottawa and the subsequent advancement of Islamism in Canadian government.  In Montreal, a former spokesperson for the National Council of Canadian Muslims (NCCM, formerly CAIR-CAN) Bochra Manaï  was appointed anti-racism commissioner. In Ottawa, the former president of the Canadian Arab Federation Omar Alghabra became Minister of Transport. In Toronto, a veiled Muslim journalist Ginella Massa will host a pan-Canadian public affairs program on CBC.

It has been a good week for organizations promoting Islam and for their ideas. A little less good, however, for our non-practicing Muslim fellow citizens. Even worse for supporters of secularism.

The coincidence of the calendar gathered three nominations. In Montreal, a former spokesperson for the National Council of Canadian Muslims was appointed anti-racism commissioner. In Ottawa, the former president of the Canadian Arab Federation became Minister of Transport. In Toronto, a veiled Muslim journalist will host a pan-Canadian public affairs program on CBC.

These appointments attest to the capacity of our company to integrate, including in positions of great responsibility, people who have qualities and a meritorious background and who come from a religious minority. The religious affiliation, or atheism, of the chosen people is not at all problematic. The link of two of them with community and religious lobbies, the religious display of a third, however, call for legitimate questions.

The Bloc Québécois was stoned for having written that the new Minister of Transport Omar Alghabra had been linked “to the Islamic movement”. I would have thrown stones too if the Bloc had written “Islamist”, therefore anti-democratic. However Islamic being a synonym of Muslim and Mr. Alghabra having led an organization dedicated to the defense of Muslim Canadians, this is only an observation. Why should this be a taboo? That this federation has pro-Palestinian and anti-Israel positions makes sense. But she regularly defended a strictly Islamist group, Hamas, considered terrorist by several nations, including Canada. In an interview, Mr. Alghabra showed a kindness to this group that deserves clarification.

The new commissioner in charge of curbing racism in Montreal, Bochra Manaï, was also, for a year, spokesperson for the National Council of Canadian Muslims. She said this week that she had not known that her organization wanted to allow Muslim parents to exempt their children from music or physical education lessons. She had more clearly understood the position of her employer on the subject of the Quebec law on secularism and had made a powerful voice of it.

One of the tasks that awaits her is the fight against amalgam. Indeed, racist thought accuses a whole people of the faults of certain individuals. Our Jewish friends have been particularly well served: Karl Marx and Rotschild being both Jews, the racists accused all Jews of controlling capitalism and of wanting, simultaneously, to replace it with Bolshevism! The anti-Muslim amalgamation is also reprehensible: some terrorists being Muslims, racists think, they are all dangerous.

I give another example, at random. An individual from Quebec who killed six Muslims, a terrorist, in Australia, cited him among his models. If someone said: “Quebec has become a benchmark for extremist supremacists around the world”, wouldn’t this be an odious amalgamation between a single criminal and all of Quebec?

This is exactly what ^Ms.  Manaï did in a 2019 speech denouncing the law on secularism, putting under the same hat the author of a massacre, the supremacists, all of Quebec and the majority desire to separate concretely religions and the State. Isn’t that worthy of the amalgam gold medal? In addition, five times this week she was asked if she thought that Law 21 was racist. Five times she refused to answer.

Finally, the appointment of veiled host Ginella Massa to a prime-time show on the CBC 24-hour news channel is obviously a great first for freedom: to display one’s convictions. Up to now, the presenters have confined themselves to an appearance of total neutrality. (Appearance, yes, because obviously they have convictions.) They saw in it a mark of respect towards the viewers who have varied opinions and sometimes furiously contradictory. CBC would not have let a presenter show his commitment to Greenpeace, oil or his support for a political party.

Canadian multiculturalism imposes a hierarchy of convictions: religious, yes; the others: no. We understand that tomorrow we could see a presenter displaying a crucifix or a kippah. But what if an atheist wishes to make his lack of faith known to the public? Mystery.

Each person that ^Ms.  Massa will interview will immediately have some information: 1) She believes in God. If this is not the case, know that she disagrees with you; 2) She believes, like the members of every great monotheistic religion, that her god is the only true god. If you have another, it is at odds with the very existence of your god; 3) She does not believe that secularism requires people in authority, at least in information, a duty of clothing reserve. If you think otherwise, she thinks you are wrong.

Its television presence has another consequence. The majority of Muslim women in the country do not wear the hijab. In many mosques, in predominantly Muslim neighborhoods and in many Orthodox families, they resist ambient pressure towards religious dress conformism. The CBC just gave the Orthodox a strong argument. State television says hijab is fine. May this sign of submission to God and feminine modesty, in fact, embody progress and modernity. The CBC provides daily advertising for Veiled Islam. It makes life a little more difficult for Muslim women who resist.

How Do They Get Away With This?

How is it that Islamists can speak hate for Western values in the public square ?

Why do our governing authorities allow this? Why are groups like PEGIDA Canada shadow banned on social media? Why are warnings put up by Facebook if someone wants to follow our page, yet video like this remains intact? 

This video is from this past Sunday in Toronto at a vigil held for slain Iranian general  Qasem Soleimani. This man was instrumentally responsible for the death of thousands. The speaker for this vigil was Canadian Shiite Islamic scholar Sheikh Shafiq Hudda, well known for his anti Israel stance and Al Quds involvement.  He is director of the Islamic Humanitarian Service in Kitchener, Ontario. 

Following is a clip from the video description:

He said that the assassination of Soleimani and Abu Mahdi Al-Muhandis did not kill their message but will plant more Qasem Soleimanis and Abu Mahdi Al-Muhandis. He said that the “empires” fear Soleimani even after his death and this is why they send nuclear submarines and B-52 bombers to the region. Hudda declared: “Your end is near!” The crowd chanted, “Down, down USA!” and “Down, down, Donald Trump!” The video was uploaded to the Canadian Defenders for Human Rights, CD4HR YouTube account. 

How can a man speak like this on our streets? “Your end is near”? Why are we penalized when we warn about men like this?

Cologne Sex Attacks

This article was reproduced with permission from a twitter feed by J. Robeson. You can read the original here. Ms Robeson was raised in seven different countries by front-line aid workers….which has given her an unusual take on the multiculturalism debate. The incident written about below is one of the impetuses for the growth of PEGIDA, but by no means the only reason. 

Today marks the fifth anniversary of the mass sexual attacks in Cologne, Germany.

Around 1000 Muslim men, most of whom had only arrived in Germany a few months before, claiming to be refugees, subjected 100s of German women celebrating New Years Eve to savage racial + sexual assault

Working in groups, the men systematically encircled and separated their prey – the white, Christian women that their religion and culture deem racially and religiously inferior – from their friends.

Once isolated, they tore at their clothes and groped them.

They stuck their fingers up their vaginas and anuses, and inside their bras.

They shot fireworks at them.

They robbed them.

Some were raped.

This is why signs like the one above were seen in Germany in 2015/16

It took days for the attacks to come to public attention as the authorities and media scrambled to downplay or lie about them.

The truth came out on social media + when the scale could no longer be denied, they tried very hard to pretend that it was nothing to do with Islam

Some of the most revolting excuses came from feminists – those ‘wh*res for Islam’ that Pat Condell so aptly describes – insisting it was all about ‘toxic masculinity’ and ‘patriarchy’ and all the other meaningless mantras they use.

The worst media excuse I’ve found came from the Guardian which twisted the narrative onto “xenophobes’ and ‘racists’ and, even more deceitfully, shoehorned Farage and Brexit into the mix.

The racists were the men who premeditated their attacks on the white women.

To understand how obscene these reactions are, consider what would have happened if the races and religions had been reversed?

If 1000s of white, Christian men had walked into a Muslim country and racially and sexually assaulted 100s of Muslim girls celebrating Ramadan?

The kindest I’m prepared to be is that the attacks where so extreme, so brazen, so utterly foreign to the way European men behave that the police and media simply couldn’t understand what they were dealing with.

I was not remotely surprised.

Only shocked by the scale and audacity of the attacks

I’d watched with growing alarm a few months earlier, in the summer of 2015, as hundreds of thousands of Muslim men – both economic migrants and those who had chosen to leave the safety of the refugee camps the UN had established for them – forced their way into Europe.

I knew it would be a disaster for European women, especially the blonde ones that the men retain the most visceral entitlement and racist contempt for.

But then I’ve lived in Muslim countries and knew what was coming.

The worst was when my sisters and I were moved to Turkey as teenagers because of my father’s job with the UN Refugee Agency.

We were subjected to unremitting sexual + racist harassment, and sometimes assault, every time we left the house, because we were female and blonde

Leered at.

Jeered at.

Hissed at.

Spat at.

Groped.

Mocked.

Insulted.

Hit.

Flashed at.

Masturbated at.

Sperm thrown on us.

There is much long, civilizational history behind these attacks.

Muslims have been sexually ‘othering’ our daughters for 100s of years.

The Muslims of the Ottoman Empire paid the highest price for the European sex slaves they imprisoned in their harems.

Many of the Muslim Emperors favoured concubines were European slaves.

They took them mainly from the areas of Southern and Eastern Europe that they had invaded and colonised after their conquest of the Christian Byzantine Empire.

The Muslim, Barbary slave traders from North Africa who raided the coasts of Europe for hundreds of years, also put a high price on our daughters’ whiteness’.

As an interesting aside, one of the reasons the French invaded and colonised Algeria was to put a final end to centuries of Muslim, African enslavement of Christian Europeans.

More recently, Yazidi children were targeted for their race and infidel status.

Of course, the rape gangs of the UK and the Netherlands also tear white, European girls to shreds and are open about their racial contempt.

There was a time when invaders had to win a war before they got to rape the indigenous women and children.

In Europe, today, they live off our tax receipts, shielded by a craven, complicit elite that would like to see you arrested for ‘hate’ crime for mentioning this.

Where it will end? Will it end?

Why does no one ‘take a knee’ for these victims of the one of the most serious forms of racism?

Almost everyday more and more of these men force their way into this continent and onto this island….

Female Genital Mutilation is Not Going Away

“There are no criminal consequences for the family members, who usually act as instigators.”

This article was originally published in German by tichyseinblick.de. You can read the original here.

Female genital mutilation has been an ongoing concern for many years. The practice  involves the partial or total removal of external female genitalia or other injury to the female genital organs for non-medical reasons. The practice has no health benefits for girls and women. It  also reduces the natural pleasure a woman would feel during the sexual act and can create painful intercourse. 

Canada has had FGM performed inside it’s borders, and many young girls are sent to their country of origin to have the procedure done. 

You can read a report on FGM in Canada here.

A current survey by the Task Force at the associations of statutory health insurance physicians in the federal states on the number of patients with genital mutilation (diagnosis code Z91.7 ) reveals the following facts:

• In 2019, almost 2,000 patients were diagnosed with genital mutilation in need of treatment. That is almost 40% more than in 2016, when around 1,300 of these diagnoses were made.
• Almost 200 of the diagnosed victims were underage girls, half of them under the age of 12.
• A total of more than 530 underage girls have had genital mutilation since 2016, 250 of them younger than 12 years and more than 100 even younger than five years.

These numbers relate exclusively to girls and women who received outpatient care by statutory health insurance providers. Genital mutilation that was found during inpatient stays in hospitals or as part of private medical treatment is not included here.

“What we can see from these figures is only the tip of the iceberg and constitutes perhaps 2% to 5% of the actual mutilation victims who live in our country, because the political leaders do not want complete data collection,” says TaskForce founder Ines Runner.

It was only last month that the Task Force uncovered how Franziska Giffey and her Family Ministry are calculating the problem of genital mutilation in Germany and deceiving the public with far too low numbers .

250 victims under the age of 12 – but no prosecution

According to the estimates of the Task Force, there are more than 20,000 high-risk underage girls and women who come from high-risk countries with a mutilation rate of over 75%, e.g. Egypt, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Sudan, Mali, Somalia and many more. The mutilation is carried out in the countries of origin, but increasingly also in Germany.

“The results of the survey show that hundreds of underage mutilation victims are actually identified by doctors, but – and this is a real scandal – there are no criminal consequences for the family members, who usually act as instigators,” explains Ines Laufer. This is the direct consequence of the politically wanted policy to protect offenders, with which, for decades, the medical profession has been prevented from reporting these acts of violence to the investigative authorities.

Comprehensive protection of children at risk is so simple – the only thing missing is the political will

For over a decade, the TaskForce has been calling for simple and effective comprehensive state protective measures for all girls at risk, such as regular medical health checks and the introduction of mandatory medical reports to the law enforcement authorities if genital mutilation is found on underage victims.

But while taxpayers are being asked to pay for completely ineffective, ineffective “education strategies”, the federal government and parliamentarians continue to refuse to fulfill their mandate to protect the girls at specific risk, and the question arises of how long the public will accept this want. Politicians shy away from protecting girls effectively. In fact, a mostly Muslim special law applies, defended by a large number of migrant associations, against which one no longer dares to proceed. Feminists are very anxious to look the other way because criticism of the mutilation of girls could be seen as criticism of immigration and Islam. The door is now open to the immigration of Stone Age practices and torture from culturally backward countries to Germany.

“If nothing bad happens, we can’t do anything”

This 2016 article by Welt.de news has been translated from the original German, it can be read here. Though 4 years old, this article still rings true, the attacks on Christians by Islamist militants continues throughout the world.

“I thought Germany was a free country where you can live your faith freely,”

That only applies to some. It seems to be the common theme throughout many Western countries these days.

Christian refugees have reported discrimination in the initial reception facility in Rotenburg an der Fulda in Hesse by Muslim refugees. The two Iranians Hamed F. (24) and Morteza G. (33), who were housed there from February to August, said they were insulted in the facility as “unclean” and were locked out of the communal showers several times. Their statements are in a report by the organization Open Doors, which works for persecuted Christians worldwide.

“An unclean person is not allowed to shower,” said Morteza G. He had reported this several times to the security personnel, but received the answer: “If nothing bad happens, we can do nothing.”

According to their own statements, both refugees had come to the Christian faith in Iran and fled from there because of reprisals by the police. “In the beginning everything was good,” said Hamed F. “But when we started going to a church service on Sundays, the insults started.” The hostility from some of the Muslim roommates had also increased to assault. A Christian friend had a tooth knocked out and another’s hand was broken, said Hamed F.

Fear of shopping

Morteza G. reported on an incident when he heard some roommates say: “We are beating the Iranians outside.” When he told an interpreter this, he replied that there was nothing he could do about it. Christian residents were actually attacked during the night. Both asylum seekers attributed the attacks to anti-Christian attitudes . Muslim Iranians would not have had any problems.

He was also threatened outside the accommodation, reported Hamed F. While shopping in the local grocery store, three asylum seekers made fun of his necklace with a cross with the words: “He wears a chain like a dog collar.” When he asked her about it , they would have replied: “We don’t want to see you.” From then on, he no longer dared to go shopping alone. He no longer shows his cross chain and does not dare to say in his new accommodation that he is a Christian.

Morteza G., who now lives in an apartment with other asylum seekers, also said he was still afraid. “I thought Germany was a free country where you can live your faith freely,” he said, disappointed. He tries not to leave the apartment if necessary and not to go out on the street at night.

Police were called for a mass brawl

Last July, conflicts between Muslims and Christians in the accommodation became known, confirms the regional council of Giessen. The police were called on the night of June 2nd to 3rd – there was a mass brawl. The background remained unclear, said the police headquarters in East Hesse. In any case, Hamed F. reports that it began with three to four men approaching a roommate with a necklace with a cross, which was soon joined by others with striking objects.

The Central Council of Oriental Christians in Germany questioned the Christian refugees in the facility after the incident on behalf of the Open Doors organization and with the consent of the regional council from June 10 to July 6. Of the 622 residents at the time, 49 were Christians, according to the authorities. 32 of them completed a multilingual questionnaire individually. In the information published by Open Doors on the Internet, many respondents express fear for their well-being and even their lives.

The police were called again on July 10th. Christian residents found a graffito on the wall in their unlocked room after their return from a church service, according to the police headquarters. The Arabic characters said “God is great” and “It is time to kill”. In addition to the death threat, a cross was crossed out, report Hamed F. and Morteza G. The police only came on the second call and only took photos of the graffiti. After three weeks, a police officer came back and asked the roommates if they had done the smear themselves.

Refugees are now housed separately

After this incident, according to the regional council, the then 49 Christian refugees were offered accommodation in a separate part of the building. More than half of them would have taken up the offer.

The Protestant regional church and the Diakonie have not heard of the accusations of the Christian refugees and distrust the report by Open Doors. The statements came from Iranians throughout and were very similar, says dean Gisela Strohriegl. The deaconry pastor of the Hersfeld and Rotenburg parishes, Jens Haupt, has similar doubts. The statements would sound like agreed, he says. In addition, the return of some refugees to the old residential building because of poor WiFi reception speaks against a bad situation.

However, based on the survey in Rotenburg, the state government has drawn up a catalog of measures to protect refugees from religiously motivated attacks. Among other things, this provides for the sensitization of employees and the police and recommends a religious mix of guards and interpreters.

According to Open Doors, the reports from Rotenburg are not isolated cases. At the end of November, 136 reports were available from refugee accommodation in Hesse, 39 from Rhineland-Palatinate. In October, the organization spoke of 743 cases of discrimination, threats or violence against Christians and Yazidis across Germany.

How Far May Warnings Against Preachers Go?

This article has been translated from nrc.nl from the Netherlands. You can read the original here. The Muslim Rights Watch in the Netherlands is eerily similar to Muslim rights groups here in Canada. Scroll through our posts, you will get an idea.

How far can the National Coordinator for Counterterrorism and Security (NCTV) go in warning preachers with dubious ties? That question is central to a lawsuit that took place on Thursday between the NCTV and activist group Muslim Rights Watch Netherlands.

The security coordinator had written in his triennial Terrorism Threat Assessment that the action group is part of a network of “political Salafists” that would thwart the integration of Muslims and spread anti-democratic views. Muslim Rights Watch only claims peacefully for the rights of Muslims and demands that the NCTV rectify.

Controversial mosques

During the hearing it appeared that the NCTV sees the founder of Muslim Rights Watch, imam Youssef Arkhouch, as a ‘Salafist booster’. According to the NCTV, the imam is affiliated with various Salafist organizations, such as the As Soennah mosque in The Hague and the Tawheed mosque in Amsterdam, mosques that have often been discredited for radical sermons or lessons. The coordinator referred, among other things, to reports on female circumcision recommended in a lesson at the As Sunnah mosque.

Muslim Rights Watch’s lawyer, Paris Popescu, called this ” guilt by association. ” As an imam, Arkhouch preaches in various mosques and associates with all kinds of people, “even those who have dubious ideas.” That does not mean, Popescu argued, that the imam himself also honors these ideas. “There is no evidence for that. Sir is spotlessly clean. ” NCTV counsel acknowledged that Arkhouch “does not use hostile language towards non-Muslims” and “does not incite violence.”

According to the NCTV, the imam does say in his sermons that Muslims are not allowed to participate in non-Islamic parties, he says what clothes they should wear, and he is against homosexuality. This could lead to Muslim youths coming to “reject the Western lifestyle” and “secularism”, the lawyer said.

A creeping threat

“It is an insidious threat,” added Paul Abels, chief of analysis of the NCTV. Salafist boosters such as Arkhouch are pursuing “strategies by which they try to keep Muslims away from integration and inclusion in Western society,” Abels said. According to him, this can lead to “segregation and polarization” – and is thus a breeding ground for radicalization. That is why the NCTV considers it its duty to warn against this development as well.

According to lawyer Popescu, the NCTV itself has been “radicalized” with its “war of religion against orthodox Islam”. According to Popescu, the NCTV does not interfere with religious views on homosexuality or a ‘Western lifestyle’. “Where exactly does this Western lifestyle begin and end? And homosexuality, I have an opinion about that myself. Doesn’t that also apply to the Christen Union and the SGP? ” 

The judge will rule no later than December 21

Freedom of Worship in Canada

The following video tells the story of a church in Manitoba that was shut down and fined for holding a drive in service. Notice the police presence. 

In the video below, we see a prayer service held at Jaame Masjid, Scarborough, Ontario on Dec 4, 2020, a lineup of congregants waiting to enter the mosque. There is no police presence to monitor how many were in the mosque. Prayer service commenced as per usual. Keep in mind, the GTA is under lockdown at the present time.

Let’s also not forget the acquiescence of our government to the request of the public call to prayer for mosques during the first lockdown. You can read about that here:

https://pegidacanada.wordpress.com/2020/05/02/church-bells-vs-call-to-prayer/

Canada has as one of it’s core principles freedom of religion and freedom to worship, similar to the First Ammendment in the United States. This is a freedom most Canadians treasure.

In the time of pandemic, things change, and that is understandable. Governments try to adjust to circumstances, and sometimes things don’t go as people expect.

Places of worship are restricted, along with other public venues, and some feel the division is unfair. Be that as it may, the restrictions are in place, and people are free to protest this. (another freedom that government is very selective of who they allow to protest unimpeded)

In April of this year, a church in Aylmer, Ontario was also threatened with fines for holding a drive in service.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/london/church-of-god-aylmer-police-emergency-act-1.5545619

In BC, several churches were fined for holding services during lockdown.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/b-c-church-fined-2-3k-for-violating-covid-19-ban-on-worship-services-1.5821450

We are not necessarily agreeing with those who choose to defy lockdown, nor are we advocating this practice. What we disagree with is the double standard when it comes to freedom of worship during the pandemic. To the best of our knowledge, there have been no news stories of police presence at a mosque for defying lockdown orders.

Our government seems to be very selective in who they decide to fine.

Call me Fatima

This article was first posted by Radio-Canada by journalist Yanik Dumont Baron in French, you can read the original here. The woman in the article does not use her real identity for fear of reprisal. This shows the distinct separatist nature of some Muslim communities in France.

The French government will unveil this week the content of a bill against community withdrawal. It particularly targets radical Islamists, whose hold over several neighborhoods worries many French people. Visit to Trappes, one of the so-called “lost” territories of the French Republic.

“You can take the first name of your choice. I don’t know, Fatima.”  The woman bursts out laughing, but you can feel the nervousness behind her verve.

This Muslim has lived in Trappes for almost 20 years. She agreed to show me around the city, but on condition that she was not identified. And not to get out of the vehicle.

It requires mistrust, to be very careful , she explains.

Mother of a family, Fatima fears that her fellow citizens will see her with a non-Muslim and that they will draw the wrong conclusions.

“I don’t trust them. These people, they will translate it as “apostasy”, as if I had renounced Islam. And for them, someone who denies Islam is someone dangerous.”

Fatima

When she talks about these people , she thinks of Muslims with very rigorous practices, Islamists whose ideas would have a lot of influence in the streets of Trappes.

People like those whose denunciations led to the beheading of teacher Samuel Paty in mid-October.

Yes, Fatima fears for her safety. But she wants to show this Trappes in which she no longer finds herself. A poor city, predominantly Muslim, whose values ​​seem to diverge from those of the rest of France.

Community housing in Trappes, where the population is strongly Muslim.

The lost territories of the Republic?

Trappes is located about thirty kilometers west of Paris, not far from Versailles. From the capital, it takes less than an hour by train to reach this small town.

Trappes was the epicenter of the first French riots linked to religion, in July 2013. It is also the city in Europe from which the largest number of militants of the Islamic State armed group left, towards Syria.

French politicians speak of separatism or community withdrawal to designate places as Trappes. Territories where radical Islamists are engaged in a real war of values.

In early October, French President Emmanuel Macron denounced(New window)the Islamist separatism that is developing there. He then described it as a conscious, theorized, politico-religious project, which materializes through repeated deviations from the values ​​of the Republic, which often results in the constitution of a counter-society .

Emmanuel Macron sees it as an ideology that promotes indoctrination and the negation of our principles, equality between women and men, human dignity .

Fatima speaks of a deadly ideology which manipulates Muslims by repeating that they live in a France which is racist, liberticidal and that it is preferable to stay between us , with our mosques and our schools.

Religious values ​​are above the values ​​of the Republic. We spit on France , she sums up a bit ironically, but we stay in France .

How many are thus withdrawing into their community? Impossible to know. According to a note from the French intelligence services, consulted by the Sunday Journal(New window), at least 150 territories (districts or sections of towns) would be held by radical Islamists.

These days, the Minister of the Interior has asked for reinforced controls in 76 mosques out of the 2,600 or so identified in France. That is about 3% of all Muslim places of worship.

These 3% worry many French people, who recall that it only takes a few hardened Islamists to lead to the beheading of a teacher or of the faithful in a church.

Customers in a food store in Trappes

Do not mix with the French

There, look at the women , says Fatima, slowing down her car. Have you seen the veiled women? It’s public market day in Trappes, the city center is bustling with activity.

It is not uncommon to see a veiled woman in the streets of French cities. But more rare to come across so many in such a short time.

This afternoon, most clients wear a tight veil around their face. A veiled mother walks by with a little girl who only seems to be 6 or 7 years old. The girl is also veiled.

From an early age, she knew she should wear the veil and stay home. It is sad.Fatima

Fatima describes peer pressure. According to them, if some Muslim women wear the veil out of conviction, others do so so as not to be bothered by men with fundamentalist ideas.

And then there are also those convinced of living in a country of disbelievers, where it is better to stay at home rather than mix with them , the French non-Muslims.

Trappes was of course not always like this. Fatima remembers a different city 20 years ago when few Muslims went to mosques.

And then, she explains, these extremists started to have their hands on thought. They began to see Islam only as the really extremist side: women must wear the veil, must not work, this world, it is ephemeral, we will have paradise.

The veil is a very visible symbol and is, of course, only one indicator among others of the degree of religious rigor of the one who wears it.

Fatima enumerates a whole series of small refusals of small gestures which can also be revealing of a community withdrawal, of a rigidity in the practices.

There are these terraces where women are no longer welcome, these unisex hairdressers, these halal-only butchers, these teenage girls who no longer go to swimming pools.

Didier Lemaire teaches philosophy at Plaine de Neauphle high school in Trappes.

Many signals in schools

These signals are also often visible in public schools, such as the father who refuses to shake a teacher’s hand, these teenage girls who are always excused during swimming lessons, these pupils who do not want to visit a church during a lesson. of history.

These small gestures, Didier Lemaire noticed them during his 20 years of teaching at the Plaine de Neauphle high school in Trappes.

In class, boys mingle less with girls than before. Teenage girls of North African origin do not wear makeup, are withdrawn , while her former students demanded equality, dressed in French .

After the Charlie Hebdo and Bataclan attacks , Didier Lemaire discovered that he had a few students who approved of them .

I understood it the way they didn’t look me in the eye anymore , he said.

Quite a shock for a man who claims to have values ​​well to the left, who teaches critical thinking and free judgment. A shock that prompted him to better observe the daily life of Muslims in Trappes.

Five years later, these observations force him to make a clear statement:

There are no longer any French customs here. We eat differently, we live differently, we have a different rhythm of life.Didier Lemaire

The teacher considers that his students have another life outside the secular school. He talks about these teenage girls who put on their veils when they leave school, these boys who denigrate France.

Plaine de Neauphle secondary school in Trappes.

Laws to fight against these separatisms

The murder of Samuel Paty offered another opportunity to gauge the gulf that separates some Muslims from the rest of the French.

In France, many students reacted with indifference. Some teachers have even been threatened with death.

In early November, tributes to the beheaded teacher were also disrupted. The Ministry of Education has identified nearly 800 incidents , such as provocations or refusals to participate in the minute of silence.

Some students (or their parents) have gone so far as to justify terrorism. About ten cases could lead to legal proceedings.

It is in the hope of curbing what it judges to be community abuses that the French government intends to strengthen the laws to better protect republican principles , such as secularism and equality.

This includes provisions aimed at punishing online hatred, anti-French propaganda, or even mechanisms allowing tighter control of funding and activities linked to mosques.

Insufficient and rather electoral, in the eyes of the teacher Didier Lemaire, who sees radical Islam as an ideology at open war against France and its institutions.

We are referred to as enemies. Denial is precisely thinking that it is just ideas or conceptions.Didier Lemaire, teacher

In this regard, he joins the mayor of Nice who, like many on the right, demands that France be exempt from the laws of peace after the attack which cost the lives of three Catholics in a church at the end of October.

What is implied is that France should be much more severe both towards those it suspects of planning attacks and towards those who foment hatred on its own territory.

On her own level, Fatima is also thinking of concrete actions: she plans to leave Trappes, a city where she no longer feels welcome.

“The difference is in my ideas, in my way of seeing things, in my way of saying Islam as I have experienced it. I feel more comfortable… with non-Muslims.”

Fatima

Why Is This Imam Still Preaching in Canada?

Younus Kathrada Photo: YouTube

Both Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Muslim Human Rights group National Council of Canadian Muslims (NCCM) have denied that radicalism is connected to Islam. The Imam that we focus on in this article is one of many imams in Canada that have radical viewpoints. In a previous blog, we have written about a Toronto Dr/Imam who was involved in/lead  the controversial prayers and preaching at Toronto Masjid in 2016. The mosque story made headlines in the Toronto Star, where the lead Imam Ayman Elkasrawy apologized,  and his explanation was generally accepted by the newspaper, Canadian Anti-Hate human rights group chairman Bernie Farber and the public in general. The prayer that mosque prayed and that the Imam below has reiterated,  has been repeated by mosques, Imams and Muslims throughout the world since the conception of Islam.

The bigoted, racist nature of the prayer prayed by Toronto Masjid and the quotes from the Imam below seem to escape the attention of main stream media and the public in general. The hatred against those of other faiths comes out loud and clear, particularly in the well documented quotes of Imam Younus Kathrada

Sheikh Younus Kathrada is a South-African born Canadian Imam, Islamic Studies teacher, community and youth activist, counsellor, chaplain, and public speaker.
He graduated with a BA from the College of Da’wah and Usool adDeen at the Islamic University of Medinah (1994).
He has spent over 20 years intensely involved in the Muslim community of Mainland British Columbia, Canada.

He has been involved in grassroots dawah [propagation of Islam] with the Muslim community of Canada, and of BC [British Columbia] in particular, for the last 20 years. He has presented many topics on Islaam at Universities in BC and Alberta for Islam Awareness Week, and also presents “Introduction to Islam” courses for high school and middle school students. He was previously Imam of an Islamic centre in Vancouver. He was also the founder and teacher of Al Madinah Academy in Victoria, B.C, as well as the acting Imam of the Masjid [mosque] there. He then moved to Malaysia where he was a teacher and then Principal of Al-Tamimi International Islamic School in Subang Jaya for almost 7 years. While in Malaysia he continued to give talks at various universities and Masaajid [mosques]. He moved back to Victoria in 2016 and is currently the Imam of the Dar Al-Ihsan Islamic Center.

For years, this imam has preached hate against non Muslims in Canada. He is so objectionable that main stream media have written articles about him. He has had international attention for his anti Semitic, anti western view. American, Russian and Israeli news sources, as well as Canadian, have recorded his rants.

The Times of Israel wrote: A Canadian imam called candidates in the country’s upcoming elections “evil and filthy” supporters of Zionism who approve of homosexuality, warning Muslims they would be judged for their votes.

Sputnik, a Russian news source wrote: “There are those who will say to them ‘Merry Christmas’. What are you congratulating them on? Congratulations on the birth of your Lord? Is that acceptable to a Muslim? Are you now approving of their beliefs? By saying that you are approving of it”

American news source American Center for Democracy wrote: “Pointing specifically at different groups here. As we said, although the Ayat (verses) include all non-Muslims whether they’d be Christians or Jews or other than them. But we speak about المغضوب عليهم those who earned the wrath and the anger of Allah, Exalted, and Glorified be He, specifically here the scholars (علماء) speak of the Jews Al-Yahoud. Why? Well, if you look in the Quran, it’s because they are the ones who are the most argumentative. They’re the ones who knew, they have knowledge of things, and yet they rejected it. So, of course, they earned the wrath and the anger of Allah, Exalted, and Glorified be He.”

World Jewish News Congress wrote in 2004: “Police in the Canadian city of Vancouver are investigating a Muslim leader and teacher who has called Jews “brothers of monkeys and swine” but denies that he is an anti-Semite.”

Memri TV reported: “In any event, not too long ago, a teacher in France chose to show those insulting cartoons to his class, at school. And of course, some of the Muslim students who were there were very annoyed and upset and they objected – as did their parents. They spoke up, but nobody bothered listening to them. Nobody paid any attention to them.”Then, about a week ago, it is said – I repeat, it is said – that a young Muslim man confronted this cursed individual, he confronted this evil-spirited man, he confronted this filthy excuse for a human being, on the street, and he beheaded him.”

CTV, a Canadian Broadcasting company reported: “During a sermon on December 23, Sheikh Younus Kathrada, a preacher in Victoria, B.C., said that Muslims must be offended when people worship Jesus.”

And the latest report by Canadadocs reported: “On July 8, 2014 Younus Kathrada shared on his official Facebook page Islamic prayers from “Dua Qunoot” by Mishari Rashid al-Afasy that was published on kalamullah.com. Here are some of these Islamic prayers (in Arabic, transliteration and English): O Allah! Count them and kill them selectively, and do not leave a single one of them, and make them an example for their likes among the yahuudi [Jews], nasaara [Christians], and mushriks [polytheists], humiliated and abased.”

Why is this imam still preaching in Canada? Why is his mosque not closed down? Why is he teaching our children about Islam? NCCM, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and the Canadian Anti-Hate Network should be working hard to shut this Imam and his mosque down. Instead, they are busy fighting against perceived Islamophobia in Canada, targeting people that have a justified concern with Islamic radicalism.

A Softening of the Canadian Islamic Community?

Last week, we wrote a blog (read here) about  a demonstration held at the French Consulate in Toronto in reference to the beheading of Samuel Paty in Nice, France. According to the signage at the demonstration, it was not in sympathy for Mr Paty or France for the atrocity that was committed, but it was a demonstration of solidarity with Mohammad, if that can be said. Most participants refused to outright condemn the beheading.

However, this past weekend, there was a singular demonstration held at Dundas Square. A sign was displayed with the words ‘Mohammad was white’ amongst other things. There was also pictures of Mohammad on the sign.

This demonstration took place beside the dawah booth in Dundas square, Toronto. It has been reported previously that this booth distributes material that is in strict adherence to Islamic law.

“The changing of God’s laws is forbidden in Islam. God condemns religious leaders who alter divine principles. One who attempts to make changes places him or herself on the same level [p. 35] with God, committing polytheism…”

Was the demonstration on Friday in support of the booth? Very possibly, as no objections were forthcoming from the person manning the dawah booth.

Can we construe this as encouraging for Canada? Does the Islamic community accept the portrayal of Mohammad?

Shabbir Allyis is a Canadian Imam, scholar & lecturer is also as of 2020 the President of the Islamic Information & Dawah Centre International in Toronto. In an interview with Let the Quran Speak Dr. Shabbir Ally said: “These classical interpretations of Islam make it so objectionable to criticize God or the Prophet or the scripture of Islam to the extent that they prescribe the death penalty for the critic. Mr Allyis feels that the Islamic community needs to confront this tradition.

Again we will ask the question, is Islam experiencing a reform in Canada?