Christine Williams
Part 1
Adherents of political Islam have found ways of influencing Western
democracies, and have refined one process in particular, called al Taqiyya [dissimulation],
sanctioned to promote Islam to "unbelievers" or "infidels. The word
"Islamophobia," for instance, has been disguised and misused so
frequently that when Westerners merely question Islam, or its role in
terrorism, they risk being branded as "Islamophobes" or "racists." The
term "victimology," in which Islamists perpetually portray Muslims as
victims of racism or of "colonialists" or "imperialists," has also
generated impressive results in vanquishing the infidel, and providing
Islam an immunity from criticism and satirical depictions. As a result,
whenever the subject about Islam is raised, open dialogue, media and
public discourse are restricted or shut down out of fear of being
branded "Islamophobic" or "racist," even where no such sentiments may
have been present. No other religion even attempts to obtain such
blanket immunity.
Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird drew a line in the sand last spring in a keynote address to
the American Jewish Committee Global Forum. He avowed that "Canada will
not go along to get along." Yet, despite the Canadian government's
commitment to such values, it is confronted by the practice of al Taqiyya from
Islamists, who appear to be using this method to hijack
multiculturalism and suppress a key pillar of these freedoms: freedom of
speech.
Take, for example, a study guide for would-be Canadian citizens,
which stated that certain "barbaric" cultural practices, such as honor
killings, would not be tolerated in Canada. In response to this, Liberal
MP Justin Trudeau -- son of the former Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau,
and expected to become the next Liberal party leader -- castigated the
government by stating that it should not call honor killings "barbaric;"
that such language is unacceptable.
However, a man who slaughters his wife in front of their six children before throwing her dismembered head off an apartment rooftop is "barbaric." The murder of four women, driven into the Rideau Canal near Kingston, Ontario for the sake of so-called honor, and the murder of a 17 year old girl for not wearing a hijab, thereby bringing so-called dishonor to her family, is also a barbaric display.
Many politicians, however, compete for votes at the expense of their
citizenry, oblivious or otherwise ignoring an agenda to promote Shariah
Law globally, both through the subjugation of the West and through the
delegitimization of Israel, with the ultimate goal of obliterating it.
The latter was exposed at the 2001 U.N. World Conference against
Racism in Durban, South African in 2001. The conference quickly
deteriorated into a hate-fest against Israel, as did the subsequent
Durban II and Durban III Conferences that continued to
go downhill, prompting UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon to finally say:
"We should condemn anyone who uses this platform to subvert that effort
with inflammatory rhetoric, baseless assertions and hateful speech. Our
common commitment must be to focus on the real problems of racism and
intolerance.”
Justin Trudeau also recently came under fire for his participation in
Canada's largest Islamic Conference, held in Toronto, and entitled,
"Reviving the Islamic Spirit." The criticism was over the conference's
sponsor, IRFAN [International Relief Fund for the Afflicted and Needy],
which was stripped of its federal charity status because of its ties to the terrorist group, Hamas. Even the moderate Muslim Canadian Congress advised Trudeau not to attend.
Trudeau, according to a report, smothered the Islamic conference in platitudes.
He went so far as to imply a totally inapt comparison in trying to
liken the fierce division between English and French Canada, under Prime
Minister Wilfrid Laurier, to that of the current divisions between
mainstream Canada and Islam.
Evidently trying to balance competing interests, the Supreme Court of Canada recently made a significant ruling, that a witness, while testifying, may be required to remove her niqab face-cover.
Chief Justice Beverley McLachlin said the ruling was intended to ensure
the accused a fair trial and to sustain public confidence in the
justice system. However, McLachlin also invoked the Charter of Rights,
stating that there are times where balancing religious beliefs can be
accommodated -- a ruling which leaves future cases open-ended. CAIR-CAN
applauded the ruling for allowing religious concessions, while the
Muslim Canadian Congress reluctantly praised it for not being
comprehensive. Canadian courts also made a decision a year ago to ban Muslim women from covering their faces during citizenship ceremonies.
Canada's challenge in demarcating reasonable accommodations has been
further exacerbated by Islamist coercion. For example, Turkey's foreign
minister, Ahmet Davutoglu, visited Ottawa
last September and called on the West to fight "Islamophobia."
"Islamophobia" he said, "should be declared a crime against humanity."
He commended Canada's multicultural identity while condemning what he
called the profiling of Muslims at U.S. airports. However, although he
referred to profiling as a provocation that can change the psychological
atmosphere of an entire country, he made no reference to how global
Islamic terrorism can change the psychological atmosphere of an entire
country.
The same week as Davutoglu's visit to Ottawa, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan also pronounced "Islamophobia" a "crime against humanity."
He did so in the wake of the film "Innocence of Muslims," falsely
blamed by the Obama administration for having provoked the murders in
Libya of US Ambassador Christopher Stevens and three other American
diplomats.
There have, nevertheless, been sufficient demonstrations of
intimidation and death threats, as well as murders and attempted murders
by Muslim extremists against those who are deemed to have offended
Islam. To name just a few: Salman Rushdie, Theo van Gogh, Geert Wilders, Lars Hedegaard, and Danish cartoonist Kurt Westergaard who recently warned that the West cannot permit itself to be muzzled by fear of offending Islamic sensibilities.
Canada and the West need to declare and defend a pluralistic,
democratic approach to rights and freedoms without any shame, and
without fear of offending anyone who might try to intimidate their
citizens.
To be continued.
Christine Williams is a Federally appointed Director with the
Canadian Race Relations Foundation, a member of the Friends of Simon
Wiesenthal Center Task Force Against Anti-semitism, and a nine time,
international award-winning talk show Host and Producer at CTS TV in
Burlington, Ontario.
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