The U.S. pastor behind “International Burn a Koran Day” said he would “possibly” try again to enter Canada after border officers turned him back Thursday as he was on his way to speak in Toronto.
“We will see,” Terry Jones said in an interview. “We were looking forward to coming there and we were looking forward to speaking. … We were definitely disappointed and we were surprised.”
Najam Chishti of the Muslim Society of P.E.I. outside the Masjid Dar As-Salam mosque
Zain Esseghaier has been a Charlottetown resident for the last 33 years, married an islander and raised a family here. Though his modest two-story mosque has been the target of three serious threats over the past year – last week a bottle of gasoline was left at the entrance and the structure plastered with “Defeat Jihad” posters – he remains steadfast, refusing to be intimidated.
The RCMP is investigating the possibility of a hate crime after several piles of bacon were found outside a mosque in Port Coquitlam, B.C.
Police say it’s the second such act of vandalism and mischief at the Islamic Society of British Columbia mosque and Islamic Centre in the last 18 months.
Members of the Masjid Dar As-Salam Mosque in Charlottetown have made a complaint to police following what they believe is the latest in a series of threats.
The mosque, which was just opened in July, is the first purpose-built place of worship for Muslims on P.E.I.
On Thursday, people going to dawn prayer found a bottle that they say contained gasoline and posters saying “Defeat jihad” on the mosque doorstep. “A bottle containing gasoline is left on the doorsteps, you start wondering if the message that’s being sent involves arson,” said Zain Esseghaier, a spokesperson for the Muslim Society of P.E.I.
While violent protests are taking place across the Middle East and North America, a local mosque was concerned, but not totally surprised, when it received hate mail.
London Muslim Mosque Imam Jamal Taleb said the incident was reported to the police Sunday (Sept. 23), adding the mosque doesn’t know who sent the letter, but the institution does occasionally receive letters when conflict arises somewhere else in the world.
“Whenever something happens overseas, especially related to the Muslim faith, we get something by phone or by mail,” Taleb said. “They tell us, ‘We don’t want you here, you’re a stranger, we want you to be out of the country’.” The Imam added such messages are bothersome because they raise concerns about the safety of members of the local Muslim community.
A commissionaire who allegedly posted comments online suggesting the Masjid Al-Iman Mosque on Quadra Street be blasted with a rocket launcher appeared in Victoria provincial court on Wednesday.
Daniel Kevin Speed is charged with causing fear of injury or damage. His defence lawyer, Bill Heflin, said Speed was expected to plead not guilty at his next court appearance on Oct. 3.
“Thoughtfulness has flown out the window at Newsweek this week, as Tina Brown traded in a little bit of integrity and placed her bets on Islamophobia being a big seller with the magazine’s screaming ‘Muslim Rage’ cover”, Alexander Abad-Santos writes.
Atlantic Wire, 17 September 2012
See also Ben Armbruster at Think Progress, 17 September 2012
A much anticipated dog walk protest outside an east-Toronto mosque Friday turned out to be a hopelessly neutered event.
Around 20 demonstrators turned up outside the Salahuddin Islamic Centre for the Walk Your Dog in Front of a Mosque protest. It was organized in response to a Jewish man who was arrested at a recent Islamic demonstration following an altercation in which his dog was kicked by a demonstrator.
Around 20 humans and three dogs – two retrievers and a pomeranian – turned up for the two and a half hour event and converged at the entrance of the mosque, located on Kennedy Rd. south of Eglinton Ave. E.
A Pictou County woman who cares for her three grandchildren has been sentenced to a month in jail for hurling racial insults at a doctor’s wife and assaulting her, as well as attacking the victim’s rescuer.
Justice Ted Scanlan of Nova Scotia Supreme Court said in a written decision released Tuesday this was one of the most difficult sentencings of his 20 years on the bench. “I have sentenced people for murder, assault, robbery, drugs, you name it. This case stands out,” Scanlan said.
The incident happened in the mall on Westville Road in New Glasgow on May 29, 2011. A drunken Katherine Feltmate, 51, confronted Alizah Khan, asking her why she was wearing a head scarf on a hot day. Khan asked her why she was commenting on what she was wearing when others were wearing sweaters, coats or jackets.
Feltmate then hurled racial and religious slurs at Khan, forced her against a wall, raised her hands and pushed a shopping cart around. Brian Anthony Jarvis came to Khan’s aid, and Feltmate turned on him and accused him of being racist.
Tariq Ramadan will be speaking at the Proud Muslims Convention in Edmonton this weekend.
Tarek Fatah – whose own organisation, the so-called Muslim Canadian Congress, backed the hysterical “Ground Zero mosque” protests and calls for a ban on the veil – accuses Professor Ramadan of “using our Labour Day weekend to propagate the Muslim Brotherhood credo of ‘destroying the West from within’.”