Category Archives: Canada

Toronto hotel cancels iERA conference booking

Posted on by Bob Pitt

The Sheraton Centre hotel will not host a Muslim religious conference that was to feature speakers who have expressed anti-gay and anti-Semitic views.

The Star informed a Sheraton convention services manager about the speakers on Wednesday. On Thursday, after the Star published an article on the conference, a hotel spokesperson said it had been “cancelled due to the organization’s failure to satisfy a contractual requirement”.

The conference, which had been scheduled for Oct. 23, was organized by the Islamic Education and Research Academy (IERA), a British organization seeking to establish a Canadian presence.

In a statement, the IERA said it “unequivocally rejects” the Star‘s article as “false and misleading”. It also issued an “action alert” urging supporters to “complain about this unfair action”.

“The aim of the upcoming conference, far from promoting hatred, will focus on getting Muslims to pro-actively engage with the wider society by sharing the true essence of the Islamic faith in both word and deed,” the IERA said.

Toronto Star, 14 October 2011

Muslims face negative perception in Canada, study suggests

Posted on by Bob Pitt

A new national survey that tapped the level of “positiveness” that Canadians feel toward selected groups suggests that Muslims – significantly more than 10 other subsets of society – remain a magnet for negativity a decade after the 9/11 attacks on the U.S.

Just 43 per cent of the 2,345 people polled by the Montreal-based Association for Canadian Studies expressed “very positive” or “somewhat positive” perceptions of Muslims, while atheists (60 per cent) and aboriginals (61 per cent) also drew relatively lukewarm responses.

Continue reading →

EDL: not saluting but waving

Posted on by Bob Pitt

A blog called European Son has an interview with James Cohen, the recently-appointed head of the English Defence League’s Jewish Division.

The bit that made me laugh was where the interviewer points out “there have been many, many photographs of EDL members giving Nazi salutes”, to which Cohen replies that “a lot of those pictures are just guys hailing taxis, and waving at friends”.

EDL nazi salute
‘Taxi!’ EDL member hails cab

Jewish Defence League and Canadian Hindu Advocacy object to employee guide to Ramadan

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Ontario government officials say the success of an employee guide to the Muslim holy month of Ramadan has prompted other publications for workers who celebrate Diwali, Christmas and Easter.

A “Ramadan: the Muslim Month of Fasting” guide was issued to 67,000 Ontario government workers last July telling them to be “sensitive” to Muslim co-workers because they are fasting and praying from dusk to dawn. The document advises managers to provide a safe room for Muslims to pray and that they may require to make more trips to the bathroom to wash before they pray. They are required to pray five times a day.

Jason Wesley, of the Ministry of Government Services, said similar publications have been sent to workers “explaining the significance of the Jewish observances of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur”. Wesley said guides to mark the Hindu festival of Diwali and Christian celebrations of Christmas and Easter are planned for release.

The guide has sparked concerns from non-Muslim government workers who claim they’re being discriminated against.

“There should be no religion whatsoever in public offices,” Meyer Weinstein of the Jewish Defence League said. “They (Ontario government) are turning the workplace into a three-ring circus.”

The JDL, Canadian Hindu Advocacy and several Christian groups are calling for an end to Muslim students praying in the cafeteria with an imam on some Fridays at Valley Park Middle School on Overlea Blvd.

“The Muslims are being given preferential treatment in schools and offices,” said Advocacy director Ron Banerjee. “The other religions were thrown in as window dressing for the Muslim prayers.”

Toronto Sun, 27 September 2011

Quite who these non-Muslim workers who feel they’ve been discriminated against might be is unclear. The source of this claim would appear to be Ron Bannerjee, who was quoted in an earlier report as saying that Hindu employees are “outraged” by the Ramadan guide. He added: “Other workers in the office will have to work twice as hard to pick up their slack. Muslim workers will require more time for their religion and other people will have to do their work.” The idea that Bannerjee is a reliable source on this issue is of course laughable.

EDL Jewish division leader needs geography lesson

Posted on by Bob Pitt

James Cohen, the recently appointed leader of the English Defence League’s Jewish division, has a post over at the International Free Press Society’s website attacking the 8-month sentence imposed on an EDL member, one Daniel Parker, who chanted racist slogans outside a mosque in South Yorkshire.

Bizarrely, Cohen heads his report “EDL supporter jailed for 8 months for chanting outside a London Mosque”. I mean, I know the EDL’s support within Anglo-Jewry is so minimal that they have to appoint a Canadian as the head of JDiv, but is Cohen really so ignorant of the country whose Jewish community he’s supposed to represent that he thinks London is in Yorkshire?

Cohen also complains that the Sheffield Star editorial he reproduces “gives little to none in terms of information that would indicate what this person actually did”. Well, let us fill in some of the details for him. According to a report in the Yorkshire Post, Daniel Parker was part of an EDL gang who besieged the Muslim Community Centre in Barnsley, throwing stones at the building and subjecting the imam to what the judge who sentenced Parker described as “vile and disgusting” racist abuse.

On their Facebook page, by the way, Barnsley EDL state: “Our arguement is not against normal muslim people but extremists preaching hate on our streets/harbouring terrorists and encouraging the formation of an islamic state within our shores. Despite constant bad press claiming we are racist this is completely inaccurate….”

Toronto: right-wing alliance tries to drown out supporters of Muslims’ right to school prayers

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Toronto District School Board demonstrations September 2011

Tension was running high as two vocal groups, both for and against Muslim prayer service in schools, tried to out-shout each other. Toronto Police officers kept the groups apart and from protesting on the sidewalk outside the Toronto District School Board’s Yonge St. headquarters on Saturday because they didn’t have permits.

“I am here to support the board for letting us pray in school,” said Aayman Karin, 13, one of about 100 Muslim students who pray on certain Fridays in the cafeteria of Valley Park Middle School, on Overlea Blvd. “It is a good thing for us because we don’t have to leave the school.”

Karin said students feel more comfortable praying in school with their classmates. “There is too much fuss being made about this issue,” Karin said. “We have the freedom to do this and we are not doing anything wrong.”

Organizer Chris Andrewsen said the event was in support of the TDSB and brought together students from a number of Toronto schools.

About three metres away, a coalition of protestors demonstrated against religion in schools using a bullhorn to drown out the TDSB supporters. They used the bullhorn to yell about Allah and suicide bombers as the Canadian anthem was played.

“We are here because religion has no place in our schools,” said Ron Banerjee, of Canadian Hindu Advocacy. “We want religion out of all our schools.” His group was joined by the Jewish Defence League Canada, Costas Christian Mission, Evangelical Asian Church, International Christian Voice, and Canadian Egyptian Congress. Rev. Tony Costa, of Costa Christ Mission, accused the TDSB of showing “preferential treatment to Muslims”.

An uproar erupted earlier in the summer when it surfaced that board officials were allowing Valley Park students to hold prayer sessions with an imam in the cafeteria during school hours. School board officials have said they plan to continue the practice despite opposition.

Toronto Sun, 17 September 2011

See also CBC News, 18 September 2011

A second anti-prayer protest against was held on Sunday, organised by the Canadian Secular Alliance, who waved placards with the slogan “Stop faith-based bigotry!” See the Toronto Sun, 18 September 2011

Looks like divisions have emerged within the anti-TDSB campaign. The appalling Muslim Canadian Congress seems to have steered clear of the Saturday protest and supported the secularist demonstration on Sunday instead. Perhaps even the MCC had become embarrassed by its public association with the far-right racist Jewish Defence League. The right-wing coalition that staged the Saturday protest is also having difficulty agreeing a common line, with Banerjee condemning all forms of religion in schools and the Christians demanding greater recognition for their own faith. The JDL, for its part, has no objection to Jewish prayers in schools but wants to deny Muslims the same right.

JC talks to new EDL Jewish division leader

Posted on by Bob Pitt

The new leader of the English Defence League’s Jewish division has encouraged British Jews to back the extreme right-wing group and “defend liberal democracy”. James Cohen, 52, who is based in Ottawa, Canada, said his dealings with EDL leaders had led him to believe they were “affable, intelligent, right-minded people” who had been “wrongly maligned” by the British media.

Mr Cohen, a writer and activist who previously lived in Israel, admitted he had “done some soul-searching” after being asked to lead the division following July’s departure of Roberta Moore. He said he hoped British Jews would join EDL members at protests and in campaigning.

But the Board of Deputies said it condemned the EDL “unreservedly”. A spokesman said: “It is clear for all to see that the EDL are solely intent on causing divisions and mistrust between different groups in British society. When they wave Israeli flags at a rally or demonstration, they do so only to goad the Muslim community and to stir communal tensions. This, and everything that the EDL stands for, is utterly abhorrent. All right-thinking people should be repulsed by extremism from any quarter.”

Jewish Chronicle, 15 September 2011

Bigots ramp up Toronto school prayer protests

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Faith groups are ramping up protests against Muslim students praying in Toronto public schools as they vow to make the controversial practice an election issue in Ontario. A demonstration took place Sunday night outside the Toronto District School Board on Yonge St., and another is planned for Sept. 18 at Queen’s Park to demand an end of the prayer service.

The protests stem from a decision to allow Islamic prayer sessions every Friday in the cafeteria at Valley Park Middle School, on Overlea Blvd., which have been going on for more than a year. “We plan to keep on protesting until this practice is stopped,” said Ron Banerjee, of the Canadian Hindu Advocacy. “This is a stealth jihad that is taking place at the TDSB and not the violent jihad we had on Sept. 11.”

Banerjee said his group along with the Jewish Defence League and Costas Christian Mission are trying to get political leaders to take a stand on the issue before the Oct. 6 election.

Both Premier Dalton McGuinty and Conservative Leader Tim Hudak have said the issue will be left to the school boards and principals to manage. And Ontario Human Rights commissioner Barbara Hall has said that schools have a duty to accommodate faith needs up to the point of “undue hardship”.

Leonard Baak, president of Education Equality in Ontario, said McGuinty and Hudak “were squirming” when asked about Islamic sectarianism in schools. “Both men reveal a stunning lack of leadership on the issue,” Baak said on Sunday. “It is time for government to give all faiths equal respect and consideration.”

Toronto Sun, 11 September 2011

See also here, here and here.

56% of Canadians think divide between West and Muslim world is ‘irreconcilable’, poll finds

Posted on by Bob Pitt

A majority of Canadians believes conflict between Western nations and the Muslim world is “irreconcilable,” according to a new national survey that revealed a strong strain of pessimism in the country leading up to Sunday’s 10th anniversary commemorations of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on the U.S.

The survey of 1,500 Canadians, conducted over three days last week for the Montreal-based Association for Canadian Studies, showed 56% of respondents see Western and Muslim societies locked in an unending ideological struggle, while about 33% – just one-third of the population – held out hope that the conflict will eventually be overcome.

ACS executive director Jack Jedwab said the finding has “serious ramifications” for Canadian policies aimed at bridging divides between cultures, which are based on the premise that citizens believe significant progress in mending such religious and cultural conflicts is achievable.

The dark view expressed in the survey “contradicts a fundamental idea in multicultural democracies like ours, that conflicts between societies can be resolved through dialogue and negotiation,” said Jedwab. “This is also a key element in multiculturalism, where Canada is often seen elsewhere in the world as a model in conflict resolution.”

He adds: “If a majority of Canadians feel it is irreconcilable, what does this imply for the various projects and programs in place that aim to bridge gaps?”

Postmedia News, 11 September 2011