Category Archives: Canada

Toronto: anti-racists mobilise opposition to Wilders

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Protesters are getting ready for Geert Wilders’ first Canadian visit as the controversial anti-Islamic Dutch politician rolls into town for a private speech to local Christian groups Monday night.

The Freedom Party leader maintains that because Canada helped out Holland during the Second World War, it is only fitting to repay them by raising awareness the country is in danger of a hostile takeover and being “Islamicized”.

“Freedom is the most precious thing we have,” he said Sunday at a Toronto hotel. “(Canadian soldiers) didn’t give their lives to free Europe, (so that) not 50, 60, 70 years later we would face another totalitarianism ideology called Islam.”

Toronto’s invitation-only event is being emceed by the Sun‘s Ezra Levant, who will also interview him Monday on Sun News. London, Ottawa and Nashville are also on the schedule because Wilders said they are known as “the Bible belt” – areas with devout Christians.

“What happened in Europe will also happen here,” Wilders said. “We should wake up to the fact that Islamization means less freedom to us and our children.”

The Islamic Society of Toronto and the Canadian Islamic Congress could not be reached for comment on Sunday. However, Anti-Racist Action and the First Nations Solidarity Working Group are organizing protests in the cities Wilders is speaking in.

“As Muslims, racialized people and/or anti-racist allies, we are alarmed at this invitation extended to Wilders by the Canada Christian College and International Free Press Society Canada,” the groups said in a press release. “It is also very clear that after all the hysteria about free speech, the event has been organized so as to deter any dissenting voices or protest.”

In addition to being invitation-only, tickets cost $20 and must be purchased with a credit and proper name just to find out the location of the speeches.

Toronto Sun, 9 May 2011

Wilders brings his message of hate to Canada

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Geert Wilders extremistGeert Wilders has made his name as one of the world’s most outspoken opponents of Islam. The controversial Dutch parliamentarian does not hate Muslims, he’s famously said, but he does hate Islam. His colourful political career has been driven by a belief that the Koran encourages violence, that moderate Islam is an impossibility, that the Netherlands is in the process of being Islamicized, and that immigrants from Muslim countries must be stopped.

Next week, Mr. Wilders will bring his message to Canada, a country he says faces the same prospects of being Islamicized as his own. On Monday, Mr. Wilders is the marquee speaker at an invitation-only event hosted by the International Free Press Society and the Canada Christian College.

“Geert Wilders has a warning for Canada, and his warning is about a lack of free speech here and the threat of demographic jihad,” said Charles McVety, president of the Canada Christian College. “We’re all for freedom of religion, but when its mission is a hostile takeover, well that’s a different story. Islam is not just a religion, it’s a political and cultural system as well and we know that Christians, Jews and Hindus don’t have the same mandate for a hostile takeover. Here in Canada there is a real, clear and present danger. And we’re not even allowed to say anything about it. That’s what Geert Wilders is going to talk about.”

Members of the Toronto Muslim community say they were unaware of any planned hostile takeover and dismiss Mr. Wilders as racist and ill-informed.

National Post, 5 May 2011

It’s a shame that the event will be restricted to Wilders’ supporters. Otherwise there would have been an opportunity to ask the Dutch racist and his hosts why the right to “free speech” they claim to be defending doesn’t apply to Wilders’ critics back in the Netherlands. (See here, here and here.)

Muslim community denounces document describing Montreal mosque as terror hub

Posted on by Bob Pitt

MONTREAL — New WikiLeaks documents that describe a Montreal mosque as a terror hub are defamatory, says a local Muslim spokesman.

The newly leaked U.S. documents claim a Mauritanian terror suspect being held at Guantanamo Bay was the leader of a Montreal-based al-Qaida cell that planned terror attacks in the United States.

The secret documents, released by WikiLeaks on their website last weekend, also claim that members of al-Qaida were recruited and trained at Montreal’s Al Sunnah Al Nabawiah Mosque, where the terror suspect served briefly, possibly as an imam.

But the chairman of the Muslim Council of Montreal said the documents serve as an example of how the community’s institutions are unfairly targeted by authorities.

“Our allegations are certainly correct that we’ve been targeted and this is biased targeting,” Salam Elmenyawi said in an interview. “None of the information is based on evidence. It’s rather based on intelligence analysis and this analysis has certainly ignored any other facts that contradicted the conclusion.”

Elmenyawi said the documents defame the mosque and show a blatant bias against the Muslim community.

Canadian Press, 26 April 2011

Update:  See “WikiLeaks: Montreal mosque ‘is a top Al Qaeda recruiting zone'”, Daily Mail, 27 April 2011

Needless to say, the Mail fails to quote the views of the Muslim Council of Montreal.

The paper also takes the opportunity to publish a photo of the North London Central Mosque in Finsbury Park, with the caption “Finsbury Park Mosque in London was named by WikiLeaks as another Al Qaeda recruiting ground”. Yesterday’s Mail did the same, with another photo of the mosque captioned “‘Haven for extremists’: US intelligence experts describe Finsbury Park Mosque, in north London, above, as an ‘attack planning and propaganda production base'”.

Disgracefully, there is no mention in either article of the fact that this charge dates from the time when Abu Hamza al-Masri and his followers were in control and that the mosque has been under new management since 2005.

See NLCM press release.

Montreal: Muslims call for crack down on hate crime after repeated attacks on mosque

Posted on by Bob Pitt

The Muslim Council of Montreal (MCM) is calling for harsher penalties and zero tolerance for hate crimes in the wake of an attack last week on a Dorval mosque.

“It is indeed distressing that in a pluralistic and multicultural society such as ours, we have religious institutions being targeted again and again in crimes of hate and violence,” Salam Elmenyawi, president of MCM, said on Saturday. “These attacks go against the very Canadian values and principles that we are all committed to and must be condemned in the strongest terms.”

Elmenyawi’s comments follow an overnight break-in last Monday at a mosque at the corner of Neptune Blvd. and Nightingale Ave. in Dorval. The intruders broke in through a fire exit door and stole a computer and fired steel bolts through a couple of windows. In 2009, the mosque was vandalized four times, usually with graffiti painted on walls. The last time it was vandalized was in September 2009.

Montreal Gazette, 16 April 2011

Dorval mosque vandalized yet again

Posted on by Bob Pitt

A Dorval mosque that has been plagued by vandalism in the past had two windows and several doors broken during an overnight break-in on Monday. “I’m not sure if it was thieves or vandals,” said Mehmet Deger, president of the Dorval Mosque. “But it’s very upsetting to our members when it happens.”

He said the culprits broke in through a fire exit door and stole a computer. But they also used some kind of slingshot to fire steel bolts through a couple of windows, including a large picture window. “This is very frustrating,” said Deger, who was collecting estimates on the cost of the repairs.

In 2009, the mosque was vandalized four times, usually with graffiti painted on walls. The last time it was vandalized was in September 2009. At the time, Deger invited the culprits to talk to leaders of the mosque rather than using a can of spray paint to communicate. And he said there have been no incidents since that time.

The mosque has about 2,000 members and has been operating since 1994. It is located at the corner of Neptune Blvd. and Nightingale Ave.

Deger said the mosque’s video surveillance showed two men had been responsible for the break-in this week. “These guys are a danger to the public,” he said.

Montreal Gazette, 12 April 2011

Man admits to defacing Ontario mosque

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Waterloo mosque graffiti

Damage totalled more than $160,000 in a string of vandalism incidents – including the spray-painting of a Waterloo mosque – carried out by a young man and several friends.

Jesse Coleman, 20, admitted his role in the crimes Monday after pleading guilty to charges including break and enter, arson, mischief and theft.

The most destructive incident took place in April 2010 when Coleman and a youth set fire to a new house still under construction at a subdivision on West Park Crescent in Waterloo.

Coleman and the same teen also smashed windows and spray-painted offensive graffiti on the mosque of the Muslim Society of Waterloo and Wellington Counties on Erb Street West in Waterloo. Included were pentagonal symbols and the numbers 666, often referred to as a sign of the devil.

Damage in that case was just over $3,000, but it prompted shaken members of the mosque to spend another $7,000 to $8,000 on new security measures. “They considered it hate graffiti,” Crown prosecutor Marg Janzen told Kitchener court.

Waterloo Record, 28 March 2011

British Columbia: Islamic centre sprayed with racist graffiti

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Masjid Al-Hidayah graffiti

Neighbours of the Masjid Al-Hidayah and Islamic Cultural Centre are reeling after racist graffiti was scrawled across the front of the Port Coquitlam mosque Wednesday night. The word “sandniggas” was spray-painted onto the front of the building and was visible to drivers and local businesses along the Kingsway Avenue industrial strip.

Bill Thomson, a worker at Boyd Autobody and Glass across the street from the mosque, said it is the first time he has seen any vandalism on the neighbouring property since it opened six years ago. “We were going to go over and wash it off,” he said. “It’s absolutely disgusting.” Thomson said the employees at the auto body decided against cleaning up the mess, believing it could create issues with the mosques insurance company.

Tri-City News, 10 March 2011

British Muslim stranded in Canada because his name’s on US no-fly list

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Dawood HepplewhiteA British man says he’s stranded in Canada after being denied permission to fly home because he’s on the U.S. no-fly list.

Dawood Hepplewhite of Sheffield, England, turned up at Pearson Airport in Toronto on Sunday only to be told by an Air Transat official he couldn’t board the plane. “I got really upset at him – ‘How can you tell me I’m not allowed to go to my own country?'” Hepplewhite said late Tuesday in an interview.

An Air Transat spokesman did not immediately respond to an inquiry.

Hepplewhite, 30, divides his time between Sheffield and Toronto, where his Canadian wife Farhia and their three children reside. All five were planning to head back to England for an extended stay.

Hepplewhite says Air Canada and British Airways also refused to let him fly to England on Monday.

Airlines that operate from Canada have been known to reject passengers whose names are on the U.S. no-fly list. That’s because many flights pass over American airspace or may be forced to land at a U.S. airport in the event of an emergency.

Hepplewhite says he’s no security threat, but suspects he is on the no-fly list because he’s a white Muslim and attended a job interview in Yemen for a position teaching English a few years ago. “And when I came back to England I got pulled aside by the police.” But Hepplewhite abandoned any idea of working in the Middle-Eastern country and has been to Canada several times since that incident.

He was told this week to use the U.S. Transportation Security Administration’s redress process to try to get his name removed from the U.S. no-fly roster – a process that can take between 45 to 60 days.

Toronto Star, 16 February 2011

Update:  See “British man on U.S. no-fly list headed home after delay in Canada”, Vacouver Sun, 16 February 2011

Further update:  See “Ban strands family”, The Star, 18 February 2011

Canada: Christian fundamentalist party calls for ban on Muslim immigration, applauds Cameron’s comments on multiculturalism

Posted on by Bob Pitt

CHP-logoThe federal Christian Heritage Party is calling for a national moratorium on immigration from Muslim countries to curb increasing radical Islamist power in Canada.

Mike Schouten, CHP candidate for South Surrey-White Rock-Cloverdale, admits his party’s stance on this issue will likely result in charges of racism. But he says it’s about protecting Canadian values as outlined in the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. “This issue, because of the climate of political correctness, is not allowed to be talked about,” Schouten noted.

The CHP’s call for the moratorium comes on the heels of British Prime Minister David Cameron’s recent speech at the Munich Security Conference. His nation’s “hands-off tolerance” approach to immigrants who reject Western values has failed, he admitted. “I believe it’s time to turn the page on the failed policies of the past.”

Shouten considers Cameron’s comments “powerful”. “Prime Minister Cameron’s acknowledgment that multiculturalism has, in essence, been a failure shows just how complacent the West has been towards radical Islam.” At issue, Schouten argues, is the attempt to import Islamic sharia law into Canada.