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Why shouldn't Mohammad Shafia have been arrogant and hubristic? It would have been more surprising if he had not been. Just look at how Islamic supremacist spokesmen in the West always deal with anti-jihadists: not with legitimate discussion, not with honest engagement with legitimate concerns, but with exceeding and almost incredible arrogance, endless torrents of abuse, and reflexive charges of "bigotry," "racism," and "Islamophobia." Just look at how the mainstream media and Western governments are endlessly compliant, endlessly accommodating to Islamic supremacist demands, endlessly turning a blind eye to Islamic jihad activity, violent and stealthy, with endless gullibility swallowing the ever more fantastic claims that underneath the behavior of Islamic jihadists who quote Qur'an to support their views and position themselves within the Islamic community as the exponents of Islamic authenticity, it really is a Religion of Peace.

If Mohammad Shafia had not been arrogant and hubristic, it would have been a miracle.

Join us for the first annual AFDI/SIOA Jessica Mokdad Human Rights Conference on Honor Killings.

"How arrogance and mistakes led to Shafia’s murder conviction," by Timothy Appleby for the Globe and Mail, January 29 (thanks to Mark):

Even after murdering his daughters and his first wife a few hours earlier, the millionaire businessman haggled over the motel bill.

One view of the guilty verdicts in the Shafia “honour killings” trial is that they were the final act in a kind of morality play that pitted 21st-century technology against ancient, twisted concepts of right and wrong.

The other connecting thread in the police investigation was the almost unfathomable, small-minded stupidity and arrogance of the three Afghan-Canadian defendants, borne out of a lifelong sense of entitlement.

Mohammad Shafia, 59, was wealthy and had essentially bought his residency in Canada under the federal investor-immigrant program. He owned a $1.6-million mall in Laval, Que., and was having a big, custom-designed home built in Brossard, a Montreal suburb. He had cars, property, assorted business projects, and had travelled widely.

In sum, he belonged to a tiny minority of privileged middle-class Afghans, both before he and his family fled the advancing Taliban in 1992, and later abroad.

From the trial testimony emerged a portrait of the man he was at home: A crude, brutal patriarch who terrified his children including those he’s convicted of murdering.

He, his co-accused second wife and their eldest son Hamed were not only clumsy killers. They were also bad liars, offering the jury wildly conflicting accounts of what happened on the night the four victims died.

From the first hours of the investigation, the trio struggled to dig themselves out of the hole they were in, weaving an ever-less credible tangle of lies and obfuscation. Steadily the hole got deeper.

And yet, in his hubris, Mr. Shafia appeared convinced they could get away with it.

“You guys aren't hit men, you don't know how to cover your tracks,” Kingston Police detective Mike Boyles told 18-year-old Hamed Shafia, shortly after he and his parents were charged with the four murders in July, 2009....

Mohammad Shafia has previously said: "I would do it again 100 times"; "May the devil shit on their graves. Is that what a daughter should be? Would a daughter be such a whore?" And "God's curse on them for generations. ... They betrayed Islam."

"Shafias all found guilty of first-degree murder," by Timothy Appleby for the Globe and Mail, January 29 (thanks to Mark):

Three Afghan-Canadians charged with murdering four relatives in a so-called "honour killing" have been convicted on all charges.

The verdict was reached shortly after 1 pm Sunday afternoon and delivered about an hour later to a packed courtroom.

In all, the seven-woman, five-man jury had deliberated just over 15 hours, spread over two days, sequestered on the second floor of the historic Frontenac County Court House in downtown Kingston.‬

Tooba Mohammad Yahya, husband Mohammad Shafia and son Hamed Mohammed Shafia are escorted to court in Kinston last month.

A police officer stands outside the Frontenac County Courthouse, where Mohammad Shafia, his wife Tooba Mohammad Yahya and their son Hamed were undergoing trial for the murder of four family members, in Kingston, Ontario January 26, 2012.

‪The defendants face an automatic penalty of life imprisonment with no chance of parole for at least 25 years.

There have been other murder charges involving so-called "honour killings" – homicides of women slain out of a perverse desire to "purify" families of disgrace created by supposedly immoral conduct – but not on this scale, and not involving parents who were willing to wipe out half their family for the sake of their honour, and then lie about it.‬

‪Charged with four counts of first-degree murder were businessman Mohammad Shafia, 59, his second wife Tooba Mohammad Yahya, 42, and their eldest son, Hamed, 21.‬

‪They stood accused of drowning sisters Zainab, Sahar and Geeti Shafia, aged 19, 17 and 13, whose bodies were found in a submerged car at a Rideau Canal lock, just east of Kingston, in June, 2009.‬

The fourth person in the vehicle was Mr. Shafia’s first wife, Rona Amir Mohammad, 53, who had entered Canada illegally, posing as his cousin, but who in fact was part of a polygamous marriage and who by every indication wanted to escape from it.

‪ All three defendants briefly addressed the court and proclaimed their innocence in what Mr. Justice Robert Maranger described as a “heinous crime.”

“We are not criminal, we are not murderer, we didn't commit the murder and this is unjust,” Mr. Mohammad said through a translater.

Ms.Yahya responded: “Your honourable justice, this is not just. I am not a murderer, and I am a mother, a mother.”

Their son said, in English: “Sir, I did not drown my sisters anywhere.”

But the judge was unmoved.

“You have each been convicted of the planned and deliberate murder of four members of your family...(A verdict) clearly supported by the evidence presented at this trial,” said Judge Maranger.

“It is difficult to conceive of a more despicable, more heinous crime...the apparent reason behind these cold-blooded, shameful murders was that the four completely innocent victims offended your completely twisted concept of honour ... that has absolutely no place in any civilized society.”...

Poor Mohammad Shafia can't catch a break. First, his first wife and daughters die in a tragic accident that just happens -- pure coincidence! -- to show all the signs of an Islamic honor killing, and now this, which won't help his Poor Victimized Man of Peace act one bit.

"Shafia trial to resume after bomb scare prompts delay," from CTVNews, January 26 (thanks to Pamela Geller):

The Shafia family murder trial in Kingston, Ont. is expected to resume Thursday afternoon with increased security after a bomb scare shut down proceedings earlier in the day.

People have started returning to the courthouse but police procedures, including checking for photo identification and using metal detectors, have made for long waits.

There is only one entry point into the building now.

Earlier Thursday, journalists and spectators who had lined up hours before court was scheduled to begin were suddenly told by police they had to leave and court would resume in the afternoon.

Police would only say there was a "security concern," but a source told The Canadian Press that a bomb threat prompted the evacuation.

"I can neither confirm nor deny in regards to specifically a bomb, but we are just stating at this point in time it is a security concern," Const. Steve Koopman told The Canadian Press. "As you can see we're taking it extremely seriously."

Mohammad Shafia, 58, his wife Tooba Yahya, 42, and their son Hamed, 21, have each pleaded not guilty to four counts of first-degree murder.

They were evacuated from the courthouse Thursday in a police prisoner vehicle.

Koopman couldn't say if the security threat was directly related to the Shafia trial.

The trio is accused of killing teenage Shafia daughters Zainab, 19, Sahar, 17, and Geeti, 13, as well as Shafia's first wife in his polygamous marriage.

The Crown began its final arguments on Wednesday and was expected to wrap up Thursday. It isn't clear whether jury deliberations will still begin on Friday, as originally scheduled.

Three defence lawyers presented their final arguments Tuesday and Wednesday.

The bodies of the four were found in June 2009 in a car at the bottom of a canal in Kingston.

The Montreal family had stopped in Kingston on their way back from a trip to Niagara Falls, Ont.

The Crown has alleged that the girls were murdered by their father, his wife and their brother, and that the killing was then made to look like an accident after the fact.

The Crown's argument is built on the premise that the girls broke the family's moral code and dishonoured their family by wearing clothing that was not conservative and having secret boyfriends.

"Not conservative" is media-speak for "not Islamic." In the media's world, "conservatives" are those who uphold Sharia, and also those who oppose it.

The defence, however, calls the argument preposterous and said the deaths were the result of a tragic accident.

Yeah, and the bomb threat was actually just a harmless movie review. Nothing to see here. Move along.

"I find it sad for the child and the teacher, who may have to redesign her teaching program as a result." Of course. When in Muslim countries, one must abide by Islamic mores. When in non-Muslim countries, one must abide by Islamic mores.

Noting that Islamic law forbids musical instruments and music itself except in some strictly defined circumstances will bring you swift charges of "ignorance" and "Islamophobia." I guess this devout Muslim family is actually made up of ignorant Islamophobes.

Hadith Qudsi 19:5: "The Prophet said that Allah commanded him to destroy all the musical instruments, idols, crosses and all the trappings of ignorance." (The Hadith Qudsi, or holy Hadith, are those in which Muhammad transmits the words of Allah, although those words are not in the Qur'an.)

Muhammad also said:

(1) "Allah Mighty and Majestic sent me as a guidance and mercy to believers and commanded me to do away with musical instruments, flutes, strings, crucifixes, and the affair of the pre-Islamic period of ignorance."

(2) "On the Day of Resurrection, Allah will pour molten lead into the ears of whoever sits listening to a songstress."

(3) "Song makes hypocrisy grow in the heart as water does herbage."

(4) "This community will experience the swallowing up of some people by the earth, metamorphosis of some into animals, and being rained upon with stones." Someone asked, "When will this be, O Messenger of Allah?" and he said, "When songstresses and musical instruments appear and wine is held to be lawful."

(5) "There will be peoples of my Community who will hold fornication, silk, wine, and musical instruments to be lawful ...." -- 'Umdat al-Salik r40.0

"Muslim kindergartener permitted to block out music," from CTV Montreal, December 19 (thanks to The Religion of Peace):

MONTREAL — A kindergarten student in Saint-Michel will be allowed to wear a noise-reducing headset in class, because her parents' [sic] say their religious beliefs don't allow the five-year-old girl to listen to music.

Though music is an integral part of the kindergarten program, the principal of Bienville School decided to grant the accommodation request made by a Muslim family and allow their daughter to block out music at school.

"The principal thinks the family is acting in good faith," said Diane de Courcy, president of the Montreal School Commission. "(They) would have otherwise kept the child at home."

Kindergarten is not mandatory, and teachers say if the student is being sent into the program, barring the new immigrant from certain activities isolates her from the rest of the class.

"I find it sad for the child and the teacher, who may have to redesign her teaching program as a result," said Elaine Bertrand of union the Montreal Teachers' Alliance.

The school and school board felt the decision was a fair compromise to build trust with the family and help the child integrate into the school system sooner.

Nonsense. This isn't about integration. It is just the opposite of integration.

"Once she's in grade one, she'll have to follow the same curriculum as everyone else," said de Courcy.

Unlikely. Does de Courcy really think the demands for Muslim accommodation will end then?

Many teachers argue the issue is not strictly about music or religion, but rather the pressure they feel to reasonably accommodate a variety of demands from health-related issues to religion.

Montreal Teachers' Alliance is asking for stricter guidelines for requests.

Education Minister Line Beauchamp said she instead supports the school's individualized approach.

"It would be impossible to develop a framework to address such a wide variety of reasonable accommodation requests," she said.

Indeed.

Michael Coren demolishes this increasingly common theme, which I discussed here.

Remember all those Jewish terror plots? Jews shouting "Shema Yisrael" as they blew themselves up in crowds of non-Jews and flew planes into buildings? Remember those captured internal documents of Jewish organizations saying they were working toward "eliminating and destroying Western civilization from within" so that "the religion of Moses was victorious over other religions"?

Syed Soharwardy is by no stretch of the imagination an original thinker. As I have noted many times here, Leftists and Islamic supremacists tend to parrot the same talking points, as if they were all reading from the same script. I wouldn't be surprised if they had a database somewhere of themes to sound and stock answers to questions, since they repeat themselves with such dreary regularity. Soharwardy here is repeating talking points that we have heard before from the likes of dhimmi Jeffrey Goldberg, Islamic supremacist pseudo-moderate Reza Aslan, Muslim Brotherhood-linked Congressman Keith Ellison and Nicholas Kristof, among many others.

Christopher Hitchens ably took apart the central claim being made here when writing last year about the Islamic supremacist mega-mosque at Ground Zero: "'Some of what people are saying in this mosque controversy is very similar to what German media was saying about Jews in the 1920s and 1930s,' Imam Abdullah Antepli, Muslim chaplain at Duke University, told the New York Times. Yes, we all recall the Jewish suicide bombers of that period, as we recall the Jewish yells for holy war, the Jewish demands for the veiling of women and the stoning of homosexuals, and the Jewish burning of newspapers that published cartoons they did not like."

Soharwardy's aim (and the aim of all the others who have repeated this) is to intimidate his hearers into thinking that criticism of Islamic supremacism leads to the gas chambers, and thus there must be no criticism of Islamic supremacism. The unstated assumption is that if one group was unjustly accused of plotting subversion and violence, and was viciously persecuted and massacred on the basis of those false accusations, then any group accused of plotting subversion and violence must be innocent, and any such accusation must be in service of preparing for their subversion and massacre.

The difference in this case is not only that Muslim leaders worldwide have made their intention to conquer and subjugate non-Muslims very clear, in a way that Jews never did in the run-up to the Holocaust; it is also that anti-jihadists nowhere advocate a "final solution" for Muslims, and never will -- we are merely calling upon them to drop the authoritarian and repressive aspects of Sharia and obey the laws of the Western societies in which they live. This is a movement in defense of freedom and equality of rights before the law.

But Syed Soharwardy wants to advance his repressive and authoritarian model for society, and in order to do so he has to smear those who are resisting the imposition of that societal model.

Also, Marisol observes:

If you have a persecution complex, but actually want to lose sympathy, a surefire tool for success is to compare yourself to:

1. Nelson Mandela
2. Jesus
3. The Jews in the Holocaust

Indeed.

"Imam says Muslims being persecuted like Jews," by Mark Dunn in the Toronto Sun, December 13:

OTTAWA – A Calgary-based Imam says Muslims are being attacked in the same way Jews were before Hitler ordered their extermination.

Syed Soharwardy, founder of the Islamic Supreme Council of Canada, says a regulation change requiring Muslim women to remove their niqabs and burkas when swearing the oath to become a Canadian amounts to Muslim bashing.

From intimidating and bad-mouthing the Muslim faith and belittling the Koran and Muslim beliefs, he drew a parallel with the treatment of Jews in Germany.

“Muslims are going through that situation right now that the Jews faced before the Holocaust,” Soharwardy told CFCN TV in Alberta.

“That was going on in Germany before the Holocaust, same thing is happening now about Muslims. So this is absolutely an alarming situation.”...

There are both philosophical and practical reasons that are discussed below, including being able to tell if a person is really reciting the oath. "Canada bans veils at citizenship oath ceremony," from BBC News, December 13:

Canada's government has introduced a ban on the wearing of veils while swearing the oath of citizenship.

A misleading headline and opening paragraph from the Beeb.

Minister of Citizenship and Immigration Jason Kenney told a news conference in Montreal anyone wanting to become a Canadian would have to show their face.

He said citizenship judges and MPs had complained it could be hard to tell if veiled applicants were actually reciting the oath.

It is also crucial to be able to tell if the person reciting the oath is actually the one whose name is about to be enrolled as a citizen.

An estimated 940,000 Muslims live in Canada, about 2.8% of the population.

Veils and face coverings are already banned in Quebec for people receiving some government services.

Canada is considering a wider ban on veils in government offices, schools and hospitals.

Mr Kenney dismissed the idea that the ban could infringe the religious freedom of those taking the oath.

"This is not simply a practical measure," the Conservative minister said on Monday.

"It is a matter of deep principle that goes to the heart of our identity and our values of openness and equality."

He added that Canadian law took priority over religious doctrine.

"In my view Canadian law takes precedence," he said.

"This is a public act of witness in front of your fellow citizens, in front of the law and you should be willing to show yourself in that public act of witness. I think it's very straightforward."

Also, in Canada, the human face is not categorized as a private part.

Mr Kenney also announced further language requirements for new immigrants....

The usual Useful Idiots are very excited about this, but here again, deception is not reform. Samy Metwally says that "what’s called honour killing is not part of Islamic teaching or tradition, and in fact there is no honour in this killing at all." But that is simply not true. It is no accident or coincidence that Muslims commit 91 percent of honor killings worldwide. A manual of Islamic law certified as a reliable guide to Sunni orthodoxy by Al-Azhar University, the most respected authority in Sunni Islam, says that "retaliation is obligatory against anyone who kills a human being purely intentionally and without right." However, "not subject to retaliation" is "a father or mother (or their fathers or mothers) for killing their offspring, or offspring's offspring." ('Umdat al-Salik o1.1-2). In other words, someone who kills his child incurs no legal penalty under Islamic law.

Syria in 2009 scrapped a law limiting the length of sentences for honor killings, but "the new law says a man can still benefit from extenuating circumstances in crimes of passion or honour 'provided he serves a prison term of no less than two years in the case of killing.'" And in 2003 the Jordanian Parliament voted down on Islamic grounds a provision designed to stiffen penalties for honor killings. Al-Jazeera reported that "Islamists and conservatives said the laws violated religious traditions and would destroy families and values."

Nonetheless, the media drumbeat is constant: honor killings have nothing to do with Islam. And Samy Metwally's soothing falsehoods will reinforce that false impression.

"Honour killings have no place in Islam: Ottawa imam," by Mohammed Adam for Postmedia News, December 11 (thanks to Prometheus):

OTTAWA — The imam of the Ottawa Mosque has condemned so-called honour killing, saying the practice speaks to a perverse sense of honour that is alien to Islam, and has no place in society.

Samy Metwally said Friday that it doesn’t make sense to think or believe that any religion will condone killing people to preserve family honour.

“What’s called honour killing is not part of Islamic teaching or tradition, and in fact there is no honour in this killing at all,” Metwally told the Citizen.

“It has nothing to do with religion and it has no backup either from the texts of the Koran or from the behaviour, sayings or deeds of the Prophet Muhammad, who is the model for Muslims.”

Metwally was speaking to the Citizen on the day of “a call to action” during which imams across the country delivered sermons against domestic violence, and to reiterate that Islam has no tolerance for violence against women.

“The purpose of this call to action is to raise awareness of Muslims that we are not allowed to do things like beating our wives or doing physical or emotional harm to them. The religion does not permit us to do these,” he said.

The nationwide sermons were triggered by the sensational trial in Kingston, Ont., in which Montreal businessman Mohammad Shafia, his son and wife are accused of killing his three teenage daughters and his first wife allegedly because their behaviour dishonoured the family. A Kingston imam, concerned that the deaths are being misrepresented as something to do with Islam, asked colleagues around the country to deliver special sermons on domestic violence and make clear Islam has nothing to do with so-called honour killings.

Metwally would not comment directly on the ongoing trial, but said there have been so many misconceptions about “honour-killings” that it is imperative that imams set the record straight....

In his sermon, Metwally urged a packed Ottawa Mosque to look to the examples of the Prophet Muhammad, who never hit or abused his wives in any form.

Muhammad b. Qais said (to the people): Should I not narrate to you (a hadith of the Holy Prophet) on my authority and on the authority of my mother? We thought that he meant the mother who had given him birth. He (Muhammad b. Qais) then reported that it was 'A'isha who had narrated this: Should I not narrate to you about myself and about the Messenger of Allah (may peace be upon him)? We said: Yes. She said: When it was my turn for Allah's Messenger (may peace be upon him) to spend the night with me, he turned his side, put on his mantle and took off his shoes and placed them near his feet, and spread the corner of his shawl on his bed and then lay down till he thought that I had gone to sleep. He took hold of his mantle slowly and put on the shoes slowly, and opened the door and went out and then closed it lightly. I covered my head, put on my veil and tightened my waist wrapper, and then went out following his steps till he reached Baqi'. He stood there and he stood for a long time. He then lifted his hands three times, and then returned and I also returned. He hastened his steps and I also hastened my steps. He ran and I too ran. He came (to the house) and I also came (to the house). I, however, preceded him and I entered (the house), and as I lay down in the bed, he (the Holy Prophet) entered the (house), and said: Why is it, O 'A'isha, that you are out of breath? I said: There is nothing. He said: Tell me or the Subtle and the Aware would inform me. I said: Messenger of Allah, may my father and mother be ransom for you, and then I told him (the whole story). He said: Was it the darkness (of your shadow) that I saw in front of me? I said: Yes. He struck me on the chest which caused me pain, and then said: Did you think that Allah and His Apostle would deal unjustly with you? She said: Whatsoever the people conceal, Allah will know it. He said: Gabriel came to me when you saw me. He called me and he concealed it from you. I responded to his call, but I too concealed it from you (for he did not come to you), as you were not fully dressed. I thought that you had gone to sleep, and I did not like to awaken you, fearing that you may be frightened. He (Gabriel) said: Your Lord has commanded you to go to the inhabitants of Baqi' (to those lying in the graves) and beg pardon for them. I said: Messenger of Allah, how should I pray for them (How should I beg forgiveness for them)? He said: Say, Peace be upon the inhabitants of this city (graveyard) from among the Believers and the Muslims, and may Allah have mercy on those who have gone ahead of us, and those who come later on, and we shall, God willing, join you. (Muslim Book 004, Number 2127)

Quoting statistics that he says show that one in three women are subjected to some form of physical, mental or emotional abuse, he said domestic violence has no religious boundaries. But he said Muslims have a special duty to refrain from abusing their wives because Muhammad, whose examples are supposed to guide them, not only refrained from the behaviour, but forbade it.

Using several examples from the life of the Prophet and his companions in how they related to their wives, Metwally said Muslims have a responsibility to treat their wives with dignity, kindness and “equity.” He reminded them of one the most famous sayings on the subject from the Prophet: “The best of you are those who are best to their wives.”

The imam told the Citizen that one of the major problems in dealing with many issues, including domestic abuse, is that people often pull Koranic verses out of context and act on them. He said those who understand the religion know that texts should be read in conjunction with others, and with the teachings and practices of the Prophet Muhammad to get a proper understanding of the scripture.

Metwally reiterated that one cannot be a good Muslim and still mistreat his wife. He said people often try to find faults in their wives or partners, without looking in the mirror first.

“Look for your own faults before you see faults in others,” he said.

“The pious Muslim is the one who will never oppress his wife.”

Will the Islamophobia never end? "Canadian indicted in U.S. for allegedly aiding suicide bomb plot that killed five soldiers," from Postmedia News, December 9 (thanks to all who sent this in):

An Edmonton man has been charged with aiding in the murder of five American soldiers in a suicide-bomb attack in Iraq in April 2009.

Sayfildin Tahir-Sharif, a Canadian citizen, is accused of providing support to a terrorist organization and conspiring to kill the soldiers.

American authorities are seeking to have him extradited to face the charges in the U.S.

The indictment also charges him with conspiring to kill Americans abroad and providing material support to that terrorist conspiracy to kill Americans abroad.

On April 10, 2009, the five American soldiers were killed when a Tunisian drove a truck full of explosives to the gate of the Forward Operating Base Marez in Mosul, Iraq.

The attacker then exchanged fire with Iraqi police officers and an American convoy that was leaving the base, according to the complaint. The truck exploded about 15 metres from the gate, next to the last vehicle in a convoy.

The complaint alleges that one day after the attack, ‘Isa asked an Iraq-based member of the terror network, “Did you hear about the huge incident yesterday? Is it known?”

When the network member replied that he had heard about the attack, ‘Isa allegedly replied: “He was one of the Tunisian brothers.”...

On March 22, 2009, ‘Isa warned a would-be Tunisian suicide bomber not to leave evidence behind, according to the court documents.

“Try to delete everything. I mean everything off your computer. Don’t leave one character of information or anything behind. Don’t leave any of your belongings in the house. Don’t leave any trace.”...

Tahir-Sharif is charged with the murders of Staff Sgt. Gary L. Woods, 24, of Lebanon Junction, Kentucky.; Sgt. First Class Bryan E. Hall, 32, of Elk Grove, California.; Sgt. Edward W. Forrest Jr., 25, of St. Louis, Missouri; Cpl. Jason G. Pautsch, 20, of Davenport, Iowa; and Army Pte. First Class Bryce E. Gaultier, 22, from Cyprus, California.

I have taken feminists to task more than once not only for their failure to stand up for Muslim women, but for their active excuse-making for the oppression of those women. See, for example, my article in FrontPage, "Feminists Betray Muslim Women," on how the feminist writer Laura Briggs justifies the oppression of Muslim women.

See also "Two Women Stoned: Feminists Mum," by David Horowitz, Janet Levy and me; "A Response to Feminists on the Violent Oppression of Women in Islam," by David Horowitz and me; and my article "The Conservative Vanguard of the Feminist Movement" in National Review.

Other articles I've written in FrontPage on issues revolving around women's rights in Islam include "Covering Up the Plight of Muslim Women"; "There Must Be Violence Against Women"; "Muhammad Mended His Own Clothes!"; Open Season on Muslim Women"; "Women Are Treated Better in Islam?."

Also there are my articles in Human Events, "Unveiled Women and 'Uncovered Meat'"; "Media Ignore Abuses of Women in Islam."

I also coauthored the monograph "The Violent Oppression of Women in Islam" (available as a pdf here).

And they're still at it: "Feminists back women as possessions in Supreme Court case," by Barbara Kay in the National Post, December 9 (thanks to Jamal):

The Supreme Court must decide whether women may keep their faces covered in court. Or rather whether Muslim women can, but other women can’t.

A young Muslim woman in her thirties, known as N.S., claims that the psychological distress of testifying with her face uncovered against two male defendants, relatives she has accused of sexually assaulting her as a child, trumps the long-honoured right of the defendants’ lawyers to see her expression under cross-examination.

The case went to the Ontario Court of Appeal in June of 2010. There, irony was heaped on irony in the presentations of two intervening groups whose perspectives sum up the conflict – the ideology of multiculturalism versus the sacred tenets of democracy – that sits at the heart of this case.

The Women’s Legal Education and Action Fund (LEAF) – a bastion of feminist activists – argued that the alleged victim should be allowed to wear the veil if her religion demands it, stating that forcing a Muslim woman to uncover her face while testifying “could very well be seen and experienced as an act of racial, religious and gendered domination.”...

The “religious” argument does not hold. Islam does not “demand” face coverage, even if some Muslims do. Over the years we have heard from hundreds of imams and scholars on this subject. In 2009 Sheikh Muhammed Sayyid Tantawi, the grand Sheikh of al-Azhar University, Sunni Islam’s highest institution of religious learning, scolded a Cairo high school girl for wearing a face-veil: “The niqab is a tradition,” he said. “It has no connection to religion.”

But even if Islam did demand it – in which case women in Islamic countries like Pakistan would be covered, but aren’t – that is still no reason to offer N.S. special treatment. When a religious tradition or rite conflicts with our democratic values, democratic values must hold sway, as we just saw in the polygamy decision, another so-called religious demand.

In Europe more and more Muslim women have taken up the veil as a political statement of Islamist triumphalism. Which is why the niqab and burka have been proscribed in France and Belgium as a socially menacing statement that is incompatible with democracy, and in particular with gender equality. Multiculturalists and libertarians denounced the ban, but again it was a democratic Muslim, not a feminist, who came to the rescue of logic and democratic values. Dr Taj Hargey, imam of the Oxford Islamic Congregation, wrote in England’s Daily Mail: “The decision by the French government to outlaw all forms of public face-masking, including the burka and niqab, is welcomed by all thinking Muslims around the world.”

N.S. herself had a photo taken for her driver’s licence, which shows us that the issue is not one of religion, but of situational convenience. N.S. did not mind her face being uncovered so that she could drive a car. So clearly it is not the religion that is the problem, it is the claimant’s unwillingness to face her abusers without the psychological protection of the veil.

If N.S. is permitted to cover her face under the guise of religion, why shouldn’t all victims of sexual assault have that privilege under the guise of their freedom to “dress” as they choose? Fear is fear for all women. Why stop at women, though? Why not all fearful witnesses?

Legal minds should not allow multicultural correctness to blind them to potent symbols of inequality. No rhetorical legerdemain in the world can turn the dhimmitude of women represented by that dehumanizing mask into a charming mantilla of sexual modesty....

Now lampooning Qur'an-burning is "Islamophobic": this is getting confusing

The endless search for hate crimes that will enable Islamic supremacists to portray themselves as victims takes an absurd turn in Ontario: someone taped a cartoon criticizing Qur'an-burning to the door of a mosque, and the poor Muslims inside are traumatized. Imagine the fear that would engulf the Muslim community if someone left a new, pristine copy of the Qur'an and a "Welcome to Our Community" card on the mosque doorstep.

"Editorial cartoon posted on mosque door prompts hate crime investigation," by Nicole O’Reilly for the Hamilton Spectator, December 7 (thanks to The Religion of Peace):

Hamilton Downtown Mosque leaders are saying they are the victims of a hate crime after two copies of a cartoon depicting a caveman dropping a Quran into an open fire were taped to the women’s prayer entrance.

The cartoons, which include the words “primitive man discovers fire,” were found duct-taped to the doors of 96 Wilson St., on Sunday.

The image, an editorial cartoon, was originally published in the Toronto Star in September 2010 as a critique of Florida Pastor Terry Jones’ “International Burn a Quran Day.”

“It was an attack on Pastor Terry Jones, calling him a primitive man,” Toronto Star spokesperson Bob Hepburn said Tuesday, adding that it was in no way an attack on Islam.

At the time of publication, the Star did not receive any formal complaints, Hepburn said.

It’s not the original intent, but rather the intention of the culprit that has Imam Sayed Tora concerned. “If a person wants to show support for the Muslim community, there are many other ways to do it,” he said.

Hamilton police spokesperson Catherine Martin said the hate crime unit is investigating whether the incident constitutes a hate crime...and are asking anyone with information to come forward.

The cartoons were discovered by the mosque’s board president, Wahed Al-Jabry, around 4 p.m. as the community prepared for a fast-breaking meal to celebrate the ninth day of Muharram – the first month in the Islamic calendar. Another member found plants around the mosque had been uprooted.

Tora said the board gathered to discuss the incident, before deciding to report it to police Monday. The images and surveillance footage was handed over.

The recording shows a dark, four-door car pull up in the mosque’s west parking lot around 3:45 p.m.. The driver remains in the car, while the passenger – a bald, white man – jumps out and carries what looks to be the two pieces of paper already taped together towards the mosque.

The community is feeling stressed and fearful, Tora said, adding that his own nine-year-old daughter asked him whether the mosque will be attacked.

The mosque cancelled children’s classes and the homework club Monday and Tuesday. After being promised increased police patrol, he said classes may resume soon.

It’s “reasonable to assume” that the perpetrator was not posting the cartoon to support the Muslim community, but rather to support the ideas of Pastor Terry Jones, said Hussein Hamdani, spokesperson for the Muslim Council of Greater Hamilton, of which the Downtown Mosque is a member.

He said the events are particularly disturbing since the mosque just held a well-attended open house.

Most hate crimes against Muslims go unreported, Hamdani said. That’s why it was important for the community to speak out.

The idea that most hate crimes against Muslims go unreported is extremely unlikely. A hypersensitive, haughty group that relentlessly portrays itself as an innocent victim, and hate crimes against it are going to go unreported? I doubt it. This is just an attempt to cover for the inconvenient truth that hate crimes against Muslims are actually infrequent:

Anti-Jewish attacks 70% of hate crimes, anti-Muslim attacks 9% of hate crimes -- Senate to hold hearings on "anti-Muslim bigotry"

Just-released New York 2009 report: Hate crimes against Jews: 251. Hate crimes against Muslims: 11.

Backlash! Anti-Muslim hate crimes only eight percent of hate crimes, far less than those against Jews

And so in order to deflect attention away from jihad activity and try to portray Muslims as victims, so as to shame non-Muslims into not investigating or even being suspicious of further jihad activity, Islamic supremacist groups have resorted to making it up. Hamas-linked CAIR and other Muslims have not hesitated to fabricate "hate crimes." CAIR and other groups like it want and need hate crimes against Muslims, because they can use them for political points and as weapons to intimidate people into remaining silent about the jihad threat.

The never-ending cycle of incrementally more restrictive sanctions against Iran will not end in Iranian cooperation, transparency, or the halting of its nuclear program. It will end in an Iranian nuclear test, followed by a war of endless finger-pointing in the West over how it could ever have happened and why firmer action was not taken sooner. 20/20 hindsight will not make Iran un-nuclear.

Iran will not change its ways without a sense of necessity. Truly, the sanctions do less for Iran, and more for other world powers and the Security Council, who can reassure themselves they have taken action, while kicking the can down the road on any more uncomfortable engagement with Iran. If there is a strike on Iran, or when there is an Iranian nuclear test, it will be due to the failure of diplomacy to break this cycle of complacency that has gone on for years.

"US, UK, Canada to Announce Coordinated Sanctions on Iran," by Kirit Radia for ABC News, November 20:

The United States and its British and Canadian allies are preparing to roll out a coordinated set of sanctions against Iran on Monday amid growing concern that Tehran is pursuing a nuclear weapon, sources tell ABC News.

U.S. officials familiar with the plans say they target Iran’s nuclear sector as well as plugging key gaps that have allowed Iran to work around existing sanctions on its energy and financial sectors. The United Kingdom and Canada are both expected to announce unilateral measures to limit Iran’s access to their economies, with the UK essentially cutting off Iran’s access to its financial sector.

European Union ministers are expected to meet on December 1 to consider their own sanctions.

Two U.S. officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity given the diplomatic sensitivities involved, say the State Department will sanction Iran’s petrochemical industry, which is normally used to produce products like plastic and styrofoam but is increasingly used to refine petroleum, as international sanctions have constrained the capacity of Iran’s energy sector. The new measure aims to discourage foreign companies from investing in that industry because it could inadvertently aid Iran’s energy sector and undermine previous sanctions.

The State Department is also expected to target both foreign and Iranian entities, many controlled by the Revolutionary Guard Corps, that have begun to help out with critical tasks in Iran’s oil and gas sector, picking up the slack as foreign companies pull out for fear of running afoul of sanctions.

A State Department spokesman declined to comment for this story.

The Treasury Department, meanwhile, is expected to issue a finding that the Iranian financial system is a “jurisdiction of primary money laundering concern.”

The finding, made under section 311 of the USA Patriot Act, enables the Secretary of the Treasury to require American banks to conduct additional reporting to ensure their corresponding foreign accounts are not indirectly dealing with Iran. That extra vigilance, officials say, will have a cascade effect where foreign financial institutions are more reluctant to do business with Iran.

The State Department and Treasury Department are also expected to designate additional Iranian entities for their role in Iran’s nuclear program.

A Treasury Department spokeswoman also declined to comment for this story.

The United States and its allies have long feared that Iran has been pursuing a nuclear weapon under the guise of a civilian nuclear energy program. Those fears were reinforced by a new report by the Director General of the International Atomic Energy Association earlier this month, which for the first time sounded the alarm about “possible military dimensions to Iran’s nuclear program.”

The report detailed “credible” evidence that Iran has been covertly developing a nuclear weapon design and testing components. It said Iran has built computer models to study the explosion of a nuclear bomb and is working to develop detonation devices. The report said Tehran has also built a containment vessel in which it can conduct explosive experiments and is studying how to mount a nuclear warhead on its Shahab-3 long-range missiles.

Iranian officials have dismissed the report. On Tuesday, one senior Iranian official called it “laughable.”

The IAEA report reignited calls on Capitol Hill and from prominent Republicans like presidential candidate and Texas Gov. Rick Perry for the Obama administration to sanction the Iranian Central Bank, a move they say would cripple Iran’s economy and its ability to pursue a nuclear weapon. Last Thursday, House leaders including Speaker John Boehner and Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi sent a letter to President Obama urging him to sanction the Central Bank.

Despite the renewed pressure, sanctions on the Iranian Central Bank and bans on Iran’s oil and gas sector will not be included in this latest round, according to one U.S. official, citing fears that such measures could lead to a spike in oil prices that would harm America’s own economic recovery.

The United States and its allies have resorted to unilateral sanctions as other multilateral routes to pressure Tehran have been blocked. U.S. and European officials say they would like to pursue additional sanctions against Iran in the United Nations Security Council, something they have successfully done four times in recent years, however they have been met with resistance by veto-wielding Russia and China.

European countries are reportedly pursuing their own additional sanctions, though officials say none are expected to be part of Monday’s coordinated announcement....

Sharia is a package deal. Even Imam Rauf knows that. "Just a little" Sharia is a temporary condition on the way to having more, and the "jurisdictional creeping" seen in Britain's Sharia courts is a prominent demonstration that this remains the case even in the West.

To their credit, Muslim women fought in 2005 to stop Sharia in its tracks Quebec, not wanting to find themselves in the state Baroness Cox described in the UK: "Many women say: 'We came to this country to escape these practices only to find the situation is worse here." But others have clearly not abandoned their aspirations to give it a go in Canada.

Other unsettling findings in the study follow below. "Strong support for Shariah in Canada," by Kris Sims for CNews, November 1:

A newly released survey suggests a large number of Muslims living in Canada will not disown Al-Qaida.

The study, conducted by the MacDonald Laurier Institute, found 65% of Muslims questioned said they would “repudiate absolutely” the terrorist organization, while 35% would not do so.

“From a security perspective, it is difficult to know if a 65% rate of repudiation (of Al-Qaida) is re-assuring or a 35% failure to repudiate troubling,” wrote study authors Christian Leuprecht, associate professor of the Royal Military College of Canada and Conrad Winn, Carleton University professor and president of COMPAS, a public opinion research firm.

“The most radical political views tended to be expressed by relatively secular people, often equipped with higher education in the social sciences, while devout Muslims were sometimes the most articulate advocates for Canada and democracy.” According to the Ottawa based think tank, only a small minority of Muslim newcomers to Canada reject Hamas, Hezbollah, or the Iranian regime.

The survey, which was released Tuesday, found 62% wanted some form of Shariah law in Canada, 15% of them saying it should be mandatory for all Muslims.

The report also states support for extremism is just as high among Muslims born in Canada, or other Western countries, as it is among those hailing from oppressive dictatorships.

The survey involved phone interviews with 455 Muslims in Ottawa, between May and July 2008, with a margin of error of five percentage points. The study was funded by the University of Maryland for the National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism. The institute could not find funding for the study in Canada.

The size and makeup of the pool of respondents will be an immediate bone of contention. But the fact that such a pool of respondents could be found, let alone in Canada's capital city, is a cause for concern by itself.

Hypocrisy. "Palestinian envoy to Canada recalled," by Rob Gillies for the Associated Press, October 24:

TORONTO (AP) — The Palestinian Authority recalled their envoy to Canada this month for posting a link on twitter that included an anti-Semitic video.

Linda Sobeh Ali posted a tweet this month with a link to a YouTube video featuring an emotionally distressed Palestinian girl shouting a poem in Arabic titled "I am Palestinian."

The English subtitles on the video include a passage where millions are called upon "destroy the Jews."

Joseph Lavoie, a spokesman for Canada's foreign affairs minister, said Monday it was a serious enough matter for the Palestinian Authority that they recalled Sobeh Ali.

"This video is completely unacceptable and offensive as it calls for the death of Jews," Lavoie said.

Riad Malki, the Palestinian Authority's foreign minister, speaking in Ramallah, said the envoy posted the link thinking it was a "normal national poem."

"We asked her to leave Canada because we didn't want to create any problems," he said.

According to Malki, the "Jewish lobby and Jewish institutions" in Canada complained to the Canadian government. The envoy "went back to the poem and there was something wrong with the translation." The phrase translated in the English subtitles as "destroy the Jews" was actually "to kill the soul of Zionism."...

Oh, all is well, then!

"Mouna Diab was once active in a Quebec youth group that fought discrimination against Muslims by challenging the stereotypes that too often associate them with violence and terror." But it appears now that she, too, was a Misunderstander of Islam. "Quebec woman charged with trying to export assault rifle parts to Lebanon," by Stewart Bell and Graeme Hamilton for the National Post, October 21 (thanks to Pamela Geller):

MONTREAL — Young and striking in her black hijab, Mouna Diab was once active in a Quebec youth group that fought discrimination against Muslims by challenging the stereotypes that too often associate them with violence and terror.

But the outspoken 26-year-old activist had little to say this week after appearing in a Montreal courtroom to face a charge alleging she had violated a United Nations Security Council arms embargo that prohibits the export of weapons to Lebanon.

“I really have no comment to make,” she said. At the bungalow where she lives in suburban Laval, friends and family likewise declined to talk about the case. “She’s finding the whole ordeal very difficult,” her lawyer, Richard Prihoda, said.

Police said Ms. Diab was arrested at Montreal’s Trudeau airport on May 19 as she was departing for Beirut. In her luggage, investigators allegedly found parts of AR-15 assault rifles. Other parts were allegedly shipped separately.

Police said the components could have been assembled into working firearms. “If you put all the pieces together you could build or make two weapons with it,” said Cpl. Luc Thibault, a spokesman at the RCMP’s “C” Division in Montreal....

"Good women are obedient....As for those from whom you fear disobedience, admonish them and send them to beds apart and beat them." -- Qur'an 4:34

How long will Islamic supremacists continue to claim they were "misunderstood" whenever they say something inflammatory? And how long will the credulous kuffar fall for this line? Islamic supremacists are the most misunderstood people on the planet. They have the hardest time making themselves clear, and for some crazy reason people seem to think they're frequently calling for violence when all they're talking about is peace and love.

"Islamic group defends itself by saying message is misunderstood," from CTV Montreal, October 21 (thanks to all who sent this in):

MONTREAL — An Islamic group whose presence in Montreal sparked controversy insisted Friday night that its message has been misunderstood.

The Islamic Education and Research Academy (iERA) is a UK-based group that describes itself on its website as an "international dawah organization committed to educating and informing humanity about the truth and noble message of Islam."

However, a speech by the group's chairman Abdurraheem Green, where he suggested it is alright for a husband to use physical force on his wife, drew a lot of negative attention to the group.

Yes, that was clearly misunderstood. The Qur'an says that one should "beat" a disobedient woman (4:34), not use physical force.

It led Concordia University's Muslim Students' Association to cancel a planned speech that was to be held Friday night, but a Montreal group affiliated with the Muslim Association of Canada found another venue for another iERA lecturer to speak.

And Hamza Andreas Tzortzis drew quite a crowd, with roughly 500 people packing the hall on Laurentien Blvd.

Tzortzis defended his chairman, saying Green's statements were taken out of context.

"We say not only are they misquotes," he said, "they are full of innuendos, almost like gossip."

The words peace and love were repeated many times during the conference. One of the speakers started by pointing to all the scrutiny surrounding the group in the past few days, saying while it's disappointing it has also motivated them to get their message out and get that message straight[.]

David Alexanderson came from Toronto to hear the conference and said he feels all the attention may not be a bad thing.

"It makes me feel very happy to see that you guys are coming out and creating dialogue," he said. "So hopefully you can take this and go back to your community and people can feel whatever they feel from those comments."

Pass the bong, Alexanderson.

"They betrayed Islam," he said, because they had boyfriends and didn't want to wear hijabs. This report also details the many occasions on which the child protection system failed to protect the victims through procedural bungling, including interviewing the children in their parents' presence after hearing of the parents' threat to kill them, and a general climate of denial about the seriousness of the situation.

"‘I would do it again’; court hears horror of alleged honour killing," by Christine Blatchford for the National Post, October 21 (thanks to Michael):

KINGSTON, Ont. — It’s the Canadian Maple Leaf that flies high over the picturesque locks at Kingston Mills near this historic city, but on the night of June 30, 2009, it might just as well have been the black-red-and-green flag of Afghanistan, with its sacred line proclaiming the greatness of Allah.

What happened at the locks that night, Crown prosecutors alleged in Ontario Superior Court Thursday, was a so-called “honour killing,” the culmination of a violent misogynist Afghan culture that had been transplanted holus-bolus years earlier into the heart of central Canada.

“May the devil s— on their graves,” Mohammad Shafia told his second wife, Tooba Mohammad Yahya, 20 days after the bodies of the couple’s three teenage daughters and Mr. Shafia’s first wife were recovered from a car in the water at the locks.

Found dead by drowning in a black Nissan Mr. Shafia had bought just eight days earlier – the suggestion implicit that he got it for that very purpose — were Rona Amir Mohammad, the barren wife who had been presented to the children and outsiders both as an “auntie,” and rebellious daughters Zainab, 19, Sahar, 17, and 13-year-old Geeti.

Charged with four counts each of first-degree murder are Mr. Shafia, Ms. Yahya and their oldest son Hamed, who was 18 at the time. All are pleading not guilty.

The ghastly conversation was captured on a Kingston Police wiretap, prosecutor Laurie Lacelle told Judge Robert Maranger and a jury.

In another snippet recorded by the device police had placed in a family car, Mr. Shafia told Ms. Yahya, “They committed treason themselves. They betrayed humankind. They betrayed Islam. They betrayed our religion…they betrayed everything.”

He said whenever he saw the pictures taken by Zainab and Sahar on their cell phones – these were goofy shots of them posing in bras and panties, or with their forbidden boyfriends — “I am consoled.

“I say to myself, ‘You did well.’ Were they to come to life, I would do it again.”

In a detailed opening address of 90 minutes, Ms. Lacelle told the jurors they would hear from a variety of witnesses, including those to whom Rona Mohammad and the children had confided their fear of Mr. Shafia and Hamed.

In fact, what was most galling about the prosecutor’s overview of the evidence to come was how very openly the teenagers had rebelled against their parents — once, from a street corner in Montreal where the family lived, they begged a stranger to call 911 for them because they were so afraid to go home — and how little Canadian authorities and Canadian law helped them.

In fact, Quebec child protection authorities twice investigated complaints from Sahar’s school, once little more than three weeks before the four bodies were found.

In the first instance, Ms. Lacelle said, the social worker deemed the complaint to be “founded” – true, in other words – but closed the file anyway when Sahar wouldn’t talk to her once she learned that the worker would be obligated to tell her parents what she’d told her.

The next time she interviewed the girl two days later, “Sahar was wearing the hijab” and claimed things had improved at home.

In the second instance, though police in Montreal interviewed the children separately and had them open up about their maltreatment – including the fact that Mr. Shafia allegedly “often threatened to kill them” – the child protection worker interviewed the girls in the presence of their parents.

Unsurprisingly, they clammed up or recanted their earlier allegations, and the worker closed the file.

Though the family – Mr. Shafia, two wives and a total of seven children – left Afghanistan in 1992, they didn’t emigrate to Canada until June of 2007, with Rona Mohammad following six months later on a visitor’s visa.

She left a diary, found by police, which detailed the alleged beatings she suffered at her husband’s hands and the cruelty dished out to her by her fertile replacement, Ms. Yahya, who allegedly told her, “Your life is in my hands” and, “You are not his wife; you are my servant.” [...]

Though Mr. Shafia and Hamed may have appeared the picture of successful and Westernized men – the father was wealthy, owned a shopping mall in Laval and had contracted to build an upscale home, and the family had lived in Pakistan, Australia and Dubai – behind closed doors, they might as well have been back in Afghanistan.

The oldest son Hamed was the head of the household when Mr. Shafia was away. He had a driver’s licence and his own cell phone, used his father’s silver Lexus, and helped him in business.

The daughters, meanwhile, had phones registered to either father or son, and Zainab was kept out of school for a full year after the family discovered she had a boyfriend.

It was her running away, in the spring of 2009, to a women’s shelter which sparked the family’s downward spiral, Ms. Lacelle told the jurors.

But Sahar, too, was rebelling. She had a boyfriend. She loved makeup and clothes, like her big sister. She wanted to be a gynecologist, and was moved by the plight of her native sisters in Afghanistan.

Once, miserable at facing the prospect of having to wear a hijab, she tried to kill herself. According to Rona Mohammad’s diary, Ms. Yahya snapped, “She can go to hell; let her kill herself.”

But it was the little girl, Geeti, who fought her parents most ferociously and who begged most blatantly for help.

“She told her school,” Ms. Lacelle said. “She told the police. She told youth protection.” ....

This is the kind of leader that the President of the United States should be. "Palestinian UN statehood gambit ‘counter-productive,’ Harper says," by Campbell Clark for the Globe and Mail, September 20 (thanks to Wimpy):

Stephen Harper is telling Palestinians to go back to the negotiating table with Israel if they want a sovereign state, rather than seeking recognition at the United Nations.

The Palestinian Authority’s campaign for a United Nations vote that would recognize their statehood – even if it has no effect on the ground in the West Bank and Gaza – is dominating discussions as world leaders descend on New York for the opening of the UN General Assembly.

Mr. Harper has made it clear that Canada will oppose the Palestinian bid, but he warned forcefully Tuesday that it could damage Mideast peace prospects, and appeared to put the onus on the Palestinian Authority to restart peace talks .

“I think there’s no likelihood of this initiative by the Palestinian Authority doing anything to further the peace process. I think it’s possible that it could be counter-productive,” Mr. Harper told reporters at UN headquarters in New York after a high-level conference on Libya.

“But I would say if the Palestinian Authority is serious about establishing a sovereign state, the method to do that is not a declaration here at the United Nations. It’s to get back to the negotiating table and negotiate peace with Israel.”...

"I think that what we're doing is what we should be doing as a school board and that is accommodating students' needs no matter what their religion is." Still, I doubt that the same policy would have been implemented for Christian or Jewish or Hindu students. Can the Toronto District School Board point to any school in which any comparable accommodation has been made for any non-Muslim students?

"Tempers flare over prayer in schools," from the CBC, September 18 (thanks to Ima):

Two sides squared off outside Toronto District School Board headquarters Saturday over religious prayer in classrooms.

A rally held to recognize the Toronto District School Board for allowing rights and freedoms turned into a shouting match Saturday between religious groups.

About 200 people squared off outside the Toronto District School Board's head office, concerned about Muslim prayer in the city's public schools.

Groups including the Jewish Defence League of Canada, the Canadian Hindu Advocacy and the Christian Heritage Group, are upset that a middle school in the city's north end has provided Muslim students cafeteria space for a weekly prayer service, saying the board showed favouritism to Islam.

Chris Andrewsen who organized what was supposed to be a day of appreciation for the TDSB, said they should be allowed to express their beliefs.

"If we are religious people then we should be allowed to express that. It's not an imposition on other people," Andrewsen said.

But some opponents say allowing students to pray on school property goes against the school board's policy that schools should be a place of study free from cultural or religious influence. While others say the right should be left open to all groups.

"We want respect for all religions. We want the Toronto District School Board to be consistent and stop discriminating [against] one religion over others," said Tony Costa, who is part of a multi-faith coalition opposed to Islamic prayer services in public schools.

Despite the opposition, school board officials say they will continue to allow the prayer inside the school....

Valley Park Middle School opened up cafeteria space for the Friday service three years ago after it noticed that Muslim students who left to attend midday services at a nearby mosque often failed to return to classes.

The prayer session is led by a local imam. The cost of the service, available for the more than 300 Muslim students at the school, is paid for by the Muslim community.

"I think that what we're doing is what we should be doing as a school board and that is accommodating students' needs no matter what their religion is," said Gerri Gershon, a Trustee for Don Valley West, where Valley Park Middle School is located.

Deeply ingrained "Islamophobia"? Or the evidence of their senses regarding supremacism, jihad violence, the oppression of women, the threats, the intimidation, the war on freedom of speech, and all the rest of it? "Majority of Canadians see “irreconcilable” rift between Islam and the West," from Macleans, September 12 (thanks to all who sent this in):

Results from a recent poll reveal that a majority of Canadians surveyed feel there is an ideological rift between the Muslim world and the West which is “irreconcilable.” Of the 1,500 consulted in the week before the tenth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, 56 per cent felt the West and the Muslim world could not overcome their perceived differences. Thirty-three per cent felt they could be reconciled, while 11 per cent did not answer the question. The poll was conducted by Leger Marketing on behalf of the Montreal-based Association for Canadian Studies, whose director, Jack Jedwab, told Postmedia News that the survey’s results contradict “a fundamental idea in multicultural democracies like ours that conflicts between societies can be resolved through dialogue and negotiation.” However, Jedwab said the result provided a slight “ray of hope” in that 52 per cent of Canadians say it’s wrong to conduct extra airport security checks on people who “appear to be of Muslim background.”

And so it gets the majority of the attention -- not to the exclusion of other threats, but in proportion to their relative magnitude. But simply to acknowledge that the one is more threatening than the others is "Islamophobic." "Harper: Islamist terrorism greatest threat," from United Press International, September 6 (thanks to all who sent this in):

OTTAWA, Sept. 6 (UPI) -- Prime Minister Stephen Harper sees Islamic terrorism as the greatest threat to Canada's security, the Canadian Broadcasting Corp. reported Tuesday.

In an exclusive interview that is to air in its entirety Thursday, the Conservative prime minister told the CBC he believes Canada is safer now than it was when al-Qaida terrorist cells attacked the United States on Sept. 11, 2001. However, he said, "the major threat is still Islamicism."

"There are other threats out there, but that is the one that I can tell you occupies the security apparatus most regularly in terms of actual terrorist threats," Harper said.

He said while people think of Islamic terrorists as emanating from countries such as Afghanistan or the Middle East, "the truth is that threat exists all over the world" and home-grown Islamic radicals in Canada are "also something that we keep an eye on."

The prime minister said his government intends to resurrect anti-terrorism laws that sunset in 2007, including one allowing police to arrest terror suspects without a warrant and detain them for three days without charges, and another permitting judges to jail foot-dragging witnesses in some instances.

"We think those measures are necessary. We think they've been useful," he told the CBC. "And as you know … they're applied rarely, but there are times where they're needed."

Doubtless the NAMF is widely reputed to be "moderate." After all, the Ontario government wouldn't play ball with a non-moderate group. And so under the guise of moderation, all kinds of evils are perpetrated. We have seen this before, and recently. Dhimmitude in Ontario: "McGuinty Government Gives $150,000.00 Tax Dollars To Muslim Hate Preachers," from Blazing Cat Fur, August 29 (thanks to Kathy Shaidle):

Politicians will do anything for a vote, including giving $150,000.00 of your money to Muslim Hate Preachers. Following is an excerpt from an e-mail forwarded to my attention in which NAMF - The North American Muslim Foundation brags about their score. The jpeg [above] has the entire announcement.

"The North American Muslim Foundation is honored to be a recipient of the 2011/2012 Ontario Trillium Foundation – Community Capital Fund. The North American Muslim Foundation is grateful to be able to lead the community in providing accessible and inclusive programs and services within the province of Ontario. NAMF serves as a principal example in the area of regional education and development. NAMF has been granted $150,000 to renovate our 6478 square-foot Gym area in order to create a recreational centre that will provide fitness and wellness services to all people within the community. The state-of-the art recreational centre will be open to help residents lead healthy active lives. A culturally-sensitive space will be created to increase the overall well being of the people of all ages and abilities, through physical and mental stimulation. As a result of this gym, active living will be emphasized and exposed to several demographics which have no/limited access to appropriate information and knowledge. We are thankful to the Ontario Trillium Foundation for recognizing our efforts and providing us with assistance in helping to make a difference in the lives of many."

A culturally sensitive space huh? Well if by culturally sensitive you mean killing Gays, woman and children etc, then yea sure. Have a look at NAMF's culturally sensitive lecture series.

NAMF - the North American Muslim Foundation is located in Toronto. Recently they hosted an Iftar & Lecture series during Ramadan. NAMF has been an outspoken proponent of the Toronto District School Board's "Islam First" mosqueteria policy.

Among the Honoured Speakers at NAMF's lecture series was Abdullah Hakim Quick a radical Islamist noted for such gems of interfaith dialogue as:

"They said, "what is the Islamic position on "homosexuality"? And I told them: Put my name in the paper. The punishment is death. And I'm not going to change this religion "

and...Jews, gays and kaffirs are “filth” says fanatical cleric.

This is rich: Dr Quick has served as a special advisor to the Toronto Board of Education h/t Munimula

Who else was on the speakers list? Why Dr. Arafat Al-Ashi, former head of the Muslim World League in Canada, and a cleric so twisted he believes Jews are racist even in the afterlife:

"In the scriptures of Jews we notice that the concept of life after death is a vague one. It is, in fact, a materialistic concept, and it is also a racist one. For Jews God is a pro-Jewish Lord. He gives them the right to crush and eliminate all other nations who are called Goyim (non-Jews). These people do not deserve to be human and naturally do not qualify to enter Heaven. It is a concept of bias, hatred and racism."...

Read it all.

While the Center for American Progress and allied groups carry out character assassination against the most prominent voices who dare to point out that Islam is not a Religion of Peace, in Ontario, Islamic supremacists deal with a lesser-known writer by using for traditional methods to convince him of their point of view.

Paris Dipersico's book proven correct: "‘Anti-Muslim’ author beaten," by Ian Robertson in the Ottawa Sun, August 26 (thanks to all who sent this in):

OAKVILLE, Ont. - Halton police are treating an attack on a first-time author whose self-published book has been branded anti-Muslim as a possible hate crime.

Raised Islamic, Paris Dipersico, 24, reported being dragged from his bicycle Aug. 17, tied up among trees, then beaten briefly unconscious by two Muslim men.

Accused of being gay, they then "called me a Jew in Arabic and said the Jews are paying you to write this against Islam," the author of Wake Up Call said Thursday.

Dipersico said he also received a "death threat" on his Facebook site, then someone stole files and backup writing discs after breaking into the home he shares with cousin Gabrielle Dipersico -- who helped design the book and whose photo is on the cover.

Believing the threat came "from the Middle East," he said it demanded he remove offensive language. [...]

Using several characters, including ones named Paris and Gabrielle plus others disguised or altered, Dipersico said Wake Up Call was a self-healing project based on troubling experiences with relatives telling him they are superior to others, while some lied, cheated and committed adultery.

Released in June, it has been accused of being pornographic, celebrating drug use and mocking various religions.

Dipersico wrote "Islam is a religion of 'peace' and Muslims will kill you to prove it," but said "I'm not saying every Muslim is violent or every Muslim is a bad person." Fully realizing "for a Muslim to go against Islam, the punishment is death," he said violent ones are often "ignorant," brainwashed with twisted religion-based messages. [...]

"We are Muslim, but we were raised in Canada," Paris said.

He said they now "don't leave the house after dark," notify police when they go out and installed video surveillance.

Det. Sgt. Anthony Odoardi said investigators "believe he was targeted" and are considering "a publication he has written" could be the motive for the attack.

No kidding, really?

More bad news out of Toronto. "Toronto synagogue vandalized," from YNetNews, August 5:

The Beth Tikvah Synagogue in Toronto, Ontario, was vandalized late Thursday night.

Staff members of Beth Tikvah Synagogue found a swastika and the words "Islam will rule" spray-painted on one of the exterior walls of the temple, Canada's CTV reported on Friday.

The report, quoting a statement published by the Canadian Council for Israel and Jewish Advocacy, said that the Toronto Police were investigating the incident and that security around the synagogue and been enhanced.

Shimon Fogel, CEO of the Canadian Jewish organization said that the primary concern was the safety of the staff and its congregants.

"We will remain vigilant in the wake of this disturbing and offensive event," Fogel said.

World upside down indeed. No doubt to have filed charges in this instance would have been "Islamophobic."

It is widely understood among Muslims that Islamic law forbids photography, and so in this case Toronto Police were essentially enforcing Sharia. "Yonge-Dundas smackdown: Punched in the face, but fat chance charges will be laid," by David Menzies in the Toronto Sun, August 2:

What constitutes a physical assault in Toronto these days?

This would appear to be straightforward. If, for example, one individual punches another, surely that’s assault. Especially if the punch in question was witnessed. And photographed.

But as I learned firsthand on Sunday, a fist in the face doesn’t necessarily constitute assault in our increasingly culturally sensitive Toronto.

The details: I was at Yonge-Dundas Square with my nine-year-old son. We ate pizza. We drank bubble tea. And I used my new Canon camera to take photos of this neon shrine.

Suddenly, a woman wearing a hijab ran toward me. She was part of a group that included two women wearing full face-covering burkas. She was screaming: “We are Muslim! You do not take pictures of us!” (Odd. I can’t find the “no photos” rule in the Qur’an.)

I informed the lady I was in a public square in a democracy. I can actually take pictures of whomever I please.

And then: Ka-pow! Her fist collided with my face. Worse, she almost knocked my new camera from my hands.

My son and I were then surrounded by a mob of about 20 people, many of whom were speaking Arabic. One kept demanding I surrender my camera to him.

It was surreal. Was I in Toronto — or Riyadh?

I spotted a group of bicycle-mounted police officers. I burst through the mob with my son and made a beeline towards them. I told a Toronto Police officer what had happened and I wanted to press assault charges.

Better yet, a man and a woman came forward as eyewitnesses.

The 50-something couple, originally from Syria, told the police they had observed the entire affair and my allegations were true. The couple said they understood Arabic and knew what the mob was saying. [...]

The cop walked back to me. No charges would be laid, he said, because he believed the woman’s story — namely, she was merely trying to knock the camera out of my hands. [...]

The fact we have Islamists living amongst us who despise western values isn’t news. But surely you can’t just sock someone in the mouth.

Well, apparently you can — as long as the intent of the aggressor was merely to inflict property damage.

World’s upside-down. Just thought you should know.

Oh, I know.

For more on this enforcement of Sharia by Toronto police, see Blazing Cat Fur and Closet Conservative.

The girls in the back of the room? They're set apart and excluded because they're menstruating, in accordance with Islamic ritual practices. (And you thought your teen years at school were awkward.) This is happening in a public, taxpayer-funded school outside of Toronto.

Columnists in the Canadian media have been rightly indignant about this story, but have often stopped short of addressing the religious reason for this arrangement. One Muslim commenter on this editorial argues that there are separate restrooms for men and women, and yet no one cries foul. There are many reasons that is a false analogy, but in particular, that red herring does not take into account what the scene pictured above says about women's place and status in an Islamic society:

Once Allah's Apostle went out to the Musalla (to offer the prayer) o 'Id-al-Adha or Al-Fitr prayer. Then he passed by the women and said, "O women! Give alms, as I have seen that the majority of the dwellers of Hell-fire were you (women)." They asked, "Why is it so, O Allah's Apostle ?" He replied, "You curse frequently and are ungrateful to your husbands. I have not seen anyone more deficient in intelligence and religion than you. A cautious sensible man could be led astray by some of you." The women asked, "O Allah's Apostle! What is deficient in our intelligence and religion?" He said, "Is not the evidence of two women equal to the witness of one man?" They replied in the affirmative. He said, "This is the deficiency in her intelligence. Isn't it true that a woman can neither pray nor fast during her menses?" The women replied in the affirmative. He said, "This is the deficiency in her religion." - Sahih Bukhari 1.6.301

And once again, this is all playing out in a public school.

Also in this report is the interesting note that Faouzi Mohamad Ayoub "was recruited by Hizballah’s Canadian branch." Needless to say, Hizballah shouldn't have a "Canadian branch." "Feds unseal indictment against ex-Dearborn resident in alleged terror plot," from the Detroit Free Press, July 6 (thanks to Kenneth):

Federal prosecutors in Detroit have unsealed a two-year-old criminal indictment against a former Dearborn man who, they say, tried to use a phony U.S. passport to sneak into Israel in 2000 to carry out a bombing for Hizballah.

The indictment, handed down in August 2009, said Faouzi Mohamad Ayoub, 44, who also goes by the name Fawzi Ayoub, used a passport in the name of Frank Mariano Boschi to try to get into Israel. The U.S. State Department has designated Hizballah as a Lebanese terrorist group.

The indictment was unsealed Friday, two days after the FBI added the man’s name and photo to its most wanted terrorist list. There are 31 others on the list.

It’s unclear why Ayoub was added to the list so long after the 2000 incident, whether he was arrested in the episode and when and how long he lived in Dearborn.

There was no immediate comment from the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Detroit or the Detroit FBI field office, which is handling the case.

The Israeli government reported that its forces arrested Ayoub in June 2002 during a raid in the West Bank city of Hebron. The Israelis said he was a senior Hizballah fighter who took part in Hizballah attacks on civilians. Ayoub denied the charges.

The government said he was born in Lebanon, immigrated to Canada and was recruited by Hizballah’s Canadian branch.

Canadian news outlets reported after his arrest that he had entered Canada in 1988 and became a citizen in the 1990s. They said he and relatives lived in Toronto.

In 2004, the Israeli government swapped Ayoub and 435 other prisoners in exchange with Hizballah for an Israeli businessman and the bodies of three solders killed in October 2000 while on patrol in northern Israel. Ayoub’s wife and son greeted him at the airport in Beirut, the news reports said.

Ayoub’s current whereabouts are unknown.

The Hindus have a great deal of historical experience with Islamic supremacism, and don't want to see it advancing in Canada. An update on this story. "Hindus protest Muslim prayers at public school 283," by Tom Godfrey for the Toronto Sun, July 4:

TORONTO - Hindus from across Toronto plan to protest outside a North York middle school until a controversial Friday prayer session for 400 Muslim students is stopped.

The Canadian Hindu Advocacy is one of a number of Toronto-area groups who are opposed to the 30- to 40-minute services that occurred in the cafeteria of Valley Park Middle School on Overlea Blvd. from November to March.

An imam from a local mosque is brought to school to head the service, officials said. During the service male students are made to sit in front of the girls.

“This is alarming and unacceptable,” said Advocacy director Ron Banerjee. “We respect the separation of church and state.”

He said his group will be sending letters of protest to the Toronto District School Board in the next few days and calling for an end of the noon-time services. That will be followed by protests in November, when the services resume, if the prayers are to continue next school year.

“There’s not supposed to be any religious classes taking place in public schools,” Banerjee said. “We will be asking the board to stop the practice.”

He said school officials stopped students from reciting the Lord’s Prayers [sic] years ago and his group will picket the Muslim classes if the practice isn’t stopped....

Maybe if Bilal Philips stopped calling for people to be murdered in accord with Islamic law, he would find "Islamophobia" on the wane. "Imam decries Islamophobia while Pride battles homophobia," from the Globe and Mail, July 3:

For some Pride veterans, it might have been a bit of a déja vu moment: As thousands of scantily clad, flamboyantly colourful Pride marchers sashayed down Yonge Street, the ire of several was drawn by speakers at a nearby convention who noted that, according to their scripture, homosexuality is an abomination.

The conference was an annual convention at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre – a weekend-long series of discussions on what it means to be a devout Muslim in the 21st-Century.

But one of speakers at the weekend-long conference has got in trouble with the city’s politicians before for anti-gay stands.

Bilal Philips, a Jamaican-Canadian imam, was one of the weekend’s speakers. He was expelled from Germany earlier this year for saying, documented on YouTube and elsewhere, that Islamic law teaches that gays and lesbians should be killed.

That wasn’t his focus on Sunday. Like his speech in Germany, his talk centred on Islamophobia and how Muslims can combat it, and misconceptions surrounding their faith, in a plugged-in world.

But he suggested his audience take his treatment in Europe as a lesson in “vigilant” PR.

“I got expelled from Germany for life, why? Because I said I believe that according to Islamic law, homosexuals should be executed if they are caught in the act. It’s Islamic law. I’m not allowed to believe that? … Just to believe that, you’re a threat to the society?

Uh, yeah.

“So this is how vigilant they are,” he said. “We should be also vigilant with the media. When things are said, we should be responsive, we should be on Google, on Facebook, whatever. We should be responding to these things.”...

And they are, with fogs of misinformation and disinformation.

The superb Canadian blog Blazing Cat Fur has the details: "Islamic Ritual Prayer Conducted At Toronto District School Board Middle School," June 29:

I received this e-mail from Mark Harding. I phoned Valley Park Middle School, who in a panic directed me to call the TDSB directly @ 416-397-3000. The TDSB "Communications Dept." is so far incommunicado -they are away at a meeting. ....

"Islamic ritual prayers are done in my 13 year old daughter's middle school on every Friday.

Every Friday my daughter's school cafeteria changes into a mosque as dozens of Muslim boys and their imams (Islamic preachers) lead Islamic ritual prayers and no one else can even walk through the cafeteria.

Some imams (Islamic preachers) come from the outside of the school and lead Muslim students in the Islamic prayer and this happens at the school Cafeteria after the lunch on Fridays. All other non-Muslims are in classes in the afternoon when they are using the cafeteria as mosque. There is a mosque nearby but the Muslim kids pray in the school

School administration take part preparing the Cafeteria and making it into mosque every Friday and no one but Muslims can use the Cafeteria during the Islamic prayers on Friday....

There is more. Read it all, and contact the school -- Blazing Cat Fur has the contact info.

The Khalid bin al-Walid mosque near Toronto has a well established history of cursing unbelievers (particularly Jews) and Muslims who show any sign of integrating with Western societies. There has just emerged another report on the content of their website via the blog BlazingCatFur, which was picked up by this Canadian news show:

Brian Lilley's comments are often excellent, and he makes note of the advisory in Canada's citizenship study guide, which actually provoked controversy among far-left Canadian politicians: "Canada's openness and generosity do not extend to barbaric cultural practices that tolerate spousal abuse, 'honour killings,' female genital mutilation, forced marriage, or other gender-based violence."

What is absent, as is often the case, is a discussion of chapter and verse, which would drive home the essential point that cannot be emphasized enough: The "extremists" are not inventing this material. The practices mentioned in this report persist because they are called for in the Qur'an and the hadith collections considered most reliable in the Islamic tradition. Those include:

- Domestic violence, in Qur'an 4:34. And yes, it really does say to beat women.

- Amputation of the hand for theft: Qur'an 5:38.

- Amputation of a hand and foot on opposite sides for waging war against Allah or "spreading mischief" in the land: Qur'an 5:33.

- Forced marriage: Often linked to child/underage marriage (due to the lack of free, full, and informed consent), which Muhammad himself practiced (Sahih Bukhari 7.62.88).

- Stoning: Muhammad ordered it and participated in it (Sahih Bukhari 8.82.816). The fact that it is not in the Qur'an does not matter. Here is why.

- Death for apostasy: Muhammad ordered it himself (Sahih Bukhari 9.84.57).

- Female genital mutilation: Since the Khalid bin al-Walid Mosque serves a Somali community, the Shafi'i tradition of Islamic jurisprudence is highly important. And in that tradition, female "circumcision" is obligatory. This mosque has allegedly praised the practice in the past. Umdat al-Salik, a Shafi'i manual certified as "reliable" by none other than al-Azhar University in Cairo, explains (problems with the translation are also noted at the link).

One last note: Who was Khalid bin al-Walid? Very briefly, a companion of Muhammad whose participation in Islamic conquests (including that of Damascus) earned him the title the "Sword of Islam." That alone speaks volumes.

An update on this story. Despite the concerns, despite the warnings, they took the money. They've been bought.

The college president has fallen for the notion that just because a group is putatively "non-violent," it is harmless -- a position newly rejected across the pond in Great Britain. Both violent and non-violent "extremist" groups peddle the same poison against Western civilization (often a dirty word in academia nowadays anyway), women (but multiculturalism trumps feminism), and non-Muslims (go back to sleep, and dream about the "convivencia!" That's an order!)

Even beyond that, the lack of concern about how this donation will affect bias and balance in the content of the new Islamic studies program is highly alarming. "College under fire for taking cash from groups linked to jihad," by Josh Dehaas for Macleans, June 2:

An Ontario college is being asked to turn down a $2-million donation that will fund a new Chair in Islamic Studies. Those opposed say that the groups donating the cash have obvious links to jihad and terrorism. But the principal of Huron College at the University of Western Ontario, who took the money, says she’s satisfied that the groups aren’t violent and that they won’t have any influence on courses or hiring.

The opponents, headed by London resident Rory Leishman, outlined their worries in a letter this week. They noted that the Muslim Association of Canada (MAC), which donated some of the money, supports Hassan Al-Banna’s vision of Islam. Al-Banna founded the Muslim Brotherhood, an Arab political group that has acted violently against those who don’t follow Islam and which has called for the “obliteration” of Israel. Wael Haddara, president of the MAC, told The Toronto Sun that his group is not violent, even though they “firmly believe that there is a tremendous amount of good in the writings, works and life of Al-Banna and the traditions of the Muslim Brotherhood.”

But it’s not just influence from the MAC that opponents are worried about. Half of the donation will come from the International Institute for Islamic Thought (IIIT), whose past leaders were supporters of the terrorist group Hamas, according to a U.S. Customs report. Temple University University in Philadelphia rejected a $1.5 million gift from the group in 2008 over concerns about its links to terrorism.

Trish Fulton, Acting Principal of Huron College, said that she is satisfied that there are no links to terrorism. “We have a due diligence process that — it includes a site visit, a review of tax returns and any other information available on the organization — and we follow that before we entertain any gift of a certain size or gift from individuals or organizations,” she told The Sun.

“Islamic studies is a legitimate subject for academic inquiry and we are very proud that this is the first chair of Islamic studies in a family of theology in Canada,” added Fulton. The petitioners say they aren’t arguing about the establishment of a chair, but who the school should taking money from.

The cocky murderer and war criminal, Omar Khadr, got off with a shockingly light sentence as it was. And the denial of clemency keeps him from going back to the rest of his family of jihad sympathizers and supporters -- in Toronto -- any sooner. "U.S. military tribunal rebuffs Khadr's bid for clemency," by Steven Edwards for PostMedia News, May 26 (thanks to Ima Freeman):

NEW YORK — The U.S. military tribunal that oversaw Omar Khadr's war crimes case has refused the Canadian's bid for clemency with a statement Thursday that simply confirms the eight-year sentence he received in a plea deal.

The Toronto native had, through his military lawyer, sought to have the sentence reduced, arguing in part that the prosecution had been guilty of "misconduct" in its calling of a key prosecution witness.

The confirmation of the eight-year sentence — in exchange for which Khadr admitted to five war crimes, including the murder of a U.S. serviceman — was issued by retired Vice-Admiral Bruce MacDonald, who serves as the tribunal "convening authority," or overseer.

Khadr killed a Special Forces medic with a grenade.

By not addressing the defence allegations of prosecutorial misconduct — which the prosecution had vigorously denied — MacDonald effectively ruled for neither side.

"While we are disappointed that Omar did not receive clemency, we are confident that the convening authority carefully considered all the defence submissions prior to final action," said army Lt.-Col. Jon Jackson, Khadr's Pentagon-appointed lawyer for the military commission at the U.S. naval base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

The plea deal called for Khadr to serve one more year in Guantanamo, then seven in a Canadian prison.

Jackson said applications had already been made before U.S. and Canadian authorities for Khadr's transfer to Canada "on or before Nov. 1" — the date marking a year following the end of his sentencing hearing.

"Omar continues to be focused on the future, his education and repatriation to Canada," Jackson said.

The defence had claimed prosecutors had "strong-armed" them into dropping a bid to challenge the credibility of Dr. Michael Welner, a forensic psychiatrist appearing for the government. But insiders said the convening authority would have had difficulty ruling one way or the other since the issue appeared to be very much one of "he said, he said."

MacDonald's confirmation of the sentence means that Khadr, 15 when captured in a 2002 firefight in Afghanistan, has met all his obligations set out in the pre-trial agreement, Jackson said.

The wording of MacDonald's statement implicitly refers to the symbolic 40-year sentence military officers serving as the jury handed down after hearing sentencing witnesses. But MacDonald's confirmation of the plea agreement overrules the longer sentence....

Attempts to railroad Israel into a "land-for-peace" scam hit a snag. "On Israel, Harper stands alone at G8 summit," by Doug Saunders for the Globe and Mail, May 26 (thanks to Dumbledoresarmy):

It was meant to be, as Barack Obama described it in London with his British counterpart beside him, another unified mission to storm the beaches of Normandy in the name of peace and democracy.

That's just awful.

And the Western world’s leaders do plan to use the Deauville, France, G8 summit to present a united front on the conflicts and revolutions of the Middle East. But one of the rare sources of friction has turned out to be the renegade Middle East views of Stephen Harper.

Alone among G8 leaders, the Canadian Prime Minister refuses to embrace the U.S. President’s plan to begin peace negotiations between Palestinians and Israelis on the basis of a return to Israel’s de facto borders as they existed before its 1967 war with neighbouring Arab countries – a precondition, accepted by Arabs and by many previous Israeli leaders and Canadian governments, that would be necessary to get Palestinians back to the table.

Returning to the 1967 borders would be a land grab on behalf of Israel's neighbors in consolation for a war they couldn't win, and it would give them a head start in their designs on what would remain of the world's only Jewish state.

Mr. Harper made his opposition to that position clear through a spokesperson shortly after Mr. Obama’s Middle East speech last week in a pre-G8 briefing, making him the lone leader in the G8 not to back the U.S. preconditions.

A unified statement on a negotiated path to a Palestinian state had been a key goal of the Deauville summit, in large part because such a statement might have pre-empted an attempt to pass a United Nations resolution that would declare a Palestinian state against Israel’s will.

There was some sense that Canada is putting an obstacle in the way of this goal. “Mr. Harper clearly is the odd man out on this one, and it won’t do him any favours,” a British official involved with the G8 conference said.

Indeed, the summit opened Wednesday after a day of meetings between Mr. Obama and Britain’s Conservative Prime Minister David Cameron in which the two leaders made a bold show of having brought together their positions on Israel, the Palestinians and the Arab revolutions.

Mr. Cameron has generally been much tougher in his criticisms of Israel and more hawkish in his support of Arab revolutions than his U.S. counterpart, but Mr. Obama said they had “turned a corner” and built a common front. Mr. Cameron, standing beside the U.S. President, called his speech “bold” and “visionary.”

Canada has not been included in such initiatives because of Mr. Harper’s positions.

But others felt that Mr. Harper’s recalcitrance would be less of an obstacle: After all, he has taken positions that side unilaterally with Israel since his first G8 summit in St. Petersburg shortly after he became Prime Minister in 2006, when he shocked delegates by rejecting a resolution calling for restraint in Israel’s attack on Lebanon, instead drafting his own “Canadian resolution” supporting the Israeli cause.

There's some sloppy reporting. It was an attack on Hizballah, following the kidnapping and murder of two Israeli soldiers, Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev. Hizballah, heavily entrenched in a Lebanon unwilling to confront or disarm it, responded by firing rockets indiscriminately, and deep into Israeli territory. From the preceding paragraph, one would think Israel just decided to beat on the recognized government in Beirut.

"In announcing the charges last month, the RCMP and Toronto police deemed the spread of al-Qaeda beliefs into Canada a serious concern." Yeah, but who cares about all that now? Osama's dead! Hersi was freed shortly before Osama was killed, but none of that matters now, right? War is over if you want it!

"Toronto man accused of plotting to join terrorist group, freed on bail," by Megan O'Toole in the National Post, April 29 (thanks to Karl):

A Toronto man accused of plotting to join a Somali terrorist group strode out of a Brampton courthouse Friday, freed on bail in a case his lawyer says the Crown should consider dropping.

Mohamed Hersi, grinning broadly, embraced friends and family members outside court and made a brief statement to the assembled media, with lawyer Anser Farooq at his side.

“I’m just happy to be out and be with my family,” Mr. Hersi said, clad in a black suit and pale dress shirt. “It’s a beautiful day and it’s great to be with my family and the comfort of my relatives.”

Mr. Hersi, 25, stands charged with two terrorism offences, including attempting to participate in a terrorist group and counselling another person to do the same. He was arrested a month ago at Pearson airport, where he had been waiting to board a flight to Cairo.

Police allege the Egyptian capital would have been his first stop en route to Somalia to join al-Shabab, an al-Qaeda-linked group that is on Canada’s list of banned terrorist organizations....

Total bail was set at $200,000, and as a condition of release, Mr. Hersi must be in the company of one of his sureties at all times, except during private consultations with his lawyer. He has also been banned from applying for a passport, possessing firearms and accessing the Internet....

“Once you’ve got bail, you’ve got the whole world in front of you,” he said. “I would certainly hope that the Crown re-evaluates the case that they have [to] see if this is a prosecution worth pursuing.”...

Mr. Hersi’s arrest was the result of a six-month investigation called Project Severe, which began when his employer, a security firm, became concerned about his online activities and contacted police. Mr. Hersi ultimately left his job to prepare for a trip overseas.

In announcing the charges last month, the RCMP and Toronto police deemed the spread of al-Qaeda beliefs into Canada a serious concern.

Al-Shabab, which is fighting to overthrow Somalia’s United Nations-backed government to establish an Islamic state, was banned by Ottawa as a terrorist organization last year amid concerns the group was attempting to radicalize and recruit young Somali Canadians. The group’s online propaganda mixes religious messages with rap music.

Mr. Hersi is scheduled to return to court May 26.

What? A mosque? A house of peace? Didn't the Vast Majority of Peaceful Muslims at the Al Sunnah Al Nabawiah mosque rise up and tell these al-Qaeda recruiters that they were Misunderstanding the Religion of Peace?

"WikiLeaks: Montreal mosque 'is a top Al Qaeda recruiting zone,'" from the Daily Mail, April 27 (thanks to Pamela Geller):

A mosque in Montreal has been ranked in the world’s top nine Al Qaeda recruiting zones and linked to a terror cell planning attacks on Los Angeles airport, new released documents claim.

The WikiLeaks files, written by U.S. military chiefs, list the Al Sunnah Al Nabawiah mosque among nine houses of prayer worldwide considered as a place ‘Al Qaeda members were recruited, facilitated or trained’.

The leaked ‘Matrix of Threat’ documents, designed in the early days of the Guantanamo detention centre to assist intelligence officials, rank the Canadian mosque alongside sites in Yemen, Pakistan and Afghanistan.

The Al Sunnah Al Nabawiah Mosque in Montreal is considered by the U.S. military to be among places where 'known al-Qaeda members were recruited.'

The mosque, which was also linked to the September 11 attacks, is the only Islamic prayer house in North America listed as a threat in the leaked report.

The classified documents claim the mosque’s former Imam and current Guantanamo inmate, Mohamedou Ould Salahi, was the leader of the Canadian-based Al Qaeda cell.

The Mauritanian man arrived in Montreal from Germany in November 1999 but left Canada after police began to question him about ties to Ahmed Ressam, the so-called ‘Millennium Bomber’ who planned to attack Los Angeles airport and other U.S. targets.

Ressam, an Algerian who lived in Montreal, was arrested at the U.S.-Canada border carrying explosives before he could execute the ‘Millennium plot’.

According to the documents, Salahi met with Ressam four days after arriving in Montreal and had prior knowledge of the plot as well as contact with the extremists planning the attack....

You can't make this stuff up: "Philips, who was born in Jamaica and raised in Canada, spoke in Frankfurt earlier this week on the subject 'Islam, the Misunderstood Religion'."

"Islamist preacher ordered to leave Germany," from Deutsche Presse-Agentur, April 21 (thanks to Josephine):

A radical Muslim preacher has been ordered by German authorities to depart the country immediately. The move comes after he attended an Islamist rally in Frankfurt that took place despite the objections of city leaders.

Citing security concerns, the authorities said if he doesn’t depart on his own, he could be arrested and forcibly deported.

Philips, who was born in Jamaica and raised in Canada, spoke in Frankfurt earlier this week on the subject “Islam, the Misunderstood Religion” alongside German Islamist preacher Pierre Vogel – who authorities have no way to deport – after a court allowed the event over the objections of Frankfurt officials.

Arid Uka, the 21-year-old Kosovar who has admitted to killing two US airmen in Frankfurt in March, is thought to have established contact to radical Islamist preachers including Vogel before the shooting.

Police said up to 1,500 people, separated by gender, attended the rally, where Philips appeared as a surprise guest. The 64-year-old has been on a tour of sorts around Europe, recently surfacing in Denmark.

Although Philips has failed to deliver extremist messages during his European appearances, he’s attracted plenty of protesters, including 500 in Frankfurt.

Philips, who runs an online university has attracted the ire of officials for his previously inflammatory messages and alleged links to Muslim extremists.

He is alleged to have preached that homosexuals should received the death penalty, although in Frankfurt he said he doesn’t hate gays at all.

Yeah, uh, nothing personal. Just capital punishment under Sharia.

In previous interviews he has also accused Western governments of oppressing him by falsely associating him with terrorism.

War is deceit, Muhammad said. But the Canada Revenue Agency caught up with this shell game. "Former charity funded terror group: federal audit," by Chloé Fedio for The Star, April 15 (thanks to RV):

Nearly $15 million of Canadian charitable donations were sent overseas to groups the taxman has labelled terrorist organizations, according to a federal audit obtained by the Toronto Star.

The audit states that International Relief Fund for the Afflicted and Needy Canada (IRFAN-Canada) used "deceptive fundraising" to support Hamas.

The Canada Revenue Agency announced its decision to revoke the status of the Mississauga-based charity last week. A lawyer for IRFAN-Canada said the charity has appealed the decision.

"Canada Revenue Agency's position is really built on a pillar of sand," said Naseer Syed.

However, a CRA report states that "IRFAN-Canada is an integral part of an international fundraising effort to support Hamas." Hamas is considered a terrorist organization by Canada, the U.S., the European Union and Israel.

Jihadists Without Borders:

IRFAN-Canada created promotional videos that the CRA said "demonize Israel, characterize the Arab-Israeli conflict as a religious war, appeal for all Arab and Muslim nations to join in the struggle against Israel and glorify martyrdom."

But Syed said the CRA overstated the political content.

"As the promotional videos feature the potential recipients of humanitarian aid - the needy families affected by poverty, disease and war - discussing the poverty in Gaza in the immediate postwar period, it is difficult to imagine that the videos would not contain some political content."

The decision to revoke the group's status comes after years of tax audits and litigation over its alleged ties to Hamas. An audit of the charity's 2002 fiscal year found that IRFAN-Canada "maintained partnerships" with organizations that have direct ties to Hamas.

The most recent audit, from Jan. 1, 2005 until Dec. 31, 2009, reveals that IRFAN-Canada gave $14.6 million to 15 organizations that have ties to Hamas.

They include the Gaza Ministry of Health, which the CRA said has been under Hamas control and direction since March 2006. Though Hamas does deliver social and humanitarian services, the CRA said those actions cannot be distinguished from the group's terrorist activities.

It is refreshing to see a Western entity not trying to project an imaginary compartmentalization of operations on a jihad terrorist outfit where there is none. Qur'an 9:60 details the acceptable uses of zakat, or charity, and contrary to Western expectations that charitable groups like the Red Cross are strictly non-combatant, zakat is also earmarked for those "fighting in the cause of Allah."

Syed said the charity helps people in need through local organizations and never knowingly dealt with Hamas.

Wink.

"The charity was trying to send a dialysis machine to Gaza," Syed said. "The issue is, how to you get aid to Palestinians, especially in Gaza? All the parties that we're dealing with are legal in their jurisdictions."

No kidding: Hamas is legal in Gaza.

A United Nations agency credited the charity for donating US$1.2 million for the construction of a new girls' school in the West Bank in 2009.

The CRA said IRFAN-Canada has damaged the integrity of the Canadian charity system. [...]

The audit also found that the charity failed to maintain proper records. The records the charity did provide for the audit period were often an "after-the-fact paper exercise" that showed it distributed $19 million in Canadian funds and $17 million in gifts-in-kind for projects outside Canada during that period.

The audit established that $13 million of the gifts-in-kind were transferred to organization with ties to Hamas.

Stockwell Day raised the charity's alleged link to Hamas in Parliament when he was an opposition MP in 2004. He asked the Liberal government to investigate.

Day referenced a Privy Council report sent to Prime Minister Jean Chretien in 2000 that listed Povrel Jerusalem Fund for Human Services (JFHS) as a Canadian group with links to terrorist organizations.

The audit suggests that JFHS and IRFAN-Canada were consolidated in 2001. under the leadership of Rasem Abdel-Majid. The report states the consolidation was concealed, "leading us to consider the strong possibility that this exercise was intended to circumvent the CRA's refusal to grant JFHS registration as a charity."

Syed said IRFAN-Canada was formed independently and later acquired some assets from JFHS.

Though the IRFAN-Canada is no longer a charity, it still operates as a not-for profit organization.

And they refuse to take it down. Islamic supremacist groups like Hamas-linked CAIR and their useful idiots frequently charge counter-jihadists with racism and neofascism, but again and again we see that the real racists and antisemites line up allied with the jihadists and Islamic supremacists themselves.

Note also the Canadian Shia Muslims Organization's claiming of victim status when confronted about this. These groups are so predictable: they all work from the same playbook.

"Ex-KKK leader featured on Muslim group's website," by Stewart Bell for the National Post, April 10 (thanks to Twostellas):

A Canadian Muslim group is making no apologies for its Internet site, which features a video address by former Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke.

In the 12-minute video on the Canadian Shia Muslims Organization website, Mr. Duke espouses conspiracy theories about what he calls “Zionist running dogs.”

Nowhere does the website say that Mr. Duke is the founder of the Louisiana Knights of the KKK and one-time Grand Wizard of the white supremacist group.

Asked about the video, the Markham, Ont.-based Muslim group responded with an email saying it would not discuss the matter unless the press reported on “the Islamaphobic [sic] hate propaganda going on here in Canada.”

The video was still posted on the site on Sunday....

In what sense were these twenty Somali Muslims ever really "Canadians" at all? What did Canada gain by welcoming them or their parents into the country? "20 Canadians have joined Somalian terror group: official," by Stewart Bell for the National Post, April 10:

TORONTO — About 20 Canadians have travelled to Somalia to join Al-Shabab, a federal official said two weeks after a Toronto man was arrested as he was allegedly leaving to enlist in the al-Qaeda-linked terrorist group.

As many as three of the Canadians may have been killed so far, the official added, although such deaths are hard to verify because of the armed conflict and the lack of a diplomatic corps in Somalia.

The figures suggest the scale of Canada’s problem with Al-Shabab recruitment is comparable to that experienced by the United States and Europe, which also have sizable populations of ethnic Somalis.

The Al-Shabab threat was underscored late last month when police arrested Mohamed Hersi at Toronto’s Pearson airport. The RCMP alleged he was on his way to Somalia “to join Al-Shabab and participate in their terrorist activities.”

The 25-year-old former Toronto security guard, who is scheduled to have a bail hearing on Wednesday, was the first Canadian to be charged with terrorism offences related to Al-Shabab, but the group has been actively recruiting members in Canada for at least two years.

In 2009, six Somali-Canadians left Toronto for Somalia, where federal authorities suspect they joined the group. One was later eulogized on an extremist Internet forum, which said he had died in battle....

“Islamist extremists are radicalizing and recruiting Somali-Canadian youths within Canada to travel to Somali [sic] for jihad training,” reads a de-classified 2010 Canadian intelligence report released under the Access to Information Act.

The RCMP is concerned about the potential for violence in Canada should the Al-Shabab recruits return home with the indoctrination and the weapons training necessary to carry out terrorist attacks. A Canadian Security Intelligence Service report recently obtained by the National Post under the Access to Information Act calls foreign travel an “important part in the radicalization process” of Islamist extremists.

“Those who have jihad experience are often transformed by it and return to their home countries enthused with a zeal to convince others to share their new-found desire to defend Islam,” reads the report, marked Secret. “This combination of enthusiasm, charisma and … tales of jihad can be a potent mix that can be used to draw the vulnerable into violence. The influence that these veterans can have in their communities is significant.”...

No kidding, really?