A huge convention expected to attract 10,000 Misunderstanders of Islam to Toronto should wake Canadians up to the nature and magnitude of the threat they face, but it probably won’t — witness this very article, in which Licia Corbella hauls out the slippery and untrustworthy Tarek Fatah (I didn’t quote that section below) and props him up against Zakir Naik and these 10,000 of Naik’s fellow Islamic supremacists, as if the two opposing sides were equal in heft. “Islamist hatefest should open Canadians’ eyes,” by Licia Corbella for the Calgary Herald, June 26 (thanks to Banafsheh):
More than 10,000 people are expected to attend the Journey of Faith Conference in Toronto on July 2, 3 and 4. That may sound benign, but that fact alone should alarm this entire country.
The conference, sold as one of the largest Islamic conferences in North America, headlines speakers with such vile and repugnant views, that to repeat them almost smacks of satire and farce.
The big draw for the event was, until earlier this week, Dr. Zakir Naik, a popular Indian Muslim televangelist, who has — thanks largely to the alarm raised by Tarek Fatah, founder of the Muslim Canadian Congress — been denied a visa to come to Canada.
Naik, billed as an expert on the Qur’an on the conference website, has said “every Muslim should be a terrorist,” that gays and lesbians should be sentenced to capital punishment, that a man has the right to beat his wife, though he warned his devoted followers to avoid leaving a mark or hitting her on the face, and, surprise, surprise, he says that Jews are the “staunchest enemy” of Muslims. He is, ironically and comically, the founder of Peace TV. You couldn’t make this stuff up. It’s as Orwellian as, well, Orwell’s 1984 in which the Ministry of Truth promoted slogans like: “War is Peace,” “Freedom is Slavery,” “Ignorance is Strength.”
Despite being denied a visa to Canada and being banned from Britain where he was to attend a “Peace” conference there, Naik was still listed as the headline speaker on the event website until Friday morning and he dominates the benign-looking posters covered in Barbie-doll pink splashes of colour that are apparently still hanging in Toronto subway stations.
This is how he was described on the Journey of Faith website until Friday morning: “A medical doctor by professional training, Dr. Zakir Naik is a renowed (sic) international orator on Islam and Comparative Religion. Dr. Zakir Naik clarifies Islamic viewpoints and clears misconceptions about Islam, using the Qur’an, authentic Hadith and other religious Scriptures as a basis, in conjunction with reason, logic and scientific facts.”
According to many Muslims, however, it is Naik and his ilk who reinforces misconceptions of Islamic viewpoints….
Yes. Except they never quite get around to explaining the exact nature of those “misconceptions,” or to combating the influence of Naik and others like him among Muslims.
The conference organizers sought out Naik because he’s considered an expert on the Qur’an and that’s the theme for this year’s event — “The Holy Qur’an.”…
Now, however, that the jig is up and his livelihood — so reliant on the wilful blindness of the tolerant West — is being jeopardized, Naik is saying his comments about terrorism were taken out of context. You be the judge. Here are Naik’s exact words from a 2007 video: “But if you ask my view, if given the truth, if he (Osama bin Laden) is fighting the enemies of Islam, I am for him. If he is terrorizing the terrorists, if he is terrorizing America the terrorist, the biggest terrorist, I am with him. Every Muslim should be a terrorist.” […]
Saying repugnant things is — and must be — allowed in Canada. However, urging people to break the law by beating their wives, becoming terrorists and advocating the killing of gays and lesbians are not acceptable forms of speech. It’s one thing to say, “I hate (fill in the blank),” and quite another to urge people to kill them.
And so it was right to deny Naik entry to Canada, but much of the rest of the show will go on. The only thing that could stop it is if no one showed up. If many people do, then the conference slogan, “Peace: the solution for humanity,” is a smokescreen to attempt to keep the West blind to a dangerous ideological war that is raging before our very eyes.
Yep.