National Post: Terrorist sympathiser on board of refugees in Canada

Sympathizer of terror groups was immigration board member

Comment

John Ivison, National Post Published: Wednesday, March 04, 2009

Khaled Mouammar, National President of the Canadian Arab Federation speaks to the National Post editorial board, May 15, 2008 in Toronto.

Nathan Denette/National PostKhaled Mouammar, National President of the Canadian Arab Federation speaks to the National Post editorial board, May 15, 2008 in Toronto.

It’s well known that Khaled Mouammar wants Ottawa to remove Hamas and Hezbollah from a list of banned organizations and replace them with the Israel Defence Forces.

It’s well known that the president of the Canadian Arab Federation recently called Jason Kenney, the Minister of Immigration, a “professional whore” for supporting Israel and criticizing the presence of Hamas and Hezbollah flags at a recent protest, prompting Mr. Kenney to say he would review the CAF’s federal funding.

But it is less well known that Mr. Mouammar spent the 11 years prior to February, 2005, sitting as a member of the Immigration and Refugee Board, deciding whether refugee claimants from such North African countries as Morocco, Egypt, Algeria and Somalia should be allowed to stay in Canada.

No details are available on how many refugees Mr. Mouammar waved through the Canadian system, although one immigration lawyer who remembers him from his IRB days says he was known to have a “very high” acceptance rate. Board members typically have sole discretion over whether to admit a refugee claimant.

But his public advocacy of terror groups should raise questions about how a known partisan could possibly pass the IRB’s screening process. How did someone who has long been sympathetic to terror groups come to hold a crucial position in the body designed to protect Canadians from terrorists? Phrases about foxes and chicken coops spring to mind.

The IRB has a code of conduct that requires members to conserve and enhance the organization’s “integrity, objectivity and impartiality.” Mr. Mouammar did not return calls seeking comment but readers can make up their own mind about his impartiality.

Since becoming president, the CAF head has shown a Robert Mugabe-like paranoia for blaming others, while ignoring the shortcomings of the side he supports.

Hamas and Hezbollah are “legitimate political parties”; Israel is a genocidal regime, guilty of “war crimes.” “One day the nightmare brought about by Zionism and colonialism will come to an end,” he wrote in a piece entitled Impressions of Palestine: 1948 and Today — a clear rejection of a two-state solution in the Middle East.

Mr. Mouammar, a 68-year-old orthodox Christian who was born in Palestine and emigrated to Canada in 1965, has become a magnet for controversy.

In 2006, he was accused of circulating a flyer at the Liberal leadership convention denouncing candidate Bob Rae because his wife was vice-president of the Canadian Jewish Congress, “a lobby group which supports Israeli apartheid.”

Last year, the CAF sponsored an essay-writing contest that encouraged Canadian high school students to consider “the ethnic cleansing of Palestine.”

An organization that used to work on behalf of all Arabs in Canada, promoting civil liberties and human rights, while combating racism and hate, has been transformed into a single-issue distiller of venom.

In the past, the CAF has documented anti-Arab incidents during the Gulf War; debated the pros and cons of the Oslo Peace Accord; and argued at the Arar commission that there is no contradiction between security and “the fundamental values we share as Canadians.” Now, it has been radicalized by its president and others.

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6 Replies to “National Post: Terrorist sympathiser on board of refugees in Canada”

  1. With investigative articles such as these from the National Post, I predict that this newspaper has a fighting chance to stay alive in this economy where more and more people are opening their eyes to the downside of leftism and are more receptive to commentary which was in the not too distant past, thought to be insane and stupid.
    Toronto Star will be the first to bite the dust. Goodbye and good riddance.
    Long live bloggers and blogging !!

  2. Hope this story finds it’s way to the Fox news desk. A little international embarassment seems to move thing along in Ottawa. More so than the complaints of Canadians.

  3. Thank you. You are absolutly right. Nothing helps fix Canadian bad policy like US media does.

  4. Thanks for sending the story. We can hope that some embarrassment will move things along in Ottawa. Do you remember the request by a radical imam to institute shariah law as a parallel legal system in Canada in 2004? The provincial government rejected the demand due to much national/international exposure and outrage, and the idea was smacked down. Another example of ridiculing the radicals back into their hole.

    I don’t believe for a moment that this story is an isolated incident; I suspect there are many more similar stories of Islamist infiltration that we are unaware of. Embarrassment is one thing; awareness and a pro-active approach to expose this element is what’s needed. Canadians need to insist that the government rework our faulty and lax immigration policy to ensure the safety and security of all Canadians is the priority.