Canadian cabbie guilty of threatening daughter for leaving Islam

The boss of Ottawa’s taxi union has been found guilty of harassment against his twenty three year old daughter for leaving Islam. Yusef Salem Al Mezel pleaded guilty September 15, 2008 of criminal harassment and will appear back in court on November 17, following the completion of a pre-sentence report.

Crown attorney Kevin Phillips argued that twenty three year old Eman Al Mezel’s life was in danger due to what has been described as the “Sharaf of the family”, explained by Ms. Al Mezel as the belief that because she had run away from home, shed her hijab and rejected Islam, she had “shamed and dishonoured” her family. The only way to restore her family’s honour she explained, would have been to kill her, an act usually carried out by a father or uncle(s).

Numerous phone calls and e-mails sent to Ms. Al Mezel from her father in July of 2007, clearly describe the trouble with Islam. “ We (family) can no longer hide the problem from your uncles or cousins and that he could no longer guarantee ‘the safety’ of anyone”. Another e-mail read, “Eman you know when everyone hear about they will react crazy, and no one will care about police or other thing, you know your family.

Defence lawyer Geraldine Castle-Trudel asserts ” Mr. Al Mezel had nothing but the best intentions when he tried to convince his daughter to return home”. She went on to characterize the situation as a dispute between a father and a daughter that escalated and it isn’t appropriate for the Crown to make arguments on religious grounds. Mr. Phillips disagrees and argued that Al Mezel’s use of religion to coerce his daughter to return home should be considered an aggravating factor in the offence. I agree with him.

This was done in the name of Islam, not in spite of it.

Mr. Al-Mezel was originally charged with six offences, including uttering threats. These charges have been dwindled down to one, presumably during the bargaining process. Find the full story here.

Grace

13 Replies to “Canadian cabbie guilty of threatening daughter for leaving Islam”

  1. Repeat after me:
    islam is the religion of peace
    it’s not ALL moslems
    ….the vast majority of peaceful moslems
    we just don’t understand islam
    it’s all because of the Israel-palestonian conflict
    we must have MEANINGFUL dialogue
    if only we COMPROMISE and meet every moslem demand….

  2. If Hisorians can keep the 200 000 000 Hindu deaths at the hands of Muslims, the Armenian genocide and the Byzantine genocide out of textbooks, I somehow doubt this story is going to get much coverage. Unless they can blame Jews somehow, then it will be broadcast worldwide.

  3. They didnt have the internet back then. Lets email these stories to every radio station talk show host and friend we can. I agree that history has been sanitized for reasons of political correctness. Lets disseminate the information about these Islamic actions as widely as possible. Hell I didnt know about the Hindu slaughter please post links to it and I will post the articles here as well.
    Thanks for commenting guys and great nicks!

  4. To Eeyore

    The more conservative estimate is 80 Million, but I have read estimates up to 200 Million. The documentation, and sources mysteriously dissapeared from Wikipedia about a year ago. (like most facts about Islam) I rember Robert Spencer metioning it after a debate on one of Atlas Shruggs’s videos. In my opinion there were 3 different genocides performed against Hindu’s by Muslims. They are still trying the Ghandi approach that worked so well against the British, (but not so well against Islamofascism)

    http://koenraadelst.voiceofdharma.com/books/negaind/ch2.htm

    “As a contribution to research on the quantity of the Islamic crimes against humanity, we may mention that the Indian (subcontinent) population decreased by 80 million between 1000 (conquest of Afghanistan) and 1525 (end of Delhi Sultanate).”

    Even at 80 million deaths, this constitutes the largest genocide in history – one that has been hushed up largely because of the tacit understanding between Christians and Muslims (as well as the pseudo-secularists that are on the payroll of the church or the Saudis.) in India as both seek to convert the Hindus.

    Most western academics are either religious or cultural Christians that tacitly align with the church. As a result, they too not only hush up Hindu genocide but also justify Islamic rule

    2) Then there’s the Partition genocide

    In the two or three months preceding Partition and four months immediately after Partition on 15 August, 1947, a little over one million Hindus were killed in West and East Pakistan.

    http://janamejayan.wordpress.com/2008/04/09/a-duratma-%E2%80%94-father-of-hindu-genocide%E2%80%94-i/

    3) then there is the 1971 genocide

    http://www.gendercide.org/case_bangladesh.html

    The number of dead in Bangladesh in 1971 was almost certainly well into seven figures. It was one of the worst genocides of the World War II era, outstripping Rwanda (800,000 killed) and probably surpassing even Indonesia (1 million to 1.5 million killed in 1965-66). As R.J. Rummel writes,

  5. Thank you I was unaware of this. Would you consider writing an article with links to support these events for Vlad? I would be most grateful

  6. Well at least in Ontario Primier Dalton MacGinty had the guts to ban Sharia Law. This is why Yusef Salem Al Mezel is being sent to prison where he belongs.

  7. @eeyore

    It would be my honour to work for, , under, with, or along side Vlad (the historian) Tepes

  8. this is clearly a daughter father conflict.. not islamic.. western ppl always confuse islam with everything!!!

    Canada-TNS&F- 4evR : this is artlicle has nothing to do with sharia law!! wake up .. and go read what islam is all about.

  9. Rana, apostacy is considered a crime under any permutation of Sharia Law, if these Islamic courts were allowed in Ont. it would have created a blank cheque for Muslims to harass members of their own community who choose to exercise their Charter Rights and Freedom of Religion. I think a lot of real Canadians find this to be quite disturbing.

    Also don’t you find Mr Yusef Salem Al Mezel bigotry in this matter to be slightly distrubing?

  10. even with Sharia courts not legal this harassment is likely common and there have already been ‘honor killings’ in Ontario. As the Toronto Imam said, ‘When it comes to Canadian law or Islamic law I pick Islam every time’ so making it illegal doesn’t stop it but provides a vehicle to prosecute it. The only way to stop it is immigration rules and a re thinking of multiculturalism.

  11. Rana,

    This case cannot be simply boiled down to a conflict between a father and his daughter. Many fathers, and mothers for that matter, have conflicts with their children; it is part of the parenting process and family dynamic. What is not usual, or excusable, are threats of intimidation, violence and murder lodged against a child from a parent.

    Time and again, violence against women has been perpetrated in the name of religion. Islamic sharia jurisprudence in it’s pious mockery of decency, is at the forefront of cruel religious principle practiced against women and young girls every day, the world over. Westerners, and in particular women, have lived to understand and benefit from equality, autonomy, self-reliance and free choice without the pressure of explanation or apology. This case is not a matter of Western people confusing Islam; on the contrary. It is a case of a young Western woman’s confrontation of Islam’s oppressive and backward nature and it’s impediment to her free choice and right to live a life in safety.

    You would do well to stop apologizing for Islam’s obvious plentitude of misgivings and misogynistic ideals, stop deflecting responsibility and consider standing for the many women who are maimed, brutalized, threatened and murdered in the name of Islam.