Category Archives: Islam in the Americas

Terrorist cries regret for involvement in Toronto 18 bomb plot

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From the Toronto Star.

Terrorist ‘filled with regret’ for bomb plot

Aug 26, 2009 04:30 AM

Isabel Teotonio

Staff reporter

ALEX TAVSHUNSKY FOR THE TORONTO STAR
Saad Khalid, 22, on first day of his sentencing hearing June 22, 2009.

A Mississauga man who pleaded guilty to belonging to a homegrown terror cell plotting to detonate truck bombs in downtown Toronto told a court yesterday he is “not a lunatic who is hell bent on the destruction of western civilization.”

Saad Khalid, a member of the so-called Toronto 18, said he made a “huge mistake and not a day passes by that I am not filled with regret for my role in this despicable crime.”

“I never wanted to hurt anybody,” said Khalid, 23, while reading a prepared statement at the start of his sentencing hearing.

Khalid, who has been in jail since his arrest in June 2006, told the Brampton court he was motivated to get involved with the group because he disagreed with Canada’s military presence in Afghanistan.

He asked Superior Court Justice Bruce Durno for a “second chance,” explaining that while in jail he has studied Islam and consulted with imams and now understands the errors of his way.

Defence lawyer Russell Silverstein suggested Khalid be given a 10-year sentence and extra credit for time served, including 15 months in solitary confinement.

Crown prosecutor Croft Michaelson said a more appropriate sentence is 18 to 20 years, with eligibility for parole after serving half of his sentence.

Khalid is scheduled to be sentenced Sept. 3.

Historical fantasies: Elmasry on Islamic slavery

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From the National Post.

Historical fantasies

Jonathan Kay, National Post Published: Monday, August 24, 2009

This just in from former Canadian Islamic Congress chief Mohamed Elmasry: Islamic slavery wasn’t all that bad.

Writing in The Canadian Charger — a newly formed internet-based grab bag of anti-Western articles published by hard-left Canadian activists — Elmasry works hard to distinguish the evils of Christian slavery from the purportedly enlightened race-mixing that resulted from its Islamic equivalent.

Some snippets: “Islam, with no church, teaches that all humans, irrespective of their gender, skin col-our and ethnic origin are capable of doing good; there is no original sin. The One God is the Lord of all, not of special people or tribe[s] … Islam and Africa have made something of each other that is quite extraordinary … Islam teaches that slaves, who were then the result of wars, Africans or not, should be treated well and set free as soon as possible … Islam also teaches that slaves can buy their freedom in-kind. Thus many of them excelled to be teachers and even scholars … Islam teaches a slave is a victim of circumstances who should be helped to be free and treated fairly in the mean time. Trading in slaves is a sin. This is in contrast to the teachings of the Bible, ‘Slaves, obey your earthly masters with fear and trembling.'” … The Arab Muslims called Africans Zanji (hence the island of Zanjibar or Zanzibar), Habashi (from Habasha, Arabic for Ethiopian) or Sudani (Arabic for black). Such

Elmasry’s theme is that Islamic slavery was an enlightened exercise in regional

multiculturalism

names “were not derogatory but simply ethnographic … Some [slaves] achieved high rank and status …” And so on.

The basic theme is that Islamic slavery — to the extent it was bad at all (and it’s not really clear that Elmasry thinks it was) — was an enlightened, almost consensual, win-win exercise in regional multiculturalism. In his characteristically absurd elevation of Islam over Christianity, he makes no mention of the fact that religious Christians led the abolition movement in the West — while slavery persisted wholesale in the Arab world until late in the 20th century, and still survives in parts of Islamic Africa, including Sudan. Indeed, one wonders what the Christian tribes-people from southern Sudan who have been abducted, forcibly converted to Islam and enslaved by Arab Muslims in recent years would make of Elmasry’s historical fantasies.

It’s amazing, isn’t it? Our Christian leaders seem to do nothing but apologize these days — for every historical sin under the sun. But here you have a man who recently led the most prominent Muslim activist group in Canada, and he thinks it’s just dandy that his Arab forebears colonized and enslaved great swathes of Africa over the course of many centuries — a colonial situation that essentially persists in Sudan and regions of the Maghreb.

Remember this the next time Elmasry or one of his fellow travelers denounces Western “imperialism.”

jk**@**********st.com

Top 10 reasons why sharia law is not good for any society, anywhere

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The following article is from American Thinker. Though written in 2005, it’s message is still relevant and poignant, perhaps even more so today. It is lengthy, but well worth reading.

As I write this, England has 85 active sharia courts with more promised to come. Canada faces a lively and unapologetic sharia underground and has seen a disproportionate share of recent, suspected honour killings. Italy and France struggle with near impossible sharia demands as does Australia, Belgium, Holland, Ireland, Scotland, Spain and the United States, to name a scant few. Christians world-wide are being persecuted in the name of Islamic law along with thousands of Muslims with a particular cruel bent toward women and children. Muslim gays are being tracked, tormented, ridiculed, beaten, jailed and murdered.  Anti-Semitism, anti-Western and anti-Israeli rhetoric have all increased.

James Arlandson writes a thoroughly researched and thoughtful article complete with abundant source material on whether Islam is just in it’s laws that Muhammed himself invented, practiced and introduced to the world. The article in short, says NO to the query for 10 verifiable reasons.

ten reasons why sharia is bad for all societies

By James Arlandson

Traditional Muslims who understand the Quran and the hadith believe that sharia (Islamic law) expresses the highest and best goals for all societies. It is the will of Allah.
But is Islam just in its laws that Muhammad himself practiced and invented?

This article says no for ten verifiable reasons.

Here are four points you must read, before reading this article:

First, sometimes these ten points quote the Quran or omit it; sometimes they quote the hadith (reports of Muhammad’s words and actions outside of the Quran) or omit it. This is done only to keep down the length of the article. No one should be fooled into believing that these harsh and excessive laws were invented in the fevered imagination of extremists who came long after Muhammad. These harsh and excessive laws come directly from the founder of Islam in his Quran and in his example in the hadith. Continue Reading →

Legendary Christian coach canned after student converts

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BRAVE NEW SCHOOLS H/T Bill Warner Political Islam

Legendary Christian coach canned after student converts

Muslim principal allegedly irate that wrestler left Islam to be baptized

Posted: July 27, 2009
11:41 pm EasternBy Drew Zahn

2009 WorldNetDaily


Fordson High School, Dearborn, Mich.

A high school hall-of-fame and Christian wrestling coach in Dearborn, Mich., claims he was muscled out of his long-tenured coaching job by the school’s principal, a devout Muslim, because the administrator was furious over a student wrestler who had converted to Christianity from Islam.

Gerald Marsazalek has coached wrestling for 35 years at Dearborn Public Schools, amassing more than 450 wins and, in addition to being added to the Michigan High School Athletic Association Hall of Fame, was named “Sportsman of the Year” by the All-American Athletic Association.

Despite Marsazalek’s success, however, Principal Imad Fadlallah of Dearborn’s Fordson High School ordered the administration not to renew the coach’s contract, allegedly in retaliation over the student’s conversion and to continue a campaign of flushing Christianity out of the school.

“We are getting a glimpse of what happens when Muslims who refuse to accept American values and principles gain political power in an American community,” said Richard Thompson, president and chief counsel of the Thomas More Law Center, which is representing Marsazalek. “Failure to renew coach Marszalek’s contract had nothing to do with wrestling and everything to do with religion.” Continue Reading →

Yale University Press runs scared of Islamists

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So let’s get this straight. A book about the Danish cartoons, with no pictures of the cartoons.

Yale University criticised over censorship of book on Danish cartoons row

Yale University has been accused of self-censorship after deciding to publish a book about controversial cartoons depicting the Prophet Mohammed without including any of the images at the heart of the row.

from the Telegraph U.K.

Alex Spillius in Washington
Published: 6:39AM BST 18 Aug 2009

The Cartoons That Shook the World, by Danish-born professor Jytte Klausen, set to be published in November, will examine the protest campaign against the caricatures first published in the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten in 2005.

She told Fox News she was disappointed that Yale University Press had “rolled back our own principles” and questioned why it has consulted anonymous experts before making its decision.

“I regard the experts’ advice to the university as alarmist and misplaced,” she said.

“The images were published widely before protests gathered steam, orchestrated by a network of Islamist preachers and motivated by anti-Western sentiment.”

Sherry Jones, an author whose novel the Jewel of Medina was shelved by Random House because of fears of violent reprisals, said: “I decided to take a stand for free speech and publish my books in spite of threats and violence because I wanted to make a positive difference in the world,”

“Yale University Press’s decision, like that of the executives at Random House, does the opposite,” she said. “Self-censorship changes our world for the worse.”

The original cartoons, published in September 2005, where the result of a competition set by the newspaper.

One showed Mohammed with a ticking bomb in his turban and like others was regarded as blasphemous by many Muslims whose faith bans the depiction of the Prophet.

The Canadian Bar Association has a crush on Omar Khadr

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This column written by Ezra Levant, appears in today’s National Post. It perfectly describes the left’s ongoing love affair with Canada’s #1 poster-boy of terrorism, Omar Khadr.

Ezra Levant: The Canadian Bar Association’s Khadr fetish

Posted: August 19, 2009, 9:45 AM by NP Editor ,

The Canadian Bar Association (CBA) has a crush on Omar Khadr. The left-leaning lawyers’ club held its convention in Dublin last week, but even Ireland’s charms couldn’t get their minds off the accused terrorist, still detained in Barack Obama’s prison at Guantanamo Bay.

The spark for the CBA’s latest pronouncement on the matter was a decision of the Federal Court of Appeal, ordering the Canadian government to seek Khadr’s repatriation (the government is considering an appeal). But the CBA doesn’t need a reason to talk about their favourite cause. Khadr has been the subject of more CBA press releases than everyone else on the planet combined.

The CBA is obsessed. A search of its website yields 232 items about Khadr. What about other Canadians trapped overseas, such as Huseyn Celil, a Canadian citizen currently being held on trumped-up charges by China, or William Sampson, who was held and tortured in Saudi Arabia? They are non-persons to the CBA — no press releases for them, and no mentions on its website.

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Canadian officials feared backlash to film on Islam: reports

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Stewart Bell, National Post Published: Tuesday, August 18, 2009

Members of Parti Islam se-Malaysia shout slogans and carry posters outside the Netherlands Embassy in Kuala Lumpur on April 4, 2008, to condemn the production and the broadcast of the anti-Islam film "Fitna" by a right-wing Dutch lawmaker. Zainal Abd Halim/REUTERS Members of Parti Islam se-Malaysia shout slogans and carry posters outside the Netherlands Embassy in Kuala Lumpur on April 4, 2008, to condemn the production and the broadcast of the anti-Islam film …

Canadian security officials closely monitored last year’s release of a Dutch film about Islam, fearing it could spark violent protests, documents released under the Access to Information Act show.

The National Post has obtained copies of seven intelligence reports, circulated by Ottawa last year, that warn of a possible backlash against the documentary Fitna and Danish cartoons of the Muslim prophet Muhammad.

“There are concerns that reprinting of the cartoons and the release of the movie could provoke the kind of violent reaction which occurred within some Muslim communities overseas when the cartoons were originally published,” one of the reports says. Continue Reading →

Pervert cabbie gets 2 months house arrest

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One lesson here? Drive your own car or hitch a ride with a friend. Seems sharia has a monopoly on the taxi business. Another lesson? Don’t expect a sharia advocate to provide any dutiful conveyance of safety or respect to a woman.

Taxi driver who sexually assaulted female passenger gets house arrest

By Andrew Seymour, The Ottawa CitizenAugust 18, 2009 12:01 PM

OTTAWA — An Ottawa taxi driver found guilty of sexually assaulting a female passenger has been sentenced to two months of house arrest.

Hassan Jabar Majli, 36, stood with his arms behind his back as Ontario Superior Court Justice Denis Power sentenced him for the June 23, 2007 sexual assault in the lobby of a west-end apartment building.

Power said Majli “owed (the victim) a duty to convey her safely home at night.”

“Mr. Majli’s conduct is a serious breach of trust owed to the public at large and the complainant in particular,” said Power. “Citizens must feel safe hailing cabs, especially at night.”

Power, who said he had “considerable difficulty” arriving at a conditional sentence, said a term of incarceration in jail was not out of the question, but he took into account that the sexual assault Majli was convicted of was “not the most serious” and that Majli’s myriad of health problems would be better treated in the community.

Majli, who has since lost his taxi licence, was found guilty of sexual assault in May after court heard testimony from the victim, a teacher, about how the driver followed her into her apartment building and kissed her on the mouth as she tried to get on an elevator.

The victim, who can’t be identified because of a publication ban, testified the driver then put his hand up her skirt and digitally penetrated her as she tried to flee through a stairway door.

The woman admitted she had consumed 10 to 12 pints of beer before getting in the taxi outside the Heart and Crown in downtown Ottawa following a night of celebrating the last day of school.

In his decision, Power found there was sufficient evidence that Majli grabbed and kissed the woman, but concluded the Crown hadn’t proved beyond a reasonable doubt that he digitally penetrated her.

At trial, Majli testified that he believed the woman had asked for a kiss. According to Majli, the woman repeatedly used words in Arabic that she had learned from a friend that meant “I want a kiss” and “I love you.” Majli said he only offered her a “friendly” kiss when he became worried she would complain to his boss that he didn’t “please her.”

However, the judge found the woman, who testified she only used the Arabic phrases in a conversational manner, in no way consented to Majli’s advances and found Majli guilty of sexual assault.

Crown prosecutors had been asking Power to sentence Majli to 30 to 60 days in jail. Majli’s lawyer had been asking for a suspended sentence with credit for four days spent in pre-trial custody.

as******@****************st.com

Bill Warner speaks on CFRA 580 Ottawa

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Link: Bill Warner CFRA aug 16 09-desktop

Israel, wackos and hate

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Here are two editorials from Full Comment at the National Post. The first, written by Robert Fulford describes how Opposing Israel has become a fashionable, institutionalized ritual founded on anti-Semitism. The second, by Johnathan Kay describes the latest violent episode in Gaza where Hamas (wacko group#1) attacks Jund Ansar Allah (‘Soldiers of the Partisans of God’, wacko group #2).

Robert Fulford:
Posted: August 15, 2009, 8:45 AM by NP Editor ,

When Criticizing Israel becomes ritual

It begins, reasonably, as a response to apparently unnecessary violence by Israel. Then it moves on to accuse Israel of expanding on land the Arabs insist is theirs. Nothing wrong with criticizing that, surely. Israel, a state, deserves to be judged like any other.

Even those friendly toward Israel have often felt duty bound to point out its mistakes. In more innocent times, I imagined that intellectuals in the West paid careful attention to Israel’s faults because they expected it to set a high standard. Who would worry about the moral status of, say, Bolivia? No one except Bolivians. Jews, however, live with the injunction to be (as Isaiah quotes God) “A light unto the nations.”

But now everything has changed. Opposing Israel has become an institutionalized ritual. It’s now a movement across Europe and North America. It has its traditions, like Israel Apartheid Week, celebrated every spring in universities, often the cause of riots and an occasion to intimidate Jewish students. Vehement opposition to Israel appears to be the major interest of thousands of people all over the world. Many are Muslims, sympathizing with the Palestinians, but many are not. This week, attacks on Israel once more appeared on the agenda of the general council meeting of the United Church of Canada, a critic of Israel for generations.

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Welcome back Khadr!!!

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Islamists in Canada rejoice! Canadian born terrorism suspect and family member of Canada’s First Family of Terror Omar Khadr is coming home!

From the Montreal Gazette.

Court confirms ruling to repatriate Khadr

By Andrew Mayeda, Canwest News Service August 14, 2009 11:43 AM
Omar Khadr at a hearing at the U.S. Military Commissions court for war crimes, at the U.S. Naval Base, in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba in a court sketch.

Omar Khadr at a hearing at the U.S. Military Commissions court for war crimes, at the U.S. Naval Base, in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba in a court sketch.

Photograph by: Janet Hamlin, AFP/Getty Images

OTTAWA — A Federal Court of Appeal judge upheld a ruling Friday ordering the government to repatriate Canadian-born terrorism suspect Omar Khadr from the U.S. military prison in Guantanamo Bay.

In April, Federal Court Justice James O’Reilly ordered the Harper government to seek Khadr’s repatriation, arguing the government’s ongoing refusal to do so violates his rights under the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

O’Reilly ruled the Canadian government was directly involved in Khadr’s mistreatment in Guantanamo Bay by sharing information with U.S. authorities, even though Canadian officials knew Khadr was being subjected to interrogation techniques such as sleep deprivation.

The judge also found that Canada has violated international laws that protect child soldiers.

Khadr, who was born in Toronto, was 15 years old when he was picked up by the United States army in Afghanistan during a shootout with American forces in 2002. He is accused of lobbing a grenade that killed a U.S. army medic. Continue Reading →

Crown wants taxi union boss jailed for ‘honour crime’

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Well, on the Multi Culti front, Canada has something to be proud of. It would seem that we are ahead of the curve in terms of ‘honour’ killings and other Muslim crime for the percentage of Islamic population Canada has. If I lived in Toronto, I would make my next car one built from asbestos.

From the Ottawa Citizen:

By Andrew Seymour, The Ottawa CitizenAugust 14, 2009 6:55 AM

OTTAWA — Crown prosecutors are seeking to send the head of Ottawa’s taxi union to jail for up to two years, alleging that a campaign of threatening and intimidating behaviour directed toward his daughter after she turned her back on the family’s Muslim beliefs was an honour crime.

Yusef Al Mezel’s threat of an honour killing was designed to “control and dominate” his then-23-year-old daughter, Eman Al Mezel, by suggesting she had brought shame upon her family that would be met with violent consequences, assistant Crown attorney James Cavanagh argued during a sentencing hearing Thursday.

Al Mezel, who pleaded guilty to criminal harassment last September, was trying to deny his daughter “every basic freedom as to how she could live her life,” Cavanagh said, the result of an “underlying notion of patriarchal dominance” based on a “perverted and archaic belief in family honour.”

“When she wouldn’t bend to his will … he raised the spectre of violence in the name of honour to scare her into complying with his wishes,” said Cavanagh, who urged Ontario Superior Court Justice Lynn Ratushny to sentence the 44-year-old president of the Canadian Autoworkers Local 1688 to 18 to 24 months behind bars.

Al Mezel admitted he repeatedly called, wrote, followed and visited the residences of Eman Al Mezel in July 2007 in an attempt to get his daughter to return home after a violent incident where he pushed her into a flight of stairs and threatened to break her legs and kill her before smashing her computer. Continue Reading →