This mans book is actually changing US government policy with groups like CAIR. Well worth the time to listen to. This is just audio and shows the same image the whole time. Expect to hear very real fall out from the highest places in Government as a consequence of this man’s investigation and book. A documentary would not surprise me at all.
Category Archives: Islam in the Americas
Arrest made in jewelry robbery
From The Ottawa Sun:
“I don’t remember anything after the call that came at 8 p.m.,” Natalie Galipeau said about the night she was nearly killed by a stranger. Almost four months later, police say they have the man who did it.
Galipeau, 31, was trying to sell a sapphire and diamond bracelet for $1,250 online when she was contacted by a man who said he was interested in purchasing it.
They eventually agreed to meet at Galipeau’s home on Plainhill Dr. in the city’s east end.
She walked outside with the bracelet at about 9 p.m. on Aug. 18 while her husband and daughter remained inside.
Her next memory is of waking up in a hospital bed days later with them at her bedside.
Police said Galipeau had been viciously attacked and then dragged by the suspect’s car for about half the length of a football field before ending up on the street in a pool of her own blood. She had suffered multiple skull fractures and was put into an induced coma for three days because of swelling in her brain. Continue Reading →
Arson Fire Started as Nonie Darwish Set to Speak at Boston University
From Muslims against Sharia blog:
H/T Solsitice
An arson fire was set only fifteen minutes before Nonie Darwish was set to speak at Boston University.
Frightful and getting worse. It was not two weeks ago that Nonie Darwish was canceled at the last minute at Colmubia and Princeton two weeks ago as student groups caved to muslim pressure. This intimidation and suppression of free speech is systemic. Pies were thrown at Robert Spencer at New York University just a couple of weeks ago. What next? Grenades?
And now arson. Of course this should be filed with the FBI as a hate crime – that vile piece of legislation that will be used against the wrong people.
The Darwish event was moved at the last minute. What follows is the a note written by the student who organized the event.
Dear Mrs. Darwish,
I just wanted to thank you for speaking at Boston University yesterday. I would like to apologize again for the confusion regarding the location of the event because of the fire. So far we know the fire was intentionally set in one of the bathrooms on the second floor of the building. It is still under investigation and I will let you know if any more updates come out. I was not the only person to think that the fire could have been set because you were scheduled to speak but I will inform you of any more developments. Once again thank you so much for coming toBoston University and I speak for everyone who attended the event when I say what you had to say was not only extremely important but a pleasure hearing.
Here is the link to the article that was written about the event:
Activist: Arab-Israeli conflict rooted in Islamic law
The Arab-Israeli conflict will not be resolved unless the Middle East stops enforcing restrictive Islamic Laws on society, a writer and human rights activist said.
Nonie Darwish, author of several books including, “Cruel and Unusual Punishment: The Terrifying Global Implications of Islamic Law,” spoke about human and women’s rights in the Middle East at Hillel House on Wednesday to an audience of 15.
Darwish said finger pointing is a problem in the Arab culture.
“Part of the Arab culture that is standing in the way of reformation is a lack of self-criticism,” she said.
Darwish, who grew up in Cairo, Egypt, said her Gaza elementary school subjected her to “intense hate speech” and peace was never an option.
“A lot of what Arabs understand is really fabrication,” she said.
Darwish said she started speaking after 9/11 when she discovered the terrorist leader was from her hometown. Mohamed Atta, a 9/11 terrorist, is from Cairo.
“I called a lot of people in Egypt, and they said ‘How dare you say this? This is a Jewish conspiracy,’” she said. “My heart was broken, and I sincerely cried.”
Darwish said her country is not seeing the reality of today’s world
“The truth is the only thing that will save them,” she said.
In addition, she said, Islam has wounded women. For example, men can have four wives and beat them for disobedience.
“A woman under Islamic law cannot get a divorce,” she said. “However, men can divorce his wife verbally under Islamic law . . . Wife killing is a phenomenon in Muslim countries.”
Women must have four male witnesses to prove rape, Darwish said. And women have to be virgins when they marry or they are killed.
“She has committed adultery unless there are four male witnesses,” she said. “Women are in prison for sexual violations.”
Darwish also discussed the rights of non-Muslims in Islamic countries.
“Under Islamic law, Jews and Christians can live in an Islamic country only if they live as inferior, pay taxes and give money to the Muslim state,” she said.
Darwish said she believes these laws are the root of the Arab-Israeli conflict.
“The root of the conflict is seventh-century laws that are still practiced today, and no one wants to end these laws,” she said. “It’s still on books and taken seriously.”
When any religion expands itself so much that it politically imposes on minorities, it leaves itself open to criticism, she said.
“When Islam becomes religious as well as political, a leader has to be criticized,” she said.
Darwish said moderate Muslims should get involved in ending the conflict.
“If you love your religion, you have to take it out of the hands of the radicals,” she said.
Hillel House Taglit-Birthright Israel Program Associate KateLynn Plotnick said the situation seems to be getting worse.
“A mutual respect is needed between the two religions,” she said. “If you’re teaching to hate the other side, peace won’t be accomplished unless two sides can acknowledge and begin teaching morals and values in their speeches and writings.”
Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America Fellow and College of Arts and Sciences junior Adam Korn said Darwish is a fantastic speaker.
“You’re hearing from someone who lived through this, and her family has distanced themselves because she speaks the truth,” Korn, a BU Students for Israel Vice President, said. “Women’s rights in the in the Middle East is not a big issue, and it should be.”
Canada:Muslim jailed for threats of honour murder against daughter seen as ‘hero’
Maybe I need to get out more, but I don’t know any average father who has ever threatened his daughter with violence and murder. I also don’t know any average father who would toss his daughter down a flight of stairs, beat her, taunt her with vile language, follow her, send her menacing letters or threaten that male members of his extended family carry out an honour murder against her. I also don’t know any average father who would consider his daughter a shame because she chooses to exercise free choice over her own life.
I also don’t know any average mother who would view such action(s) by her husband against their children to be merely ‘strict’ parenting, nor do I know any average mother cruel or ignorant enough to believe that such behaviour does not constitute abuse. As for Al Mezel’s supporters, I am not in the least bit surprised to find those who would eagerly line up four fold to stand knee deep in their own Islamist shit to defend sharia, nor do I find it astonishing to learn that his family is shocked and disappointed by the criminal charges. After all, in the eyes of those who believe sharia should be the existing system of jurisprudence in this country, Al Mezel has committed no crime, in fact his actions serve to round out the virtues of a responsible, dutiful father.
But perhaps the most important aspect of this story and the one we should pay closest attention to and understand fully, comes from Al-Mezel’s own parole officers assessment; that his interest and hard work in the Muslim community lies not in the religious, but in the political. It is this doctrinal, political system called Islam that his daughter has had a complete understanding of and from which, she has fled.
From The Ottawa Citizen
Support strong for jailed union boss
Cabbies collect money for man serving year term for ‘honour’ crime
By Gary Dimmock, The Ottawa CitizenDecember 5, 2009 7:08 AM
Yusef Al Mezel is widely respected by his taxi driver co-workers.
Photograph by: Rod MacIvor, The Ottawa Citizen
The other day at the Innes Road jail, taxi drivers stood in line four-deep to visit their union leader, Yusef Al Mezel.
And although Al Mezel, 44, is in jail for threatening to kill his daughter in an “honour” crime, his popularity among the city’s cabbies is far from waning.
In fact, many of the 1,500 members of Canadian Autoworkers Local 1688 are now collecting money for Al Mezel, who is the sole financial provider for his big middle-class family.
Except, that is, for the 25-year-old daughter he threatened after she took off her hijab, abandoned Muslim beliefs, and refused an arranged marriage.
The police relocated Eman Al Mezel for her own protection. Her father pleaded guilty, sparing his family a sensational trial.
She has had no contact with any members of her family since her father was charged in 2007. Publicly, Al Mezel has said the case is a family matter. Privately, he has expressed remorse, insisting his threats were made out of concern for his daughter.
His wife, Hussuh Thageel, and one of his other daughters, have told a parole officer that he’s an “average father with strict expectations of his (seven) children.
“However, his family did not consider his behaviour to be abusive,” the parole officer wrote in her report. His family also said they were shocked and disappointed by the criminal charges. Continue Reading →
Security incident aboard AirTran Flight 297 suggests terror “Dry Run”
Canada Free Press…By Doug Hagmann Thursday, December 3, 2009
On November 17, an incident took place aboard AirTran Flight 297 scheduled to fly from Atlanta Hartsfield Airport to Houston that the media does not want to cover and everyone from the airline to the TSA and other government agencies want to keep very quiet. The reasons, I have been told, is fear of predatory lawsuits, negative publicity from accusations of religious profiling, and the obligatory subjugation to mindless mandatory Muslim sensitivity training that make a mockery of our American system of values. Interestingly, one airline official told me “we don’t want to become another flight 300,” which is a reference to a very similar scenario that took place aboard US Airways Flight 300 exactly three years ago.
I was first contacted about this incident two days after it happened by a passenger who was aboard AirTran Flight 297. Based on the allegations made by this passenger, we conducted additional research, interviews and investigation, all of which takes time to insure accuracy, and are now able to release our report of the incident that took place aboard that aircraft. Be prepared to be shocked, angered, and perhaps saddened by our national and corporate acquiescence to mafia-type tactics by Islamists who are engaged in a full frontal assault, and laughing about it.
Unsurprisingly, the facts we developed during the course of our investigation are inconsistent with those being reported in the media, despite the media having the responsibility to report the truth.
The incident
A group of thirteen men dressed in traditional Muslim attire were among 73 passengers who boarded AirTran Flight 297 on Tuesday, 17 November 2009, a routine flight scheduled to depart Atlanta Hartsfield Airport, gate C-16 at 4:43 PM ET to Houston Hobby Airport. Reports developed by this investigator found two witnesses who observed direct interaction among all of these Muslim men at the terminal.
As the passengers boarded the aircraft, two of the Muslim men took seats in first class, while the remaining eleven were seated throughout the remaining rows of the aircraft. Most had carrying-on bags that they stowed in the overhead compartments above their seats.
As the aircraft began to taxi to the runway, a female flight attendant was beginning to issue the normal passenger advisories over the PA system. Almost on cue at the time passengers were told to turn off all electronic devices, one of the Muslim men seated in the front of the plane began to use his cell phone in a manner that was described by a flight attendant and passenger “as deliberate and obvious.” He was talking loudly in Arabic, nearly at the level of the flight attendant. Some reports suggest that this man actually called another Muslim passenger, although this has not been immediately confirmed. It is possible, however, as another passenger reported that a Muslim man seated toward the rear of the plane answered his cellular phone at the same time the man in the front began using his.
At this point, the flight attendant in the front of the plane approached the Muslim man using his telephone and instructed him to immediately turn it off. A second female flight attendant did the same at the rear of the aircraft. Concurrent with this cellular activity, two other Muslim men seated adjacent near the middle of the aircraft began operating what one passenger described as a palm type camcorder, ostensibly to view previously taken footage. It is possible, according to one flight attendant interviewed by this investigator, however, that the camcorder was being used for recording purposes. Whatever its use, a third flight attendant, aware of the incidents taking place in the front and rear of the aircraft, approached the two men for the purpose of securing the camcorder. At least two passengers reported that the men became abusive to the flight attendant and initially refused to comply with her request.
It was at this time that most of the passengers began to notice the multiple incidents involving over a dozen men dressed in Islamic attire. Next, as if previously rehearsed, at least ten of the 13 Muslim men aboard the aircraft began to leave their seats at the same time. At least one passenger stated she observed one of the Muslim passengers using his cell phone to take photos of other passengers on the aircraft, while one other Muslim passenger sang loudly in Arabic. According to information provided to this investigator from one of the flight crew who was alerted to an onboard emergency, the aircraft was now being taxied back to the terminal. The TSA, FAA and FBI were notified. Continue Reading →
Hate in the classroom: anti-Semitism in Canada’s high schools
“I don’t have to listen to you; you are not a person, you are nothing, you do not exist as a person.” “Don’t speak to me, don’t look at me, you are not human, you are a Jew.”(taunts by a student attending an Ontario high school aimed at his Jewish teacher).
From The National Post
Toxic classrooms
Confronting anti-Semitism in our high schools
Barbara Kay, National Post Published: Monday, November 30, 2009
What follows is an edited excerpt from testimony delivered at a hearing of the Canadian Parliamentary Inquiry into Anti-Semitism this month.
My attention has been drawn to the disturbing phenomenon of overt Jew hatred in high schools, especially those with high populations of students from countries where Jew hatred is officially sanctioned in the law of their countries of origin.
As a case in point I offer one particularly disturbing story, because I believe it points to wider issues of concern for the educational system and for our society. It involves a Jewish teacher in an Ontario French high school whose name I cannot reveal because she fears physical retaliation.
“Miriam” had taught in French language schools in the 1970s and 1980s in schools with large Lebanese Christian populations without incurring any anti-Semitism. In her current career she works amicably with Muslims. A child of Holocaust survivors, Miriam is demonstrably neither racist nor anti-Muslim.
In 2001 Miriam started teaching at a school largely populated by children of refugees, mainly from Djibouti and Eritrea, countries where there are no Jews but where hatred of Jews is deeply entrenched in the culture.
During the academic year of 2002-2003 Miriam started to encounter anti-Semitic taunts from students, such as “Does someone see a Jew here, someone smell a Jew? It stinks here.” When she reported this and similar insults to the principal, the principal did not follow up. Indeed, the principal seemed more concerned about the students’ sensibilities than hers.
The principal instructed teachers not to offend their Muslim students; they were not to look students in the eye, they were not to gesture with the forefinger to bid them approach and they were not to interfere with male students who were physically aggressive to male teachers.
During the invasion of Iraq, moments of silence were held in the classroom. Cultural presentations involved only Muslim culture and no Canadian content. Students were allowed to leave assembly during the playing of the national anthem.
The crisis of this story occurred when Miriam admonished a student for wearing a Walkman in class. The student screamed at her: “I don’t have to listen to you; you are not a person, you are nothing, you do not exist as a person.” When Miriam demanded he accompany her to the principal’s office, the student followed her down the hall yelling, “Don’t speak to me, don’t look at me, you are not human, you are a Jew.”
Although the student was ultimately suspended for 10 days, his parents expressed puzzlement about the punishment since, they patiently explained, the teacher was after all Jewish. They complained about the severity of the punishment to the school board. Continue Reading →
Canada and rising anti-semitism.
Here are two discouraging articles from Bill Warner’s monthly bulletin on antisemitism. The first, Jew-hatred on Campus from The National Post. The second, on Calgary and from jta.org
Jew-hatred on campus
Read more: http://www.nationalpost.com/todays-paper/story.html?id=2230460%20#ixzz0YY4RrETi
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It is vital for the global anti-Semitism movement to win over the young
Denis Macshane, National Post Published: Tuesday, November 17, 2009
All forms of anti-Semitism are bad but some are more worrying than others. Universities should, in theory, be the last place where Jews in liberal democracies should feel ill at ease. Anti-Semitism on campus is now a serious problem. University teachers like Roger Faurison in France have used their academic posts to generate the hateful denial of the Holocuast, an insult to the millions of Jews around the world who live daily with the memory of family gassed and cremated to satisfy Hitler’s anti-Semitic desires. American universities have long given tenure and shelter to academics who are careful never to criticize Jews outright but instead revert to old metaphors about networks of Jewish influence and, of course, relentless criticism of Israel. Continue Reading →
Father issued fatwa against son, letter says
From The National Post by way of The Religion of Peace:
MONTREAL — In Lamine Yansané’s hometown of Boké in Guinea, his father is a revered imam who sometimes leads Friday prayers. But after Mr. Yansané married a Catholic woman and abandoned Islam for Christianity, his father disowned him, and Friday prayers have featured a call for his death, the Federal Court heard yesterday.
Mr. Yansané, who has been denied refugee status, is seeking a last-ditch reprieve on the grounds that he faces certain harm if he is deported from Canada. “If you return him to his country, he is going to die,” Mr. Yansané’s lawyer, Stewart Istvanffy, told the court. He called his client “a victim of radical Islam, who is threatened by the imam of his town, his own father.”
Mr. Yansané, 37, arrived in Canada from Guinea in the fall of 2005. He told the Immigration and Refugee Board that he fled the West African nation after his father and uncle tracked him down in the country’s capital of Conakry, confronted him about his church attendance and threatened him as a traitor to Islam. His wife and three children remain in Guinea.
The board member who heard his case called his testimony “devoid of credibility.” She did not believe that a family of religious fanatics would have permitted his marriage to a Christian in the first place. (Mr. Yansané said he was allowed to marry on the condition he convert his wife to Islam, a project he abandoned.) And she found it far-fetched that his family would tolerate the couple’s presence in Boké for the 10 years they lived there before moving to Conakry. Continue Reading →
Hertz sued by non muslims for un-equal break times.
Hey atheists like time off too! I was waiting for this. Sooner or later someone had to realize that Muslims get several more paid breaks in the day than we infidels and this is to say the least, a little unfair. While the rest of us may not want to lift our arse away from Mecca, all people do have something they would rather do than work and be paid for it. h/t Solstice:
Hertz sued over Muslim prayers
Katie Barkley and Shirley Harris, who worked as part-time drivers moving Hertz cars from Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport to other locations, claim Muslim employees were given as many as three paid, 15-minute prayer breaks each shift while non-Muslim employees were denied equal time off, according to the suit filed Nov. 30 in federal court in Atlanta. Continue Reading →
Beware of Persians bearing gifts.
Nurses at one Bolivian hospital forced to wear Islamic veils as price for sum of money from Iran.
From Fausta’s blog by way of GOV:
Bolivia: Nurses forced to wear veil
Semanario Verdad Latinoamericana reports that nurses in a Bolivian hospital are forced to wear a hijab veil at their jobs.
The article, Bolivia: enfermeras son obligadas a llevar velo, says that state newspaper Cambio (link to their website here, but no link to their report on the hospital) reported that following a donation of $1.2 million US dollars by Mahmoud Ahmadinejad during his visit Wednesday last week, the nurses at a hospital in El Alto have to wear a veil due to conditions set by Iran.
Bruce Bawer: Sept 14th 2009 Ottawa
I have posted this before, but as www.sevenload.com closed my channel, I have slowly started re-uploading the more important projects I have been involved with.
Please feel free to pass this link around to anyone who may be interested. It was a great pleasure and honour to be involved with the filming and editing of this evening with a great panel and Bruce Bawer. The Q&A with the panel I will add to this post in the next few days as I get it ready and upload it to the new site. This evening was made possible by Fred Litwin of Free Thinking Films and the Canadian branch of the International Free Press Society.
Eeyore for Vlad
bruce bawer speech vimeo from Vlad Tepes on Vimeo.
Ohio: Judge: Christian’s ‘arranged’ Islamic marriage invalid
This in my opinion is a significant victory over the dark forces of Islam and it’s ambition to destory individualism and western human rights gains. Much more so than banning clothes or building styles. I have always objected to the term ‘arrnaged’ or ‘forced marriage’ when it comes to Islam. In fact in these cases it is not marriage at all. The term placates western people but it is sexual and reproductive slavery and nothing better than that in many instances, perhaps enough to call it the rule, certainly in many Islamic nations and amongst a large number of Muslims in western nations.
In this descision, a judge clearly agrees with this or similar reasoning and has nullified a marriage forced on a young girl. Surely this will be a precednet setting thing so that in future, any girl can walk out of a marriage with no obligations etc. unless it can be shown she acted out of free will. This is a much bigger deal than it seems to be making on the various radars. Thanks to WND.COM for this one.
Posted: November 28, 2009
12:15 am EasternBy Bob Unruh
© 2009 WorldNetDailyA judge in Ohio ruled a marriage arranged by a Muslim father for his 17-year-old daughter who now has converted to Christianity isn’t valid, clearing her of accusations she made false statements in applying for a marriage license with the man who now is her husband.
The little-reported case developed in Ohio, where Larry Crain, senior counsel for the American Center for Law and Justice, argued on behalf of his client, identified only as “Nishan.”
Nishan was married last month to a man she began dating this year when she converted to Christianity, the ACLJ said.
She didn’t reveal her conversion to her “devout Muslim family members” until just before the marriage because she feared what they might do.
When her father discovered her plans, he allegedly tried to assault her and then filed a claim that she had falsified her marriage license application because of the earlier arranged marriage.
The ACLJ explained, “Nishan’s marriage was arranged by her father during a trip to Karachi, Pakistan, in May 2007 following her graduation from high school. Three days after the ‘nikah’ ceremony, Nishan and her father returned to the United States.
“She remained confused about the ceremony conducted during her trip to Pakistan and later took precautionary steps to annul her vows by preparing an affidavit for the U.S. consulate in Pakistan in August of 2007,” the legal team said. “She gave her affidavit to her father who assured her he would send the necessary paperwork to the consulate. Her family never again mentioned her alleged Paksitani husband and Nishan believed that all necessary steps had been taken to annul any alleged marriage vows.”
However, her father’s anger over her conversion to Christianity and her marriage included the statement she had falsified her marriage license application in the U.S. Continue Reading →
Canada: police recapture prisoner Nouri
From The National Post
Recently we posted an article from the Toronto Sun, ‘ Canadian escapes custody in Hamilton’. Today authorities recaptured Fawad Nouri, an inmate of the Hamilton Wentworth Detention Centre and escapee from the Hamilton General Hospital. He was apprehended toting a replica handgun and handcuffs. Wasssssup Fawad?
Police recapture escaped Hamilton prisoner Nouri
Kenyon Wallace, National Post
Published: Friday, November 27, 2009.
Fawad Nouri’s flirtation with freedom ended almost as swiftly as it began.
The 25-year-old Hamilton-Wentworth Detention Centre inmate was arrested on Friday, just three days after he escaped custody following a visit to Hamilton General Hospital on Tuesday.
Hamilton Police say they received a call around 6 p.m. local time on Friday from a citizen who reported a sighting of a “suspicious person” who matched the description of Nouri in the city’s south end. When police arrived, the man started running away and a brief chase ensued. After a few blocks, the suspect stopped running and surrendered. He was found with a replica handgun in his waistband and handcuffs in his pocket.
Also yesterday, police arrested two men believed to have aided Nouri in his dramatic getaway. In the morning, police searched two Hamilton homes and arrested Shaddy Milhim, 19, of Hamilton. They also siezed a 1998 silver Hyundai Tiberon, believed to be the getaway car in Nouri’s escape. Later, a second male, Didar Kader, 19, of Hamilton, was also arrested. Both men are charged with aiding an escape from lawful custody and will appear in court this morning.
Police say Nouri is charged with escaping custody and may be facing more charges related to his escape.
Nouri was awaiting trial on a number of charges including forcible confinement in relation to a January robbery at a Hamilton Tim Hortons.
During the ensuing police chase, Nouri is alleged to have fired shots at officers. The suspects eventually crashed their getaway car into a snowbank, at which point police shot Nouri once in the arm.
He was at the hospital for a follow-up appointment.
National Post
Steve Emerson on Fort Hood. This is good. Watch it.
Thank you KitmanTV for putting this up. This kind of lucidity has become rare and as rare things can be, precious. Steve Emerson founded “the investigative project on terrorism” 1998
http://www.investigativeproject.org/
He also made the legendary documentary in 1994 “jihad in America” and made a speech to congress warning about osama bin laden group
Here is his documentary, again courtesy of KitmanTV
Al-Jazeera: t.v. worth watching
From The National Post
Bring on Al Jazeera, Canada can take it
Channel will open our eyes to propaganda
Jonathan Kay, National Post Published: Friday, November 27, 2009
Since 9/11, it’s become part of the received wisdom that we in the West have got to pay more attention to the attitudes of Muslims in the Middle East and central Asia. Terrorist attacks may end with bombs and guns, but they begin with propaganda and conspiracy theories.
Yet when the opportunity comes to actually have Muslim voices piped into our homes, our media and political elites get cold feet. In 2003, when Al Jazeera Arabic (AJA) petitioned to be carried in Canada, Jewish groups complained that it might become a medium to indoctrinate Canadian viewers with anti-Semitism. Eventually, the CRTC approved AJA. But in so doing, the CRTC declared that cable and satellite carriers would be directly responsible for blacking out AJA material that crossed the line into hate speech.
In other words, Canadian media officials sitting in Toronto would be in charge of hitting the bleep-out button, in real time, when Ahmed from Amman phoned into a 3 a.m. call-in show to complain about Benjamin Netanyahu, or some preacher went off on a rant about the simian qualities of Jews. Not surprisingly, no one in Canada was willing to take up the challenge. And so, to this day, the only place we can see AJA is on the Internet.
It was a ridiculous decision. By the standards of Arabiclanguage media, AJA represents the height of elite journalistic professionalism. Yes, it has its share of nutbars and hatemongers — but that’s the Middle East for you. If you’re looking for a politically correct Arabic version of PBS, you’re simply not going to find it.
In any case, Canadian Arabs thwarted from watching AJA aren’t going to suddenly start reading Commentary magazine and watching Fox News. They’re going to head elsewhere, like pirated feeds to the Hezbollah-run satellite service al-Manar. In fact, the real jihadi types — the ones we should be worried about — typically don’t even bother watching television. They’re too busy downloading terror snuff films, and surfing jihadi forums on the uncensored Internet.
This week came progress: The CRTC approved the Canadian transmission of Al-Jazeera English (A JE), an even-less inflammatory and more mainstream (by Western standards) satellite television service. Having watched A JE a few times, I can attest that its left-wing, mildly anti-American tone isn’t that much different from a lot of the fare that you’d hear on, say, CBC Radio’s The Current. (No surprise, in fact, that AJE has become a home for several ex-CBCers, including former TV host Avi Lewis and his one-time boss, Tony Burman.) Even the Canadian Jewish Congress and similarly minded groups were hard-pressed to find examples suggesting AJE had a human-rights-challenged editorial agenda.
The future addition of AJE to Canadians’ satellite and cable menu is a welcome development. But I’d prefer to see the CRTC truly open the information floodgates. AJA should be permitted in Canada, full stop — and relieved of the electronic leash collared on it five years ago. If some of the material shocks Canadian viewers, all the better: It’ll open our eyes by exposing us to a tiny thimbleful of the propaganda that many Muslim cultures are soaked in 24/7.
—–
A little while back, I spoke at a conference in Washington, D.C., where foreign-affairs specialists talked about the problem of anti-Western misinformation being spread overseas. The most shocking presentation was made by an Urdu-language specialist, who told the crowd that many Pakistani TV stations don’t even run conventional tele vision programming: They just run the most bizarre, conspiratorial YouTube videos they can find, annotated with local-language close-captions.
Such media practices go a long way to explain why people in Pakistan, and the rest of the Muslim world besides, entertain so many phobic attitudes toward, say, Canadian troops fighting in Afghanistan. While those soldiers do the real fighting, the rest of us should at least have the courage to put up with a radical Imam or two fulminating on our television screens. In real life, there’s no such thing as changing the channel.