“The secret of all victory lies in the organization of the non-obvious.” -Marcus Aurelius
Like the Clintons and sticking to the con, and like Trudeau and his verbal strategy of total cognitive dissonance, the Toronto Star is doubling down on their article defending a genocidal imam, and making him the victim of racism and those who exposed him as the villains.
The video in question:
Previous article on this issue.
UPDATE: Gates of Vienna analysis of this issue.
UPDATE 2: An excellent article by Honest Reporting Canada. Worth the read. And they are investigating the “experts”.
Were these individuals paid by the Star?
With respect to Mohammed Aboghodda of the Understanding Islam Academy, the Star describes him as an “expert” – please explain on what grounds he can be described as an “expert” in Arabic and a trusted source when it comes to translation work?
Is the Star aware that one of its “experts”, Nazir Harb Michel of Georgetown University, was previously accused of providing “whitewashed translations” of an Islamic hate preacher’s sermon in America? In fact, he’s an ardent anti-Israel detractor (see here and here). Shouldn’t this be disclosed?
Is the Star aware that one of its “experts”, according to the ADL, Kristin Brustad of the University of Texas at Austin, wrote a letter to the editor that appeared in the Atlanta Journal Constitution in 2001 where Brustad claimed that Israel had violated international law with its “brutal, dehumanizing military occupation and confiscation of Palestinian land, home demolition and agricultural stranglehold.” Shouldn’t this be disclosed?
Is the Star aware that Atiqa Hachimi of the University of Toronto is a signatory to several anti-Israel campaigns? Shouldn’t this be disclosed? Hachimi claimed in a video news report that the Star produced (see immediately below) that the alleged video recording of the Imam’s sermon is “dangerously lacking context,” was “doctored” and that it “promotes a gross misunderstanding” with a wrong translation.
Some of you may remember this video of an Imam at the Toronto Masjid (Mosque) preaching death to everyone and demanding that the Jerusalem Mosque be “cleansed of the filth of the Jews”.
Well, after several months, the Toronto Star published a rather lengthy attempt to spin this sermon and make everyone else look like the bad guy while this imam is just a poor misunderstood messenger of allah.
Here is a small excerpt:
It is about an imam who made hurtful mistakes that he could not adequately explain. But it is also about the slipperiness of language — especially in a climate of viral misinformation, polarized debate and geopolitical conflicts that have found fresh battlegrounds in Canada.
Elkasrawy’s prayers were undeniably problematic, but they were also distorted to fit a certain narrative that gave his words added potency amid rising anti-Islamic sentiment.
In a controversy that hinges on his words, a central question was never fully investigated: Did Elkasrawy really say Jews were filth? Did he really call for them to be killed?
According to several Arabic experts contacted by the Star, the answer is no.
“I’ve learned a personal lesson throughout this entire process,” Farber says. “Do not take anything for granted. Not even words.”
It goes on for pages and pages of insubstantial apologia, raising the name of Bernie Farber several times, a far far left wing Jewish fellow who speaks at lots of events where the multicultural narrative has to be pushed on Canadians, recently appearing with a panel of leftist and Islamic speakers including NCCM, (the new name for CAIR-Canada), at City Hall in Ottawa.
and then we get to this:
Translation is not an exact science. Words are like prisms, refracting different shades of meaning. A good translation is one that captures the right hue.
More vilification of everyone connected to the translation and then:
But such stories contained a glaring oversight: this was not at all what Elkasrawy said.
This is the consensus that emerged from five Arabic experts who independently analyzed Elkasrawy’s prayers at the Star’s request. The experts — from Canada, the United States and the United Kingdom — are Arabic translators, linguists and university professors with published book chapters, academic papers and textbooks. None of them knows Elkasrawy.
The experts found that the imam’s prayers were not without fault, and many clarified that they do not condone or excuse some of the language he used.
But they also described the initial, widely circulated translation as “mistranslated,” “decontextualized” and “disingenuous.” One said it had the hallmarks of a “propaganda translation.”
Lets see if it is a mistranslation or not.
Lets start with Hizb-utTahrir:
[…]
Al-Aqsa is calling out to you, where is Al-Farouq Omar, where is Salahuddin… Where is the Khilafah of the Muslims, do you trivialize that the station of Israa’ of RasulAllah (saw) is desecrated by the Jews and their filth?
[…]
The Jews storm into Al-Aqsa to perform their rituals… to desecrate the land with their filth. Can Al-Aqsa be desecrated and to have other than Allah honored in it while you watch!! Where are you, O the best of the believers??
[…]
O officers and commanders renew the memory of Salahuddin and gather the two extensions of Al-Okab; Egypt and Ash-Sham, to soar with the Muslim Ummah and crush the Jewish entity and purify the holy land of their filth.
This is a pretty solidly Islamic organization. And they appear to be quite clear on the use of the word, “filth” with respect (after a fashion) to Jewish people. Perhaps, as Robert Spencer suggests, the Toronto Star should send their people down to the office of Hizb-ut-Tahrir and teach them proper Arabic.
Please note that the official page of this group linked above and quoted here, is IN ENGLISH. No question of translation issues. It is their translation. Not ours. But does show what conventional and orthodox Islamic teaching is. I mean for those who can’t be bothered to read a koran.
Now lets see what other imams are saying:
California Friday Sermon: Imam Ammar Shahin Cites Hadith, Prays for Annihilation of Jews
Al-Aqsa Mosque Address: Preacher Ali Abu Ahmad Prays for Annihilation of the Jews
Friday Sermon in Gaza: Muslims Should Wage Jihad to Liberate the Al-Aqsa Mosque from the Filth of the Jews, the Brothers of Apes and Pigs
Hizb Al-Tahrir Rally at Al-Aqsa Mosque Calls on Pakistan Army to Liberate Jerusalem from Jews’ Filth
Preacher at Al-Aqsa Mosque Omar Abu Sara to the Jews: “We Shall Slaughter You Without Mercy”
Hizb ut-Tahrir: “crush the Jewish entity and purify the holy land of their filth”
http://www.hizb-ut-tahrir.org/index.php/EN/nshow/2421/
Hizb ut-Tahrir: “Don’t you yearn for the liberation of Al-Aqsa Mosque from the filth of the Jews?”
http://www.hizb-ut-tahrir.org/index.php/EN/nshow/2463/
Hizb ut-Tahrir: “preserving the holy sites, and liberating Al-Aqsa Mosque and ridding it from the filth of the Jews”
http://www.hizb-ut-tahrir.org/index.php/EN/nshow/2751/
Hizb ut-Tahrir: “… has it been purified by our armies from the filth of the usurping Jews?”
http://www.hizb-ut-tahrir.org/PDF/EN/en_lflts_pdf/2016_10_15_Tunisia_EN.pdf
Hizb ut-Tahrir: “…purifying for them the Earth from the filth of the oppressing Jews”
http://www.hizb-ut-tahrir.org/index.php/EN/nshow/1227/
Hizb ut-Tahrir: “We tell them, that the liberation of the blessed land from the filth of Jews is in your capacity”
http://www.hizb-ut-tahrir.org/index.php/EN/nshow/2237/
Hizb ut-Tahrir: “Is it not time for your large army chanting the Takbeer to liberate Al-Aqsa from the filth of the Jews”
http://www.hizb-ut-tahrir.org/index.php/EN/nshow/2606/
Robert Spencer did an article today on Jihad Watch on this subject here:
This is laying it on really thick. He is just a wide-eyed kid from Cairo at heart, you see, hesitant to speak because he makes mistakes. How can you greasy Islamophobes get mad at this poor lovable guy?
Please click over and read the whole article at JW.
And lastly, an interview I did with Robert Spencer just this evening:
Comment under the Robert Spencer interview at Youtube:
The Toronto Star’s “Arabic sociolinguist and dialectologist” Atiqa Hachimi says that ??? (danas) is “widely understood as desecration when used in reference to holy things and places.” This is absolute rubbish. The root of this word means “to be soiled, sullied, defiled, polluted.” Only in the second, causative form (called ??????? in Arabic) does this root mean “to desecrate.” In this form, the word would be ????? (tadn?s), not ??? (danas). These are completely different words. The imam is clearly saying “Purify Al-Aqsa mosque from the danas,” not the “tadn?s” of the Jews. Muslims will do anything to defend their religion and their so-called Prophet. This includes lying and killing.
But in a way I have to admire the Toronto Star.
It reminds me of that old joke. The one that was worn out and is new again.
“Who ya gonna believe? Me? Or your lying eyes?
Please note the credentials of the speaker, as well as the fact that it is in English, and that there cannot be an issue of translation of the word, “Filth”. He means what he said about Jews, and all unbelievers.
This is an influential imam in Canada according to his titles.
The other day, I interviewed Tim Burton of Liberty GB who spent 6 weeks of a 12 week sentence in prison for a few sarcastic emails to a Muslim who had committed fraud against the state for a hate crime. We discussed the seeming double standard in the UK for muslims over there.
It did not take long at all for the American left to go full, Animal Farm.
Participants of the 21st annual Chicago Dyke March, a parade geared towards members of the city’s lesbian community, found themselves on Saturday at the center of controversy.
The Dyke March was founded by a collective that billed the event as more inclusive and social justice-oriented than the more well-known and mainstream Chicago Pride Parade.
According to a report in The Windy City Times, the three members were told to leave the parade because the flags “made people feel unsafe” and that the Dyke March was a “anti-Zionist, pro-Palestinian” space.
The expelled Jewish members said that “there’s nothing offensive about this flag. It’s a statement of Jewish identity.”
“It was a flag from my congregation which celebrates my queer, Jewish identity which I have done for over a decade marching in the Dyke March with the same flag,” Laurel Grauer, one of the participants, told the Chicago-based publication.
As to the American Jewish left, sympathy has now run out. your going to get what you brought onto yourselves. Its not like this has never happened before.
I misunderstood a piece of information at the point of editing and wrote four hours late. But in fact the demo as called for 2:00 PM for our side, and the demo for the Muslims and leftists was called for 3:00 PM and they arrived at 5:45 PM.
H/T M
Today is anti-Israel day according to Iran, who is the core of the organization of antisemitic marches across the world, thinly disguised as objections to the existence of the state of Israel.
We have a friend at the demo who I will not name for now, to keep them safe but will send photos and updates as events dictate.
It is still some time before the demo begins, but they did send a photo of the US consul with a large rainbow banner hanging from it, which is right at the location of the demo, as is the Toronto Masjid.
The one made semi-famous by the number of imams, one of them a prominent Toronto eye surgeon, demanding death to all the Jewish people of the world. Updates will be added TO THE BOTTOM of this post as they come in.
So please start checking this post now and again as of 2:00 ET today when it begins.
US consul in Toronto celebrates having sexual contact with unusual things.
1:45 PM, no one at the location but police and a paramedic SUV. Still fifteen minutes till the destroy-Israel march is set to begin.
2:17 PM, Counter-demo, JDL and so on appearing. Cops keeping both sides more than a brick throw apart.
2:35 PM
3:02 PM, it is rumoured that Antifa is approaching the area West to East on Armour Ave. and Hamas people, North to South on University Ave.
There is a marked rise in Police numbers. The counter protestors are at the corner of University, and something the auto-correct spell checker on our source’s phone changed to, “armpit avenue”.
5:45 PM and now hundreds of Antisemitic Muslims can be seen marching towards the location. The number of police has shot up dramatically.
H/T buck
We have written here at length, and elsewhere, and also posted many times the explanation of how, for practical purposes and in nearly all cases, anti-Israel sentiments is a totem, a beard only, for antisemitism. So we here at VladTepes have decided to simply call it that. To do otherwise is to use the enemy false narrative, sales terms, and justifications.
New Delhi India:
(If they removed the H from the name, Muslims would be trying to blow up that city as well)
Malaysia:
Iran: Rouhani joins thousands for Al-Quds Day demonstrations in Tehran
LIVE Berlin + possible counter demo
It took me a long time to come around to the position that “anti-zionism” is antisemitism. Not because it has to be, it certainly doesn’t. In theory, a person can be against the existence of the state of Israel as a polity and not have a problem with the Jewish people.
But over the fullness of decades discussing it with people, I had come to realize that not once did I meet someone who was an anti-zionist who had any objections to any other state based on the same standards, when that standard showed other states in far more extreme violations of that same standard.
The claim of an apartheid state was never applied to Japan, China, Saudi Arabia, Afghanistan or any number of nations where the claim is easily demonstrably true.
The claim of the manner of formation of Israel applies far more to Pakistan and other states, where Pakistan, for instance, has more history as a Hindu homeland conquered by genocidal Islamic maniacs like general Timur Lang [Tamerlane].
Israel however, was homesteaded by the people who became Jews, and the origins story of slavery in Egypt is likely just that. A mythology of origins.
At some point one concedes, as does the new banned and unbanned German documentary on Antisemitism, that anti-zionist is a beard-with-no-moustache, hiding a more classical antisemitism.
Thank you Ava Lon for the heavy lifting on this clip. If you are French and Jewish, it seems like Netanya is the place to live.
Another short segment of the banned and now unbanned German documentary on contemporary antisemitism in Europe thanks to Islam.
Much obliged are well all to Ava Lon for this translation:
***UPDATE***
Breitbart brings us this update. Apparently the network finally aired this documentary:
A film which “proves” endemic anti-Semitism among Europe’s growing Muslim community has finally been aired, just days after its release was cancelled by Arte, the Franco-German television network that commissioned it.
The documentary was uploaded to the German newspaper Bild‘s website on Tuesday with the banner headline “Jew-Hatred: Bild Shows the Documentary Which Arte Won’t.” It then continued: “The TV documentary proves the hatred of Jews in Europe, some of which have only two words: disgusting and embarrassing.”
As Breitbart Jerusalem reported, the commissioning editors at Arte were accused of censorship after shelving the investigative piece about European Jews facing persecution by Muslim migrants. Arte defended the decision by saying it was not “balanced” and the topic was really “very sensitive”.
Original post below:
Two left-leaning German, and Franco German news networks teamed up to commission a documentary on antisemitism as it is today in Germany and when they saw it, they rejected it.
Of course there are official reasons which are about as memorable as that rice pudding from camp. But the more likely reason is that it showed that antisemitism, as it has always been, is from the left and Islam.
This goes against the narrative and so was rejected.
One of the networks, ARD, some years ago made a brilliant documentary which some of us translated and subtitled also, called, “The Turban and the Swastika”, which was an excellent expose on Nazism and Islam and the partnership they enjoyed to exterminate the Jews. So it is surprising they would block this much milder documentary today. A sign of the times perhaps, or perhaps something else.
Below, is eight minutes of the first 30 minutes of the documentary, More is coming and perhaps at some point, we can get the whole thing done.
The Turban and the Swastika is below: