The Islamist Elephant in the Room No Politicians Will Acknowledge

I had the privilege of spending a few hours today, October 2, amongst the bravest people in Canada.

One, Marc Lebuis, is a name you won’t recognize, because up to now he’s kept a low profile as the one-man show running www.pointdebasculecanada.ca. This is an anti-Islamist site that brings francophone Quebecers the news and frank opinions on the relentless push of the soft jihadists in our midst to Islamicize society, opinions that the mainstream media are too politically correct to publish. Marc and some close associates organized today’s press conference on the subject, “Political Islam—A Threat to Our Freedoms.”

The three other brave people appearing with him should be household names, but their courage and eloquence is, shamefully, only known and saluted by a relative handful of grateful Canadians: Salim Mansur, Tarek Fatah and Raheel Raza, three Canadian Muslims facing death threats by other Canadian Muslims for exposing the dangers of Islamism, a totalitarian ideology that wears the mask of religion.

The room at the Omni hotel in Montreal was filled to capacity, reverberating with frequent applause to statements like these from Salim Mansur: “Islam is my private life, my conscience . . . [but] my faith does not take precedence over my duties . . . to Canada and its constitution, which I embrace freely;” “I am first and most importantly a Canadian;” “only in a free society will you find Islam as a faith and not a political religion.”

Appreciation was shown as well for the statements of Tarek Fatah, who spoke about the threat to freedom of speech posed by Islamists who constantly seek to chill any perceived criticism of any Muslim. In explaining the danger Islamism poses to society, Fatah said that “Islam is to Islamism as uranium is to weapons of mass destruction.” Having lived 30 years in Pakistan and 10 in Saudi Arabia, Fatah knows intimately what constitutes “soft jihad” when he sees it. He expressed his sorrow, as a lifetime social democrat that after 17 years of engaged support for the NDP, he could no longer be affiliated with that party. He saw the doors opening to Islamists under Alexa McDonough and now, under Layton, he has seen them “flood” into the party.

It soon became apparent that the particular political focus of all three of the speakers is the NDP, which has shamelessly courted and integrated into its inner circles Islamist Muslims with views that are antithetical and even dangerous to the continued health of Canadian values. Fatah has watched in frustration as Islamists in the NDP pursue a relentless campaign to instill a sense of victimhood in Muslim youth. Yesterday an NDP candidate in Toronto Centre—an immigration lawyer, Farouk El-Khaki—accused the judiciary of being anti-Islam. He was not chastised by Jack Layton, and even more worrying, he was not held to account by any other party candidate. It is clear that no party leader wants Islamism raised as an election issue.

Jack Layton, Mansur said “has gone to bed with Islamists.” He is running candidates in Ontario and Quebec who are closely identified with the push for Sharia law, which, all the panelists made clear is the litmus test for dividing real moderate Muslims from Islamists. Fatah also expressed his contempt for the Ontario Human Rights Commission which, he asserted is “infiltrated by Islamists”: There are commissioners in the OHCR closely linked to the Canadian Islamic Congress and the Canada-Arab federation, both of which, according to Fatah, have “contempt for Canadian values.” Anyone, he says, “who brings religion into politics should be suspect” because they “are a threat to western civilization.” The NDP’s failure to interrogate their Muslim supporters for fear of revealing their Islamism is the “racism of lower expectations.”

Raheel Raza introduced herself as “the proud recipient of a fatwa” for having the gall to try to lead prayers. She shared her joy in having the freedom in Canada to be spiritually religious without fear of political coercion, something she could never have in a Muslim country: “No Muslim country would allow me the rights I have here.” She knows she is being monitored from abroad, since she received her fatwa by e-mail from Saudi Arabia. How would they have known about her if she were not being informed on by Islamists here? She cannot fathom why politicians pander to the Islamists. Actually she can fathom it. “Political correctness” will not allow politicians to raise the question of allegiance in their Muslim supporters.

As for feminists, where are they? Also pandering. They have not spoken up about the Talibanist woman in Mississauga who teaches the virtues of polygamy to her female students, nor have they criticized a cleric who openly admits to performing polygamous marriages. Feminists seem to have lower expectations for Muslim women than for themselves: what Tarek Fatah calls “left wing racism.” Ms Raza is, according to an Islamist website, #5 of the “most hated Muslims in the world.” “My aim,” she chuckles, “is to become #1.”

The air began to crackle with political electricity when Samaa Elibyan, a Muslim journalist with close ties to the Canadian Islamic Congress, and an admirer of the infamous Taliban apologist Yvonne Ridley, stood up to challenge the panel’s right to criticize Samira Laouni, NDP candidate in Bourassa riding, who was not present, for her Islamist views of Sharia law. Mr Mansur and Mr Fatah reminded her that if the NDP had the right to pick an Islamist candidate—and they do—then anyone else has the right to criticize that choice, including “the right to insult you.” After the conference, predictably enough, Radio-Canada were all over Ms Elibyan for her views. Not a single reporter was interested in interviewing the three brave hearts who are trying to warn us of a clear and present danger that nobody, least of all the people tasked with protecting us from our enemies, wants to talk about.