Is anyone in Canada going to say something about radical Islam?

Radical Islam is a growing problem in Canada and across the world that will require a healthy amount of political courage to tackle effectively. 

Now, expecting any amount of courage from politicians or media elites tends to be a fool’s errand on even the simplest of issues, so no one should be surprised about the radio silence from the political or media elites when it comes to radical Islam. But just how bad is it?

Before we move on it is important to define what we are talking about when we say “radical Islam”. There are two categories, first would be the Jihadists or Islamic terrorists like ISIS or Boko Haram. These are openly violent groups that will use any means necessary to institute their radical worldview of an Islamically dominated Sharia-state on the world.  

The second type would be the Islamist (Islamism) some called Political Islam. This would be people who want to institute a Sharia-state on non-Islamic parts of the world, but usually do not endorse violence, but instead prefer to infiltrate and use the institutions of a country against itself. Examples of Islamist groups would be the Muslim Brotherhood and Jamaat e Islami.

Here is an excerpt from a 1991 internal memorandum from the Muslim brotherhood about their goals for North America: “The Ikhwan (Muslim Brotherhood) must understand that their work in America is a kind of grand Jihad in eliminating and destroying the Western civilization from within and “sabotaging” its miserable house by their hands and the hands of the believers so that it is eliminated and God’s religion is made victorious over all other religions.”

The Muslim Brotherhood in Canada operates out of “front groups” or “proxy organizations.” According to the testimony of Dr. Lorenzo Vidino, an expert on Islamism in North America and Europe, in the Canadian senate, there are currently 8-10 major Muslim Brotherhood front groups operating here in Canada. Four of them he identified by name: IRFAN (now defunct as a terrorist group), The National Council of Canadian Muslims (NCCM) formally known as CAIR-Canada, The Muslim Association of Canada (MAC) which at the time said they were part of the Muslim Brotherhood on their website, and Islamic Relief Canada.  

Two of these groups, the NCCM and Islamic Relief Canada, constantly receive government funding and the NCCM is often consulted on policy decisions at all levels of government. For example, the NCCM helped create Ontario’s Islamic Heritage Month curriculum. One would think this would raise the eyebrows of some mainstream media figures, but not a word was said. 

In the interest of fairness to the media and politicians, expert testimony in Canada does not make something a fact, but a court-certified expert testifying on a subject they are a certified expert on legally counts as evidence. So, to say that the NCCM IS a Muslim brotherhood front group isn’t fully accurate. It is correct to say though that there is evidence that the NCCM is a Muslim Brotherhood front group.

I bring this up because this is nowhere near the most blatant example of the Trudeau government ignoring or enabling radical Islam. Take for example the ISNA, the Islamic Society of North America. Last year, the ISNA received their second suspension from the CRA for a terrorism funding violation by sending money down a path to Hizbul Mujahedeen. 

While under charitable suspension, the ISNA applied for funding from the Canadian Summer Jobs Program that would cover a period of time that was also under their charitable suspension, and they were accepted. 

This is the very same controversial program that put new moral rules on Canadian business, primarily a hard-line pro-abortion stance in all circumstances, that resulted in a lot of groups (mostly Christian organizations) losing their funding. To recap, according to Trudeau’s government, bible camps where deemed not to be in line with Canadian values, but groups with multiple terrorism funding violations are. 

It is also important to note that the ISNA is not a fringe organization, they are politically connected. When Liberal MP Iqra Khalid announced her candidacy, she did so at the ISNA headquarters, even though it was not in her riding. Iqra Khalid was also the author of Motion 103 which was designed to fight Islamophobia. 

Of the 23 million dollars earmarked to fight Islamophobia under M-103, Iqra Khalid identified Islamic Relief Canada (IRC) as one of the recipients of the money to help them combat antisemitism. The problem here though is that two of our allies, the United Arab Emirates and Israel, say that IRC’s parent organization, Islamic Relief Worldwide, funds Hamas – which is a listed terrorist organization here in Canada.

That is probably the most blatant example of Justin Trudeau’s government enabling radical Islam, but if you think that simply voting him out will solve this problem, then you are in for some bad news. All major political parties have some level of cooperation with Islamist organizations. 

On our theme of blatant and obvious, there are two great examples from the Conservative party both Federally and Provincially in Salma Ataullahjan and Kaleed Rasheed, respectively. 

Salma Ataullahjan is a Conservative senator who has many connections that I would deem “questionable.” To continue the theme of “how obvious does this need to be before someone says something,” take a look at this picture of her at the Pakistani consulate.

Conservative Senator Salma Ataullahjan stands beside a “Kashmir will become Pakistan sign.”

To set up this photo, this is an event at the Pakistani consulate billed as solidarity with Kashmir to address the situation in the revocation of article 370.

If you don’t want to learn the whole story of genocides in Kashmir just know there were 7 genocides of the Hindu Kashmiri Pandits by Islamist forces, the most recent was in 1990 where one of the slogans of the mob was “Kashmir will become Pakistan”. 

Fast forward to today and that woman wrapped in a dress with the Pakistani flag is Canadian senator Salma Ataullahjan, and she is making a speech about “Kashmiri independence” opining about how Islamophobic India is and why Muslims needed a separate country.  One problem, while she is talking about Kashmiri Independence, she is doing so underneath a sign that says “Kashmir will become Pakistan” in Urdu. Also, yes, she clearly understands this as half her speech was in Urdu. 

Now let us go to Ontario’s Progressive Conservatives and their rising star Kaleed Rasheed. Last year Kaleed Rasheed got up in the Legislature and decided to praise a member of the Muslim Brotherhood for his work teaching immigrants “Canadian Values”. 

When I say Muslim Brotherhood here, I don’t mean a front group with connections and associations I’ll need to explain, but an actual member of the Original Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood that gained power under Mohammed Morsi. Khaled Al Qazzaz was a secretary to Morsi’s Muslim Brotherhood government on foreign policy, and was imprisoned by the next government for his role in the Muslim Brotherhood trying to Islamize Egypt and ban democracy. This resulted in an all hands on deck approach by the Canadian government to get him and his wife, Sarah Attia, back into Canada.

Once back in the country, they established the Qazzaz Foundation, which is what MPP Kaleed Rasheed was so enamoured with. According to Rasheed, who claims to be a conservative, the Qazzaz foundation deserves government recognition because of their commitment to social justice, equity of outcome and democracy. 

To break this down a bit Kaleed Rasheed is in Doug Ford’s “conservative” party but likes Social justice- which I’d describe as Left-wing mumbo jumbo. Equity of outcome- literal Communism.  Commitment to democracy- from a man part of a government that tried to ban democracy. Again, this man’s organization teaches non-English speaking immigrants “Canadian values” – what could possibly go wrong?

After this, Kahleed Rasheed was promoted from standard MPP to deputy government Whip in the party.

Unfortunately, we have a political class that is happily in bed with Islamists and can rest there quite comfortably since they know the media poses no real threat of competently reporting on any of this. Take for example the recent major Islamic conference in Toronto, Reviving the Islamic Spirit, which bills itself as the largest one in North America. They chose to invite Siraj Wahhaj as one of their main speakers, and this should have raised some eyebrows within the media if it truly is as sensationalist and Islamophobic as some people claim it is.

Siraj Wahhaj’s journey to Canada might have made for a very interesting story for any outlet brave enough to cover it. If you are familiar with the name it might be from the recent story from the US where a terrorist training camp was found in New Mexico where a dead 3-year-old was found dead and the other children malnourished being trained to commit school shootings in the name of Jihad. 

The ring leader of this operation was Siraj Wahhaj, not the Siraj Wahhaj speaking at the RIS conference, but his father. The dead child was his grandson, and all the adults arrested in connection with this terrorist training camp where part of Siraj Wahhaj’s family, despite this he claims to have no knowledge of anything going on at the terrorist training camp or the other one found in Alabama.

It wouldn’t be fair to fully pin the actions of his son on Siraj Wahhaj, but this is not his only point of public controversy. Siraj Wahhaj himself is an unindicted co-conspirator in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, and has preached publicly that Muslim’s should not go into politics to serve the interest of the American public, but to further the goals of Islam.

So here we have the largest Islamic conference in North America inviting a man who was involved in a plot to blow up the World Trade center and believes Muslims should try and Islamize the societies they live in. Not the best look in my opinion. 

I bring this up for two reasons. First, to point out that the Mainstream media will ignore stories about Islamism, even if the story could potentially gain a lot of interest. Second, that the utter failure of the media to provide minimal pushback to Islamism has created an environment were extremists can openly work towards the destruction of our country and the “controversy” only occurs when someone points it out, this is the Canada we live in.

Could you imagine if we lived in a country where just one major politician or media outlet had an ounce of courage? If we had a CPC leader who would have tweeted “Hey Salma, what does that sign behind you say?” or “Wait, isn’t the ISNA under charitable suspension for terrorism?  How did they get Federal funding?” maybe “Siraj Wahhaj? Is that the same Siraj Wahhaj involved in the 1993 plot to blow up the World Trade Center?” 

We have reached a point where the key to defeating Radical Islam in Canada may simply be for someone to just say something. Unfortunately, that day does not appear to be coming any time soon.