Monday, July 26, 2010
Phyllis Lambert and Serge Joyal defend the Muslim Brotherhood at the expense of freedom, par Tania Tokarsky
In a letter published by Le Devoir on July 13th 2010, Phyllis Lambert* and Serge Joyal** ask the Charest Government to reconsider its decision to purchase the building that the Muslim Association of Canada (MAC) was going to acquire in downtown Montreal in order to establish a mosque and a community center. They stated that there was nothing in the MAC's project that would threaten the historical and architectural qualities of the building and thus concluded that the Government's decision had the appearance of excluding the Muslim community.
By neglecting to discuss the aspects of the MAC's program as well as the other organisations involved in the project, Ms. Lambert and Mr. Joyal are making those who are opposed to the project look like bigots. As for Point de Bascule, our opposition to the MAC's project has never been motivated by a hostility towards a new Muslim house of worship. From the very beginning, PdeB made it clear that the problem was the political program of the organisation behind the project.
We believe that an opposition to a MAC-led mosque based on an in-depth examination of its political goals and objectives demonstrates a responsible attitude and a commitment towards individual freedom rather than closed-mindedness.
The Facts
The mosque project that was to be implemented inside the historical Grey Nun's building was launched by the Muslim Student Association (MSA) branches of both McGill and Concordia Universities. The MSA was founded in 1963. It was one of the first communication channels that the Muslim Brotherhood established in North America. The affiliation of both Montreal universities to the MSA is explicitly mentioned in their respective constitution available on the Internet.
To manage their mosque project, the McGill and Concordia MSA branches constituted the Montreal Community Center (MCC). Eventually the MCC entrusted the management of the project to the MAC, the Muslim Brotherhood arm operating in English Canada. Présence Musulmane Canada (PMC) headed by Salah Basalamah acts as a counterpart to the MAC in French Canada. The MAC and PMC jointly organised the April 2010 conferences of Tariq Ramadan when he visited Montreal.
On its website, the MAC declares that it "adopts and strives to implement Islam, [...] as understood in its contemporary context by the late Imam, Hassan al-Banna. MAC regards this ideology as the best representation of Islam as delivered by Prophet Muhammad."
A summary of Hassan al-Banna's doctrine is available in the 50 point manifesto that he sent to several political leaders of the Arab world in 1947. The manifesto promotes the abolition of political parties and the establishment of a single party system; the modification of the laws so that they conform to shariah; the multiplication of associations dedicated to promoting the spirit of jihad amongst the youth; the closure of dance halls and the censorship of movies and plays and so forth. In his manifesto, al-Banna stated his intention to impose a unique dress code to the entire population. Faced with the Egyptian authorities' refusal to implement al-Banna'sprogram, his organisation multiplied acts of terror in Egypt, including the assassination of the Prime Minister in 1948.
In one of his essays, On Jihad, al-Banna explains that "it's an obligation for us [Muslims] to fight against them [the infidels] after inviting them [to join Islam], even if they do not fight against us. (Five Tracts, Translated by Charles Wendell, Berkeley, University of California Press, 1978, p. 147)
To inspire his troops, Hassan al-Banna recalled in his essay To What Do We Invite Humanity? that in history many leaders experienced modest beginnings before finally achieving "success and fortune". He mentioned several Muslim warlords who inspired him. Only one was non-Muslim. It was Adolph Hitler. Today, the spiritual leader of the Muslim Brotherhood, Yusuf al-Qaradawi, frequently reminds us through statements made in the Arab media that the Islamist organization is still a fierce enemy of individual freedoms.
In recent years, al-Qaradawi promoted the killing of apostates from Islam [islamonline.net] and homosexuals [video 5:27], he introduced Hitler as a messenger of Allah who came to punish the Jews [video], he urged Muslims to conquer the West [video], he favoured female genital mutilations and so forth.
When the Islamist militants behind the Montreal downtown mosque project declare that they will "adopt and strive to implement Islam, [...] as understood in its contemporary context by the late Imam, Hassan al-Banna", they are announcing that they will devote their efforts to make these principles triumph.
During the two trials having lead to the conviction in 2008 of several members of the U.S. Muslim Brotherhood network for financing terrorist activities in the Middle East through the United States, the prosecution presented as evidence an internal memorandum of the organization. A list attached to the main document confirms that the MSA, which coordinates the activities of its McGill and Concordia chapters is indeed part of the North American network of the Brotherhood.
The internal document also clearly mentions the goal pursued by the organisation in North American. The excerpt reads as follows:
"The Ikhwan [the Brotherhood] must understand that their work in America is kind of a 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. [...] It is a Muslim's destiny to perform Jihad and work wherever he is and wherever he lands until the final hour comes."
A Diversified Opposition to the Muslim Brotherhood
If we needed a convincing proof that opposing the Muslim Brotherhood does not equate to the ostracising of Muslims in general, it came from none other than Muslims themselves on the very day that Le Devoir published Phyllis Lambert and Serge Joyal's letter.
In the July 13th edition of La Presse, an article from France-Presse reports that several groups of Jordanian women opposed a bill promoted by the local Muslim Brotherhood branch which seeks to allow the marriage of 15 year old girls while maintaining the minimal age to 18 for boys. The Jordanian women opposed to the bill argue that legalizing the marriage of very young girls equates to legalising rape. Hamman Said, the local Jordanian Muslim Brotherhood leader, replied that "shariah law allows marriage under the age of 18 if the spouses have reached a certain level of maturity." He also added that "disastrous consequences" await women who "adopt the ways of Western education".
It was also by invoking shariah law that in the past the Muslim Brotherhood opposed criminal penalties for fathers who kill their daughers. These reforms were promoted by Queen Rania of Jordan. It is a recognized principle of shariah law [notably in the Umdat al-Salik, Ahmad ibn Naqib al-Misri, Beltsville, Amana Publications, 1994, pp. 583-584] that a father cannot be punished for the murder of his children. This principle constitutes an endorsement of honour killing. Applying Islam as it was understood by Hassan al-Banna, applying shariah leads to this as well.
Several opponents of the totalitarian ideals of the Muslim Brotherhood are Muslims and former Muslims who have seen firsthand the damage caused by the application of Islamist principles. At Point de Bascule, Muslims like Tarek Fatah and Salim Mansur have helped us understand the subtleties of the Islamist threat.
The Mosques, Our Barracks
In his book Auspices of the Ultimate Victory, Youssef al-Qaradawi explains that the success of his variety of Islam in the West was the result of the groundwork brought about by the Muslim Brotherhood and the contributions in petrodollars by Gulf state billionaires. The mosques used as advance bases for the Muslim Brotherhood in order "to destroy from within the Western civilization" are often built with the financial backing of governments that domestically persecute those who do not share their religious beliefs. It is likely that the Montreal project has benefited from such foreign contributions.
In these circumstances, we must keep in mind that the opening of a mosque controlled by the Muslim Brotherhood in downtown Montreal is part of the program that was laid out by their ally, the Turkish Prime Minister, Recep Erdogan who declared a few years back: "The mosques are our barracks, the domes our helmets, the minarets our bayonets and the faithful our soldiers..."
* Phylllis Lambert is an architect and the founder of the Canadian Center For Architecture based in Montreal.
** Serge Joyal is a senator and a former minister in the Canadian government.
Link
Labels: Islam, Montréal, Tania Tokarski
Is this the end of the subversive humor?, by Fabien Deglise
The kings of the joke are now less caustic, less subversive, but also more consensual and soothing. Whose fault?
They may be funny, but ultimately they deceive their audience. Proof: while pretending to laugh at everything, the comedians, who seized gently Montreal for the 28th edition of Just for Laughs Festival, have tended considerably reduced in recent years, the subject and object of derision.
And that's not all: far from being offended that several rebels claim to be, those kings of the joke are now less caustic, less subversive, but also more consensual and soothing. Whose fault? With the industrialization of humor, a little, but mostly moralistic screed that arrived from left field, would have befallen our societies ... sadly for the survival of humor that strips, which disturbs and makes you think, but also for the freedom of expression, said the French journalist Martin Leprince, author of a fascinating essay on the state of humor, entitled Gone laughing. Can we still laugh when we're left? (Editions Jacob-Duvernet).
"The comedians are lying," says the other end the head of the Paris office of the regional daily Nord Eclair. Le Devoir has bothered during his vacation at the beginning of the week. "They like to portray themselves as troublemakers, the better to sell, but finally chilly artists who practice self-censorship and operates a humor that is on the marked trails. The political correctness that has invaded our societies has also polished the sphere of culture." And as far as awareness, to fight poverty, he said.
The change of tone in humor is easy to understand. It is today, "laugh at what is not funny is not only distasteful, it is an incitement to hatred," he writes in his book. "We felt the liberating laughter, able to soothe tensions. It would only worsen."
Laugh about scandal
Comedian Louis Morissette is clearly not the opposite. Last night, on stage at the Theatre Saint-Denis, he has chaired, along with his friend Jean-Francois Mercier, a gala for the Just for Laughs placed under the sign of the "scandal". The object stage thought to be aired on the TVA is replayed tonight. It refers to a little media storm in which the two comedians met in the aftermath of the presentation of Bye Bye, vintage 2008.
Reminder harm: a joke about Nathalie Simard, but also the poor and Barack Obama referred to the dark side in a parody of the show by Denis Levesque on LCN, had aroused criticism in general and Le Journal de Montreal in particular. In the first weeks of 2009, the tabloid has spent six of them controversial. Basically.
"It was clearly a chicane media was made on the backs of creators, analysis retrospectively Louis Morissette. In their obsession with us, a newspaper group has attacked the Crown corporation [CBC broadcaster of Bye Bye] to undermine his credibility and calling into question its financing. The controversy has been created from scratch to provoke reactions."
The reading of events, which is now the driving force promoting the duo that calls itself outrageous - "we knew it was going to talk", took the former Man comic - is perhaps valid. But there are certainly more, believes Martin Leprince. The last lot of comedians on the public square is induced by the guardians of mainstream values, which "like all the guardians of mainstream values, do not like that we laugh with them," he said.
But in the 1980s, "advocates of communitarianism have succeeded in imposing rectitude in the political sphere, rectitude that has since moved elsewhere," says the author. "Today, we can not laugh any more victims, religions, disabled, homosexuals without being publicly accused of xenophobia, racism, intolerance" ... or even of infamy and crime of lese-majeste, the joke is good or not.
The French comic Alévêque Christopher, who has previously blasted the boards of the House Theatre of Montreal, has also recently discovered. During a TV show, "says Mr. Leprince in his book he described as" ridiculous guys who are 40 years of rollerblading "stressing" they should have two neurons. Erreur. Error. It has unleashed the wrath of the community who started to invade his inbox messages of hatred and insulting. Roller Magazine has even threatened the comedian to "get him". Nothing less.
Not shocking to live
The proof is made. "When humor is trying to be subversive, questioning established values, we find all the ways to limit it, continues Leprince. This ultimately makes moralizing posture comedians chilly, and what to avoid trial by crowd could make them lose market share.
Because folk art, humor has become, like many other components of culture, a paying industry in which artists work as trademarks. "In this context, any comedian can not afford to be disliked by the media, said Mr. Leprince. For these cases flourish, it should shock no one and can therefore only show consensual."
The development of "a laugh that perfectly meets [the] humanistic feelings without hurting the hypocrisy," as the French journalist wrote, Quebec is no exception either with its small market where the funny must seek consensus to make a living from their art, said Louis Morissette. "Nobody comes out a winner of a controversy here." And he adds: "However, I feel that the public is always a little ahead of the media for tolerance for humor. What I read in my newspaper, this is not what I hear in my family dinners when I'm with my friends when I meet people on the street."
Martin Leprince hope elsewhere, claiming it loud and clear, as a remedy to the correctness room, "the right to laugh at people who take themselves too seriously," as Coluche, a famous comedian in his country, the often put forward. "By nature, stupidity is everywhere, right and left. We must laugh, not only in the places marked. Today, comedians, even those who say they are committed, no longer fit in opposition to the dogmas of our time. They embody these tenets." This observation certainly calls to laugh, to avoid weeping.
Link
Sunday, July 11, 2010
The most insidious racial attacks, one you probably never see, by Francis Chartrand
The most cunning of racial attacks, one you probably never see.
Well, my comment now.
Saturday evening July 3, me and my wife went to see the fireworks at La Ronde in Montreal. We were at Bellerive Park, along the St. Lawrence River, and the performance was given by Portugal, a 45-minute fireworks show. The crowd was large as 300 000 people at the Park, 200 000 on the Jacques Cartier Bridge.
On the way back we walk on St. Catherine, for at Papineau and Beaudry metro stations, there is an hour wait to enter the subway too many people, of course. So we thought that would do better to join the Berri UQAM station.
In return, Tania I expressed it a craving. She hesitates between the Pizza Pizza, corner St. Catherine and St. Timothy and St. Hubert restaurant, corner St. Catherine and Amherst. We want to sit comfortably, we opt for the second option. We ordered a "hot chicken" each, plus a line of wine. A very good Chardonnay from Argentina, which I do not remember the name unfortunately. Everything is going well so far, and we pay our bill to 23: 45.
Later, she seeks a McDonald's, we later found corner St. Catherine and St. Christopher, to buy a McFlurry, you know, the blizzard at Dairy Queen. It is used by a ... how should we say? A girl, color, black. She served in what can probably deduct the fifth containing the normal, saying that it is the normal serving, plus she said she has stirred.
Me, I almost never go at McDonald's, too busy to go get something to eat at Harvey's restaurant, the Dairy Queen, restaurant 25th at St. Eustache or the concession stand of Deux-Montagnes, but hey, I did not know not even know what was a McFlurry. So I do not know how to treat her: dirty fucker, cursed woman, fucking thief full of shit, fucking bitch, fucking dirty immigrant, not there I'd be racist.
In this McDonald's, there were many blacks and gays, so I had to shut the fuck up, because you know, I go often to the barricades, when I do not jump it. I preferred whining two blocks away, once we would leave the Gay Village, because I do not know what to say in the restaurant. I imagined, these African-Americans turn into cannibals and these gays turn into cannibals gays, just across from the Circus After Hour, making us spit in the ass, Tania and I, we crunching an apple the mouth, singing "Hakuna Matata" and trampling the flag of Quebec.
I do not even silly. That's what happens when you see hordes of wild African Americans, when we know that now, street gangs from the east of Montreal practice voodoo rituals in addition of deviants of religion of origin, which on behalf of their sexual orientation, practice neo-paganism. When I think of all those hordes of Haitians who fled Papa Doc and Baby Doc and have integrated less than 5 years ...
But hey, times change and people too. Therefore, the next day I decided to contact McDonald to get information or to make clarifications on the nature of this incident, willing or unwilling, or lack of productivity to my girlfriend.
I call in late morning. And I speak to the manager of the service in question, explaining that when I was in a restaurant, a girl asked a McFlurry, and the waitress at the counter serves in what can probably deduct the fifth containing the normal saying that it is the normal serving, plus she said she has shaken.
He answers the most amazing thing ever heard at McDonald:
- Ah yes, the damn fucking white trash girl, wah, wah, wah, she made shit and she wanted more, too bad the girl was frustrated. In addition, she made a delay made all the customers.
I replied:
- Because, you see, the damn fucking white trash girl in matter is my wife, fucking tabarnac! To treat my wife as 'white', you're what color?
- Haiti, why?
- Because you've just been busted in the act of racism, anti-white racism but racism is the same. In addition, according to you, there are two races, two colors of people, in Montreal, Quebec and Haiti? To say that I gaved to your country after the earthquake, that I marched against the coup against Jean-Bertrand Aristide, say that I walked for the family of Marcellus François. Don't call me a racist.
- I don't give a fuck, man, it don't prevent you to be a race full of shit, you're never happy, you always want more, more, and more. And you want us to integrate into your culture, when you're unable to see that you live in North America? Fuck you, goddamn Quebec!
- I never said that, I'm talking a proper service with an adequate amount, I will not talk about your roots, you have been racist against my wife.
- Go get it in Laval, your proper service with an adequate amount. You seem shit for me. And you think Canadians and Alouettes are sports, man. Fuck you, man, I am anxious that you go fuck yourself in reserves that we can sterile yourself. You Quebecers will be the only people exterminated in self defense.
- That's the respect you give to your home land?
- I don't give a shit of my home land, I don't give a fuck of borders, "No one is illegal" you know? It does not exist illegal immigrants. Fuck borders. And people who do not deserve to live, I'll kill them!
- Hmmmr hmmmr!
Then comes a moment of silence after I coughed a bit to calm him, and I quote:
- You've just been busted in the act of racism, anti-white racism, but racism is the same for the second time. I'll hang up and I'll call the police.
I contacted the police of the City of Montreal (CMPS), and tell me that I was right to complain. I spoke to two policemen, one from Quebec and one of Haitian descent, who is of Haitian origin advised me not to visit the McDonald's in downtown Montreal, or even Burger King or Buffalo Wings, as he says, the "Negroes" who work there are sometimes racist.
He told me that often the Haitian community make him shame with his gang and I quote again, his "escaped from the container" spitting on the Quebec because we do not walk the streets with 12 gauge and machetes, as Haitians in Montreal is no longer found in their community, like the time when Haitians were rescued from the murderous regime of Papa Doc and Baby Doc.
He also said that I had to hold my ground and do not let me walk around by whatever the ethnic community, for having built the police as well as his family and, in less than a generation, other immigrants can do it is only a matter of will.
He even found a philosophy that I share, it is not Quebecers that should be assimilated to multiculturalism. Multiculturalism is not so bad, but mainly leads to sectarianism and ethnic isolationism. If all immigrants fit to Quebec nationalism with the help of Quebecers, not just ethnic families will experience a better fate, but the people of Quebec will be more appreciated and respected throughout the world. We could all go out a united nation.
Labels: Francis Chartrand, Haiti, Montréal, Tania Tokarski
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