JUSTIN TRUDEAU TO SPEAK AT TORONTO ISLAMIC GATHERING SPONSORED BY HAMAS-LINKED CHARITIES

JUSTIN TRUDEAU KEYNOTE FOR ISLAMIC RELIEF IN TORONTO

Point de Bascule December 6, 2012.

Justin Trudeau, the frontrunner in the Liberal Party of Canada leadership race, will take part in a meeting sponsored by Islamic Relief at the end of December in Toronto. In March 2011, Justin Trudeau had already showed good-will towards Islamists by condemning the use of the term “barbaric” that was used to designate honour killings in a study guide for would-be Canadian citizens. After having been widely criticized, Trudeau backtracked and apologized.

Three Islamist leaders who will share the podium with Justin Trudeau at the Reviving the Islamic Spirit conference are particularly worth mentioning: Tariq Ramadan, Jamal Badawi and Mustafa Ceric. All three have supported Hamas in the past and promoted an Islamic conquest of the West.

Tariq Ramadan

In his book Radical Reform, Ramadan presents Muslim Brotherhood spiritual guide Youssef Qaradawi as a “prominent scholar” who has outlined the attitudes and the kind of behaviour that Muslims living in the West should adopt. In another book, Ramadan wrote about Qaradawi that he “deeply respect(s) the man and the scholar and that (he) would be the last one to deny it.” Qaradawi promotes the conquest of the West by Muslims, he claims that Hitler was “sent by Allah to punish the Jews”, he endorses the killing of those who leave Islam…

In 2011, in Dallas, Tariq Ramadan has openly enjoined his supporters to “coloniz(e) positively the United States of America … with our understanding of Islam, our principles.” In a 2004 interview given to an Egyptian periodical, Tariq Ramadan described the Canadian legal framework as “one of the most open in the world”. He suggested that Muslim leaders operating in Canada should take full advantage of it in order to discretely implement sharia principles one at a time. Ramadan added that “for the time being”, it would be preferable not to openly mention the term sharia since it “is laden with negative connotations in the Western mind.”…

Jamal Badawi

Jamal Badawi leads many of the most important Muslim Brotherhood organizations in North America. In Canada, he was on the Muslim Association of Canada’s board of directors from 2002 to 2006. On its own website, MAC states that it “strives to implement Islam … as understood in its contemporary context by the late Imam, Hassan Albanna (1906-1949), the founder of the Muslim Brotherhood.”

In his 50-point manifesto, Hassan al-Banna promoted the abolition of political parties and the instauration of a one-party State, the reform of the law, so that it will conform to sharia, an increase in the number of youth groups promoting jihad, the prohibition of dancing, the censorship of movies and plays and a dress code for all citizens enforced by a religious police. According to Global Muslim Brotherhood Daily Report (GMBDR) that monitors the Muslim Brotherhood throughout the world, MAC and Hamas (charter – article 2) are among the rare sections of the network openly acknowledging their links with the Brotherhood.

At point 20 of an internal Muslim Brotherhood’s memorandum released in the United States in 1991, Jamal Badawi is identified as a leader of the Islamist network in North America. At point 4 of this memorandum, the goal pursued by Badawi and the Muslim Brotherhood in North America is clearly expressed:

“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… It is a Muslim's destiny to perform Jihad and work wherever he is and wherever he lands until the final hour comes."

Mustafa Ceric

Like Jamal Badawi (Gamal Badawi), Mustafa Ceric (Ciric) is a member of the European Council for Fatwa and Research. The organization is currently led by the Muslim Brotherhood spiritual guide Youssef Qaradawi. Until 2012 and for nineteen years, Mustafa Ceric was Bosnia’s grand mufti. Because of Qaradawi’s precarious health, observers often present Ceric as his possible successor.

In December 2010, at the Global Halal Congress held in Pakistan, Mustafa Ceric enjoined participants to “conquer the world through halal movement.” Ceric’s ambition is based on the fact that halal’s scope is “very wide and goes beyond the food sector to include other fields such as financial and commercial activities (banks, credit, loans, mortgages, credit cards, insurance, etc.), cosmetics and clothing, drugs, recreational activities, gambling activities, sexual attitudes and objects, interpersonal relations (marriages), etc.”

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‘ISLAMIC SPIRIT’ EVENT FEATURES JUSTIN TRUDEAU

Tarek Fatah

Toronto Sun, December 11, 2012

On Saturday, December 22, when most families across Canada will be coming together for Christmas, Justin Trudeau, aspiring leader of the Liberal party, will join thousands of Muslim young men and women in Toronto for the “Revival of the Islamic Spirit” (RIS) convention. Organizers of the Islamic convention say it is a “celebration of our (Muslim) identity and Islamic faith.” However, a glance at its sponsors should give both Trudeau and the rest of us cause for concern.

RIS is co-sponsored by IRFAN-Canada, a group that lost its charitable status last year when the Canada Revenue Agency claimed it had sent almost $15 million of Canadian charitable donations to groups the CRA labelled as terrorist organizations. According to the federal audit, IRFAN-Canada used “deceptive fundraising” to support Hamas. In addition, Canada Revenue Agency said the Islamic charity had produced videos that appealed to “all Arab and Muslim nations to join in the struggle against Israel and glorify martyrdom .”…

Another sponsor of the Toronto Islamic convention is Islamic Relief, a UK-based charity whose bank account overseas was recently blocked by UBS Bank, an action that raised eyebrows among counter-terrorism bloggers….I am not sure if Trudeau is aware of these issues. Perhaps he is and is going to the convention to take the bull by the horns.

Who knows, Trudeau may very well inspire the gathering of Islamists to truly “revive the spirit of Islam”’ and shed the centuries of ossification that has left Islamdom struggling like a truck with flat tires stuck in a mudslide. In case Trudeau does decide to speak at the event, here is a suggested speech he may wish to use for his “keynote address”. One that will no doubt leave the audience particularly “revived.”

“My fellow Canadians, I am delighted to be among so many young Muslim men and woman who have sought my wisdom as they struggle to revive the Islamic spirit that seems to have lost its way ever since Muslim rationalists of the 10th century were wiped out by the literalists of your faith.

I welcome all the Islamists who have come from outside Canada to this city that is home to Canada’s first-ever gay marriage. I hope you, too, can, in the spirit of reviving Islam, abandon the Sharia laws that demand all homosexuals be put to death. Toronto is home to the world’s most thriving Muslim gay community, but I don’t see those familiar faces in the crowd this evening. Perhaps next year.

Welcome to Toronto, the capital of the province that listened to many Muslim Canadians and banned Sharia law from Canada’s public domain. Remember, it was a Liberal premier who took that bold decision.

It is a delight to see young men and women sitting together, at times even holding hands, to defy gender segregation. After all this is Toronto, not Tehran. I am so glad to see no burqas and niqabs tonight. Face-masks are so yesterday! As for honour-killings, I have given it much thought and have finally concluded, the act is barbaric after all.

And while you are ‘reviving the Islamic spirit’, may I suggest you start a ‘boycott, divestment and sanctions’ (BDS) movement against the seven Islamic countries that hang people who are agnostic or atheist. If this convention were to launch a BDS movement against Saudi Arabia and Iran for their crimes against free speech, you will find in me one of your frontline soldiers.

Merry Christmas, my dear Muslims. As you march into the 21st century, the land that drafted the UN Universal Human Rights Declaration welcomes you in our midst.”

“Allah O Akbar!”

(Tarek Fatah is a writer, broadcaster and secular Muslim anti-Islamist activist. He is the founder of the Muslim Canadian Congress and the recent recipient of the CIJR’s Lion of Judah Award) 

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TRUDEAU DEFENDS PRESENCE AT ISLAMIC CONFERENCE

Stewart Bell

National Post, Dec 12, 2012

The Liberals came under fire on Wednesday over Justin Trudeau’s participation in an Islamic conference whose sponsor was stripped of its federal charity status last year for supporting Hamas, the outlawed terrorist organization.

The Liberal leadership candidate has defended his scheduled speech at next week’s Reviving the Islamic Spirit conference in Toronto, and the Canadian Council on American Islamic Relations condemned attempts to “smear” the gathering.

But in a letter to Liberal Party of Canada president Mike Crawley, Friends of the Simon Wiesenthal Centre (FSWC) CEO Avi Benlolo said Mr. Trudeau’s presence at the event would lend credibility to supporters of Hamas.

“Numerous members of FSWC have conveyed their alarm to me; they are wondering if there is a deeper meaning to his participation, and whether the Liberals are aligning themselves with a belief system that is contrary to traditional Liberal values,” the letter reads.

On Thursday, the Muslim Canadian Congress said it had sent letters to interim Liberal leader Bob Rae and Irwin Cotler, the party’s Justice and Human Rights critic, asking them to encourage Mr. Trudeau to skip the convention.  “At a time when liberal Muslims across the world are fighting rightwing Islamists, it is sad to see the aspiring leader of the Liberal Party of Canada throw his weight behind those who would snuff out liberalism and stifle free speech in the name of Islam,” MCC president Salma Siddiqui said.

The conference, the largest of its kind in Canada, has been held annually for a decade but concerns surfaced after a Quebec blogger noted that one of the event’s sponsors is IRFAN-Canada, which lost its charity status in 2011 over its ties to Hamas.

Documents obtained Wednesday from the Canada Revenue Agency show that IRFAN, listed as a “diamond sponsor” of the conference, was described by federal charities regulators as “an integral part of an international fundraising effort to support Hamas.”

“Our findings indicate that IRFAN-Canada provided $14.6-million in resources to operating partners that were run by officials of Hamas, openly supported and provided funding to Hamas, or have been listed by various jurisdictions because of their support for Hamas or other terrorist entitles,” according to a summary of the CRA’s findings. [Emphasis added – Ed.]

In addition, the CRA said it had found IRFAN videos at the group’s Mississauga office that “demonize Israel, characterize the Arab-Israel conflict as a religious war, appeal for all Arab and Muslim nations to join in the struggle against Israel and glorify martyrdom.” [Emphasis added – Ed.]

IRFAN has denied knowingly funding Hamas and accused the CRA of misinterpreting its relief work. It describes itself as an international humanitarian organization. While no longer a registered charity, it continues to operate in Canada as a non-profit.

Appearing on CBC News Network on Wednesday, Mr. Trudeau said Prime Minister Stephen Harper had sent a congratulatory message to the conference organizers last year. “Every year members of all political parties go but suddenly I’m going and the Conservative government decides to play politics with it,” he said.

“It’s an opportunity to speak to 20,000 Muslim Canadians about this extraordinary society based on values of openness, of respect that we’ve managed to build here in Canada. This level of engagement, this level of optimism and hope for the future is a message that absolutely needs to come out. And people trying to quash that kind of dialogue and that kind of discourse through intolerant attacks like we’ve seen is not what has made this country great.”

The Charities Directorate wrote a 27-page letter to IRFAN in December, 2010, that spelled out the reasons why its charity status was being revoked. The letter said regulators did not have to establish any knowledge or intent to break Canada’s charity rules.

“Nevertheless, the evidence we have accumulated through our current and previous audits and upon which this letter is based show, in our view, a marked persistence in aiding groups connected to Hamas, the existence of institutional links between IRFAN-Canada and key members within the organization structure of Hamas, and an intent to contribute to the success of Hamas by enhancing its ability to engage in its cause in the manner expressly contemplated by the Hamas Charter.”

Hamas is devoted to the destruction of Israel. Public Safety Canada calls Hamas “a radical Islamist-nationalist terrorist organization” and “one of the primary groups involved in suicide bombings aimed at Israelis.”

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