Ill Considered

So Imam Zijad Delic feels ill done by. It is the company he keeps. Rather unsavoury, the lot. From the Muslim Brotherhood to CAIR to the Canadian Arab Federation to his own Canadian Islamic Congress. There is nothing inherently Canadian, as in Canadian values and social mores in any of these groups. They flaunt an agenda that is divisive in nature, pitting one set of Canadians against another.

This does Canada great harm. And as far as public relations goes, they do themselves no great favours by continuing to pose as moderate and mainstream and representative of the interests of Canadian Muslims, while striving to create divisions between themselves and other segments of Canadian society.

In fact, using greater Canadian society to further their aims at isolating, casting blame and slandering Jews. Under the guise of condemning Israel as an Apartheid state. A claim and nomenclature happily absorbed by anti-Semites the world over.

The undercurrent of anti-Semitism that exists within society is a handy tool that has been deftly utilized by these groups who, like the leftists in academia, trade unions and student groups claim it their right to criticize a country that is geographically distant from Canada, a country that, moreover, has fought for its right of existence since its birth, constantly under threat from its neighbours.

It is as though a third column exists, one that has radiated out from the Middle East, expressing the anger and frustration of Islamic countries at the existence of a Jewish state in their midst, one that they pledged, singly and collectively, to destroy. And those Muslims who emigrated from the region to Canada have brought their violent antipathy toward the existence of Israel to Canada to infest the country with their hatred of Israel and Jews.

This is not a reflection of anti-Semitism, they claim, but a righteous battle against an occupying power that in its insistence on remaining on the land granted them through the United Nations' sponsored Partition plan, has deprived Arab Palestinians of their rightful inheritance. Partition did offer Arab Palestinians an equal share of the land, but they and the surrounding Arab countries chose war instead of peaceful accommodation.

Not too much has changed, since then. So if a Canadian government that respects the right of another democracy to live in unchallenged peace with its neighbours, (but lacking that, takes all legal steps recognized under international law to protect itself and its citizens from ongoing violent attacks, including those from non-state Islamist militias dedicated to the destruction of Israel) recognizes the societally harmful nature of such groups as the Canadian Islamic Congress, it should come as no surprise.

Whomever it was who originally thought it usefully expedient to invite the Canadian Islamic Congress and its current president to speak as a representative of Canadian Muslims, given their questionable record in promoting anti-Semitism and anti-Israel events, was ill-advised and ill-informed. The 'visible minority advisory group' within the Defence Department clearly is in need of a reality check.

That the Minister of National Defence was placed in the position of having to step in to defuse an embarrassing situation that should never have occurred speaks volumes about the possibility that there has been some unsavoury infiltration into government departments by those whose agenda is not useful to Canadian pluralism and the ideals of equality and egalitarianism within Canada.

Bit of an understatement, isn't it?