Permit Denied, Islamism Pursued Nonetheless

"[Islam and democracy are] parallel lines that never intersect [because democracy allows for the election of] an individual or a homosexual or an atheist who denies the existence of Allah."
"There are non-Muslims who come to our home and tell us, ‘Really, you cut off heads, you cut off hands?' But that’s religion. It’s our religion in our own country. We decide how we implement it."
Imam Hamza Chaoui, Montreal

YouTube   Imam Hamza Chaoui wants to open the Ashabeb community centre in Montreal’s Hochelaga-Maisonneuve borough next month.

"The city of Montreal, I am sure, shares our values, which are Quebec values. They [Imam Chaoui's remarks] are dangerous."
"Clearly, my desire is that we don't have this [community centre] where someone can spread these concepts. It's unacceptable that we can have people on our territory who are teaching this to other people and the new generation."
Kathleen Weil, Quebec Minister of Immigration, Diversity and Inclusion

"The Imam Hamza Chaoui has made radical statements in the past, including stating that democracy and Islam are not compatible and that the vote is a sin. We strongly denounce these medieval statements."
Agnes Maltais, Parti Quebecois

Hello, there, Islam and democracy are not compatible. It is a fact. To deny that fact is to be deliberately, self-harmingly obtuse. Islam is a religion, an ideology, it is political in its very nature and it does not and will not permit its faithful to obey any law but sharia. Islam structures by its demands on all those who submit to Islam, the very air they breathe, the manner in which they conduct their lives, spurning individuality as much as it does human rights and democratic values.

Imam Hamza Chaoui is merely preaching what he believes and he believes what his religion informs him and what Muslims are informed represent the basic tenets of their belief. He is not a compromiser, and he believes that those who do seek to compromise, like those Muslims who make an effort to respect the values, the laws and the vision of democracy are betraying their faith, no better than apostates.

This is the man, a man of influence in his Montreal-based community, who plans to open the Ashabeb community centre in Hochelaga-Maisonneuve a Montreal borough where young Muslims can be further taught his brand of Islam. Montreal's mayor, Denis Coderre, has rejected the statements of belief issued by the man who left Morocco to study electrical engineering at Universite Laval, where he was inspired to become the imam to Muslim students at the university.

Imam Hamza Chaoui's wish to open a fundamentalist community centre can be denied by the various municipal and provincial councils involved in the process, but the plain fact of the matter is that this cleric freely preaches an ideology of exclusion and hatred, and has done so for some time. He is not alone in his firm enterprise to remind Muslims living in Canada that their only allegiance is to Islam; they just happen to be occupying living space in Canada.

Canadian Security Services and politicians speak of the inimical effects on impressionable Muslim youth of social media where overt expressions exist, of anti-democratic values coupled with accusations that the West practices Islamophobia and that pious Muslims have a duty to respond to the primary focus of Islamist values; jihad.

What has greater resonance with Muslim youth, however, may be the trusted words of the cleric who leads their Friday prayers.