Forgiving Themselves

"[Speaking of terror as Islamic] has skewed the public's perceptions of Canadian Muslims as some kind of dangerous and 'un-Canadian' group and reinforces stereotypes of the Muslims as some kind of fifth column and whose loyalty is suspect."
Ihsan Gardee, executive director, National Council of Canadian Muslims

"By trying to de-link Islam from Islamic terrorism, [Mr. Obama] is engaging in an act of deception and self-deception."
"In order to defeat an enemy you need to understand the nature of the enemy you face."
Peter Wehner, senior fellow, Ethics & Public Policy Center, Washington

"Disguising the threat of militant Islam under the cover of 'violent extremism' makes Obama seem soft on [ISIS] and its allies."
"[ISIS] calls itself Islamic; its territory is called a 'caliphate'; its leader is a 'caliph'."
Michael Jackson Bonner, Iran historian, research group Project CTESIPHON, Paris

DR. HAMID SLIMI  Dr. Hamid Slimi, centre, chairman of the Muslim seminary, the Canadian Centre for Deen Studies, called on the federal government to stop using language linking Islam to terror at a conference last week in Toronto.

A conference labelled as one whose intent it was to combat radicalization that took place in Toronto last week was the venue where a local imam expressed his distress over the language the Government of Canada is using in its public statements. Dr. Hamid Slimi, formerly chairman of the Canadian Council of Imams, and currently chairman of the Muslim seminary, the Canadian Centre for Deen Studies, urged the federal government to stop its use of language linking terror and Islam.

"Lead by example, change the rhetoric, and stop saying these words. They hurt," he charged. The obvious comparison is the delicacy of speech used by Barack Obama in addressing the universal phenomenon of Islamist jihad and its terrorist agenda around the world. President Obama speaks of violent extremism, but doesn't link it to Islam, and doesn't use the identifying word "jihad", lest he offend his American constituents.

Besides which, for Mr. Obama to speak so clearly in identifying the source of modern-day terrorism around the world threatening the West, democracy and above all, Jews, let alone the Muslim "apostates" whose brand of Islam is insufficiently authentic, would be to betray the confidence he holds in a major terrorist organization that has successfully infiltrated his administration, the Muslim Brotherhood.

Canada, in its current government makeup has no such polarizing issues; the government speaks clearly of the issues and the threats and their origin. And in so doing, has made an effort to ensure that it is well understood that neither he nor the government holds the Islamic community in Canada responsible for those among them that are radicalized so venomously.

On the other hand, it is the sacred scripts of Islam from which the ideation of jihad and associated views of enemies of Islam derive from. The two cannot logically be separated, nor should they be, even if Muslims find the connection offensive. It is those who abuse their religion, not those who recognize the connection between the religion and the abusers who cleave to a barbaric medievalism revealed in the religion against whom they should rail.

Following in the wake of Egypt's President al-Sisi's declaration that Islam must be modernized in its interpretation to disqualify those areas of its fundamental beliefs that are inimical to humanism and equality in a pluralist world, the grand imam of the highest Sunni authority of Egypt's premier Islamic academic institution has now spoken as well for a reform of religious teaching to halt the spread of Islamic extremism.


Sheikh Ahmed al-Tayeb of al-Azhar University in Cairo has stated his intellectual and religious belief that a 'misreading' of the Koran in historical times has led to interpretations of Islam that are formidable in their destructive quality. Does Dr. Slimi feel himself better informed in this matter than the most influential Islamic cleric in Egypt? Perhaps instead of faulting Canada's government, he should turn his attention to Sheikh al-Tayeb?

But Dr. Slimi's statement of blame and entreaty for the Government of Canada to alter its errant ways, not a statement of expressed universal Muslim horror at what Islamist jihadists have wrought upon the world, and in particular Muslims' bloody inter-sectarian conflict, was met with applause, leaving the indelible impression that the conference was not out to 'combat radicalization', but to cast blame where none is held, rather than addressing the real issues.

As for favouring Barack Obama's expression, that "We are not at war with Islam. We are at war with people who have perverted Islam", in preference to Prime Minister Harper's government's assertions that "The international jihadist movement has declared war on Canada and its allies"; avoidance in hurting feelings does not accomplish much, when it seems the Islamic clerical and intellectual community are shirking their duty to themselves.

Sheik Aarij Anwer of Khalid Bin Al-Walid Mosque in the Toronto suburb of Etobicoke seeks to educate non-Muslims in the meaning of jihad as referring to self-improvement as a Muslim, a ploy which while true, also ignores the other meaning of jihad declaring oneself a warrior of Islam, a mujaheed, prepared to sacrifice oneself as a martyr in defence of Islam. And since Islam informs its faithful that it is the ultimate vehicle of the one true god that all the world must eventually surrender to, the outcome is obvious enough.

It is obvious to those who have adopted the Salafist, Wahaabist vision of pure Islam, faithful to its foundational principles. So when Sheik Anwer speaks of the word jihad to describe terror, he insists an inaccurate link from "irrational violence" is drawn to the theology of Islam, and its unsavoury implications. Disingenuous at best, sanctimonious claptrap at the very least. Words do not create reality, they describe it.

In the words of Mr. Jackson Bonner: "We simply cannot portray [ISIS] as anything other than a fanatical Muslim group whose doctrines must be understood in order to be defeated. Right now what matters most is destroying it." Along with all the other fanatical Muslim groups, and they are becoming legion, from al-Shabaab to Islamic Jihad, Hamas to Hezbollah, the Taliban to al-Qaeda, Haqqani Network, Al Nusra Front, PLO, Houthis, Muslim Brotherhood, Boko Haram and PLFP.

This is what the Islamic scholars and imams attending the conference last week should have been addressing. Instead, they exculpatorily clapped enthusiastically when their lead speaker pointed a finger of accusation at the Prime Minister of Canada and his cabinet, for their "Islamophobia".