In All Innocence....

"I categorically refute the allegations of mayors Menard and Coderre. I am not 'an agent of radicalization'."
"I have never called for hate or for violence against an identifiable group in my sermons or in my courses. On the contrary, I have always encouraged young people to integrate harmoniously in Quebec society, to respect the laws, not to use violence to resolve conflicts and to pursue university studies."
Montreal Imam Hamza Chaoui

Facebook

In a statement Tuesday, Montreal-based imam Hamza Chaoui wrote that all of his teachings are founded in the Qur’an, and denied being "an agent of radicalization."

"The only thing again and again and again that I will repeat, is that my first and foremost priority is the security of my people."
"I will be very, very firm in decisions and actions the moment I see security being threatened."
Quebec Premier Philippe Couillard

In insisting that all of his teachings are founded in the Koran, it is also interesting to note that the Koran is rife with injunctions against Jews, including instructions to kill them. Imam Chaoui is not only reliant on the Koran to spread sweetness and light about other religions and ethnic groups; he has also, it would appear, carefully studied the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, the most pernicious of anti-Semitic tracts:

Hamza Chaoui presented the soccer championship as a stratagem conceived to distract non-Jews from a Jewish plan of world domination. He quoted from a French version of the Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion to justify his position:
[Translation by Point de Bascule] “In order to prevent non-Jewish people from finding out about our new plans and strategies, we will entertain them with many types of games, we will advertise them in newspapers and will invite them to attend the matches. This way, these new pleasures will divert their attention away from the areas of conflicts…”

Prayers at most mosques, repeat a number of routine inspired sermons such as the ritual prayer to Allah to grant Muslims victory over non-Muslims:  “O Allah, pour patience upon Muslims, strengthen their feet and give them victory over ‘Qawm -el Kafiroon’ (Non-Muslims). “O Allah, give victory to our brothers the Muslims, the oppressed, the tyrannized and the ‘Mujahedeen’ (those who fight jihad against non-Muslims)”."
 

And who then are the non-Muslims? They are the ‘Qawm al-Kafiroon,’” the Arabic phrase that lumps all non-Muslims — Jews, Hindus, Christians, Atheists, Buddhists and Sikhs — into one derogatory category, the “Kuffar”, or non-Muslims.

Imam Chaoui is furious that his reputation has been imputed. He has done nothing whatever to have charges of inciting violence and hatred levelled against him. And this being the case he insists on an apology from Montreal Mayor Denis Coderre and borough Mayor Real Menard for attempting to destroy his reputation.

Mayor Menard, in denying a permit to Imam Chaoui to enable him to open an Islamic community centre in the borough of Mercier-Hochelaga-Maisonneuve, has offended his human rights.

Imam Chaoui simply states things as he sees them from the perspective of a Muslim cleric. His Facebook account cites a reality, that Islam and democracy are "parallel lines that never intersect" since democracy permits the election of "an infidel or a homosexual or an atheist who denies the existence of Allah". How is that divisive in a multicultural society, let alone a free democracy where any citizen may say whatever they think, feel or believe, after all?

"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."

His beliefs and statements may seem churlishly undemocratic and unhelpful to good relations between communities, but this is a free country isn't it? And it is no more than circumstantial that Chiheb Esseghaier, currently on trial for terrorism charges as a bomb plotter frequented the same university prayer services as did Imam Chaoui at Universite Laval where he served as an imam to Muslim students.

Or that Imam Chaoui has preached as well at the local mosque in St-Jean-sur-Richelieu where Martin Couture-Rouleau, the convert to Islam who reportedly 'self-radicalized' tended to frequent before he fatally ran down a Canadian soldier last October in his own inimitable act of piety accepting the call to jihad against the infidels.

Coincidences abound.