Exploiting Tragedy to Blame Jews: Shame, Canada!

"This is not my Canada. It was heart-wrenching to see the violent anti-Semitic demonstrations on our city streets. Mobs of pro-Palestinian protesters disregarded our very foundational values of respect, tolerance and peaceful protest and violently attacked Jewish protesters."

"Fearing for their lives, Jewish residents set up street patrols and called on authorities to break their silence and condemn an act upon the prevailing anti-Semitism that shattered the safety and security of our cities."

"At the same time, I reached out to Muslim leaders asking them to reduce the tension. This was met with either a cool response -- or silence."

Avi Benlolo, Holocaust studies, human rights defender

Times change. Canada was once a racist country. Basically a country built by immigrants arriving to share the country with its First Nations peoples, governed by administrations reflecting their Western European initial flood of polarized colonialists from France and Britain, the country favoured European migrants exacting a monstrous head tax on Chinese who came to Canada in the late 19th century and who were basically used as an indentured labour force working under dire conditions to build infrastructure such as railways from coast to coast.

Official discrimination against non-white minority populations was the order of the day. People from the Indian subcontinent, Japan, China, Eastern Europe were not favoured by successive governments and were during the Second World War penalized for their ethnic heritage as enemy aliens. Infamously, signs were posted both at public and private enterprises that no Jews, Blacks or Dogs were permitted entry. During the Holocaust Canada, like many other countries refused to give haven to Jews desperately attempting to escape their fate in Europe under Nazi occupation.

Canada evolved gradually from those dark years of confiscating property owned by Japanese-Canadians who were herded into isolated holding camps as enemy aliens during the Second World War years. Eventually, Canadian governments instituted a social policy of multiculturalism, where immigrants from different continents, backgrounds, cultures, religion, were recognized as equals worthy of respect. Then came the Charter of Rights and Freedoms and Canada celebrated itself as a country committed to equality and justice for all. 

Yumna Afzaal, 15, left, Madiha Salman, 44, centre left, Talat Afzaal, 74, and Salman Afzaal, 46, right, were out for an evening walk on Sunday when they were struck and killed by the pickup. (Submitted by Afzaal family)

 

Immigrants and refugees settled into life in Canada, respecting its laws, determined to make a life for themselves in a land of opportunity where their children could be well educated and opportunities opened for their futures. If and when there were suspicions between various ethnic, cultural and religious groups they were kept on a low simmer, surrendering to the need for every Canadian to be equally respected and given their just due.

 

Although Canada is no longer a racist country, there is a growing demographic that imports hostility and racism back into vogue as the growing presence of Muslims from all points of the globe escaping conflict and poverty and exploitation leave their geographic places of origin to seek opportunities in Canada, known for its liberties and equality of opportunities. With their more recent arrivals, in lock-step with the rise of political Islam, Middle East politics featuring Israel and Arab Palestinians have seen a rise in anti-Semitism.

 

The importation of anti-Israel rhetoric, the growing presence of mosques and Friday night sermons extolling the superiority of Islam as the ultimate path to god, alongside the constant incitement by imams quoting hadiths and the Koran to oppose a Jewish presence anywhere has led to a growing tide of bigoted slanders and the launching of anti-Jewish, anti-Israel actions like BDS infiltrating society, academic institutions and activist groups, to the detriment of Canadian Jews.

 

 

Just short of a week ago a psychologically troubled young Christian man known to be self-isolating as a severe introvert deliberately drove his truck into a family of Muslim-Canadians walking along a street in London, Ontario, killing a father, mother, grandmother and 15-year old. A 9-year-old boy survived the violent atrocity that so brutally killed his family members. Canadians have risen in sympathy to the horrible event which authorities at every level of government, the news media and police have all proclaimed to have been motivated by Islamophobia.

 

At a memorial for the dead family and the bereaved community, a community vigil was held to remember a family known for its integral presence in the London Muslim community and its mosque. The prime minister was present for the memorial, as was the premier of the province, among other dignitaries, to show their respect for the dead, their horror at the event, their commitment to do what they can to prevent another such event, all assuming that this was an instance of Islamophobic terrorism. The attacker has been charged with four murders and one intent-to-murder.

 

At the community vigil held at the London Muslim Mosque, Munir El-Kassem, imam of the Islamic Centre of Southwest Ontario made the closing remarks. And he chose to address the issue of the recent Israel-Hamas conflict in Gaza, mentioning the tensions in east Jerusalem. The conflict arose when Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad began shooting rockets and other missiles across the border from Gaza into Israeli towns and cities; over 4,000 such missiles were sent into Israel over the span of 11 days. The Israel Defence Forces returned fire, as any other country would do in its self-defence.

 

The tragedy of the Pakistani-Canadian family's violent death was used as a tool with which to slander Israel yet again, the implicit sentiment that whatever ill occurs to Muslims anywhere in the world is the responsibility of Jews and of Israel. This poisoning of intra-Canadian relations between various ethnic, social and religious groups is injurious to the country as a whole, and the targeting of Jews for unjust censure represents an odiously vicious anti-Canadian smear that has, to the present, gone unanswered by the governments of Canada. 

 

Imam and community activist Dr. Munir El-Kassem emphasized that simply remembering the victims of hate crimes isn't enough, and that concrete steps must be taken to prevent violence against the Islamic community from becoming a regular occurrence   CBC

 

This is a situation of gross racist injustice, when the imam representing the social/religious administration of area mosques calls for society at large to participate in putting a halt to what he identifies as 'hatred' against Muslims in Canada, exploiting the opportunity of memorializing the lives of worthy members of the Muslim society and their tragic end as a whip to condemn Jews and Israel by promoting hatred in Canada against both.

"At the community vigil held at the London Muslim Mosque, Munir El-Kassem, imam of the Islamic Centre of Southwest Ontario, used his closing remarks to opine on the recent Israel-Hamas conflict in Gaza and tensions in east Jerusalem, thius painting an Arab touch to a Pakistani family's tragedy."

"Before him, Nawaz Tahir, chair of Hikma Advocacy Group, challenged 'those who hide behind freedom of expression' to re-evaluate the sanctity of such rights. The remarks were met by much enthusiasm from the crowd."

"Foreign leaders also exploit such confusion to propagate their own agendas. In the wake of this tragedy, Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan demanded Western countries do more to counter Islamophobia. Among Khan's proposed list of solutions includes the criminalization of blasphemy agains the religion of Islam. Khan, like Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, has a long history of trying to school Western leaders on human rights."

"In Pakistan, blasphemy against Islam is punishable by death. The victims of this draconian law include academics such as Junaid Hafeez, who was imprisoned in 2013 and sentenced to death for blasphemy in 2019. Hafeez's lawyer and prominent human rights activist Rashid Rehman was assassinated in 2014."

Ahmed Shah, resident-physician, McMaster University

The community in London, Ont., is reeling after five members of a Muslim family were struck in what police say was a targeted hit-and-run attack on Sunday. Only a nine-year-old boy survived. Here, people are seen Monday at the scene where police say a man driving a pickup truck jumped the curb and struck the family. (Carlos Osorio/Reuters)