Jihadis Among Us

"The Israelites in Victoria [British Columbia] are a large and  highly respectable body."

"Many of them have resided in the city from the date of its earliest existence, and their conduct and bearing has invariably been such as to earn for them the good wishes and esteem of their fellow citizens of other persuasions."

Victoria Colonist newspaper editorial June, 1863

 

"The Jews have an ancient and dark history of bloodshed and breaking covenants and treaties."

"If Allah had willed, He could have taken vengeance upon them Himself. But He ordered armed struggle."

"Listen! He ordered armed struggle to test some of you by means of others."

Muslim hate preacher Younus Kathradra, Victoria, 2025

 

"We have seen a disturbing permissiveness toward these [Islamist-jihadist] groups in Canada."
"Pro-Hamas protesters shut down our streets with chants, threats and hate, unchecked, unchallenged, and increasingly normalized."

"The messages invoked age-old and violent antisemitic blood libels, falsely accusing Jews of murdering children and calling for revenge. These are not just hateful words, they are dangerous incitements."

"That the act of antisemitic vandalism was discovered the weekend of Tisha B’Av, a day that commemorates centuries of Jewish persecution, is no coincidence. It was a calculated act of hate, exploiting a sacred moment to send a vile message."

"We call on civic leaders, law enforcement and the broader public to treat this for what it is: a hate crime and a threat to community safety. This is a moment for solidarity. A moment for courage. And a moment for all Canadians to take a stand against hate, in all its forms, wherever it appears."

Nico Slobinsky, vice-president, Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs 

A  hateful message was written on an exterior pillar of ­Congregation Emanu-El, the synagogue in downtown Victoria. After documenting the ­graffiti, police worked with the city to have it removed. Photo credit: Solomon Siegel

 

Jews have enjoyed a long, reciprocal relationship with the capital city of British Columbia. In 1858 the city's Jewish community decided it was time to build a synagogue and the following year witnessed the emergence of the Victoria Benevolent Society, which laid a foundation stone for the synagogue in June of 1863, with a grand celebration and parade led by the St.Andrew's Society, the Germania Sing Verin choir, the French Benevolent Society, among other ethnic groups residing in the city.

 

That was then, almost two hundred years ago. Now, in Victoria marches and rallies take place, with a weekly "Free Palestine" protest taking place a the provincial legislative buildings, led for the most part by the Muslim Students Association of the University of Victoria. Joining the Muslim students is a contingent of aging white antisemites who find common cause with them, in assigning blame to Jews for the fallout of Palestinian terrorist atrocities against Israeli citizens, excusing acts of psychotic savagery as just due for the 'occupation' by Israel of ancestral Jewish land that Arab Palestinian claim as theirs.

 

The Muslim Students Association aligns itself with the crude and highly inflammable vitriolic incitements by Islamist-jihadi Younis Kathradra, on record calling for the annihilation of Jews and denouncing Canada as “evil and filthy” for its tolerance of homosexuality. He had been invited by the UVic Muslim Students Association to conduct a lecture last year, entitled The Importance of Connecting with the Muslim Community -- which was ultimately cancelled by the university itself.

 

Sheikh Younus Kathrada in a 2018 video. Photo by MEMRI.org

 

The weekend desecration of Congregation Emanu-El synagogue represents the latest incident in a series now commonplace in Canada since the Gaza War of nearly two years, instigated by the terrorist group Hamas's invasion of southern Israel targeting its farming communities, raping and mutilating, abducting Israeli children, girls and women, the elderly, foreign farm workers, and a number of IDF soldiers; altogether 1,200 Israelis were slaughtered, leading to an invasion of Gaza by the Israel Defense Forces for the distinct purpose of ferreting Hamas terrorists out from their presence among the civilian population.

 

From early Victoria in the 19th century a Jewish merchant was sent by Victoria to Ottawa to represent their interests the year B.C. entered Confederation in 1871; Henry Nathan becoming Canada's first Jewish member of Parliament. A vice-president of Congregation Emanu-El, Samuel D. Schultz became the first Jew appointed a judge in 1914's Canada. The first Jew elected to a legislature in Canada was Selim Franklin in 1859. Victoria stood as a beacon of racial and religious toleration; seen in the fact that among subscribers to the synagogue's construction fundraising drive in the 1860s, there were as many non-Jews as Jews.

 

 Still from video   Victoria News

 

Back then, although there was both official and social antisemitism in play in various parts of Canada, where Jews were not permitted to become members of social clubs, were restricted in their numbers applying to Canadian universities, and Jewish communities were forced to build their own hospitals when Jewish doctors were refused residency at municipal hospitals, no one might have foreseen a day when raging antisemitism would raise its ugly head to the extent that is now seen, with an influx of Muslims into Canada and 'activist' Muslim university students would erect their own barriers against Jewish faculty and students entering to study and to teach, with encampments and signage condemning Israel and threatening Jews.

 

The Palestine Youth Movement held a downtown rally from Yonge and Dundas Sts. to the Israeli Consulate on Tuesday, March 18, 2025, before shutting down the intersection to traffic. Photo by Caryma Sa'd /Special to the Toronto Sun

 

Not only is Congregation Emanu-El Canada's oldest synagogue, but like other synagogues elsewhere in Montreal, Vancouver and Toronto that have been threatened, some firebombed, defaced, shot at, it like many others is a 'progressive' synagogue at a time when the progressive-left in Canada is allying itself with Muslim-Palestinian 'victimhood', finding due cause to condemn Israel as the aggressor in the turmoil that has resulted from Palestinian terrorism's sinister threats, violent savagery and the propaganda of Israel's 'genocide'.

 

The proud history and heritage of Jewish life in Canada has been besmirched even as it is being threatened by the infiltrated presence of foreign students at Canadian universities, of Muslim immigration, refugee intake, migrant refuge claims, to completely alter the social life, academic credentials, political orientation and values of justice and equality in Canada. That these same groups -- some of which like Samidoun -- that are considered terrorist entities in Canadian law are permitted to operate openly in Canada, damns the current government.

 

The reality is that these Muslim groups in their vehemence against Israel and their threats against Canadian Jewish life, also look a little further afield in their agenda against Western heritage and values; they threaten the democratic way of life, they openly express their contempt for Canadian verities and values, laws and heritage, as they continue to display hostile aggressive behaviours that challenge governments and policing agencies at every level, who fail to respond by upholding law and order. 

 

The Victoria Police Department released this photo of a man suspected in the vandalism of a synagogue on Aug. 2, 2025.  CTV News

  

"You cannot divorce the disgusting antisemitic graffiti found on a synagogue in Victoria, B.C. on Shabbat, from the Prime Minister's announcement last week. By declaring its intention to prematurely recognize a Palestinian state, the federal government has further emboldened the vitriolic minority that has been targeting Canada's Jewish community for almost two years."

"This is what happens when our leaders placate those who incite hate and sow division."

"Synagogues are defiled and Jewish Canadians are threatened."

B'nai Brith