Toronto Police are investigating a “Hate Crime” allegedly committed by Ezra Levant, the founder of Rebel News, which is involved in advocacy and activism.
The messages displayed on Rebel News’ billboard truck read:
Is his Yemen? Is this Syria? Is this Iraq? [Video clip featuring Muslims praying in front of Toronto City Hall]. No. This is Canada. [Video clip featuring Muslims praying] Wake up, Canada. You are under siege. [Video clip featuring pro-Palestinian demonstration in front of Toronto City Hall in May 2021].
Rebel News’ warning messages imply that an increasing number of radical and religious Muslim immigrants will eventually force Islamic values on society, changing forever the face of Canada and its current Western secular foundations. But public warnings of the threat posed by radical Muslims are considered a “Hate Crime” in Canada. So it didn’t take long for official complaints and reports on social media about the advertising truck with big screens displaying “Islamophobic” messages for Toronto’s Police Chief Myron Demkiw to launch an investigation. He stated: “Let me be clear: all incidents of hate are serious. Everyone deserves to feel safe in our great city. The Service is investigating this incident… The investigation has been launched following complaints from the Muslim community.”
As in previous incidents, the National Council of Canadian Muslims (NCCM), the leading advocacy group of the Muslim community in Canada, labeled Rebel News’ messages as “pure Islamophobia and hate.” The NCCM stated:
“An advertising van was spotted in Toronto inciting a fear of Muslims in Canada. This is extremely dangerous messaging, and should not be condoned. We have seen Islamophobic hate kill in Canada, including in Ontario. This public campaign is pure Islamophobia and hate. We are asking @TorontoPolice to investigate this public campaign and who is trying to incite hate. We are expecting all of our leaders to condemn this form of hate in Toronto. This needs to stop now.”
But read and watch how Canadian Muslim leaders debunk their own claims that Rebel News is Islamophobic.
According to Dr. Jasmin Zine, a professor of Sociology and Religion and Culture at Wilfrid Laurier University in Waterloo, Ont.; accusing Muslim groups of planning to take over the West is an expression of Islamophobia.
However, in her article “The Canadian Islamophobia Industry: Islamophobia’s Ecosystem in the Great White North,” which has already been meticulously debunked by Diane Weber Bederman, Dr. Jasmin Zine wrote:
“The pro-Israel, fringe-right groups that have been identified as promoting anti-Muslim ideologies and Islamophobic scare stories have shared goals geared toward propagating the Islamist bogeyman conspiracies that they claim threaten both Israel and the West. Muslim organizations in Canada and the US are branded by these groups as fronts for Hamas, Hezbollah, and the Muslim Brotherhood, posing serious political and existential threats to Western democracy and freedom by serving as a Trojan horse for an Islamist take over and civilizational jihad.”
NCCM and Dr. Jasmin Zine claim that portraying the Islamic doctrine as striving to take over and Islamize Canada and the West should be labeled “Islamophobia.” By doing so, NCCM and Dr. Jasmin Zine include the leading Islamic organizations and their leaders.
Mustafa Farooq, the former Executive Director of NCCM, who offered 25,000 for information leading to the arrest of those responsible, has a long history of calling on Muslims “to recreate Cordoba [Caliphate] in any Canadian city” and to “erase these artificial “nation-state” identities,” Farooq stated on his Facebook page on November 3, 2009 (the post is no longer available online).
“To me, the concept of “A Common Word” provides a more effective paradigm than the Us/Them mentality. It supersedes the so called “Canadian” identity (which apparently is related to hockey and maple syrup) and allows us to engage people on far deeper levels. It allows us to ask questions like, “What is justice? How are we going to get there?” It allows us to say, “We are going to work towards peace”. It gives us the mandate to become a dominant discourse- For when truth comes, evil vanishes.
“In terms of civic disobedience, while definitely important, we have to look more closely at the civis. How are we Muslims going to recreate Cordoba* in Edmonton/Toronto/Montreal/any Canadian city? We have a massive task ahead of us, but I really believe that it is one at which we can succeed, one in which we erase these artificial “nation-state” identities, and move together to pursue Jannah [paradise].”
Shaikh Abdool Hamid, a senior Muslim scholar, and a Toronto Imam, described in a lecture at Masjid Toronto mosque how Islam transformed societies slowly into an Islamic state and urged Muslims to spread Islam and eventually make the Islamic values dominant for the betterment of Muslims and the society as a whole. The following are excerpts from Abdool Hamid’s speech at Masjid Toronto mosque on October 30, 2013 (originally in English):
“But ultimately, brothers and sisters, our goal as Muslims should be to transform, to move it along, not just to be satisfied when the situation as we find it and we try to fit in somehow. As I said that it may be necessary initially. But Islam came to transform the lives of people, to improve it for them. By change I don’t mean we want to take over for the sake of taking over. By change what I mean is to improve the lives of people. That’s why Islam came and that’s what it did at the time of the Prophet [Mohammad], peace and blessing be upon him. Of course in improving the life of people changes will have to be made, so it may seem from one perspective that Islam took over so to speak, but it’s did not take over to enslave people or to control them or to take advantage of them. It took over in order to enhance their lives. And so what happened in the time of Prophet [Mohammad], peace and blessing be upon him, and after he passed away and for many generations after that, Islam transformed societies and transform people. So as Muslims we should not simply especially when we interact or we deal with the Western world for also a practical level we live here, we have families here… So we should not be simply satisfied with the situation as it is with the status quo. We should try to change this, to bring about changes that will improve the lives of people… We should strive to change, not necessarily overnight. That’s the other thing. Our changes don’t have to happen overnight. Allah the Exalted did not overnight transform society. He did not prohibit X Y Z and ordered X Y Z or A B C overnight. Praise be to Allah, Allah the Exalted, the Wise, He revealed the Quran over a period of 23 years, 23 years, and it was over this period that slowly the concepts, the values and the principles of Islam were being established a little bit at a time in the lives of people, so that the change that overcame them, it did so slowly. So we don’t need to rush into making changes, but that doesn’t mean [that] we shouldn’t start working toward the change even if it comes out an old day story. So we should not be satisfied with what we find. Initially we’ll be trying to do the best we can and what we find, but then we should start planning, so that we can move this forward, Allah Willing… In this is testament to this, its transformation, the nature of the transformation of the message of Islam, that we should not be satisfied with the way things are unless of course they are prophets, but if they are not, and we should try to transcribe to positively contribute towards changing for the better even if it takes time, even if takes a long time, but Allah Willing, we’ll get there and that is what it is important, not to change overnight, but to have the plan and the intention to change and to start that process even if it is a slow one… So we take what we can do and we work with that, Allah Willing, slowly changes will come… What this ultimately will mean also, brothers and sisters, is that certain changes cannot happen unless we become involved in the political process… Be smart in showing others the message of Islam. So we need to engage even in that level if we really want to bring about the changes that we be not only for the betterment of the Muslims but Allah Willing for all of the society. There is nothing in Islam that is only good for Muslims and not good for the non-Muslims. Absolutely not. Whatever is good for the Muslims is also good for those who are not Muslims… Cause that what Allah wants for people. He wants the best in life and He [Allah] gives us this legislation [Islamic Law, Sahria] to allow us to achieve the best in life. So not only for the Muslims, but for the whole community in society as well. So we need to as Muslims to recognize this. We don’t have to submit to the situation as it is. Initially we might have to, but we should start thinking about how best we can bring about positive changes to our situation we face in our societies. That is what Islam is all about.”
ICNA Canada (Islamic Circle of North America), one of the biggest Islamic organizations in Canada, shared on its official website a publication that states that Islam strives to achieve global dominance by jihad. Here are excerpts from the book:
“[I]t is incumbent on the Mulsims to wage Jihad against them to wipe out Kufr [heresey] and Shirk [polytheism] and raise the banner of Tauhid [oneness of Allah] everywhere.
“This Hadith [Riyad us Saliheen, Hadith 390] strongly refutes the people who distort the Islamic concept of Jihad and hold that Islam preaches defensive war only. It is an apologetic approach because defensive war has to be fought in any case by every nation and country. Thus, it is a compulsion and needs no justification. The real distinction of Islam lies in its enjoining Muslims to wage war for upholding the truth beside fighting for their own defense.“
“The domination of Kufr, Shirk and falsehood is darkness, heresy and tyranny, and the objective of Islam is to purge the world of all these evils.“
“It aims at liberating man from the worship of man, set them on the path of worship of Allah, and to provide a just and equitable society to mankind.
“Wherever in the world there is tyranny, ignorance and heresy, Muslims are bound to fight such evils and finish them by means of Jihad.“
“There is also a third form of Jihad which is waged against countries where Muslims are victims of aggression, suppression and cruelties of the non-Muslims. It is incumbent upon Muslims to liberate their brethren in Faith from the clutches of the non-Muslims by means of Jihad. So long Muslims performed this obligation with a sense of duty, Islam and its followers were dominant in the world and ever since they have ignored this obligation, both are in subjugation and disgrace. In other words, the secret of power and stability of Muslims lies in Jihad. Muslims need to understand this secret like their ancestors.“
Watch this video of Political Islam’s advocates: