Did the esteemed Irwin Cotler fall to cancel culture and bend the knee to the #IslamphobiaIndustry?
Islamophobia is defined as the irrational fear of Islam. There is a world-wide industry; the #IslamophobiaIndustry, that wants to silence all negative comments about Islam and Muslims.
This is the definition of Islamophobia in Canada.
“Islamophobia – Includes racism, stereotypes, prejudice, fear or acts of hostility directed towards individual Muslims or followers of Islam in general. In addition to individual acts of intolerance and racial profiling, Islamophobia can lead to viewing and treating Muslims as a greater security threat on an institutional, systemic and societal level.”
The esteemed Irwin Cotler retweeted a tweet from Muslim Canadian journalist, Tarek Fatah, sharing his article about Islamophobia in Canada. He had written that there is no Islamophobia in Canada.
Well, before you knew it, the firestorm began.
Tarek Fatah was attacked for his article.
Replying to
Tarek FATAH is “house Muslim”, loved by Islamophobes in #Canada, #India, #US, et al. Question is HOW does he get away with ferociously fanning #Islamophobia & feeding fire to violent bigots baying for #Muslim blood ?
And Mr. Cotler was attacked for retweeting Fatah’s article.
Davide Mastracci
- Jun 17
Here is Toronto Sun columnist Tarek Fatah saying Muslims are to blame for Islamophobia, in an article titled “There is no Islamophobia in Canada,” written less than two weeks after four Muslims were killed in a hate crime. https://torontosun.com/opinion/columnists/fatah-there-is-no-islamophobia-in-canada
Then came:
Agreed: an apology is necessary from
https://twitter.com/mbueckert/status/1405656522252636163
And the apology was delivered as requested by people who mean nothing to me. Do you know these twits?
The apology was shared on twitter and Facebook and by NCCM, National Council of Canadian Muslims who work hard to promote the #IslamophobiaIndustry in Canada. NCCM, which is the equivalent of CAIR in America, believes that core Islamic values are aligned with and reflect Canadian values including equality, freedom, inclusiveness and justice.
CAIR, Council of American Islamic relations, founder Omar Ahmad had stated how CAIR could eventually gain influence in Congress: “This can be achieved by infiltrating the American media outlets, universities and research centers,” going on to suggest how this would give them an entry point that would allow them to pressure U.S. policymakers.
The Islamic Circle of North America says that Islam is not compatible with the West. ICNA (Islamic Circle of North America) Canada shares with its members, followers and supporters the book Riyad us Saliheen” where it says:
“The political system of Islam is totally incompatible with western democracy. The concept of government party and the opposition is alien to Islam. All belong to one Ummah with only one goal and pursue the same aims and objects of Islamic guidelines.”
Here is the apology from Irwin Cotler on June 21.
Over the past few days I have spoken with friends in the Muslim community about the painful article that was accidentally retweeted. I wish to reaffirm my condemnation of Islamophobia and apologize. I condemn the article and continue to fight against all forms of discrimination. https://twitter.com/i/status/1407037684355317774
Cotler “accidentally” retweeted?
So who are Fatah and Colter?
Tarek Fatah is a founder of the Muslim Canadian Congress and served as its communications officer and spokesperson. Fatah advocates gay rights, a separation of religion and state, opposition to sharia law, and advocacy for a “liberal, progressive form” of Islam. He is one of many Muslims trying to reform Islam: Dr. Zuhdi: medical doctor, reformist and founder of American Islamic Forum for Democracy; Raheel Raza: founder of Muslims Facing Tomorrow, journalist and activist; Sheik Dr. Ahmed Subhy Mansour: founder of Egypt’s Koranist Sect; Dr. Tawfik Hamid a former member of a terrorist group and now Chair of Study of Islamic Radicalism Potomac Institute for Policy Studies; Dr. Salim Mansour: Historian and Political Scientist; Dr. Qanta Ahmed: physician, author and columnist; Dr. Jalal Zuberi: medical specialist and East Director of the Center for Islamic Pluralism; and Shireen Quodisi; activist and freelance writer.
Some of Fatah’s activism and statements have been met with criticism from right-wing Muslim groups. He calls himself an Indian born in Pakistan, a Punjabi born in Islam.
He wrote a book The Jew is Not My Enemy.
Irwin Cotler is the Chair of the Raoul Wallenberg Centre for Human Rights, an Emeritus Professor of Law at McGill University, former Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada, long-time Member of Parliament, and an international human rights lawyer.
A constitutional and comparative law scholar, Professor Cotler is the author of numerous publications and seminal legal articles and has written upon and intervened in landmark Charter of Rights cases in the areas of free speech, freedom of religion, minority rights, peace law and war crimes justice.
A man with such a distinguished history, well respected in the community, apologized for tweeting an article about Islamophobia written by a respected Muslim journalist in Canada because of some tweets on Twitter? And calls from NCCM:
“There is an urgent collective need for action and condemnation of Islamophobia.”
So what was in that article that compelled an apology from Mr. Cotler?
Fatah had written:
“What more do we Muslims expect from Canada?
Our impact on Canada has forced almost every urban secondary school to allocate space for makeshift mosques and, at times, cafeterias where Islamic clerics go to give sermons to ensure gender segregation and lecture our youth on how to reject the “western way of life.”
No Buddhist, Hindu, Sikh, Jew or Baha’i demands special prayer rooms inside workplaces, universities, or washrooms to accommodate mid-day washing rituals Muslims undergo. No manager dare say “no” to our request and, if they do, Lord help them en route to the Human Rights complaints office.
And pray, what do we say during these prayers? Pious and religious Muslims who pray five times a day invoke a verse that refers to Jews as people who have incurred the “wrath of Allah” and Christians as “people who have been led astray.”
The actual verse of the Quran says:
“Guide us to the straight path
The way of those upon whom you have bestowed your grace
Not the way of those who have earned your wrath
Nor of those who went astray”“From the Quran published in Saudi Arabia to its interpretation by the 8th century jurist Ibn Kathir, all claim that these words or derision are meant to describe Jews and Christians.”
Here is more information about the prayer.
Let me add some more information about Islam that might lead to some rational fear.
Shaykh Muhammad Sa’id Ramadan al-Buti was the leading Islamic scholar in Syria, professor and retired Dean at the College of Islamic Law at Damascus University, author of Jurisprudence of the Prophetic Biography, and regarded as one of the best Prophetic biographies written in the 20th century. He wrote:
“The theory that our religion is a peaceful and loving religion is a wrong theory. The Holy war as it is known in Islamic jurisprudence is basically an offensive war, and it is the duty of all Muslims of every age…because our prophet Muhammad said that he is ordered by Allah to fight all people until they say ‘No God but Allah,’ and he is his messenger.”
There are other reasons to legitimately fear Islam especially if you are a Jew, Mr. Cotler.
Hadith narrated by Abi Hurira (Imam Abu Hurairah):
“The last hour won’t come before the Muslims would fight the Jews and the Muslims will kill them so Jews would hide behind rocks and trees. Then the rocks and tree would call: oh Muslim, oh servant of God! There is a Jew behind me, come and kill him. Only “Gharkad” tree, it is of Jews’ trees.”
I know as a Jew, I find this a tad disturbing. Even hateful. A threat to my very existence.
Mr. Fatah also wrote about the Imam in London Ontario who at the vigil for Muslims attacked by a white Christian man blamed the Jews.
“At the vigil in London, Dr. Munir El-Kassem, an Islamic cleric who once served as the chaplain of the London Police Service, revealed his pent-up feelings by drawing a parallel between the Palestinian-Israel conflict and the tragedy that descended on London. He concluded his remarks by saying, “Whatever is happening in Jerusalem and Gaza, is related to whatever happened in London, Ontario.”
So Mr. Cotler apologized for this? Where was his disgust for this despicable, hateful comment by this Imam? Did Mr. Cotler name and shame this Imam?
I can’t find anything. But he apologized for “accidentally” sharing an article that spoke about the Imam and his Jew hatred at a vigil for Muslims.
Why? Why would Mr. Cotler do such a thing? Fear of cancel culture? Canceled by whom? Is his concern for the “irrational fear” of Islam greater than his concern for the real hate for Jews around the world?
We are living in times of great Jew hatred, all over the world. Hatred for 14 million people in a world of 8 billion, two billion are Muslim. That hatred is spread on social media by people like this Imam. We witness Jewish people afraid to wear symbols of their Judaism on their person or their homes. Do Muslims have these fears? Do Christians? Well, maybe now that cancel culture is burning churches.
We work hard to teach our young Jewish people not to be afraid on campus as they are under constant attack, sometimes physical, from pro-Palestinian/Muslim organizations who blame the Jews for “Muslim genocide” and call for the elimination of the state of Israel. How can we expect our Jewish people to stand tall and proud and without fear in this cancel culture of doxing and naming and shaming if leaders as esteemed as Mr. Cotler roll over and turtle themselves based on tweets?
Cotler is the founder of the Raoul Wallenberg Center for Human Rights. Yet, he demeans the name and actions of Mr. Wallenberg, the man who died alone in a prison in Russia for the crime of saving Jews from death. During the Holocaust, Wallenberg handed out Swedish papers to Jews as they were crowded into the infamous cattle cars herding them to concentration camps, crematoria and death, ultimately saving more than 20,000 Hungarian Jews. He sped them away in Swedish diplomatic vehicles while Nazis and members of the Hungarian Arrow Cross shouted and pointed their guns at him. But Wallenberg would not yield.
Wallenberg never recanted. But this man, Cotler, safe and secure in Canada, recanted a retweet of an article written by a MUSLIM about Islamophobia. Seems to me that Mr Fatah, a Muslim, knows more about Islamophobia than Mr. Cotler.
In the Bible we read about Chana who watched as her seven sons died defending Judaism with grace.
Cotler bent the knee in disgrace.
Mr. Cotler owes the Jewish people an apology for caving in to the #IslamophobiaIndustry, an industry that goes out of its way to silence anything negative about Islam while permitting attacks on the Jewish people.
From the Ethics of the Fathers: “Rabbi Tarfon used to say, it is not incumbent upon you to complete the task, but you are not exempt from undertaking it.”
