* Yusuf: what say you now?
Supporters of slain Pakistani opposition leader Benazir Bhutto hold candles in Lahore January 1, 2008. Pakistan plans to postpone next week’s election after Bhutto’s killing sparked turmoil in the nuclear-armed …
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Ms. Bhutto had not yet received a proper burial before the attacks on her character started appearing. The vice-president of the Canadian Arab Federation circulated an article lambasting Ms. Bhutto, mocking her as stooge of the West. It did not end at that level. Haroon Siddiqui of the Toronto Star dedicated an entire column to attacking Ms. Bhutto’s legacy and labelling her as corrupt and, God forbid the thought, pro-West. As if her being pro-Western was somehow anti-Canadian.
If attempts by Islamic writers to disparage Benazir Bhutto were distasteful, the conspicuous silence of Canada’s Islamic organizations was equally disturbing. Seventy-two hours after the news of her assassination, neither the Canadian Islamic Congress nor its cousin CAIR-Can had uttered a word on the subject. Not even the “This-has-nothing-to-do-with-Islam” mantra to which we have become so accustomed. Were they looking for clues from Arab capitals or Iran? There, too, was an eerie silence. Men in turbans who rule Saudi Arabia and Iran seemed to be relieved that a jihadi terrorist had stopped a woman from becoming a leader of Muslim nation. Phew! We asked a number of our Arab friends to explain the wall of silence that has greeted Benazir’s murder in the Arab world. Most admired her and were themselves perplexed at the silence, but one woman writing from the Arab world said:
“You have to understand the state of the Arab world at the moment. Extremism and ‘Political Islamism’ is spreading among the masses like fire among wood. Bhutto’s position against the extremists was always clear, and this [is] reflected in the Arab world now, as most approved of her death and considered it a religious obligation to rid her from the Islamic world.”
He talked in convoluted language expressing “condolences to families of beloved brothers and sisters who died in the incident.” When asked by a Toronto Star reporter why he had deliberately avoided mentioning Ms. Bhutto’s name, the imam snapped back: “Why? This is not a political arena. This is about religion. That’s politics.” How convenient.
At other mosques, the story was the same. Not a word about Benazir Bhutto. Reporters at one mosque seemed bewildered and asked why her name was not being mentioned. What no one was willing to tell them is that perhaps the imams consider the words “Benazir Bhutto” unclean and unIslamic. After all, she had vowed to take on the Islamic extremists and hence she was an adversary; the mere mention of her name may pollute the sanctity of the mosque.
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Canada: Steyn and the ‘We will out-breed you with the bellies of our women” jihad
* Kuffar: if you repeat what we Muslims say everyday we will sue you for Islamophobia…!
* Sheik yer’mami reported on the demographic jihad here…
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ORONTO — A Muslim group is suing Canada’s leading national newsweekly for the right of rebuttal because it published excerpts warning of high Muslim birthrates in the book “America Alone,” by syndicated columnist Mark Steyn.
The Canadian Islamic Congress filed complaints last month against Maclean’s magazine with Canada’s national human rights commission and provincial rights commissions in Ontario and British Columbia, charging that Mr. Steyn’s writings promote hatred and contempt against Canada’s estimated 750,000 Muslims.
The commission in British Columbia accepted the case and has scheduled a hearing for early June.
Mr. Steyn, whose syndicated columns appear in The Washington Times, writes that rising birthrates in Muslim countries and the declining number of babies in Christian and Westernized countries represent a long-term security threat.
Mr. Steyn, in the excerpts used by Maclean’s, compared Muslims to Indians in the Old West infiltrating “the white cities” and suggested many Muslims are “hot for jihad” and favor a “bloody” war against the West.
The U.S. magazine Human Events published its own account of the Maclean’s article, highlighting this passage:
“There are signs that Allah will grant Islam victory in Europe — without swords, without guns, without conquests. The 50 million Muslims of Europe will turn it into a Muslim continent within a few decades.”
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That is the true danger Sheik.