Beyond the hatred, the racism and the anger, there’s a certain irony surrounding Al-Quds Day, commemorated this weekend internationally and to its shame — in Toronto.
The event was founded by the Ayatollah Khomeini, and is an overwhelmingly Shiite Islam event. Anybody who knows Islam will understand that the Shiites are despised in most of the majority Sunni world. They were treated as second-class citizens in Lebanon, they are murdered in Pakistan, they are thought as being, golly, even worse than the Jews in Syria, and there aren’t any in Egypt because Saladin killed them all.
So spare me the lies and propaganda about Islamic brotherhood and the fraternity of Muslim believers. You have not seen genuine hatred if you haven’t seen how Muslim sect treats Muslim sect. And you’ll see a lot more of it when President Assad falls, and his fellow Alawites, a version of Shiite Islam, are likely slaughtered like cattle.
While this sordid event can take place in Canada, it would likely be banned or violently suppressed in most Muslim countries. Believe me, it’s not about Jews; it’s about power, and the psychotic inability of international Muslim leadership to tolerate anybody who does not agree with the established position.
The epicentre of Al-Quds Day is Iran, where homosexuals are publicly executed, women stoned to death, dissidents gang-raped and then murdered, the Holocaust denied, and international terrorism planned and financed. Tehran is the model that many of the people at the centre of this protest admire and would like to see replicated everywhere. They couldn’t give a damn about the Palestinians, and see their plight as another way to extend their own ideology. Good Lord, some of them even pretend to be Iranian when they’re not. I interviewed one of the Al-Quds Day organizers some years ago, and knew him to be Pakistani. He lied to my face, because being Iranian is apparently way sexier in the Islamic fanatic community.
So this is not about free speech at all. Freedom is sacred, but it is not the same as license. All civilized people condemn public pleas for violence and genocide, which is what will be heard at the demonstration if they are in any way similar to past gatherings, and judging by activists’ e-mails that have already been circulated.
There may well also be Hezbollah flags flown. This internationally recognized terrorist group is illegal in Canada and is also playing a central role in the Syrian massacres that we read about every day.
Imagine, for example, a large group of people waving Paul Bernardo flags, or Nazi banners.
A lot of mainstream Arabs and supporters of Palestine are uncomfortable with this gruesome display, but too many politicians, especially Liberal ones, seem to measure morality by votes. It’s not whether something is wrong or not, but how many people might support the party if a stand is taken.
That’s horrible. In some ways even more horrible than the day itself.
As you read [Friday, August 17, 2012 08:00 PM, EDT] this I’ll be speaking to 800 Catholics in Winnipeg. No terror, no hatred, no screaming for blood.
Religions aren’t all the same.
Really, really not the same.
Michael is a weekly columnist with the Toronto, Ottawa, Calgary, Edmonton and Winnipeg Sun newspapers, and in more than a dozen other daily and weekly newspapers across Canada. He is also a columnist for The Catholic Register, Catholic Insight, Catholic World Report, The Landowner, and The Interim. He also appears each Wednesday on Newstalk 1010 radio, and is a regular guest on networks as diverse as Russia Today and TVOntario.
He is the best-selling author of fourteen books, including biographies of G.K. Chesterton, H.G. Wells, Arthur Conan Doyle, J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis. He has contributed to the Dictionary of National Biography and several other anthologies. He is published in many countries and in more than a dozen languages. His last two books were on the best-seller list for more than ten weeks.
He has received several honorary doctorates and awards for his writing and broadcasting. In 2005 he won The Ed Murrow Award for Radio Broadcasting, in 2006 The RTNDA Radio Broadcasting Award, in 2007 the Communicator Award in Hollywood and in 2008 the Omni Award for his television show. In 2012 The Catholic Civil Rights League gave Coren the Archbishop Adam Exner Award for Catholic Excellence in Public Life, and in the same year he was awarded the Queen’s Jubilee Medal for services to media. Michael Coren is a frequent speaker on a number of issues. Please visit the Public Speaking page for more details.
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