February 2017

So let me get this straight; Takek Fatah, a liberal, secular Muslim is called a “kafir”, an apostate from Islam, and subject to be killed by Muslim’s who subscribe to this interpretation of sharia law, for speaking out against the problems he sees within his own religion, yet in Canada, we’re worried about Islamophobia?

More and more in Canada, anyone who speaks out against these kind of barbaric practices and others followed by radical Islamic extremists is called Islamophobic and bigoted by virtue-signalling progressives, even if that person is a Muslim themselves. 

Although M-103 would have no force of law behind it, it’s a dangerous slope to be going down.  The fact that Islamophobia is not clearly defined makes it dangerous as it could stifle legitimate debate about controversial issues like sharia law and the niqab.  Tarek Fatah certainly wouldn’t be able to make some of the criticisms he makes about Islam and it ignores what we should really be concerned about combating.

Fatah puts it well in his 21 February Toronto Sun column:  “As I contemplate several death threats and the bounty placed on my head, I can’t help but wonder about Motion 103, now before our House of Commons, wherein Mississauga Liberal MP Iqra Khalid would have us believe, the real threat to our communities is “Islamophobia” — not Islamic radicals hell bent on killing in the name of Islam.”

Shouldn’t Canada be more concerned with condemning and stopping the barbaric practices of Islamic extremists around the world, along with the Human Rights violations by Muslim countries like Saudi Arabia and Pakistan?

It’s also not a stretch to say that by capitulating to this motion, we would be laying the ground work for it becoming an enforceable law once people become comfortable with it.  What happens next?

What other opinions would also become prohibited?  Maybe criticism of Trump will be the next thing prohibited under penalty of legal sanction (those with sarcasm detectors will now hear them going off).  Actually, that might be a good thing as I’m tired of hearing how Trump is a Nazi and how he will establish concentration camps by the end of 2017.

Regardless of whether M-103 actually becomes an enforceable law, it would embolden progressive virtue-signalers to berate and bully into silence anyone who wishes to speak out against Islamic extremists.  It would stifle free-speech and legitimate debate.

Even former Liberal minister Irwin Cotler is on record as saying that the wording of the motion needs to be changed, advising that the term “anti-Muslim bigotry” would more appropriately address the issue.

However, an even more reprehensible reason to denounce M-103 is this cynical partisan politics at its worst.  It’s causing divisions not only along political lines but within parties themselves.  Progressives like nothing better than to portray conservatives as racist and bigoted, while portraying themselves as enlightened and always on the right side of virtuous ideology.

While I don’t agree with Ontario PC leader Patrick Brown’s support of a similar motion in the Ontario Legislature, I understand why he is supporting it; because he’s trying to deflate the insinuation that he must be the intolerant, bigoted leader of an intolerant, bigoted political party, just because he’s a conservative.

No one likes to be called a racist or a bigot, but I believe actions speak louder than words.  If someone is accused of being a bigot, but their actions contradict that, including the things they say and write, the accuser deserves to be called out as a hateful liar who is only trying to divide us.

Hatred and bigotry of all kind should be condemned, not just against Islam.  As well, hatred and bigotry of those who simply disagree with your opinions should also be called out.

Tarek Fatah’s original article:

http://www.torontosun.com/2017/02/21/a-bounty-on-my-head-im-a-virtual-prisoner-in-delhi

A bounty on my head, I’m a virtual prisoner in Delhi

FIRST POSTED: TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 21, 2017 09:42 PM EST | UPDATED: WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 22, 2017 06:48 AM EST

For the past few weeks I have been a virtual prisoner inside my Delhi Hotel, unable to walk out or attend any public event unless accompanied by “security.”

Threats by Islamic clerics that I had initially shrugged off as false bravado have turned out to be serious after one cleric pronounced on my TV show that I was a “kafir,” an apostate from Islam that, under some interpretations of sharia law, allows any Muslim to kill me, as stated unambiguously by a Canadian Islamic cleric.

A week earlier, another Islamic cleric from Kolkata, while addressing me on a live, televised debate, boasted, “you will soon be beheaded.”

Then, on Sunday, I was attacked by a mob of nearly 100 Islamist extremists at a culture festival ostensibly celebrating Urdu poetry and literature.

Other progressive writers of Muslim background have faced such threats and quite justifiably left India.

I chose to stand my ground because I feel it is worth the risk to stand up to Islamist bullies, who threaten violence and then act as if Islamophobia is the problem and not Islamofascism.

But the worst was yet to come.

I woke up Tuesday morning to read the Times of India reporting that an Islamic cleric had put a bounty on my head as well as that of Dr. Subhas Chandra, the head of India’s leading TV news network, Zee News.

What was my crime?

Turns out my hosting of a TV talk show on Dr. Chandra’s network on Saturday nights during prime time has made me a popular household name and a sought-after celebrity, of sorts.

The show is an all-Muslim, no-hold-barred discussion forum called “Fatah Ka Fatwa” (Fatah’s Fatwa).

On it, we grapple with issues that for centuries have never been fully discussed openly in public, outside the confines of Muslim homes.

These include polygamy, child marriage, the institution of Muta’a (a temporary marriage that provides a theological cover for prostitution) and contempt for “kafirs”, meaning non-Muslims.

Many Muslims, primarily loyal to the Islamic Ummah rather than to their country of citizenship, came pouring out to protest.

A petition was filed in the Delhi High Court to halt the show while the country’s broadcasting authority was asked by some Islamic clerics to intervene, but to no avail.

They had reckoned they could scare me, but I had called their bluff and all they could do now was threaten me on the show and even shower insults on my daughter.

After all their legal attempts failed, it seems the mullahs have decided to try to do what they do best, browbeat and physically bully me, a secular, liberal Muslim, into silence.

As I contemplate several death threats and the bounty placed on my head, I can’t help but wonder about Motion 103, now before our House of Commons, wherein Mississauga Liberal MP Iqra Khalid would have us believe, the real threat to our communities is “Islamophobia” — not Islamic radicals hell bent on killing in the name of Islam.

Then there was this gem from a Canadian Muslim who wrote in the Toronto Star that Islamic sharia “may be the best tool we have to counter the violent and anti-modern narratives of (Islamic) extremists.”

That caused me to ROFLMAO! (Roll on the floor laughing my arse off!)