A
CANADIAN'S PERSPECTIVE OF MUSLIM...Part 3
Rise of Islamic
Extremism in Canada
The following are excerpts from the writing of
Raheel Raza, an Ontario resident.
My
family and I came to Canada 24 years ago from Pakistan, seeing the
rise of fundamentalism in the land of our birth. I studied in a
Catholic school; we rarely came across blatant 'extremism', terrorism
or political Islam. However, in 1977, Mohammed Zia-ul-Haq came into
power after removing and hanging the democratically elected Prime
Minister. The founder of the Islamic party implemented his extreme
version of Islam. Women
had to cover their heads in public...co-education
was eliminated in schools...and
Friday was made
the weekly holiday...now
forced into the public sphere. We had always lived moderate, normal
lives inbued with a traditional, spiritual interpretation of Islam.
In 1979, the Hudood
Ordinance were
Pakistani legal provisions intended to implement Islamic
Sharia Law
by enforcing punishments, primarily upon women.
Instituted was the unquestionable use of vioolence.
Instituted was the distortion of historical facts...the Prophet's
sayings
and his character: thus giving legitimacy to militancy!
Despite
the vast difference in cuture, terrain and weather, we felt totally
at home in Canada. Our boys were only 2 and 4 years old..who when of
school age, attended a Brampton school. Initially we were charmed by
the official multicuturalism in Canada. As new immigrants, we could
preserve our own culture and heritage. We joined the work force and
as we expanded horizons, we started seeing small signals...that
'something was not right' with the Muslim community in
Canada...especially of the Pakistani origin. The mother of one of
the children's classmates of Pakistan origin, asked why my kids sang
the National Anthem of Canada when it is haren
(forbidden).
She confessed that the Imam
of the local mosque had told the congregation that, “It
was against the faith to sing Canada's National Anthem...or indeed to
show loyalty to Canada.” Other
mosques were endorsing the same. Many immigrants were enforcing
cutltural values and ideas that were at odds with Canada's
established ideology from which we had escaped. Some
Pakistani-Canadians, dressing like Arabs, were resisting Western
values, expressing hostility towards the principles of freedom and
gender equality. We saw many Islamic schools (madrasses) being
established.
I
was dismayed to see the rise of Wahhabi/Salafism
in Canada. The mainstream non-Muslim community at that time had very
little knowledge about Islam, because until the 1980's, Muslims were
the 'exotic other'. Therefore, I started writing for the Toronto
Star to educate both Muslims and non-Muslims about the spiritual
message of the faith...and to encourage immigrants to embrace
the good in Canada!
In
the late 1990's, Islamic groups in Canada were identified as
Hezbolla,
several
Sunni
Islamic groups
including Hames
and others..with ties to Egypt, Libya, Lebonon and Iran. In 1998,
the director of Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS)
testified before a Canadian Senate special committee (perhaps with
the exclusion of United States)...”There are more international
terrorist organizations active in Canada than in any other country of
the world.” He further stated that the counter-terrorism branch of
CSIS was investigating over 50 organizatinos and about 350
individuals.
On June 2, 2006, 17 Muslims including 5 juveniles were arrested in
Canada for 'planning major terrorist attacks on Canadian
soil...including the storming of Parliament and the beheading of the
Prime
Minister Stephen Harper'. The terrorists wished to bargain for the
immediate release of Muslim prisoners in Canada and Afghanistan.
In
the past 3 decades, 100's of young minds have been poisoned! The
advent of campus radicalization
and foreign funding is a concern that has not been directly (or at
least) adequately addressed by Canadian policy-makers and government
officials. There
needs to be better monitoring of foreign fundraising by Revenue
Canada...and greater transparency about funds channelled into Muslim
organizations and mosques!
Some immigrants park their families in Canada while the men leave to
work abroad and come back only to use the 'social welfare system'!
Families here have issues adapting to Canadian lifestyles. Young
boys left in charge of their mothers and female relatives...gives
them a distorted understanding of women's rights and gender equality.
Later,
our kids went to College...and we found to our dismay, that the
Muslim
Student Associations (MSA's) could
be quite outspokenly anti-Semitic and extremist in their views. At
York University, they often approached my son to convince him to be a
better Muslim by joining 'congreational prayers' as an option over
classes. They left nasty notes on my niece's door about how she
would burn in hell if she did not wear the 'hijab'...this
hijab,
in fact started to become a 'political symbol' and I saw a sudden
rise
of
orthodox religiosity amongst young Muslims who were being sucked into
the hardline Wahhabi/Salafist
ideology...an
extremist puritanical and violent movement that emerged with the
pretension of reforming Islam in the coastal area of Arabia in the
18th
century. It has always viewed...and has always attached the
traditional, spiritual Islam (or Sufism) that dominates the Balkans,
Turkey, Central Asia, India, Malasia and Indonesia.
911
and the Immediate Aftermath:
On September 9, 2011, the world changed and so did my life. It
seemed that many of our warnings 'fell on deaf ears'. It was
shocking and mind-boggling...but was it a surprise? The writing had
been on the wall for some time. We had seen the signs in Pakistan
and now in North America: so the fear that something terrible was
about to happen, had been palpable well before the terrorists struck
United States. Threats are the result of mental and material
transactions. This, in turn, suggests that the actual incidence of
Islamic plots and attacks in Canada greatly understates the
underlying, developing extremist reality is upon us...waiting to
break.
Muslim
Youth have been Exposed!
In order to understand better, the roots of Canada's developing
malaise, one can find some of its foundations in the way Canada's
immigration and political asylum, politics and porous
Canadian-American border have lent themselves to manipulation and
abuse by radical Islamists.
IF WE GRAPPLE SENSIBLY WITH THE EXTREMIST CHALLENGE,
CANADA CAN REMAIN “STRONG AND FREE”;
BECOME A MODEL FOR THE REST OF THE WORLD...AND BE A SAFE HAVEN
IN WHICH OUR CHILDREN CAN ENJOY THE BENEFITS OF BEING “CANADIAN”!
(The foregoing has not been verified by the below writer)
However, I endorse Raheel Raza's Perspective that
Today's Youth are Mankind's Future Tomorrow!
Merle Baird-Kerr...written August 7, 2016
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