Version française ICI
Earlier today (Tuesday December 11), The Canadian Press reported that Justin Trudeau said of those who criticized his intention of speaking in Toronto at the Reviving the Islamic Spirit convention that they are “trafficking in misinformation.”
The Canadian Press reported that “criticism of Trudeau’s appearance emerged on the website Point de Bascule Canada (or Tipping Point Canada), and the theme was picked up by a pair of popular radio stations in Montreal, one French and one English, and on the Sun News TV network.”
Andy Blatchford (The Canadian Press / Ottawa Citizen – December 11, 2012): Justin Trudeau brushes off complaints about appearance at Islamic convention (Online version)
In the article that raised the flag about Trudeau’s complacency towards radical Islam, Point de Bascule provided short profiles for the main sponsor of the event (Islamic Relief Canada) and for three Muslim Brotherhood heavyweights (Tariq Ramadan, Jamal Badawi and Mustafa Ceric) who will share the podium with Trudeau. Justin Trudeau has not identified one single fact mentioned by Point de Bascule about them that is inaccurate.
Since the release of our first article about this Islamist convention, the organizers have identified many more sponsors. Among them, IRFAN Canada and Human Concern International must be highlighted. Until last weekend, only Islamic Relief was identified as a sponsor.
In April 2011, the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) revoked IRFAN’s charity status after having concluded that only for the 2005-2009 period, it transferred $14.6 million to Hamas (GMBDR – Toronto Star).
According to its charter (article 13), Gaza-based Hamas is committed to the destruction of Israel. The launch of missiles toward Israel and the suicide operations planned by Hamas in the past confirm its goal. Outside the Middle East, Hamas share the objective of Islamic conquest with the Muslim Brotherhood. Hamas presents itself as a wing of the Brotherhood in its charter (article 2).
By deciding to speak at the Toronto’s Islamist convention, Justin Trudeau endorses its sponsors such as IRFAN, whose charitable status was revoked for having funded Hamas. This is a government led by his own party that deemed it crucial to distance itself from Hamas in 2002 by adding it to a list of terror groups.
Hamas’ objectives have not changed since 2002 nor have its methods. What would justify the Liberal Party of Canada to repudiate its 2002 position by endorsing organizations and individuals closely linked with Hamas?
Besides sending money to Hamas, IRFAN has invited its leaders to Canada for fundraising activities. In 2009, IRFAN hosted former Jerusalem mufti Ekrima Sabri at a meeting hall owned by the Muslim Association of Canada in Montreal. Sabri promotes suicide operations. In 2000, he stated: “The younger the martyr – the greater and the more I respect him.” (MEMRI).
Since its early years in Egypt, the Muslim Brotherhood has condoned suicide operations in order to impose its totalitarian ideology. A February 4, 1949 New York Times article reported that a Muslim Brotherhood 200-man squadron was ready to wage suicide missions.
After Islamist Mohamed Merah perpetrated his massacres in Toulouse in March 2012, the French government banned Sabri and the Muslim Brotherhood’s spiritual guide Youssef Qaradawi from its territory. They had been invited by the local Muslim Brotherhood affiliate (Le Figaro / Archives PdeB). Tariq Ramadan complained about that decision.
Click on the image to view the note on CRA’s website
Human Concern International
After Islamic Relief and IRFAN Canada, the organizers of the Islamist convention added Human Concern International (HCI) to the sponsor list.
In the summer of 2012, when Canada gave HCI $2 million to alleviate Syrian refugees’ sufferings (before cancelling its donation), Maclean’s Michael Petrou provided some background on HCI. While running HCI’s office in Pakistan in the early 2000s, Ahmed Said Khadr (Omar’s father) fought alongside al-Qaeda. Khadr was killed by the Pakistani army while fighting with bin Laden’s organization in 2003. Maclean’s also reported that in 1995, Osama bin Laden told an Egyptian interviewer that Human Concern International funded an al-Qaeda charitable front called Blessed Relief.
Point de Bascule (August 16, 2012): Canada gives then cancels a $2 million donation to MB-linked Canadian Relief for Syria
In 2008, the organizers of a HCI-sponsored convention invited Islamist Qazi Hussain Ahmad in Canada. Ahmad is a leader of the Pakistani organization Jamaat-e-Islami, a Muslim Brotherhood’s close ally. At the time, Canadian Immigration authorities refused to grant him a visa. Ahmad was also banned from entering Great Britain in 2006.
In a 2012 report (p. 11/22) published by the Canada Revenue Agency to justify the revocation of another Islamist organization’s charity status (WAMY Canada), it is mentioned that Jamaat had been involved in the financing of jihad in Kashmir, Bosnia and Chechnya.
The founder of Jamaat-e-Islami, Syed Maududi (1903-1979), is described in the CRA’s report (p. 18/22) as an influential theoretician of jihad. In his text Jihad in Islam (pp. 6 and 22), Maududi states that he and his supporters are engaged in a “universal Islamic revolution”.
In his book Western Muslims and the Future of Islam, Tariq Ramadan, one of the Islamists who will be speaking in Toronto, presents Maududi as a one of his mentors. In a tribute to Said Ramadan on the sixteen anniversary of his death, his son Tariq wrote that Maududi thanked his father “for having awakened him from his unconsciousness.”
Given the abundance of facts confirming the Reviving the Islamic Spirit sponsors’ radicalism, there should be no justification for Justin Trudeau to endorse them by showing up at their convention.
Those who try to justify their association with Hamas often claim that this organization is not only engaged in military activities but also in charitable deeds. If we follow this logic, should the government have given a charitable status to an organization operating in Canada on behalf of the Nazis under the pretext that it was managing hospitals?
Establishing a parallel between Hamas and the Nazis is entirely justified. Hamas’ spiritual guide, Youssef Qaradawi, openly claims that Hitler was sent by Allah to punish the Jews. Hamas’ charter (article 7) also mentions that: “The hour of judgment shall not come until the Muslims fight the Jews and kill them, so that the Jews hide behind trees and stones, and each tree and stone will say: ‘Oh Muslim, oh servant of Allah, there is a Jew behind me, come and kill him,’ except for the Gharqad tree, for it is the tree of the Jews.”
In sections 80-84 of the case R. v. Ahmad 2009 CanLII 84774 (ON SC) (that concerns another organization than IRFAN), Mr. Justice Dawson explained that, when a Canadian organization funds humanitarian activities in Gaza, it allows Hamas to free up money that would have been spent for civilian purposes and to direct it toward other purposes. It is therefore impossible to dissociate contributions made for Hamas’ humanitarian activities in Gaza from those that are made to support its terrorist and military activities.
Muslim Welfare Centre
The Muslim Welfare Centre was also added to the sponsor list in the SILVER category. This Toronto Centre has a charity status with the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA). According to its file available on CRA’s website, the Centre transferred $60,000 to Human Concern International in 2010–2011, $12,985 to the Islamic Circle of North America (ICNA) in 2010 and $86 918 to two branches of the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA) from 2006 to 2010.
ICNA is mostly active with Muslims who came from Pakistan and India. In its documents, ICNA declares being engaged in a 5-step program that must lead to the instauration of an Islamic government in North America.
ISNA (not to be confused with ICNA) is among the most well-established Muslim Brotherhood organizations in North America. It appears at the top of a list of Brotherhood’s affiliates in North America that was attached to a 1991 internal Muslim Brotherhood memorandum. This memorandum (point 4) describes the Muslim Brotherhood’s mission in North America as being “a kind of grand Jihad in eliminating and destroying the Western civilization from within and ‘sabotaging’ its miserable house … so that it is eliminated and God’s religion is made victorious over all other religions.”
The sponsor list
The Reviving the Islamic Spirit convention sponsors are grouped by categories (PLATINUM, GOLD, etc.) In general such categories are based on the amount of money that sponsors contribute to a cause. In the specific case of the Toronto convention, the event website does not mention the amounts of money that could be at stake.
PLATINUM Sponsor
Point de Bascule (December 6, 2012): Justin Trudeau keynote speaker for Islamic Relief in Toronto
DIAMOND Sponsor
International Relief Fund for the Afflicted and Needy (IRFAN Canada)
Point de Bascule (January 10, 2012): Subsidized Islamist organizations have transferred hundreds of thousands of dollars toward Hamas’ fund collector in Canada (Des organisations islamistes subventionnées ont transféré des centaines de milliers de dollars vers le collecteur de fonds du Hamas au Canada)
PEARL Sponsors
Michael Petrou (Maclean’s – August 12, 2012): Canada gives $2 million to group collecting for the charitable alma mater of Omar Khadr’s dad
Zaytuna College (Berkeley CA)
Investigative Project on Terrorism: Hamza Yusuf – Co-Founder Zaytuna College
WAFAA (Islamic finance)
IQBAL Financial Group (Islamic finance)
Industrie Canada : Dossier 807668801RC0001
GOLD Sponsors
Shariah Program (Teaching of Arabic)
Ijaracanada.com (Islamic finance)
Halal Choice (Food industry)
Mina Halal (Food industry)
SILVER Sponsors
Bokitta (Hijab retailer)
Hudhud (Phone calling cards)
SacredHub (Dawa / proselytism)
Sacred Tours (Travel agency for hajj)
HAKIM Wealth Management (Islamic finance)
Muslim Welfare Centre (Charity)
Canada Revenue Agency: File 897331732RR0001
Zantoun Halal Grill (Restaurant)
Further reading
Point de Bascule (December 10, 2012): Point de Bascule director interviewed by Dan Delmar about Justin Trudeau’s participation at the Islamist convention in Toronto
SUN News (December 11, 2012): Justin Trudeau reviving the extremist spirit? (Tarek Fatah and Michael Coren talk about Trudeau’s participation at the Toronto’s Islamist convention)
