The reproduction of the detailed program of the event (as of October 23) is archived at the end of this document.

The Université du Québec announced that a component of its network, the National Scientific Research Institute (INRS), is organizing a symposium on Islamophobia from October 29 to November 1, 2015. The event takes place at the Montreal campus of the INRS with the exception of the opening conference which will be presented at the Université de Montréal.

Event announcement (UQ): http://www.uquebec.ca/reseau/fr/contenu/symposium-international-islamophobie / WebArchive – Archive.Today

Event announcement (INRS): http://www.ucs.inrs.ca/evenements/symposium-international-islamophobie / WebArchive – Archive.Today

Detailed program of the event: http://www.ucs.inrs.ca/sites/default/files/centre_ucs/pdf/Symposium%20Programme%20FINAL%20231015_0.pdf (The document is also archived at the end of this article.)

A note under a link that can be found in the INRS document leading to the program indicates that it is the October 23, 2015 version of the event program.

Organizers of the symposium

DENISE HELLY – Professor, INRS-UCS / Archive.Today

MICHAEL NAFI – Professor, John Abbott College, Department of Humanities, Philosophy, Religion
Conference: Islamophobia and the criticism of Islam: analysis of an intellectual fraud

VALÉRIE AMIRAUX – Professor, Department of sociology, Université de Montréal / Archive.Today

PATRICE BRODEUR – Professor, Canada Research Chair on Islam, Pluralism, and Globalization, Université de Montréal / Archive.Today

Patrice Brodeur is Director of research at the King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz International Centre for Interreligious and Intercultural Dialogue (KAICIID), an organization based in Vienna but financed by Saudi Arabia. KAICIID / WebArchive – Archive.Today

Interreligious dialogue is always led by Islamists with the ulterior purpose of facilitating the penetration of their doctrine in non-Muslim territory. Earlier this year, the Austrian Chancellor Werner Faymann denounced the Vienna-based KAICIID after it refused to condemn the sentence of 1000 lashes imposed by a Saudi court on Raif Badawi. The Chancellor declared then that “This center does not fulfill at all the mandate of dialogue and is silent about basic issues of human rights.” The Gatestone Institute and GMBDW provide more information on KAICIID.

In 2011, Patrice Brodeur was the media spokesperson at the Second conference on world religions held in Montreal that voted in favour of a resolution banning the criticism of religion (article 12.4).

Speakers at the symposium

JACQUES FRÉMONT – President, Quebec Human Rights Commission (CDPDJ)
Conference: Combatting Islamophobia: Issues and challenges for a pluralistic Quebec

On December 2, 2014, when he explained on Radio-Canada the objectives of the QHRC’s recommendations which led to Bill 59, Jacques Frémont clearly indicated that he was planning to use the new powers requested by the Commission he is heading to sue those who would criticize certain ideas, to sue “people who would write against […] the Islamic religion […] on a website or on a Facebook page.” This objective is absolutely incompatible with the role of the state in a society respectful of individual freedoms. The role of the state is to protect the freedom of expression of individuals, that is to say, the freedom of individuals to criticize ideas, and not to protect ideas from the criticisms of individuals.

On Radio-Canada, Mr. Frémont justified the QHRC’s censorship proposal by referring to resolutions adopted by United Nations bodies which concur with the QHRC’s project. However, he did not mention that these resolutions were presented by the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), an Islamist body that claims equivalence between hate speech, blasphemy, criticism of Islam and defamation of religions.

In November 2014, Mr. Frémont participated in a forum on human rights in Morocco inaugurated by the king who claimed that there is no single model for human rights. It is in the name of this ‘diversity’ in the understanding of human rights that the Moroccan regime imprisons those who violate Sharia rules that apply to fasting during Ramadan, those who promote religions other than Islam, etc. Rather than supporting those who defend freedom of expression in Morocco, in Canada and elsewhere, the QHRC is complicit with those who apply Sharia and violate individual rights

Furthermore, both missions pursued by the QHRC, the socio-political activism and the initiation of legal proceedings, are incompatible. It is inconceivable that the duty of judicial restraint that applies to Crown prosecutors in criminal law, does not apply to the QHRC that initiates legal proceedings in civil law.

The Supreme Court ruled that “the ‘minister of justice’ responsibility is not confined to the courtroom and attaches to Crown counsel in all dealings in relation to an accused person whether before or after charges are laid.” In the Regan case (section 156), the Supreme Court highlighted that the Crown prosecutor must maintain “[an] independence from other interests that may have a bearing on the prosecution, including the police and the defence.” By partnering frequently with Islamists in socio-political activities, the QHRC and its representatives depart from this essential rule.

Point de Bascule: File Quebec Human Rights Commission (CDPDJ)

COREY SAYLOR – Director, Department to Monitor and Combat Islamophobia, Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), Washington, D.C.
Conference: Effective Approaches to Delegitimizing Islamophobic Groups and Sentiment

The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) was founded in 1994 by three leaders of the Islamic Association of Palestine (IAP), an organization representing Hamas in the United States at that time. The IAP is entity #22 on a list of organizations identified in an internal memorandum of the Muslim Brotherhood as supporting the Brotherhood in the U.S. This memorandum was introduced as evidence in a terrorism trial that resulted in the conviction of all the defendants in 2008.

In 2009, CAIR’s ties with Hamas were highlighted in another U.S. case, when Judge Solis declared “The [U.S.] government has produced ample evidence to establish the associations of CAIR, ISNA and NAIT with HLF, the Islamic Association of Palestine (‘IAP’) and with Hamas.” Soon after, the FBI made the decision to stop all contacts with CAIR.

Aside from being engaged in the destruction of Israel (article 13), Hamas’s leaders have frequently advocated an Islamic conquest of the West (2006 – 2008 – 2011 – 2012). In 2011, for example, Hamas leader Mahmoud Al-Zahhar said on TV that Western civilization “will not be able to withstand the great and glorious Islam.” On July 16, 2013, Hamas threatened to launch terrorist attacks in countries where Israel’s embassies are located. Canada is among the potential targets, of course.

In the internal memorandum mentioned above, the Muslim Brotherhood describes its offensive as “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 collaboration of our academic elites with CAIR and the Muslim Brotherhood corresponds to the passage in the memorandum where Brotherhood leaders indicate that they intend to channel the efforts of non-Muslims in order to “destroy the Western civilization from within” […] “by their hands and the hands of the believers.”

IHSAAN GARDEE – Executive Director, National Council of Canadian Muslims, Ottawa
Participant in a roundtable

Until its name change in 2013, the National Council of Canadian Muslims (NCCM) was known as CAIR-Canada. In its own documents, CAIR-Canada identifies Washington-based CAIR as its “parent organization” and the American organization presented CAIR-Canada as a subsidiary until at least 2007. In an archived list of its branches, Washington-based CAIR presented CAIR-Canada between CAIR-Ohio and CAIR-Central Pennsylvania. Why Canada between Ohio and Pennsylvania? Because CAIR-Canada had been called CAIR-Ottawa before and when the name CAIR-Canada was chosen, it was changed in CAIR’s list of branches without being repositioned in the correct alphabetical order.

After CAIR’s ties with Hamas were mentioned in U.S. courts in 2007-2008, leaders of the Canadian subsidiary began presenting a modified version of CAIR-Canada’s origins. In 2013, they completed their rewriting of history by changing the organization’s name once more. Interviewed on this subject by CBC’s Evan Solomon in 2014, Ihsaan Gardee declared that his organization had never had any financial or operational links with the headquarters of CAIR in Washington (“We’ve never had any funding relationship with them, never any operational relationship with them”).

However, in a 2003 trademark case, then-CAIR-CAN Chair Sheema Khan stated in an affidavit that Washington-based CAIR “has direct control” over CAIR-CAN’s activities. Moreover, in 2000, while she was the head of CAIR’s Canadian subsidiary, Sheema Khan was appointed Board member of Washington-based CAIR itself.

On September 29, 2014, on behalf of the NCCM / CAIR-Canada, Ihsaan Gardee released in Winnipeg a brochure entitled United against Terrorism. The brochure praises the “noble” character of jihad (pp.17 and 34) and presents thirteen Muslim scholars whom the NCCM / CAIR-CAN consults for their “good understanding of life and Islam in North America.” Among the endorsed scholars, there are Jamal Badawi and Siraj Wahhaj. The first one said that Muslims should become judges in North America and take advantage of their influential position to stop applying the current legal provisions that are inconsistent with Sharia law and stated that he and his supporters are engaged in the establishment of a Caliphate, an Islamic State in Canada: “There will be the re-establishment of Rightly-Guided Caliphate following the prophetic path. That’s where we are going.” As for Siraj Wahhaj, in the past he encouraged Muslims attending his Brooklyn mosque to convert young people who feel excluded to Islam and eventually to arm them with Uzi machine guns so that they can wage jihad in American streets.

Those who consult the NCCM / CAIR-CAN brochure will notice it features the RCMP logo on its cover. For several months, the RCMP has, in fact, collaborated with the Islamists responsible for the production of this brochure but eventually distanced itself from them, shortly before the public release. At the time, the RCMP explained its position in a press release. Point de Bascule published some articles on the issue (October 1, 2014 – November 10, 2014)

Point de Bascule: File National Council of Canadian Muslims / CAIR-CAN

NATHAN LEAN – Director, Project Bridge, Prince Al-Waleed Bin Talal Center for Muslim Christian Understanding, Georgetown University
Conference: Manufacturing Islamophobia

The Bin Talal Center of Georgetown University was founded in 1993 and renamed in honour of the Saudi prince after he had given $20 million in 2005. It is run by John Esposito, a defender of the Muslim Brotherhood who often participates in activities organized by the Brotherhood in North America.

The Investigative Project on Terrorism website has already highlighted that Esposito and other intellectuals being funded by Islamists “help justify the false notion of moderate Islamic fundamentalism by affirming the duplicitous public statements of savvy fundamentalists, rather than looking at the internal materials disseminated by these leaders, which is the real test of their views.”

SAMER MAJZOUB – President, Canadian Muslim Forum
SAMAH JEBBARI – Spokesperson, Canadian Muslim Forum
Participants in a roundtable

The Canadian Muslim Forum (CMF) is an integral part of the Muslim Brotherhood infrastructure in Quebec. Since 2001, its president, Samer Majzoub, appeared successively and sometimes simultaneously as spokesperson for the CMF and the Muslim Association of Canada (MAC). On its own website, the MAC states that “[its] modern roots can be traced to the Islamic revival of the early twentieth century, culminating in the movement of the Muslim Brotherhood [and that] MAC adopts and strives to implement Islam […] as understood in its contemporary context by the late Imam, Hassan Albanna, the founder of the Muslim Brotherhood.”

Point de Bascule (March 3, 2015): The Canadian Muslim Forum denies any relationship with the MAC and the Muslim Brotherhood while asking to join a government forum on radicalism [Article in French]

SALAM ELMENYAWI – President, Muslim Council of Montreal
Participant in a roundtable

On its Facebook page, the Muslim Council of Montreal (MCM) states that it represents more than 70 Islamic institutions in the greater Montreal region. Its leader, Salam Elmenyawi, is chaplain at McGill and Concordia universities. On two occasions, at least, in the past, Salam Elmenyawi acknowledged the authority of the Muslim Brotherhood spiritual guide Youssef Qaradawi. In December 2004, he told Le Devoir / Archive.Today that the Council of Sharia he was working to establish would consult Qaradawi in the future to determine issues of Islamic jurisprudence. In September 2004, Elmenyawi referred to a fatwa by Qaradawi to indicate that Zakat money (Islamic charity) could be spent on those working in the media to promote Islam.

In the past, Qaradawi also justified female genital mutilations, encouraged the murder of homosexuals and the establishment of “Muslim ghettos” in the United States, Canada, Australia and elsewhere in the West, advocated the conquest of the West by Muslims, argued that Hitler had been sent by Allah “to punish the Jews,” etc.

Qaradawi also endorsed a Sharia rule which holds that abandoning Islam is punishable by death. In a statement on Arabic television (article – video), Qaradawi has even acknowledged that “If they [Muslims] had gotten rid of the punishment for apostasy, Islam would not exist today.” In January 2015, on behalf of an association of Muslim scholars he heads, Qaradawi also called on the UN to ban what he calls the ‘defamation of religions’. Yahoo.com / WebArchive – Archive.Today

Point de Bascule (August 11, 2015): The Government of Quebec invites the Muslim Council of Montreal at the public hearings on #Bill59. In 2003 in La Presse, its leader Salam Elmenyawi justified that Salman Rushdie be killed ‘for having insulted the Prophet’. [Article in French]

AZEDINE HMIMSSA – Ph. D Student, Science of religions, Université de Montréal. President, Bel Agir
ATIF TAOUSSI – Public relations Officer, Bel Agir
Participants in a roundtable

Bel-Agir is connected to the Moroccan Islamist movement Al Adl Wal Ihsane (Al Adl = Justice / Al Ihsane = Bel-Agir, Charity). On its website, Bel-Agir presents the founder of the Moroccan organization, Abdessalam Yassine, as its “spiritual guide, known for his wisdom, and his beneficial teachings.”)

The organization Al Adl Wal Ihsane was founded by Abdessalam Yassine, in 1973. Today, his daughter Nadia is one of its leading spokespersons.

In 2006, Nadia Yassine hailed the victory of Hamas by saying that it “will give a new impetus and it will have on Muslim peoples almost the same effect as the revolution in Iran.”

In Morocco, the Muslim Brotherhood is represented by the Justice and Development Party (PJD), which is distinct from Yassine’s Al Adl Wal Ihsane. Yassine’s organization and the PJD agree, however, on a common goal, namely to establish an Islamic state based on Sharia law. Their difference relates to tactics to use to reach their goal.

Point de Bascule (April 23, 2012): Al-Ihsane (Bel-Agir) – The other organization behind the project of mosque in the Saint-Sauveur district in Quebec City [Article in French]

*** * * * ***

HUSSEIN ALI AGRAMA – Professor, Department of Anthropology, University of Chicago
Conference: Muslims and Modern-Day Blasphemy in the Liberal Democratic State

SAMAR BEN ROMDHANE – Ph. D. Student, Public Communication, Department of information and communication, Université Laval
Conference: Media Discourse and religious pluralism: controversy and verbal abuse

ROBERT BERNASCONI – Professor, Department of Philosophy, Penn State University
Conference: Islamophobia and Racism

HAROUN BOUAZZI – Co-President, Association des Musulmans et des Arabes pour la Laïcité au Québec
Participant in a roundtable

ANITA BROMBERG – Executive Director, Canadian Race Relations Foundation
Participant in a roundtable

ADIL CHARKAOUI – President-coordinator, Collectif québécois contre l’islamophobie
BOUAZZA MACHE – Director of research, Collectif québécois contre l’islamophobie
Participants in a roundtable

LAMINE FOURA – Secretary General, Congrès Maghrébin au Québec
Participant in a roundtable

ÉLISABETH GARANT – General Director, Centre Justice et Foi and Relations magazine
Participant in a roundtable

HOUCHANG HASSAN-YARI – Professor, Department of Political Science, Royal Military College of Canada, Kingston
Conference: The Islamic Republic of Iran: wandering between Islamism and nationalism

SAMIRA LAOUNI – Founding President, Centre Communication, Ouverture et Rapprochement Interculturel
Participant in a roundtable

JOSEPH MASSAD – Professor, Modern Arab Politics and Intellectual History, Department of Middle Eastern, South Asian, and African Studies, Columbia University, New York
Conference: Islam in Liberalism

FARIDA MOHAMED – President, Canadian Council of Muslim Women, Montreal Chapter
Participant in a roundtable

MARWAN MUHAMMAD – Advisor, Fight against Racism and Intolerance, Organization for the Security and Cooperation in Europe, Warsaw, Poland
Conference: The civil society is getting organized against Islamophobia in Europe

FO NIEMI – Director, Center for Research-Action on Race Relations
Participant in a roundtable

STÉPHANE PRESSAULT – National Coordinator, Canadian Council of Muslim Women, Project Communitas
Participant in a roundtable

ARMANDO SALVATORE – Professor, Global Religious Studies, Faculty of Religious Studies, McGill University, Montreal
Conference: The Islamic Public Sphere: Issues and Challenges

WAEL SALEH – Ph.D. student, Applied Human Sciences, Université de Montréal and the Institute of Political Science, Université Lyon 2
Conference: Politics and religion in Egypt after 2011: the unknown debates

MICHAËL SEGUIN – Ph.D. student, Sociology, Université de Montréal
Conference: Palestine and Israel in the Quebec press: the case of the Protective Edge Operation

SAHER SELOD – Professor, Sociology, Simmons College of Arts, Massachusetts
Conference: Forever Suspect: Racialized Surveillance in the War on Terror

LUCAS SWAINE – Professor, Department of Government, Dartmouth College, New Hampshire
Conference: Political Liberalism and the Inclusion of Islam

DANIEL WEINSTOCK – Professor, Faculty of Law, McGill University, Montreal
Conference: Can Liberalism Take Religion Seriously? If So How?

MOHAMED YACOUB – Membrer of the Board, Islamic Community Centre of the South Shore of Montreal, Brossard
HANADI SAAD – President and administrator, Justice Women, Islamic Community Centre of the South Shore of Montreal, Brossard
Participants in a roundtable

MARIE-JOËLLE ZAHAR – Professor, Department of Political Science, Université de Montréal. Scientific Director, Research Network on Peace Operations, Centre d’études et de recherches internationales, Université de Montréal
Conference: Canada and the Arab world since 2011

Funding of the symposium

SOCIAL SCIENCES AND HUMANITIES RESEARCH COUNCIL / CANADA
INSTITUT NATIONAL DE LA RECHERCHE SCIENTIFIQUE
CENTRE D’ÉTUDES ET DE RECHERCHES INTERNATIONALES / UNIVERSITÉ DE MONTRÉAL
HANS & TAMAR OPPENHEIMER CHAIR / MCGILL UNIVERSITY
CHAIRE DE RECHERCHE EN ÉTUDE DU PLURALISME RELIGIEUX / UNIVERSITÉ DE MONTRÉAL
CANADIAN RACE RELATIONS FOUNDATION

Assistance for the realization of the symposium

JONATHAN DUBÉ – INRS
DAISY BOUSTANY – Espace Nodal
COLINE SÉNAC – INRS
JULIE DUFORT – UQAM
FRÉDÉRICK NADEAU – INRS
LESLIE TOURÉ KAPO – INRS
MEHDI BENMOUSSA – John Abbott College
ELHAM SHAHSAVARZADE – Université de Montréal
BOCHRA MANAI – INRS
KALED KAMEL – INRS