NCCM / CAIR-Canada Executive Director Ihsaan Gardee (left) and Jean-François Lacasse (right) of the Canadian delegation at the OSCE Islamophobia conference that took place in Vienna on February 19, 2016. This NCCM message was retweeted by the Government of Canada.
This message is available in its original format on the NCCM Twitter account / WebArchive – Archive.Today and as a retweet on a Government of Canada Twitter account (Canada2OSCE).
For the second option, go down to February 19, 2016 on Archive.Today.
On February 19, 2016, the Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR), a substructure of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) held a conference centered on Islamophobia in Vienna. The OSCE comprises 57 participating states including a few non-European states, such as Canada and the United States.
The exact title of the conference was: ‘A Holistic Approach to Addressing Intolerance and Discrimination against Muslims in the OSCE Region.’
The OSCE provided its own account of the meeting:
OSCE (February 19, 2016): Comprehensive approach to countering intolerance against Muslims the focus of OSCE conference in Vienna / WebArchive – Archive.Today
According to its website / WebArchive – Archive.Today, “The OSCE traces its origins to the détente phase of the early 1970s, when the Conference on Security and Co-operation in Europe (CSCE) was created to serve as a multilateral forum for dialogue and negotiation between East and West.”
After the Cold War period, the CSCE established permanent institutions and operational capabilities, hence the name change from ‘Conference’ to ‘Organization’ in 1994.
Participating states take decisions in OSCE meetings by consensus on a politically, but not legally binding basis / WebArchive.
Did anybody at the recent OSCE conference highlight the fact that those shouting ‘Islamophobia’ the loudest are also the most committed to implementing the Islamist agenda?
The threat of being called a “racist” or an “Islamophobe” has led most Western politicians and opinion leaders to refuse to address the Islamist supremacism advocated by Muslim leaders, such as Youssef Qaradawi, Mustafa Ceric and Tariq Ramadan.
YOUSSEF QARADAWI / MEMRI: “Islam will return to Europe as a conqueror and victor, after being expelled from it twice – once from the South, from Andalusia [1492], and a second time from the East, when it knocked several times on the door of Athens [1830]. […] I maintain that the conquest this time will not be by the sword but by preaching and ideology…”
MUSTAFA CERIC: In 2011, the Pakistan Daily Mail / GMBDW reported that Mustafa Ceric “urged the Muslim Ummah to conquer the world through Halal movement” at a Halal conference in Islamabad. One application of the Halal tactic has been to ask non-Muslim tribunals to disregard property rights and impose so-called “religious accommodations” on businesses that do not comply with one sharia rule or another. For example, in 2013, the Ontario Human Rights Tribunal awarded $100,000 to three Muslim cooks who were fired or quit after refusing to taste the food they were preparing because it contained pork. A U.S. Tribunal awarded $240,000 / JihadWatch in damages to two Muslim truck drivers after a U.S. governmental commission sued their former employer on their behalf for religious discrimination for firing them because they refused to make beer deliveries.
TARIQ RAMADAN: In a 2004 interview, Tariq Ramadan told Egypt Today that Islamists operating in Canada must use the Canadian legal framework (“one of the most open in the world,” Ramadan highlighted) to subtly and gradually introduce rules of sharia in Canada. At the time, Tariq Ramadan strongly urged his supporters in Canada not to openly mention their commitment to sharia: “The term shariah in itself is laden with negative connotations in the Western mind,” said Ramadan. “There is no need to stress that. […] For the time being this is not how we want to be perceived,” he added.
Rather than analyzing the implications of these declarations of war and finding out how they are being implemented today, social activists, politicians and opinion leaders collaborating with Islamists at the OSCE and elsewhere call those who oppose this totalitarian project ‘racist’ and ‘Islamophobe.’ Islamists and their allies even go farther: they pressure governments to ban those who criticize the Islamist project and sue them for ‘Islamophobia,’ ‘defamation of religion’ and other similar pretexts.
Some of the participants at the OSCE Islamophobia conference that took place in Vienna on February 19, 2016
IHSAAN GARDEE is the National Council of Canadian Muslims (NCCM) Executive Director / Archive.Today. The NCCM was formerly known as CAIR-Canada or CAIR-CAN. Gardee spoke at the OSCE Islamophobia conference in Vienna on February 19, 2016.
The NCCM Twitter message / Archive.Today and the photo / Archive.Today are accessible separately.
In September 2014, the NCCM / CAIR-Canada launched a so-called ‘anti-terrorism’ booklet which describes jihad as ‘noble’ and endorsed many North American Islamist leaders. The RCMP dissociated itself from the project. The booklet endorsed Siraj Wahhaj and Jamal Badawi, among others. In the past, Wahhaj advocated converting to Islam youth who felt excluded, and eventually arming them with Uzi submachine guns so that they can wage jihad in U.S. streets. (Point de Bascule – Muslim Mafia / pp. 136-137)
Jamal Badawi was an NCCM Director until 2013. While testifying before a Canadian Senate Committee, an NCCM Executive Director described Jamal Badawi as “one of the best North American Islamic scholars, if not the premier.”
In an interview that he gave in the early 2000s, Badawi advocated that Muslims should become judges in North America and take advantage of their influential positions in order to stop applying current legal provisions that are incompatible with sharia. In 2004, while Jamal Badawi and Wael Haddara were simultaneously on the Boards of the NCCM and of the Muslim Association of Canada (MAC), the MAC issued a press release in which it openly supported Hamas. This endorsement came more than one year after the Government of Canada, Liberal at the time, had added Hamas to a list of banned terrorist organizations.
Aside from being engaged in the destruction of Israel (article 13), Hamas’ 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 the 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, of course, among the potential targets.
In 2002, in a column that she signed in the Globe and Mail as CAIR-CAN / NCCM Chair, Sheema Khan described the Muslim Brotherhood spiritual guide, Youssef Qaradawi, as a “renowned Muslim scholar” without expressing any reservations.
After the links between the Washington-based Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR) and Hamas were highlighted in U.S. tribunals (2007 – 2009 / pp.14-15), the NCCM / CAIR-Canada started rewriting the history of its origins as a branch of the Washington-based CAIR.
Nowadays, the NCCM / CAIR-Canada does not claim that its relationship with the Washington-based CAIR could have changed over the years but that it simply never existed. Talking about NCCM / CAIR-Canada and Washington-based CAIR, Ihsaan Gardee declared in 2014 that “We’ve never had any funding relationship with them, never any operational relationship with them. We have always had two separate Boards of directors, constitutions, by-laws, employees. […] We are two separate and autonomous organizations. It’s like Pepsi and Coke.”
However, in a CAIR-Canada guide for journalists, Washington-based CAIR is described as “CAIR-CAN’s parent organization” (p.14).
In 2000, during her term as CAIR-Canada Chair, Sheema Khan was also on the Washington-based CAIR Board.
In a 2003 trademark case, then-CAIR-Canada Chair Sheema Khan stated in an affidavit that Washington-based CAIR “has direct control” over CAIR-Canada’s activities.
Point de Bascule has provided more information about the links between NCCM / CAIR-Canada, Washington-based CAIR and Hamas in other articles:
Point de Bascule (July 18, 2013): National Council of Canadian Muslims: The new name chosen by CAIR-CAN helps cover its links with Washington-based / Hamas-linked CAIR
Point de Bascule (March 4, 2014): Mohammed Azhar Ali Khan – Saudi Gazette publishes reservations of a National Council of Canadian Muslims’ ally about suing PM Harper’s office for defamation over links with Hamas
ALSO
Irena Alifanova (CIJ News – December 15, 2015): NCCM ordered to provide all documents related to Hamas in its lawsuit against Stephen Harper / WebArchive – Archive.Today
JEAN-FRANÇOIS LACASSE was identified as a counsellor of the Canadian Permanent Delegation to the OSCE in February 2013 / Archive.Today and in October 2015 / Archive.Today. On Twitter, the NCCM presented him as a member of the Canadian delegation at the February 19, 2016 event in Vienna. The Government of Canada has retweeted the NCCM message featuring Mr. Lacasse and the NCCM Executive Director Gardee on the Twitter account / Archive.Today of the Canadian delegation to the OSCE (see image above or go down to February 19, 2016 on Archive.Today).
MARWAN MUHAMMAD (aka MAROUANE MOHAMED and MOHAMED MAROUANE) was the OSCE-appointed moderator at the recent Islamophobia conference in Vienna. His exact title with the organization is “Adviser on Combatting Intolerance against Muslims” to the OSCE / ODIHR.
On the picture to the right / WebArchive – Archive.Today, Marwan Muhammad (left) is with NCCM / CAIR-Canada Executive Director Ihsaan Gardee (centre) and Azra Junuzovic (right). Ms. Junuzovic is Deputy Head of the OSCE / ODIHR Tolerance and Non-Discrimination Department.
Before starting to work for the OSCE, Marwan Muhammad was the spokesperson for the Collectif contre l’islamophobie en France (CCIF). In 2011, he represented the CCIF at an OSCE conference under the name Mohamed Marouane / WebArchive – Archive.Today. In June 2014, he was interviewed on French television as a CCIF spokesperson / WebArchive – Archive.Today. In January 2016, the CCIF described Marwan Muhammad as “our former spokesperson” / WebArchive – Archive.Today.
In her book L’Islam, épreuve française, Elisabeth Schemla quoted a statement made by Marwan Muhammad at the Orly mosque at the end of August 2011 to the effect that French citizens do not have the right to oppose the transformation of France into a Muslim country:
Marwan Muhammad: [Translation Point de Bascule] Who has the right to say that France in 30 or 40 years will not be a Muslim country? Who has the right to say that? Nobody in this country has the right to take this away from us. Nobody has the right to take this hope away or to deny our right to hope in a global society following Islam. Nobody in this country has the right to define for us what the French identity is.
Marwan Muhammad: [Original French] Qui a le droit de dire que la France dans trente ou quarante ans ne sera pas un pays musulman ? Qui a le droit? Personne dans ce pays n’a le droit de nous enlever ça. Personne n’a le droit de nous nier cet espoir-là. De nous nier le droit d’espérer dans une société globale fidèle à l’islam. Personne n’a le droit dans ce pays de définir pour nous ce qu’est l’identité française.
Defining the French (or Western) identity has a lot to do with defining the legal environment in which citizens interact. The push for a gradual implementation of sharia principles in the West in the name of multiculturalism advocated by Marwan Muhammad and other Islamists is incompatible with the basic freedoms that have allowed the West to flourish.
During Marwan Muhammad’s term as CCIF leader, his organization invited several promoters of sharia to address its supporters. This demonstrates that the CCIF and Marwan Muhammad are using the Islamophobia grievances as a pretext to pursue an Islamization agenda which includes pressuring governments to ban its critics.
Marwan Muhammad and Tariq Ramadan have collaborated on several occasions in the past:
MAY 2012 – Tariq Ramadan invited Marwan Muhammad to talk about the situation in France on his regular show on the Iranian Press TV network . The video of the interview is available on Tariq Ramadan’s website / WebArchive – Archive.Today and on the CCIF’s website / Archive.Today.
AUGUST 2013 – Marwan Muhammad spoke / WebArchive – Archive.Today at an activity organized in Senegal by the research centre on sharia headed by Tariq Ramadan in Qatar.
DECEMBER 11, 2015 – Both Ramadan and Muhammad were featured as key speakers at a meeting that took place northeast of Paris / WebArchive – Archive.Today.
Aside from his 2004 incitement to gradually and discreetly implement sharia principles in Canada that is mentioned above, Tariq Ramadan has made many other statements along the same lines:
On July 27, 2011, in a speech given at a fundraiser organized by the Islamic Circle of North America in Dallas, Tariq Ramadan openly enjoined his supporters to colonize the United States of America: “It should be us, with our understanding of Islam, our principles, colonizing positively the United States of America.”
On Day 1 of the Islamist RIS Convention in Toronto in December 2013, Tariq Ramadan clearly told his supporters that “We [Muslims] are not here to be accepted. We are here to change the society.” (VIDEO 48:56 – Excerpt)
Both Tariq Ramadan and Youssef Qaradawi, the Muslim Brotherhood spiritual guide, head research centers based in Qatar under the umbrella of the Qatar Foundation. Qaradawi was one of the main guests at the inauguration of Ramadan’s centre in 2012 / Archive.Today. In his book Radical Reform, Tariq Ramadan described Qaradawi as a “prominent scholar” who has outlined the attitudes and the kind of behavior that Muslims living in the West should adopt and strive for.
Youssef Qaradawi incites Muslims migrants to conquer the West and develop ghettos to this effect, he praises suicide bombings, he promotes the killing of Muslims who leave Islam (apostates) and, in 2009, he claimed that Hitler was sent by Allah to punish the Jews (video – MEMRI – GMBDW).
http://tariqramadan.com/blog/2012/05/07/press-tv-tariq-ramadan-et-marwan-muhammad-mai-2012/ / WebArchive – Archive.Today
Tariq Ramadan (left) interviewing Marwan Muhammad (right)
during his regular show on the Iranian Press TV network in 2012.
Marwan Muhammad has also collaborated with several other promoters of sharia, including Rachid Abou Houdeyfa (2014 / Archive.Today – 2015 / Archive.Today) and Nader Abou Anas (2013 / Archive.Today – 2014 / Archive.Today)
The French magazine L’Express / Archive.Today reported that Houdeyfa told young Muslims in a course on Islam that those who listen to music “are listening to the devil.” Anas has defended the sharia principle according to which a woman who shakes a man’s hand “is already committing fornication and adultery” / Archive.Today.
Marwan Muhammad has taken part in many activities in Canada in the fall of 2015 (October 11-13, 2015 / Archive.Today – October 15, 2015 / Archive.Today – October 29-November 1, 2015 – October 30, 2015 / Archive.Today).
JULIE PASCOËT spoke at the OSCE Vienna conference as a senior advocacy officer for the Belgium-based European Network against Racism (ENAR). ENAR is an organization led by Michaël Privot, a Belgian Islamist who openly acknowledged his belonging to the Muslim Brotherhood in a chatting session organized by the Belgian magazine Le Vif / L’Express / WebArchive – Archive.Today in 2012. GMBDW has dedicated several articles to Privot’s activities.
European Network against Racism (ENAR): STAFF / WebArchive – Archive.Today and BOARD / WebArchive – Archive.Today
An NCCM photo published on Twitter / WebArchive – Archive.Today features Julie Pascoët beside the OSCE moderator and former CCIF spokesperson Marwan Muhammad at the Vienna conference on Islamophobia.
On her Facebook page (Click on the archived version below to your right), Julie Pascoët has listed Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and several Islamist organizations’ Facebook pages among her favorites.
According to Julie Pascoët’s LinkedIn / Archive.Today, prior to her current role with ENAR, she worked for Islamic Relief Worldwide and FEMYSO, the youth wing of the Federation of Islamic Organizations in Europe (FIOE). Both organizations have strong ties with the Muslim Brotherhood infrastructure.
In the early 2000’s, then FIOE leader, Ahmad Al-Rawi, did not deny his organization’s links with the Muslim Brotherhood when he met with Ian Johnson, the author of an important book on the rise of the Muslim Brotherhood in the West:
Excerpt from A Mosque in Munich (pp.199-200): The federation [FIOE] has become an umbrella group for more than two dozen Muslim groups, all with intellectual or organizational ties to the Muslim Brotherhood. Rawi himself confirmed the ties. “We are part of nobody outside of Europe, but we have good relations with the Brotherhood. We have our own ideas and mission and they know it. We are interlinked with them with a common point of view,” he says, meshing the fingers of each hand together like teeth on a gear. “We have a good, close relationship.”
Islamic Relief Worlwide was founded by Hany El-Banna. It is the most important Muslim charity in the world. On its British, Irish and Canadian websites, Islamic Relief lists eight categories of beneficiaries for the zakat (charity) that it collects. It openly mentions funding Muslims involved in jihad (“Those struggling in the path of Allah”). Besides jihadists, this charity mostly funds groups of needy people and the zakat collectors themselves.
The eight categories of zakat beneficiaries listed by Islamic Relief match those mentioned in the manual of sharia Umdat al-Salik (Reliance of the Traveller). The English translation of this manual is endorsed by the International Institute of Islamic Thought, the main Muslim Brotherhood think-tank in North America, and by Tariq Ramadan.
In 2002, the BBC reported / Archive.Today that the Russian Federal Security Service accused Islamic Relief of being part of a radical Islamist network, providing support to terrorists in Chechnya.
In 2012, the Swiss bank UBS closed Islamic Relief’s account and blocked its donations for fear of being involved in the financing of terrorist activities. In June 2014, Israel banned Islamic Relief from operating in the West Bank due to its ties with Hamas, a branch of the Muslim Brotherhood (article 2).
A 2013 Gatestone Institute article / WebArchive – Archive.Today provided more instances of financial transfers between Islamic Relief and terrorist organizations.
In 2015, The Telegraph / GMBDW announced that Muslim Charities Forum, a charity of which Hany El-Banna is a director, “has been stripped of state funding in a crackdown on Islamist extremism.”
Reminiscing on his early years in Egypt in a 2004 interview, the founder of Islamic Relief mentioned the influence that the ideas of Hassan Al-Banna, the founder of the Muslim Brotherhood, and those of Sayyid Qutb had on him. Both Hassan Al-Banna and Sayyid Qutb have provided numerous theological justifications for offensive jihad (see Al-Banna’s book Jihad / Archive.Today and chapter 4 of Qutb’s Milestones / Archive.Today for example).
Hany El-Banna / WebArchive – Archive.Today: Our area, Hilmiyya [Egypt], was the Brotherhood’s headquarters and [Hassan] Al-Banna used to pray in the mosque where my father gave khutbahs (sermons). You could breathe Al-Banna’s teachings in the air. He was held in so much awe and respect.”
El-Banna told the Emel magazine interviewer that he is not related to the founder of the Muslim Brotherhood: “There is more than one Banna family in Egypt.”
Hany El-Banna is not on the Board of Islamic Relief Worldwide / Archive,Today anymore but is currently listed as the Islamic Relief Canada Chair of the Board / Archive,Today.
EBERHARD POHL heads the Permanent Mission of Germany at the OSCE. In 2016, Germany is assuming the chairmanship of the OSCE in Vienna.
Curriculum Vitae Eberhard Pohl / WebArchive – Archive.Today
Permanent Mission of the Federal Republic of Germany at the OSCE in Vienna / WebArchive – Archive.Today
More tweets and images on the OSCE Islamophobia conference in Vienna
NCCM (Twitter – February 19, 2016): PHOTO Azra Junuzovic and Sehija Dedovic / WebArchive – Archive.Today (Azra Junuzovic is Deputy Head of the OSCE / ODIHR Tolerance and Non-Discrimination Department and Sehija Dedovic is Director of the Nahla Centre in Bosnia.)
Facebook (February 21, 2016): PHOTO Anna Stamou speaking at the OSCE Islamophobia conference in Vienna / WebArchive – Archive.Today (An OSCE document identified Anna Stamou as a spokesperson / Archive.Today for the Muslim Association of Greece / MAG. In 2011, the MAG reported on a two-day seminar / Archive.Today featuring Jamal Badawi that took place in Belgium. Based in Halifax, Canada, Jamal Badawi is a member / Archive.Today of the International Union of Muslim Scholars led by the Muslim Brotherhood spiritual guide, Youssef Qaradawi, The last picture of the slideshow features Jamal Badawi with participants at the 2011 Brussels meeting.)
Further reading
Point de Bascule: FILE National Council of Canadian Muslims / CAIR-Canada
Point de Bascule (February 25, 2016): NCCM / CAIR-Canada Executive Director Ihsaan Gardee spoke at an important Muslim Brotherhood conference in the U.S.
