https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/08/opinion/canadas-muslims.html / Archive.Today
Link to Point de Bascule’s reply published by The New York Times
On January 31, 2017, The New York Times published an article on the tragedy at the Centre culturel islamique de Québec in which Point de Bascule was characterized as “anti-Muslim” and as a “less-tolerant voice.”
Point de Bascule submitted a reply that was published on February 8 in the internet version of the newspaper and on February 9 in its print version (p.A26).
The New York Times’s policy regarding the right of reply specifies that it should be less than 175 words. This is why we are presenting a more elaborate reply in order to provide more background for what we are defending.
In the wake of the recent shooting at a Quebec City mosque, reporters Craig S. Smith and Dan Levin represented Point de Bascule as “anti-Muslim” and a “less-tolerant voice” in an article entitled “As Canada Transforms, an Anti-Immigrant Fringe Stirs.”
The characterization is utterly false and does not correspond to our track record. From the start, we have been open to the idea that Muslims can embrace freedom and reject totalitarianism. This is why very early on, in 2008 and 2010, we organized public meetings in Montreal with Muslim activists opposed to sharia.
Our struggle has focused not on Muslims in general, but on leaders and organizations promoting sharia and Islamic supremacism. In this context, our use of the term “Islamist” facilitates the distinction between promoters of sharia and Muslims in general in a way similar to the distinction between “Nazi” and “German” in the context of the struggle against another totalitarianism.
While being open to the idea that Muslims may reject sharia, we must also acknowledge that our challenge and the challenge of all those who believe in freedom and individual rights is that a substantial proportion of Muslim organizations operating in Canada and elsewhere in the West believe in sharia and work to implement it.
In Montreal for example, the Muslim Council of Montreal, which represents over 70 Islamic institutions, is led by an Imam who has acknowledged the moral authority of the Muslim Brotherhood spiritual guide, Youssef Qaradawi. In front of a Montreal journalist, he evoked the possibility that the Sharia Council that he was setting up could consult Qaradawi on issues of Islamic jurisprudence.
In two articles that we published in 2012 about the Centre culturel islamique de Québec (CCIQ), where the recent shooting occurred, we described the totalitarian threat posed by Youssef Qaradawi, Syed Maududi, Tariq Ramadan and other Islamist ideologues recommended by the CCIQ on its website.
We also highlighted that, in ten years (2001-2010), the CCIQ transferred $67,224 to IRFAN-Canada, a Hamas fund collector, that was added to a list of banned terrorist organizations by the Government of Canada in 2014. The CCIQ kept on transferring funds to IRFAN-Canada even after its relationship with Hamas was evoked in the Canadian House of Commons in 2004 and after it was identified as a component of Hamas’ North American infrastructure in an important terrorism trial that took place in the U.S. (subsection VIII).
Aside from being engaged in the destruction of Israel (Hamas Charter / article 13), Hamas’ leaders have frequently advocated the Islamic conquest of the West. 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.
Youssef Qaradawi, who had six of his books recommended by the CCIQ, has advocated more than once an Islamic conquest of the West:
Youssef Qaradawi: “Islam will return to Europe as a conqueror and victor, after being expelled from it twice – once from the South, from Andalusia [Spain – 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.”
In 2009, Qaradawi told his viewers on Al-Jazeera that Hitler had been sent by Allah to punish the Jews and that he was hoping the next massacre of Jews would be at the hands of Muslims.
How does objecting to Qaradawi’s program that also includes female genital mutilations and the killing of homosexuals and apostates make us intolerant?
Syed Maududi (1903-1979) is another Muslim scholar whose books were recommended by the CCIQ. In 2000, a Canadian tribunal highlighted that Maududi’s interpretation of Islam led him to conclude that slavery is acceptable today.
According to the Guardian, “When [Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi] made his speech in July [2014] at Mosul’s Great Mosque declaring the creation of an Islamic state with himself as its caliph, [he] quoted at length from the Indian/Pakistani thinker Abul A’la Maududi [aka Syed Maududi], the founder of the Jamaat-e-Islami party in 1941 and originator of the contemporary term Islamic state.”
This is precisely this interpretation of Islam given by Maududi and others that provides the theological justifications on which the Islamic State (ISIS) relies to justify the use of its Yazidi female prisoners of war as sexual slaves. In August 2015, Rukmini Callimachi described in the most touching way for The New York Times the consequences of what she aptly called ISIS’ “theology of rape.” Point de Bascule translated this New York Times’ article in French.
The killing of six Muslim men at the main Quebec City mosque was a tragedy. Quebecers from all political stripes affirmed it and we concur with it. Killings in New York, Mumbai, Paris, Beslan, London, Ouagadougou, Nice, Brussels, Orlando, Berlin, Jerusalem, Madrid, Boston, Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu, Ottawa and so many other places by jihadists are also a reminder that criticism of the Islamist ideology and defense of freedom of expression are indispensable if we want to triumph over Islamic supremacism advocated by mainstream Islamist ideologues such as Qaradawi, Maududi, Qutb and so many others who are promoted by the most mainstream Muslim institutions in Quebec and elsewhere.
Further reading
Point de Bascule: FILE Centre culturel islamique de Québec (CCIQ) (The mosque where six Muslim men were killed on January 29, 2017 is located at the CCIQ.)
Point de Bascule (March 5, 2012): The CCIQ, Hamas and the project of new mosque in the Saint-Sauveur district in Quebec City [Article in French]
Point de Bascule (March 6, 2012): Excerpts of what is advocated by Islamist ideologues endorsed by the CCIQ [Article in French]
Point de Bascule (January 9, 2015): In 2012, Tariq Ramadan’s organization, Muslim Presence, published an article justifying those who would resort to violence against Charlie Hebdo
Point de Bascule (January 5, 2015): Islamist penetration of police services – Point de Bascule replies to Radio-Canada’s Senior Director of information, Jean Pelletier
Point de Bascule (June 4, 2015): Point de Bascule replies to Montreal Gazette’s Catherine Solyom [Reply to an article defending Hussein Hamdani after some of his past positions were criticized by Point de Bascule]
Point de Bascule (June 26, 2015): Saudi Gazette columnist Mohammed Azhar Ali Khan accuses Point de Bascule of lying about Human Concern International’s sponsorship of events (featuring radical preachers). Really?
