The premise behind the survey is that Muslims are facing a lack of acceptance by Canadians due to the latter’s tendency for simplistic stereotyping. The project has the endorsement of the NCCM (former CAIR-CAN) and other Muslim Brotherhood-linked organizations.

A picture published in a report by the Ottawa Citizen on May 19, 2007 of ISNA-Canada’s 33rd convention is being recycled by Environics to illustrate its survey. It features Shelina Merani and Salah Basalamah who spoke at the ISNA-Canada 2007 convention, and Iman Faris who was ISNA’s spokesman at the time. In the 2007 Ottawa Citizen article (reproduced below), ISNA-Canada is identified as “the Canadian arm of the Islamic Society of North America [and] an umbrella group that represents many Muslim associations and supports mosques around the country”.

In 2009, in the case United States of America v. Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development (Section IV), Judge Jorge Solis stated that: “The [U.S.] government has produced ample evidence to establish the associations of CAIR, ISNA […] with Hamas.”

In 2014, the ISNA Development Foundation, one of ISNA-Canada’s division, had its charitable status revoked after the Canada Revenue Agency concluded that it was involved in the funding of a terrorist organization in India.

Summary

PART 1 – A third attempt in three years to launch the survey

PART 2 – Simplistic stereotyping? Even the picture illustrating the survey has a connection with an organization involved in the financing of terrorism

PART 3 – The partners and sponsors of the survey

PART 4 – The original Ottawa Citizen article whose picture illustrates the Environics 2015 survey of Muslims

PART 1 – A third attempt in three years to launch the survey

On January 30, 2015, the Environics Institute issued a prospectus to publicize a survey about Muslims in Canada that it seeks to launch this year. Environics presents its 2015 project as an update of its 2006 survey that examined the relationship between Canadian Muslims and the Canadian society-at-large.

Environics is looking for sponsors who will come up with $150-200K for the project. The premise behind the Environics survey is that Muslims in Canada are facing a lack of acceptance due to the tendency of Canadians towards simplistic stereotyping:

[In Canada,] the Muslim community faces unique challenges with respect to religious freedom, national security profiling and the threat of security detentions abroad.

Much of the problem stems from the fact that the Muslim community is not well understood by other Canadians, whose impressions are formed largely through simplistic stereotypes emphasizing negative characteristics.

[…]

The total budget for this project is $150,000 to $200,000 to cover the Muslim and non-Muslim surveys as outlined above. The Environics Institute is investing initial seed funding, and seeking sponsorship funding to cover the balance of the required budget. The four organizations [Environics, Tessellate, Inspirit and Olive Tree] are committed to making it happen with the financial support from organizations and individuals who share this priority. Sponsors will be publicly recognized for their contribution, given an opportunity to have input into the survey topics, and receive a special briefing on the research findings. A charitable tax receipt can be issued for contributions of $1,000 or more.

This is the third attempt by Environics in three years (2013 / April and June, 2014, and 2015) to launch such a project. In the previous attempts, the Environics Institute announced its partnership with the Tesselate Institute for an update of its 2006 survey, but the project did not materialize, likely due to lack of funding.

Environics Institute (April 19, 2013): Announcement – Launch of the 2013 Survey of Muslims in Canada / Archive.Today / WebArchive

Environics Institute (June 2013): Announcement – Launch of the 2013 Survey of Muslims in Canada / Archive.Today / WebArchive

Environics Institute (2014): Announcement – 2014 Survey of Muslims in Canada / Archive.Today

Environics Institute (January 30, 2015): Prospectus – 2015 Survey of Muslims in Canada / Archive.Today / WebArchive

Environics Institute (Undated): Announcement – 2015 Survey of Muslims in Canada / Archive.Today

PART 2 – Simplistic stereotyping? Even the picture illustrating Environics’ own survey has a connection with an organization involved in the financing of terrorism

In the announcement of its 2015 project for a survey of Muslims in Canada, the Environics Institute claims that Canadians’ tendency to simplistic stereotyping is mostly responsible for the lack of acceptance faced by Muslims in Canada.

Is the Environics Institute aware that many leaders and organizations endorsing its own survey project are linked with Islamic radicalism or terror financing? Even the picture chosen by Environics to illustrate its survey has a connection with an organization (ISNA) involved in the financing of terrorism.

The picture recycled by Environics first appeared in the Ottawa Citizen on May 19, 2007 in a report about ISNA-Canada’s 33rd convention in Ottawa. In this 2007 Citizen article (reproduced below), ISNA-Canada is identified as “the Canadian arm of the Islamic Society of North America [and] an umbrella group that represents many Muslim associations and supports mosques around the country”.

In 2009, in the case United States of America v. Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development (Section IV), Judge Jorge Solis stated that: “The [U.S.] government has produced ample evidence to establish the associations of CAIR, ISNA […] with Hamas.”

In 2014, the ISNA Development Foundation, one of ISNA-Canada’s division, had its charitable status revoked after the Canada Revenue Agency concluded that it was involved in the funding of a terrorist organization in India.

Wouldn’t it be appropriate for Environics to examine the background of its own partners before putting together a survey based on the premise of what they perceive as suspicion by Canadians toward Muslim organizations and Muslim leaders that can only be explained by ignorance and closed-mindedness?

PART 3 – The partners and sponsors of the survey

Four main partners are associated with the survey and six sponsors are identified by Environics in its 2015 announcement:

MAIN PARTNERS

ENVIRONICS INSTITUTE
Website – Twitter

The Environics Institute for Survey Research was founded in 2006 by its current President Michael Adams / Archive.Today. Mr. Adams is the author of Unlikely Utopia: The Surprising Triumph of Canadian Multiculturalism. One of the main thesis of his book is that “no real tension exists between multiculturalism and individual rights” (p. 136).

After Mohammad Shafia threatened to kill his daughters on many occasions for not wearing the hijab, and not adhering to other Islamic principles, the Shafia girls contacted social services and police to ask for help. They were let down. For years, Islamists involved in outreach activities have “educated” police and other officials that no Islamic principles justify honour killing and that those saying otherwise are ‘Islamophobes’ and racist. Police and social services learned this lesson well and ignored the cries of help from the Shafias since it would have demonstrated their ‘racism’ if they had acted, thus abandoning them to their fate.

In this case, it is clear there was more than “tension,” to use Michael Adams’ expression, between multiculturalism and individual rights. The Shafias’ basic individual right to life was extinguished by multiculturalism when they were murdered.

Another tragic story involving hundreds of young girls recently made the headlines in the UK. Columnist Dennis Prager described it in his article entitled 1,400 English Girls Raped by Multiculturalism / WebArchive – Archive.Today.

[B]etween 1997 and 2013, at least 1,400 girls, as young as eleven years old, in just one relatively small English city (Rotherham, population 275,000), ha[ve] been repeatedly and systematically raped by gangs of men over the past decade.

[…] Why was nothing done for 16 years? Police incompetence was a factor, but not the primary reason. The primary reason was political correctness. It turns out that the perpetrators were all, or nearly all, of “Pakistani heritage” and the girls were all, or nearly all, white.

[…] The New York Times and other left-wing media have thoroughly reported this story and the fact that political correctness is to blame for what was done to these girls. Yet they are oblivious to the fact that they are the very ones who created the moral monsters known as political correctness, multiculturalism, and “diversity” — the doctrines that forbid judging non-whites, Muslims, and others by the same moral standards by which whites and Christians are judged.

Multiculturalism has also led various government bodies to implement rules forcing employers to comply with religious edicts affecting their employees’ work schedule and dress code. In a recent case heard by the American Supreme Court, a Muslim woman initiated a lawsuit against Abercrombie for their refusal to hire her, for wanting to wear a hijab, which contravenes the company’s strict dress code. A decision is expected in June.

Whether entrepreneurs sued in Court end up winning their cases regarding dress codes or employees’ work schedules is irrelevant. If there was no “tension” between individual rights, like property rights, and multiculturalism, as Mr. Adams claims, business owners would not have to justify in Court how they wish to run these aspects of their enterprises. As long as business owners do not interfere with the right of Muslims and others to start their own businesses and implement their own dress code and employees’ work schedules, they should be free and unhampered in deciding how they intend to run these aspects of their own businesses.

The smallest minority remains the individual. In a society respectful of individual rights, so-called “collective rights” created by multiculturalism should never outweigh individual rights, such as property rights.

Two Quebec-based classical liberal professors, summarized the issue well in their 2007 article entitled Voluntary accommodations rather than ‘reasonable’ accommodations:

Jean Luc Migué and Pierre Simard, Le Soleil / Quebec City, October 12, 2007

Quebeckers must reject these charges of racism laid against them. They must resist the temptation to show their “openness to the world” by setting up a mechanism granting privileges to ethnic and religious groups. Competition among businesses will lead preconceived ideas about newcomers to disappear if they are not fed by reasonable, coercive and statist accommodations.

[Original French] [L]es Québécois doivent rejeter les accusations de racisme portées contre eux. Ils doivent résister à la tentation d’étaler leur «ouverture sur le monde» par la mise en place d’un mécanisme d’octroi de privilèges aux groupes ethniques et religieux. Grâce à la concurrence, les préjugés à l’endroit des nouveaux arrivants s’estomperont, s’ils ne sont pas nourris par des accommodements raisonnables, coercitifs et étatistes.

ALSO: Canoe Infos (February 9, 2009): Quebec-based Laboratoires Riva forced to modify their Muslim employees’ work schedules to accommodate their praying schedules [Article in French]

OLIVE TREE FOUNDATION
Website – Twitter – CRA File

According to the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA), in 2007 the Olive Tree Foundation transferred funds to Hamas’ fund collector, IRFAN-Canada.

That year, in the Holy Land Foundation trial in the U.S., IRFAN was identified as a part of the “Global Hamas financing mechanism” (subsection VIII). Already in 2004, while he was an Opposition MP in Ottawa, Stockwell Day had warned about the links between IRFAN and Hamas. He was sued for defamation in 2006 for doing so.

In April 2011, the Canada Revenue Agency revoked IRFAN’s charitable status after it concluded that, for the 2005-2009 period alone, it transferred $14.6 million to the terrorist organization Hamas. In April 2014, IRFAN was added to Canada’s list of banned terrorist groups.

CRA documents also indicate that, in 2009, the Olive Tree Foundation transferred funds to the RIS convention. This Islamist convention is held in Toronto on an annual basis since 2003. It was launched with the sponsorship of the terror-funding Saudi World Assembly of Muslim Youth (WAMY). WAMY’s charitable status was revoked in 2012 after the CRA concluded that it transferred funds to an organization linked to Al Qaeda.

TESSELLATE INSTITUTE
Website – Twitter – Industry Canada

According to its mission statement, the Tessellate Institute “aims to be an intellectual platform through which Muslim and non-Muslim voices can combat Islamophobia, highlight positive Muslim contributions to Canadian society, and enhance the public debate on issues related to being Muslim in contemporary Canada.”

The Tessellate Institute was founded in 2007 by Naseer Syed, Katherine Bullock, and Sheema Khan. In 2006, 2008, 2010 (p.7/27), 2011, 2012, and 2013, Naseer Syed was identified as the lawyer of IRFAN-Canada, the fund collector of Hamas, a designated terrorist entity.

In April 2011, the Canada Revenue Agency revoked IRFAN’s charitable status after it concluded that, for the 2005-2009 period alone, it transferred $14.6 million to the terrorist organization Hamas. In April 2014, IRFAN itself was added to Canada’s list of banned terrorist groups.

Sheema Khan is the founder of the National Council of Canadian Muslims (formerly known as CAIR-CAN). Khan was also appointed director of Hamas-linked / Washington-based CAIR in 2000. Until 2008, CAIR-CAN acknowledged Washington-based CAIR as its “parent organization” (p. 14).

INSPIRIT FOUNDATION
Website – Twitter – CRA File

SPONSORS

AHMAD KUTTY
Resident scholar of the Islamic Institute of Toronto

Ahmad Kutty has been the main lecturer at the Islamic Institute of Toronto since its inception in 1996. In a text still available on the organization’s website in February 2015, Kutty endorsed the Muslim Brotherhood spiritual guide, Youssef Qaradawi, by quoting one of his fatwas and by describing him as an “eminent scholar in the contemporary world“ / WebArchive – Archive.Today (page 1).

Ahmad Kutty’s mentor promotes the conquest of the West by Muslims, endorses the killing of Muslims who leave Islam (apostates), condones female genital mutilations, and claims that Hitler was sent by Allah to punish the Jews (video).

In his classic Priorities of the Islamic Movement (chapter 4), Qaradawi also declares that resorting to force and coercion is legitimate to enforce Islam’s principles (“changing wrong by force whenever possible”), and he describes the mosque as a political institution where participants are mobilized for jihad (“It must be the role of the mosque to guide the public policy of a nation, raise awareness of critical issues, and reveal its enemies. From ancient times the mosque has had a role in urging jihad for the sake of Allah”).

In conformity with a Muslim Brotherhood principle of operation already reported by the New York Times in February 1949, Qaradawi endorses the use of suicide bombers.

FAREED AMIN
Current Director of the Islamic Institute of Toronto / Former Government of Ontario Deputy Minister

Fareed Amin has occupied various positions on the Board of the Islamic Institute of Toronto (IIT) since its foundation in 1996. Amin “led fundraising for the community centre [IIT], which broke ground in May 2004.” In 2007, while Fareed Amin was Ontario Deputy Minister of Immigration and Citizenship, his Islamic Institute received $500 000 from the very Department he was working for. Amin denied any involvement in the grant process, and he told the press that IIT’s Vice President had been responsible for the file.

At the time, both Opposition parties called for the province’s Auditor General to investigate on what they called a “slush fund scandal.”

NATIONAL COUNCIL OF CANADIAN MUSLIMS (NCCM formerly CAIR-CAN)
Website – Twitter – Industry Canada – PdeB

As more and more Imams and Muslim leaders operating in Canada are being identified by the media as promoters of Islamic radicalism, the NCCM has tried to position itself as a leading Muslim voice of ‘de-radicalization.’ The pressure on the NCCM to be perceived as a leading voice of ‘de-radicalization’ has increased after the terrorist attacks in Saint-Jean and Ottawa.

In its so-called ‘de-radicalization’ campaign, the NCCM has suggested that no reference to Islamic principles invoked by jihadists and other radicals be made and that the term ‘jihad,’ in particular, should not be used to describe what Muslim terrorists call … jihad.

In September 2014, the NCCM and a Winnipeg-based Islamist organization launched a booklet entitled United against terrorism. One highlight of the booklet (page 13) is a list of 13 North America-based Muslim scholars whom NCCM endorses and promotes for their “good understanding of life and Islam in North America.”

Almost all scholars being praised by the NCCM in the booklet have either a direct connection to the promotion of violent jihad to implement sharia principles or a connection to a more subtle, non-violent way of reaching the same goal.

Siraj Wahhaj, one of NCCM’s mentors being promoted in the booklet gave a sermon in 1992, shortly after the Rodney King riots in Los Angeles. At the time, he advocated harnessing street violence in the United States for the benefit of Islam. He invited his supporters to convert youth who feel excluded, and eventually to arm them with Uzi submachine guns so that they could wage jihad in U.S. streets. (Point de Bascule – Muslim Mafia / pp. 136-137)

Jamal Badawi is another mentor endorsed by NCCM’s booklet. In an interview given in the early 2000s, he advocated that Muslims should accept to become judges and civil servants in non-Muslim societies like Canada, and take advantage of their influential positions in order to stop applying current legal provisions that are incompatible with sharia.

More statements made by other NCCM’s mentors promoted in the booklet have been compiled by Point de Bascule.

On January 28, 2014, the NCCM initiated legal proceedings for a defamation suit against Prime Minister Harper’s office after his spokesperson declared that the NCCM is linked to the terrorist organization Hamas. Point de Bascule published many articles explaining at least three types of links between NCCM / CAIR-CAN and Hamas.

SAMIRA KANJI
President Noor Cultural Centre / Website – CRA File

SHEEMA KHAN
Globe and Mail columnist / LinkedIn – PdeB File

Sheema Khan is the founder of the National Council of Canadian Muslims (NCCM). The organization was incorporated under the name CAIR-CAN in 2000 and its name changed in 2013. On August 7, 2000, shortly after the incorporation of CAIR-CAN, Sheema Khan was appointed director of Washington-based CAIR, CAIR-CAN’s “parent organization” (p. 14).

In 2009, in the case United States of America v. Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development (Section IV), Judge Jorge Solis stated that: “The [U.S.] government has produced ample evidence to establish the associations of CAIR, ISNA […] with Hamas.”

In 2006, Sheema Khan was invited to address the Canadian Security Intelligence Service’s personnel. She was then CAIR-CAN Honorary Chair. In her speech, she recommended that more “Muslim and Arab Canadians [be recruited] as judges, security-cleared counsel, policy-makers, decision-makers and intelligence staff” to ensure the security of Canada.

A few years earlier, Jamal Badawi, Sheema Khan’s colleague at CAIR-CAN, had said in an interview 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.

CHILDREN’S AID SOCIETY OF TORONTO
Website – CRA File

Environics chose an image featuring Salah Basalamah and Shelina Merani for the survey it wants to launch in 2015. With Tariq Ramadan, they launched the organization Muslim Presence in the early 2000s in Canada.

On Muslim Presence’s website, the network is described as “a group of Muslim citizens who follow the ideas of Tariq Ramadan.”

In an interview given to Egypt Today in 2004, Tariq Ramadan told Islamists operating in Canada that they 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.

In a speech given in Detroit in 2013, Tariq Ramadan defined jihad as “the way we implement sharia.” Ramadan’s formulation has the advantage of including violent and non-violent methods used by Islamists to reach their goal.

Two days after the Islamist slaughter perpetrated against Charlie Hebdo, a text justifying those who would resort to violence against the French magazine was still posted on Muslim Presence’s French-language website. Muslim Presence website’s administrators discreetly sent the article to the memory hole after Point the Bascule revealed its existence (BEFORE – AFTER).

PART 4 – The original Ottawa Citizen article whose picture illustrates the Environics 2015 survey of Muslims

Note that in the description below the picture, Salah Basalamah and Iman Faris have not been correctly identified. Basalamah is in the middle while Faris in on the right.

  Internet version of the article
http://www.canada.com/story.html?id=8a57d598-7f2b-4726-be90-e424171d95ae / Archive.Today

Further reading

Pierre Trudeau Foundation (2006): Environics Research Group Poll for the Trudeau Foundation / WebArchive – Archive.Today

JihadWatch (May 22, 2007): PEW poll: 25% of U.S. Muslims under 30 say suicide bombings to defend their religion are acceptable at least in some circumstances

JihadWatch (May 4, 2013): New international PEW survey shows broad Muslim support for harsh Sharia punishments

IPT News (February 25, 2015): ComRes poll conducted for the BBC indicates that a quarter of British Muslims sympathize with Paris attack terrorists