Category Archives: Canada

When professors fail to do their homework

Posted on by Bob Pitt

“Following the London bombings of 7/7 Salim Mansur, a newspaper columnist for Sun Media, stated with absolute certainty: ‘It is now abundantly clear the source of Muslim terrorism is situated within the body politic of Islam and its adherents, irrespective of how many times, on the one hand, some Muslim spokespersons try to obscure this reality and, on the other, politicians of whatever stripe for electoral purposes behave as ostriches with their heads in the sand.’

“Mansur should know better. As an academic and associate professor of political science, he should know from the outset that for any credible analysis you must get the facts right and stay away from provocative, self-serving rhetoric.”

Mohamed Elmasry exposes academic Islamophobia in Canada.

Media Monitors Network, 21 October 2005

‘Ontario: a shari’a-free zone’ (US Right backs WPI)

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Arjomand Front Page“Iranian exile Homa Arjomand scores a key victory for Western civilization,”  Front Page Magazine proclaims. Alyssa A. Lappen (for further articles by this author, see here and here) offers a gushing endorsement of the Islamophobic activities of a central committee member of the Worker Communist Party of Iran:

“When Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty announced on Sunday September 11 that Ontario would outlaw all forms of religious arbitration, including Islamic law or Shari’a, Western civilization won a great victory. For that success, Canada and the US owe their thanks to Iranian exile Homa Arjomand, director of the International Campaign Against Sharia Court (ICASC).”

Front Page Magazine, 20 September 2005

Homa Arjomand takes her place alongside Robert Spencer, Daniel Pipes and Jamie Glazov – which is exactly where she belongs.

Debate stirs hatred, Canadian Muslims say

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Homa ArjomandThe debate around sharia tribunals in Ontario has led to a phobia about Islam and increased the public’s misunderstanding and hatred of Muslims, according to a coalition of Muslim groups.

The recent polemic around faith-based arbitration has perpetuated negative stereotypes of Islam as oppressive to women, Katherine Bullock, with the Islamic Society of North America, told reporters yesterday. “The debate around faith-based arbitration for Muslims has raised the notion that Muslim values are somehow outside the Judeo-Christian tradition, and Jewish and Christian family law are fine but Muslim family law is somehow oppressive to women,” Ms. Bullock said at a news conference in the ISNA mosque in Mississauga. “Taliban-style Islam in Canada has been invoked as a way to suggest Ontario shouldn’t embrace faith-based arbitration.”

Globe and Mail, 15 September 2005

Sharia is gone but fear and hostility remain

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Homa Arjomand (2)The response to the proposal for Islamic arbitration tribunals in Ontario was another example of “a creeping irrationality in our own public discourse, public opinion and public policy when dealing with Muslims”, Haroon Siddiqui argues:

“Faith-based arbitration for Muslims was not going to be sharia, even if one proponent said so. The term suited the critics just fine. They raised the red herring and the platitudes flowed: Multiculturalism was eroding common values. The line separating church and state was being erased. Theocracy was being grafted onto Canada. As amusing as some of this has been at one level, at another it has been Islamophobic and deeply divisive….”

Toronto Star, 15 September 2005

‘Political correctness trumps justice and common sense’

Posted on by Bob Pitt

“Western societies’ fundamental philosophical and ideological structures and institutions including our democratic government, laws and rights and freedoms have derived from and are based on the bedrock of Judeo-Christian perceptions, principles, values, mores and ethics. Though evolving over the centuries, our Western societies have remained true to our Judeo-Christian heritage.

“It has been pointed out in countless news reports, sage and well researched and documented articles and books that there is much within the doctrines of Islam that is incompatible and antithetical to our Western societies. Add to that, the various Islamic edicts against non-Muslims and the often noted mandated obligation on all Muslims to aid in achieving Islam’s manifest destiny of world domination and Islam appears to many to be a very real threat to our Western way of life….

“In the case of lawful and religious based arbitration in Ontario, until now Christians and Jews have had that right. Both Judaism and Christianity as religions and as a Judeo-Christian ethic forming the foundation of our Western society, teach tolerance and respect of others and other religions. Jews and Christians practice what their religions preach in that regard.

“There has never been an issue of discrimination of Jewish or Christian women by Jewish or Christian men, nor even a hint of fear from women that such discrimination or could happen in the context of religious based arbitration or that they might be forced to participate in such process against their will.

“Much has been written of discrimination of Muslim women by Muslim men. The fact that many Muslim women joined the protest against McGuinty allowing Sharia to be a lawful basis for Muslim family dispute arbitration speaks volumes to the concern that discrimination against women in Muslim communities, even Western communities is very real and no safeguards McGuinty was contemplating in that regard would be protection enough for Muslim women.”

Israpundit, 13 September 2005

Of course, in reality, the participation of “Muslim women” in the protest spoke volumes about the deceitfulness of the Worker Communist Party of Iran.

Defeat of political Islam is cause for celebration

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Arjomand and media“The Ontario government’s decision to reject the introduction of Islamic arbitration courts in its jurisdiction is an important victory against the spread of political Islam in Canada and a severe blow to those who preach it.

“This victory could not have been celebrated without the tireless activism of Canadian Muslims such as Homa Arjomand, a woman who fled her native sharia-ruled Iran and knows first-hand the inequities of Islamic law.”

A right-wing Zionist applauds the efforts of the Worker Communist Party of Iran and condemns mainstream Jewish organisations in Ontario for their capitulation to political Islam.

Judeoscope, 12 September 2005

But where did everyone get the idea that comrade Arjomand, a leading figure in a far left sect characterised by its extreme, dogmatic secularism and fanatical Islamophobia, is a Muslim? Well, it could just be that they were encouraged in that illusion by exchanges like the following, from a TV interview:

Interviewer:  Ms Arjomand, if we could get your bona fides, are you a Muslim? And have you had personal experience of sharia law?

Homa Arjomand:  Yes, I have. I was born and raised in a Muslim family, and I lived in an Islamic state, Iran, and I experienced lots of horrible, horrible things … I fled Iran….

See the video clip here.

Of course, it was to the advantage of the WPI to pass themselves off as Muslims because it gave their opposition to the proposed arbitration courts much greater credibility than it would have had if they’d come clean about their actual politics. And in their role as “Muslims” they provided a useful cover for the right-wingers and racists with whom they promoted the same hysterical caricature of Islam.

McGuinty government rules out use of sharia law

Posted on by Bob Pitt

“Seeking to end months of debate, Premier Dalton McGuinty now says ‘there will be no sharia law in Ontario’ – an announcement that should quell a growing public-relations crisis concerning the use of Islamic law, but which also exposes Queen’s Park to attacks from other religions. Following widespread condemnation of a plan that would formally allow the tenets of sharia to be used in resolving family disputes, the Premier said he’ll make the boundaries between church and state clearer by banning faith-based arbitrations…. Many moderate Muslims say they are overjoyed by the Premier’s announcement. ‘I’m so happy today. It’s a victory for the women’s rights movement’, said Homa Arjomand, an Iranian immigrant who has launched a campaign to stop sharia in Ontario.”

Globe & Mail, 12 September 2005

Homa Arjomand a “moderate Muslim”! But that is of course how she has dishonestly presented herself in the course of her inflammatory campaign.

Robert Spencer, too, is dead chuffed at this “hard-won victory for human rights”, although he thinks the ban should be restricted to Islamic arbitration.

Dhimmi Watch, 12 September 2005

For Yusuf Smith’s response to Spencer, see Indigo Jo Blogs, 12 September 2005

Jihad Watch backs WPI

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Robert Spencer returns to the protest against the establishment of Islamic family arbitration bodies in Ontario. He approvingly quotes Homa Armojand of the Worker Communist Party of Iran, the co-ordinator of the protest, who claims that the lobby to allow faith-based arbitration for Muslims is “not a coincidence, but part of a global move pushed by leaders of political Islam who need validation from the government of the West”. Spencer also endorses Arjomand’s attack on Ontario premier Dalton McGuinty: “McGuinty flirting with political Islam is playing a dangerous game. He is putting the lives of women and children in jeopardy. Shame.”

Dhimmi Watch, 11 September 2005

This is not the first time that the WPI has received Spencer’s backing. A couple of months ago, he gave his seal of approval to a speech by Maryam Namazie. It is clear that the hysterical Islamophobia of the WPI, just like that of Outrage! in Britain, dovetails neatly with the right-wing anti-Muslim bigotry of Jihad Watch.