The Committed Enabler
"Despite its foray into Lebanese politics, Hezbollah retains a potent military capability independent of Lebanese state control and a terrorist wing controlled by Hezbollah's leadership. Hezbollah has a proven capability to conduct a mass casualty attack, target unguarded foreign nationals, strike at heavily guarded targets, and carry out multiple and co-ordinated attacks." Canadian intelligence study, June 2010
And Mouna Diab is a Lebanese-Canadian who felt horribly affronted at the profiling of people of Middle Eastern descent as terrorists and supporters of jihad. Living in Montreal she experienced first-hand the calumnies visited upon Arabs, and did her utmost, as a responsible activist, to entreat other Canadians to view people like her as being just like them.
She took her role as an individual dedicated to making peace within the community seriously. Ms. Diab was vice-president of the Association of Young Lebanese Muslims. She was determined to alter the unfortunate stereotypes that prevailed within society after 9-11, associating Muslims with violence, and with terrorism. It obviously pained her to see herself and others so unfairly associated.
Battling 'Islamophobia", she was with a delegation that went to Herouxville in 2007 to protest the code of conduct passed by the town council that was clearly aimed at immigrants who practised the faith of Islam. To emphasize her unique position within Canadian society as a social bridge, she wore her hijab.
That would most certainly convince the suspicious burghers of Herouxville that female genital mutilation, stoning and head coverings were harmless vestiges of cultural Islam. Quebec has some experience with symbols of military Islamism.
In Montreal and in Toronto the Hezbollah flag has been flown at demonstrations. In 2007, members of Windsor's Lebanese community paid for a commercial billboard that featured Hassan Nasrallah, chief of Hezbollah. Possibly to 'normalize' his visage, to prepare Canadians to recognize his legitimacy. Unimpressed, complaints were lodged by the public, the billboard removed.
Hezbollah, like Hamas, is a recognized terrorist organization. As such it is banned by most Western countries, including the United States and Canada. It is known as a conduit for training of suicide bombers, for hijackings, kidnappings and assassinations. It has been held responsible for the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri, and dozens of other Lebanese.
And it is a ferociously, viciously militant foe of Israel. As a militant proxy of Iran and Syria it has threatened Israel and provoked the state to defend its territory and its population by conducting a conflict within Lebanon in an attempt to unseat the fully politically-integrated Hezbollah.
Twenty years ago Canada was placed on the alert that Hezbollah has infiltrated itself into the country.
In 1993, a member of Hezbollah, Mohamed Hussein Al Husseini, informed the Canadian Security Intelligence Service of the group's operatives "in all of Canada." Faouzi Ayoub, a former Toronto resident who participated in a hijacking was added to the FBI's most-wanted terrorists list last July.
And this July, after an RCMP investigation linking 26-year-old Mouna Diab to a scheme to smuggle weapons to Hezbollah in Lebanon, Ms. Diab was arrested and charged with committing a crime "for the benefit of, at the direction of, or in association with a terrorist group". For which, if convicted, she faces a possible life sentence.
The United Nations Security Council ordered Hezbollah to disarm. Lebanon has asked it to disarm, but it refuses, refusing also to integrate its militant 'wing' into the regular Lebanese military, although the 'political' wing is infused into the Government of Lebanon.
Labels: Government of Canada, Hezbollah, Islamism, Political Realities
posted by Pieface @ Saturday, July 14, 2012
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