generalspeaking

Hatred and Murder By Design

"I know no Muslim who was surprised. We've been saying again and again that we didn't know what, we didn't know when, but we knew something bad was going to happen."
"We've seen a huge amount of love [expressed support since the fatal attack on the Quebec City mosque on Sunday last] from our fellow citizens. We think we can build on this. Every citizen has a role to play, every media outlet has a role to play, and specifically every elected representative has a role to play, to put in place policies against racism."
Haroun Bouazzi, spokesman, Quebec Muslims, Montreal

"We have a small Muslim community here -- about 250,000 people out of a population of roughly eight million -- who have had a spotlight shone on them, not a flattering one, for the last ten or twelve years. There hasn't been any respite."
"Having this nightmare version of what we have been dabbling into, in comparatively small ways, I think may serve as an anchor for what otherwise might have been one or two weeks of mea culpa followed by business as usual."
Daniel Weinstock, professor, faculty of law, McGill University, Montreal

"It communicates the idea that there is something wrong with those people, that we can't give them the same rights as others, because they represent a danger."
"Every time there is a campaign of this sort, there is a proliferation of hateful incidents."
Charles Taylor, Quebec philosopher

"Our politicians, for the most part, let things slide and contented themselves with timid, useless initiatives, apparently untroubled by the explosive nature of intercultural issues."
"And when they finally resolved to act once and for all, with a charter, they worsened the situation by deeply dividing Quebecers and placing ethno-cultural minorities against the majority."
Gerard Bouchard, Quebec public intellectual

Six people dead and 19 injured, Canadian Muslims gunned down while at prayer, the bullets spraying their backs at a mosque in Quebec City last Sunday. Previously, Mr. Bouazzi had prepared documentation he presented to Quebec authorities wherein a number of Muslim organizations asked for government action against online intimidation and vandalism. Hate crimes were documented in Saguenay, Montreal, Quebec City, Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu and Sherbrooke against Muslims living in Quebec, mostly citizens of Canada.

An appalling crime that  has shocked the province and the nation. And the reaction from the Islamic community is one of fear and  trepidation. If someone was sufficiently enraged and deranged to kill people at at mosque in Quebec City, how safe are Muslims elsewhere in the country? The Province has a somewhat unsavoury reputation of xenophobia, a prevalence of resentment against non-French speakers. English Quebecers have long complained of their perceived second-place status and being under-serviced in English in an officially bilingual nation.

Orthodox Jews with their peculiar religious customs many French Quebecers view as irritating in the extreme, as well as French-speaking Muslims who have migrated from abroad in greater numbers to
Quebec from former French colonies are experiencing their share of suspicion and slander. None of it muted and much of it likely on the increase as a result of global Islamist terror incidents. Modern Quebec is dedicated to its secular political status and takes offence at the sight of overtly religious garb or practices.

The former separatist Parti Quebecois brought forward a debate over a values charter reflecting the-then government party's Quebecois objection to the sight of conspicuous religious symbols, seeking to outlaw the wearing of Sikh, Jewish and Muslim recognizable religious garb. At the same time emphasizing that government services would not be made available to those wearing face coverings, as well as the expectation that those delivering public services would not wear identifying head gear such as turbans, kippahs or hijabs.

The murderer of the six Muslim men at prayer held a distinct resentment noted by his friends and acquaintances, for immigrants, and targeted Islam for complaints of particular dislike. He was said to be an admirer of right-wing politics and political figures. He was fascinated with firearms, and was said to be a loner, though he had an identical twin. Some of his friends denied that he was a loner, but without exception all who knew him were shocked that he was identified as the killer of six, wounding another 19 men in his shooting spree.

And while many in Quebec, remorseful and empathetic at the horrors that unfolded last Sunday at the Quebec City mosque have gone out of their way to reassure Muslims that they have emotional support among non-Muslims, 'business as usual' has resulted in Montreal police reporting an increase in hate incident reports the week following the massacre. At the same time, it should not be overlooked that Islam has been responsible for wreaking havoc all over the world in violence and gruesome murders, sectarian conflict and ongoing threats within and without the world of Islam.

And nor should it be forgotten that many Muslims living in Canada have gone out of their way to incite leftist groups against Jews and the State of Israel, bringing campaigns of Boycott-Divestment-Sanction and isolation on to university and college campuses, and raising signs declaring slanderous accusations against Israel and Jews at every opportunity, at protests sites, alongside posters in support of Hamas, Hezbollah and Islamic State.

Karol Dahl/Global News  Signs were also placed near Concordia University, McGill University and Westmount Square

Fires are kindled by embers of hatred resulting in violence doing great harm to communities not only targeting the Muslim community, but by those among Muslim communities expressing their cultural-religious-social inclinations to sow hatred toward other communities within Canada.

"Just a few short months ago, McGill students were faced with a decision: Support a motion led by Solidarity for Palestinian Human Rights, calling for the Students’ Society of McGill University’s condemnation of Israel — a motion polarizing the student body and marginalizing Jewish and pro-Israel students — or defeat it." 
Montreal Gazette

A poster being put up by unidentified people near Westmount Square during the 2015 federal election. FILE PHOTO

Labels: Boycott/Divestment, Canada, Immigration, Islam, Quebec, Violence

posted by Pieface @ Sunday, February 05, 2017