Canada’s “Islamophobia” Representative
in which Trudeau appoints an occidentalist Islamist to “battle Islamophobia”
“Misunderstanding arising from ignorance breeds fear, and fear remains the greatest enemy of peace.”
― Lester B. Pearson
There is no compulsion in religion :: Qur’an 2:256
I disagree with the term Islamophobia, I think it promotes a dangerous idea that society cannot question or criticise the religion of Islam. I think the term removes the focus from hate against people. I think it blocks a genuine investigation into the sources of that hatred. Islamophobia promotes the fear Pearson spoke of in the above quote, because it tells people to fear questioning what they don’t understand and then we can never get past misunderstandings that block peace. Furthermore, I think Islamophobia dodges the real problem facing the Muslim world (mostly from within) — radical political Islamism, religious extremism + fascism, a desperate lack of emotional hygiene and emotional intelligence skills, an abrogation of personal responsibility to a culture of hyper-masculinity + top-down control, anti-Jewish hatred, anti-western hatred, homophobia, misogyny, intra-Muslim sectarian hatred — above all a lack of knowledge of and focus on the core universal values revealed in the Qur’an.
None of this problem gets addressed by the appointment of a Federal Islamophobia Representative, and in this missive I will tell you why.
Congratulations to Amira Elghawaby on her appointment to the newly created position of Islamophobia Representative for Canada. I want to take the opportunity to recognise this as a landmark appointment for Canada, in keeping with our spirit as the country Lester B. Pearson made famous, as the country to which my father’s family CHOSE to immigrate. Out of a world of possible choices the Sukhans chose Canada and proudly lived a good life and built family and community. My grandmother could not read or write and died at the age of 59 after a very hard life—she lost 12 babies between my father and her next surviving child, who drowned fetching water at the age of 6. My father came to Canada in search of a better life and he made one. I have 2 university degrees and a home filled with books and I am a writer (currently on my third career choice) who will leave her mark behind her in a way my grandmother could not. That is the power and beauty of Canada, my free and compassionate homeland.
Cynicism breeds contempt and I want to enter this conversation with genuine compassion. I want to say what I mean and mean what I say. So, I’ll take this opportunity to get a few things out of the way.
First of all, I feel it is absolute my right and my duty to call to account organisations purporting to represent Muslims, as a Muslim myself. I do not bear any responsibility for the inability of anyone reading this to manage their feelings—your emotional hygiene is your responsibility. You wash your hands after the loo, and you can wash your attitude after you have the internal angries or whatever tantrum about some uncomfortable truth revealed in my writing. When you cavort with extremists who promote harm, those whom you claim to represent and the taxpayers funding you get to call you out for that behaviour. I am both a Muslim and a taxpayer. I get to call bullsh1t on this little self-congratulatory Islamist party we got going on here in the Canadian Muslim community.
Second. I do not feel that any mainstream Muslim organisation claiming to speak for or represent Muslims speaks for me or addresses my needs as a Muslim woman in any way in the current political landscape. Bill C-16 is an example where the collective voice of Muslim leadership and Muslims is notably absent — in fact I only see Christian media and Christians themselves openly embracing a critical stance on gender self-identity and taking heavy hits for it too.
Name your popular Muslim organisation in Canada and I guarantee you they have no fcuks to give for the fact that gender self-ID means Corrections Canada has a policy of state sponsored rape for female prisoners or for the fact that gender self-ID could mean Muslim girls + women would be excluded from co-ed sports teams. Crickets from Amira, the NCCM et al who are fixated on PQ’s Bill 21 and refuse to place the Bill in a historical social context of French religious history. No mention have I ever heard of sympathy or acknowledgment for the Duplessis Orphans—are they the wrong race perhaps, maybe whypipo matter less to Muslim organisations such as NCCM. That’s a pity because this is not how The Prophet conducted his own affairs.
Third. I personally question the appropriateness of appointing Amira to this position, given her association with the NCCM, formerly known as CAIR.CAN, the Canadian branch of CAIR, an organisation shown to have ties to Hamas, and designated as a terrorist organisation by the UAE. An affidavit dispels the veracity of any claims of CAIR.CAN being fully independent + distinct from CAIR. When it changed it’s name from CAIR.CAN, the NCCM acknowledged we remain the same organization. Furthermore, I genuinely question Amira’s ability to maintain objectivity in this role, given her views on Canada + also her association with a known radical leftist group that has questionable ethics and a reputation for menacing its designated targets — in 2018 Amira, together with Evan Balgord + Bernie, received a $25K grant from the now disgraced SPLC to form the Canadian Anti Hate Network.1
At any rate, we are here now, doing the thing. In the spirit of now-ness and getting on with it, I would like to invite Amira to do her work in the spirit of The Prophet ::
Invite the Prime Minister to appoint an Anti-Semitism Representative and then work closely with that representative to plot a course for addressing rising anti-Muslim AND anti-Jewish hatred in Canada and the overlaps between the two communities.
Denounce Islamism and the occidentalist thinking that emerges from it, denounce the radical Islamist edict promoting hatred of non Muslims and the British and French.
Denounce the radical Islamist edict from Afghanistan which says Islam dictates that women cannot work or go to school and that wearing hijab is mandatory.
Denounce the use of divisive + prejudicial + exclusionary language such as Judeo-Christian and colonizer, or if we must rehash colonial history, then agree to honestly + ethically + genuinely address Muslim, (ie. Ottoman + Arabian), colonialism which sought to erase the spiritual and cultural practises of Indigenous communities as part of their colonial project, ahem Hagia Sophia, ahem Armenian genocide, ahem Jewish expulsion from Arab countries, etc etc.
Re-consider her vilification of Canada Day — I know personally that many South Asians embrace Canada Day and Canadian-style nationalism, it is a source of pride for many immigrants to celebrate Canada on July 1st … it is why we are all here! Also good citizenship, love for one’s own nation, is a core Quranic value, so it’s anti-Muslim AND anti-Islam to imply Canadian Muslims do not have to love our nation as part of our faith.
Make this endeavour truly in the spirit of The Prophet by embracing His leadership style, outlined by the late Nabeel Al-Azeem in his book 11 Leadership Qualities That Changed the World. Lean into Moral Courage.
End and denounce the very lengthy Islamist tradition—a favourite strategy of the NCCM formerly CAIR.CAN by the way, of which Amira was the Communications Director + Human Rights Coordinator — of invoking accusations of hate and taking a public litigatory and smear campaign style fear-based tactic when challenged or criticised ideologically.
Denounce radical + extreme interpretations of Islam, specifically with respect to homophobia, anti-Jewish rhetoric, the refusal to embrace the IHRA definition of anti-semitism.
Retract the statements she made about the Queen and Canada as a Constitutional Monarchy and apologise for her prejudicial statements about our historical figures as racist and white supremacist.
Denounce the thuggish tactics of Evan Balgord and the CAHN.
I have grave concerns about this appointment. I have grave concerns about the word Islamophobia. I have very grave concerns about how Islamist organisations invoke the word Islamophobia to dodge accountability—this is the emotional + intellectual culture of Islamism, dodging responsibility in a victimhood grift and allowing extremism to go unchecked. It has made the Muslim community intolerable + spiritually toxic for reformist Muslims seeking God—God is not there. Former extremists themselves say that Islamophobia now invoked simply aims to stall any examination of extremism.
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I fear, as a Muslim reformist, I fear many things — most of all I fear other Muslims on this frightening path to authoritarianism we seem to be taking::
I can’t get the scene of Salman Rushdie’s attack out of my head—I still remember what he had to endure in the late 80s because of the fatwa/bounty on his head.
I can’t get the scene of that 2015 mob of unhinged fanatics screaming for Irshad’s execution out of my head.
I can’t erase the fear I felt when I woke up the morning after I publicly posted on Facebook about Lars Vilks’s life mattering and saw 191 comments from Islamist extremists—all enraged at me having simply humanised Lars Vilks.
I can’t even imagine Iyadi el-Baghdadi having to live under Norwegian police protection because he is a critic of the Saudi regime.
I still think about how Khashogghi was so easily eliminated. Netflix even refused to stream the movie Dissident—what does that tell you about the power of the machine pushing radical political Islam?
I still think about how things for Mustafa Akyol could have gone so much worst, had he not had people who could pull strings to get him released.
I recently read about Ibn Rushd, aka Averroes, and how no Arabic primary sources of his work exists because the Arabs burned them all when they cancelled him for promoting rationality in religion. He influenced Aquinas and other notables and Muslims were so arrogant they cancelled him, to their own societal misfortune.
Professional reprisals such as the one faced by Collin May, who wrote an opinion about Islam in a book 13 years ago. The NCCM came after him, demanding he be fired and the Alberta government cow-towed to that demand and fired May, who is now suing the government.
Dramatic public displays in attempts to dodge responsibility and distract from due process accountability, as in making wildly inflammatory claims that can’t be backed up in order to punish anyone who questions extreme thinking.
I have been the victim of a stalker and a homicidal abuser—it rocked my entire life and took me a long time to heal from that trauma. I have to want for others what I want for myself, I do not want stalkers menacing me for thinking thoughts or expressing opinions, I do not want anyone choking me or orchestrating a car accident to deliberate injure me as a punishment for saying a thing and I do not want to face anyone trying to take my livelihood away because they decided they didn’t like me. All of these things do happen to people who become victims of Islamist extremists, trauma so rife in the community because of extremists allowed to run amuck. I value freedom, I value my country which, until recently, has had institutions uncorrupted by narcissistic wokeism or ideologues who govern or have affiliation with Islamist organisations and regimes worldwide.
I am a reformist Muslim, I oppose Islamism, particularly in my country—it is abusive, fascist, and misanthropic—not God-Conscious and not Canadian and certainly not promoting universal values. Muslims need to be protected from Islamism, above all else, it is the biggest + most dangerous threat to Muslims around the world. I had to find out from a UK Football Twitter account about the two young Yemeni men whom the Saudi regime executed last month for no reason, giving their families 30 minutes’ notice before secretly executing them. I saw with horror that these boys could be my sons, they look to be the age or younger than my own boys, who are in their early 30s. Muslims will say Paradise lies at the feet of mothers, whilst they look away as evil Islamist regimes kill the children of those mothers.
The problem endangering Muslims is Islamism and intra-Muslim hatred more than “orientalism” or hatred from Christian fascists. Does anyone have the chutzpah to stand up and push back against this threat, or all we all going to sit here, cowering?
I have decided I will not obey and I will not be quiet and I will not cower in fear. I never have cowered, and men have tried to kill me for it and it never stopped me then and it won’t now.
Proceedings of SC – 20 -156136
Rukhsana Sukhan, a friend forwarded me this article by you and I was highly impressed both by it and your own story as a Muslim woman. I too have signed up with substack and you might visit to see a few of my recent publications at salimmansur@substack.com. I wish to connect with you if this is feasible and acceptable to you, for I sense that we share much in common. My email address is smansur26@gmail.com
Canada has not only welcomed Muslim immigrants for over a 100 years but also Indigenous Mid-East Christians, Jews, Baha'is, and dissident Muslim sects like Ahmadiyyas fleeing Muslim persecution.