Tarek Fatah's Blog, page 12

The Easter Sunday Slaughter in Pakistan is rooted in Deep-Seated Racism against Punjabi Christians by the Muslim majority

Family members mourn as they gather near the body of a relative, who was killed in a blast outside a public park on Sunday, during funeral in Lahore, Pakistan, March 28, 2016. REUTERS/Mohsin Raza

March 30, 2016

Tarek Fatah

The Toronto Sun

Add Lahore as the latest entry to the list of cities to fall victim to jihadi terrorism.

But there is an angle to this horrible act of carnage most have missed.

My earliest memories of life in Lahore, the capital of Pakistan’s Punjab province, are of playing marbles with a boy my own age, before being yanked away from him.

My aunts warned me never, ever to associate with that boy. When I asked why, they said: “Don’t you know he is a ‘choora’?”

(This refers to Punjabi Christians who removed human waste from the roof top toilets in the centuries-old buildings inside the old walled city of Lahore).

Which brings us to the media reporting of the Lahore terrorist attack that would be incomplete without mention of the horrific racism and discrimination Punjabi Christians face at the hands of many within Pakistan’s Muslim communities — from secular liberal to orthodox, ultra-conservatives.

Despite the fact the Punjabi Christian community is highly literate, dedicated to education and hard work, even those who have served and fought as senior officers in their country’s military cannot escape the slurs often uttered behind their backs.

Christians account for only 2% of the almost 180 million population of Pakistan, but their representation in the occupation of janitorial services is over 80%.

Few are willing to clean up their own mess if they can get a Christian to do it for them. In Lahore alone, according to the Lahore Waste Management Company, there are 7,894 city-employed janitors and most are Christian.

Thus the slaughter of Punjabi Christians by the Islamist terrorists is not merely the result of an inter-religious feud. It is an illustration of unchecked racism and official contempt for darker-skinned Christians, who have suffered untold miseries at the hands of many within the country’s Muslim majority.

A testament to this apartheid-type regimen is the fate of Asia Bibi, a Christian, held inside a Pakistani prison on trumped up allegations she blasphemed against Islam.

Salamat Akhtar, a former professor of history in Pakistan, says the government, “deliberately pursued a policy to keep Christians in this occupation [janitors].”

In 1980, Akhtar was President of the All Pakistan College Teachers’ Association. Here’s how he has described a meeting he once had with the country’s top education official: “Not knowing I was a Christian, the Education Secretary said the government was worried that a large number of Christians were obtaining education. … If all the Christians would be educated, then no one would be left to sweep our roads and pick up garbage. The Secretary said the government was following a policy that only half of the Christians could become educated, while the rest of them remain in this occupation.”

Not even the Pope mentioned the bigotry of some of Pakistan’s most liberal Muslims against their Christian fellow citizens.

In a message after the Easter slaughter, the pontiff said: “I repeat, once again, that violence and murderous hatred only lead to pain and destruction. Respect and fraternity are the only way to achieve peace. …. Let us pray for those who died in this attack and their families and for the Christian and ethnic minorities in that region.”

Pope Francis made no specific mention of the Islamist nature of the terrorist attack, or of the racist bigotry Pakistan’s Christians face at the hands of many Muslims.

Was it political correctness? Something else? Let history be the judge.

‘IndiaToday’ exposes Pakistan’s Dirty War in Balochistan – Video of Cold-Blooded Killings

American Muslim women protest Obama visit to Mosque – My column in Toronto Sun

“In his carefully crafted speech, Obama talked about American Muslims strictly in terms of religiosity. As if there were no Muslim trade unionists or astronauts in America, no dancers or designers. As far as Obama was concerned, only mosques, minarets and hijabs were relevant to U.S. Muslims.”

February 10, 2015

Tarek Fatah

The Toronto Sun

As President Barack Obama’s presidential motorcade turned towards the Baltimore Islamic Centre mosque, he could not have missed seeing three Muslim women holding signs protesting his visit.

Left to right: Asra Nomani, Ify Okeye and Nasrin Afzali

Standing just a few metres from the mosque were Indian-born American journalist Asra Nomani, Iranian-born human rights activist Nasrin Afzali from Montreal and Nigerian-born convert to Islam Ify Okoye who recently left the Islamic Society of Baltimore after giving up on the widespread misogyny she says is practiced at the centre.

The signs read “Women’s Rights in Mosques” and “Separate is not Equal” to highlight the second-class status of women in that particular mosque.

If Obama noticed the protesting women, he did not mention it in his speech. Chances are all three just did not fit the profile of what Obama and the Washington media considers a Muslim—women in tightly wrapped hijabs or bearded moustacheless men in long robes.

As far as Obama was concerned his speech inside the mosque reflected his infatuation with orthodox ultra-conservative Islam that first came to light during his Cairo speech in 2009.

Back then it was the Obama administration that insisted at least 10 members of the banned Islamist group Muslim Brotherhood not only be invited to attend his speech in Cairo, but that they sit in the front row.

In his carefully crafted speech, Obama talked about American Muslims strictly in terms of religiosity. As if there were no Muslim trade unionists or astronauts in America, no dancers or designers. As far as Obama was concerned, only mosques, minarets and hijabs were relevant to U.S. Muslims.

Obama told his Muslim Brotherhood guests in Cairo:

“[T]here is a mosque in every state of our union, and over 1,200 mosques within our borders … the U.S. government has gone to court to protect the right of women and girls to wear the hijab, and to punish those who would deny it.”

Fast-forward to 2016. It was as if he was rounding up his presidency exactly where he began—in the arms of the only Muslims he considers Muslim, the misogynist mosque establishment run by America’s Islamists. There was no mention of the likes of novelist Khaled Hosseini or the self-funded female space traveller Anousheh Ansari let alone the three protesting women outside.

In his speech Obama validated the Islamist propaganda that Muslims in America are victims of racism and so-called Islamophobia:

“[S]ince 9/11, but more recently, since the attacks in Paris and San Bernardino, you’ve seen too often people conflating the horrific acts of terrorism with the beliefs of an entire faith. And of course, recently, we’ve heard inexcusable political rhetoric against Muslim Americans that has no place in our country.”

Sabah Muktar was the hijab-clad woman who gave the welcome address to the president who was then greeted by five-year old girls also in hijab, their parents wrapping them up in attire that is both political and a symbol of sexuality.

After the president and the press left, the hijabi women and girls in the mosque were herded back to the back of the bus, segregated, not to be seen or heard.

Nomani went home to hear her president’s speech. I asked her how she felt and this is what she had to say:

“We are not under attack by the West. We are in a crisis because of the unchecked intrusions of Saudi Arabia’s extremist doctrine into the West, called Wahhabi or Salafi jihadi. We need to respond with Muslim reform that advocates peace, human rights and secular governance.”

Imagine if it was Asra Nomani who had Obama’s ears rather than the hijab-clad women perpetuating their self-inflicted addiction to victimhood. Just imagine.

Burning the Pakistan Flag in Canada to draw attention to the Genocide in Balochistan

“If my actions have angered some Pakistani Canadians, may I suggest they examine their own consciences. They are defending a flag that symbolizes the 1971 genocide in East Pakistan and in part, the creation of the Taliban, terrorist attacks on India, the hosting of Osama Bin Laden and the subjugation of their land’s indigenous cultures and language.”

Sunday, February 7, 2016

Tarek Fatah

The Toronto Sun

Last Saturday, I woke up to a phone call from a refugee who recently escaped death in Pakistan and now lives in Toronto.

Skipping the usual pleasantries, his voice quivering with anger, Lateef Johar told me:

“They’ve killed Dr. Manan and his son.”

“They”, being the Pakistan army that has occupied Balochistan since it invaded the independent state of Kalat in March, 1948.

Dr. Mannan Baloch, killed in cold blood by the Pakistan Military

Dr. Manan Baloch was a physician politician who was the secretary general of the outlawed Baloch National Movement (BNM), a political party that calls for a free homeland for the Baloch people and the end of the Pakistani occupation. He was widely known for his work in helping war refugees in Balochistan.

Pakistan’s government, however, described Baloch and his associates as terrorists, called their deaths a “major breakthrough” in its war against terrorism in Balochistan and said all five men were killed in a gunfight with security forces.

But this is nothing new. Extra-judicial killings are common in Balochistan.

So are “enforced disappearances”, as the human rights organization Human Rights Watch has reported, where people are scooped up by security forces, held and often tortured in secret, charged with crimes after the fact, and sometimes found dead months later.

Journalists like Declan Walsh of the Guardian, who have tried to report the truth of what is happening in Balochistan, have been expelled, Walsh after writing his definitive account of human rights abuses by the army titled “Pakistan’s dirty, secret war” in 2011.

I am not claiming there have never been unjustified killings and human rights abuse by the rebels. This is a civil war, with all its horrors.

Further, in all of my 45 years as a left-wing political activist and writer, I have followed the non-violent path of Gandhi and the Pashtun nationalist Bacha Khan, never retaliating with force, even when I was beaten by Islamist goons on campus in Karachi or occasionally on the streets of Toronto.

I continue to believe in non-violent protest.

But to me, this latest tragedy in Balochistan called for more than spoken words or chanting slogans.

How about burning the Pakistan flag, I thought?

After all in 1948, when the Pakistan army invaded and captured the capital of Kalat state, their first act was to install the Pakistan flag over the parliament house of Balochistan.

I recalled the words of George Carlin: “A flag is supposed to represent everything that a country does. It doesn’t only represent the good things. If you burn the flag, you’re burning the flag for what you perceive to be the bad things the country has done. It’s only a symbol. It’s only a piece of cloth.”

Since many Baloch newcomers to Canada were unsure whether burning a flag might jeopardize their legal status in Canada, I volunteered to hold the flag as they set it on fire at a demonstration last Sunday in Toronto.

If my actions have angered some Pakistani Canadians, may I suggest they examine their own consciences.

They are defending a flag that symbolizes the 1971 genocide in East Pakistan and in part, the creation of the Taliban, terrorist attacks on India, the hosting of Osama Bin Laden and the subjugation of their land’s indigenous cultures and language.

How Prime Minister Trudeau devalued Canada on the World Stage by running away from the fight against the Islamic State ISIS

“Both in its crude and barbaric jihadi variety, as well as in its more finely finessed Islamist propaganda, ISIS, al-Qaida, Taliban, Boko Haram and al-Shabaab could not be happier that the once powerful voice of Canada, a NATO power and a member of the G-7, has been silenced.”

Canada now leads from the rear

January 20, 2016

Tarek Fatah

The Toronto Sun

When the defence ministers of France, the United Kingdom, Germany, Italy, Australia and the Netherlands join U.S. Secretary of Defence Ashton Carter Wednesday in Paris to discuss the future of the fight against Islamic State, Canada will be conspicuous by it absence.

Things were different not that long ago when Canada, under former prime minister Stephen Harper, was seen by many as leading the free world in understanding the challenge humanity faces from Islamofascism.

At a time when the message, “Islam is a religion of peace” was the mantra of the Bush and Obama administrations in the U.S. and Labour and Conservative prime ministers in the U.K., Harper did not hesitate to remind the world the major threat to humanity came from the forces of Islamism.

In an interview with CBC’s Peter Mansbridge on the 10th anniversary of 9/11, Harper said despite the fact there were other security concerns, “the one that I can tell you occupies the security apparatus most regularly in terms of actual terrorist threats” comes from Islamic terrorism.

In using such explicit language, Harper was among the first leaders not just in the free world, but among all the countries of the United Nations, to have the courage to speak the truth.

“When people think of Islamic terrorism, they think of Afghanistan, or maybe they think of some place in the Middle East, but the truth is that threat exists all over the world,” Harper said, mentioning domestic terrorism in Nigeria and home-grown Islamic radicalism in Canada, which he noted was “also something that we keep an eye on.”

Fast forward five years to Monday, Jan. 18, 2016, and we now see that under the new government of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau our commitment to fighting Islamic terror has been so deeply compromised that the coalition of seven major nations leading the fight against Islamic State decided not to extend an invitation to Ottawa.

It would have been inconceivable in the past for Canada’s defence minister not to be invited to the table. This time we were considered unworthy of a seat.

Trying to put a brave face on this diplomatic insult, the parliamentary secretary to the minister of foreign affairs, Mississauga MP Omar Alghabra, shrugged off the rebuff, telling CBC’s Power & Politics, “not being invited didn’t come as a surprise” as the group of seven countries meet regularly, independently of Canada.

Unfortunately, the kind of leadership and foresight that once put Canada at the forefront of civilization’s struggle to save itself from the forces of darkness, fell by the wayside when Canadians opted for style over substance in the October, 2015 federal election.

If more evidence was needed to judge the immaturity of Trudeau’s leadership, it came in the wake of six Canadians dying at the hands of al-Qaida jihadi terrorists in Burkina Faso in Central Africa.

Instead of visiting the homes of the families of the deceased in Quebec, Trudeau visited a mosque in Peterborough, where he led a moment of silence and condemned the jihadi attacks as a “brutal act of violent terrorism”.

Both in its crude and barbaric jihadi variety, as well as in its more finely finessed Islamist propaganda, ISIS, al-Qaida, Taliban, Boko Haram and al-Shabaab could not be happier that the once powerful voice of Canada, a NATO power and a member of the G-7, has been silenced.

Saudi Barbarity, Iranian Hypocrisy

“As horrific and detestable as the Saudi actions that included the beheading of human rights and democracy activist Nimr el-Nimr were, it was laughable to watch Iran’s hypocritical self-righteousness in response. Since 1979, Iran has executed tens of thousands of political dissidents, most infamously its state-sponsored execution of at least 5,000 political prisoners across Iran in the summer of 1988.”

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January 4, 2016

Tarek Fatah

The Toronto Sun

The idiom “pot calling the kettle black” was perfectly illustrated by Islamic Iran’s outrage over the public executions of 47 people by Islamic Saudi Arabia on Jan. 2.

As horrific and detestable as the Saudi actions that included the beheading of human rights and democracy activist Nimr el-Nimr were, it was laughable to watch Iran’s hypocritical self-righteousness in response.

Since 1979, Iran has executed tens of thousands of political dissidents, most infamously its state-sponsored execution of at least 5,000 political prisoners across Iran in the summer of 1988.

Decades later the Iranian Islamic regime still makes a public spectacle of hanging political prisoners in city squares, using cranes to magnify the image of men writhing as they die a slow death by strangulation.

The fact Iran is the only Mideast country that carries out more executions than Saudi Arabia annually and globally is second only to China — was lost on Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who in a fit of contrived self-righteousness warned, “divine vengeance will befall Saudi politicians” for carrying out the executions.

According to Amnesty International, at least 151 people were executed in Saudi Arabia during 2015.

While Amnesty does not cite figures for Iranian executions in 2015, it quotes “reliable sources” putting the number at 743 executions, at least, in 2014.

That said, there’s no question Saudi Arabia’s disgraceful actions have added a new and unnecessary complexity into a region extending from North Africa to the Indian subcontinent.

As a result, 2015 may well have been the calm before the storm.

If building world consensus to confront the threat posed by the Islamic State (ISIS) and al-Qaida was a jigsaw puzzle, the Saudi action just transformed into Rubik’s Cube.

So who was Nimr el-Nimr whose ghost now looms large over the war zones of the Middle East and Islam’s fight with itself?

He was a 57-year old Shia Arab from Saudi Arabia’s oil-rich Eastern Province (once known as Al-Ahsa until it was invaded and occupied by the Saudi family just after the First World War).

He was well-known for his harsh criticism of Saudi Arabia’s ruling family.

In 2009, he threatened to lead a secessionist movement to end the Saudi occupation of the oil-rich Al-Ahsa province that was once historically part of today’s Bahrain.

Although he was Shia, he had made it known in no uncertain terms he had no links with the Iranian regime. WikiLeaks reported that in a meeting with U.S. diplomats in 2008, el-Nimr sought to distance himself from Tehran.

He told the Americans Iran, like other countries, acts out of self-interest, and Saudi Shiites shouldn’t expect Iranian support based on sectarian unity.

If only the Americans had the wisdom to discern Saudi manipulation using petrodollars and the facts that would serve the interests of peace and progress.

The current lot seeking to replace President Barack Obama does not offer much promise.

This is how Republican front-runner Donald Trump summarized his understanding of the Saudi-Iran flare-up:

“Iran, with all of the money and all else given to them by Obama, has wanted a way to take over Saudi Arabia and their oil. They just found it.”

Where Franklin D. Roosevelt once sat, where JFK stared down the USSR and Ronald Reagan defeated communism, we now might have The Donald.

Both the Iranians and Saudis are laughing.

 

Why does Pakistan’s Mullah-Military seek a War with India? It’s Ghazwa-e-Hind, stupid

Indian politicians and academics as well as men and women of the military have remained confounded at what they see as the irrational urge among Pakistan’s Military-Mullah Establishment to provoke a war with India despite repeated defeats in 1947-48, 1965, 1971, and 1999.

The answer may be in this 2011 lecture by a prominent Islamic cleric and former banker Irfan-ul-Haq as he explains the genesis of Pakistan being the prophesied defeat of India and Hinduism at the hands of Pakistan in what is known in the Hadith (Hadees) literature as the ‘Ghazwa-e-Hind’ or the Prophet’s War on India.

The cleric tells his enthralled audience that Pakistan came about for the sole purpose of being the springboard of the end-of-times ‘Ghazwa-e-Hind’ when Pakistan’s military and people will swarm India and wipe out once and for all the practice of Hinduism from the face of earth.

He says, only then will the armies of Islam march to meet the reincarnation of Jesus Christ in Syria from where Europe will be conquered and once that is done, human civilization will end on the prophesized day of Qayamat (Qayama in Arabic, the end of times

Lecture on Ghazwa-e-Hind in English

Here is another explanation by another Islamic cleric, this time from the Caribbean, speaking in English. This fellow uses clever doublespeak to not only use the lecture about ‘Ghazwa-e-Hind’ to spread hatred against Hindus, but also against Jews and Israel while provoking Pakistan Army to be even more radical and anti-India than they already are, taunting them to go further.

Sayings of Prophet Muhammad regarding Ghazwa-e-Hind in English

There are five reported sayings (Ahadees) attributed to Prophet Muhammad with regard to India and the war Ghazwa-e-Hind that shall take place before the end of times. Click on here to read them in English..

Why does Pakistan Seek a War with India? It’s Ghazwa-e-Hind, stupid

Indian politicians and academics as well as men and women of the military have remained confounded at what they see as the irrational urge among Pakistan’s Military-Mullah Establishment to provoke a war with India despite repeated defeats in 1947-48, 1965, 1971, and 1999.

The answer may be in this 2011 lecture by a prominent Islamic cleric and former banker Irfan-ul-Haq as he explains the genesis of Pakistan being the prophesied defeat of India and Hinduism at the hands of Pakistan in what is known in the Hadith (Hadees) literature as the ‘Ghazwa-e-Hind’ or the Prophet’s War on India.

The cleric tells his enthralled audience that Pakistan came about for the sole purpose of being the springboard of the end-of-times ‘Ghazwa-e-Hind’ when Pakistan’s military and people will swarm India and wipe out once and for all the practice of Hinduism from the face of earth.

He says, only then will the armies of Islam march to meet the reincarnation of Jesus Christ in Syria from where Europe will be conquered and once that is done, human civilization will end on the prophesized day of Qayamat (Qayama in Arabic, the end of times.

WARNING: Graphic Video – Obama’s ‘coalition partner’ Saudi Arabia beheads people in public spectacle

While America expresses outrage at beheadings by ISIS, it has no problem if such beheadings are carried out in public by its trusted ally, Saudi Arabia. Just today Saudi Arabia beheaded dozens of its citizens and political dissidents, including the prominent Shia democracy activist Nimr al-Nimr.

In fact, ‘beheading’ is a noble profession for the chosen few in Saudi Arabia and are conducted as a public spectacle after Friday congregations.

Here is an passerby’s amateur footage of earlier beheadings in quick succession as the crowd bellowed out ‘Allah O Akbar’

Watch at your own risk.

http://tarekfatah.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/WARNING-18_Public-Beheading-in-Saudi-Arabia-Saudi-ArabiaISIS.mp4

Did Saudi-born Nabil Huruy of Toronto kill Canadian Forces reservist Dominic Parker in the name of Allah? Do we want to know?

“As 2015 draws to a close, the number of terrorist killings this year has reached 378, meaning there was an average of just over one terrorist attack every day. Hundreds have died across the globe and invariably the killers are Muslim, claiming to kill in the name of Islam, to obtain the pleasure of Allah. Was Saudi-born Nabil Huruy one of the many killers motivated by a jihadi understanding of Islam? We will never know. Perhaps we don’t want to.“

December 30, 2015

Tarek Fatah

It was early morning on the anniversary of 9/11 on September 11, 2013 when Toronto Police Constable Alexi Prodanos, working the midnight shift, got a call at 6:00 a.m. about a ‘break and entry’ at the Islamic Foundation of Toronto, popularly known as the Nugget Mosque in Scarborough.

Const. Prodanos arrived on the scene, and spoke to the caretaker. He points to a young man walking away on Nugget Ave. carrying some bags. The police officer detained the suspect.

He is 23-year-old Nabil Huruy, who two days later will commit a horrific murder —repeatedly stabbing in the face and head with a kitchen knife Dominic Parker, a Markham firefighter who also served with the 48th Highlanders, a reserve unit of the Canadian military in Toronto.

Const. Prodoanos confiscated the clothing and pair of shoes that Huruy said he took from the donation box in the mosque, and releases him with a warning not to trespass.

Later, at the preliminary hearing on a first-degree murder charge, Const. Prodanos would testify that when he detained Huruy, the young man started “talking about Allah, etc.”

The mosque incident is not Huruy’s only contact with police on that 9/11 anniversary.

At 3:07 p.m., OPP Const. Brian Bailey receives a radio call saying somebody is standing on the Morningside Bridge overlooking Highway 401. Bailey spots Huruy wearing a “metal ring” around his neck, which turns out to be from a traffic sign. Huruy tells police he “wanted a piece of the highway because it was the Highway of Heroes,” travelled by funeral convoys of Canadian Forces personnel killed fighting the Taliban in Afghanistan, from CFB Trenton to the coroner’s office in Toronto.

An ambulance takes Huruy to Centenary Hospital where he is examined briefly and released. He is never taken into custody.

Two days later, on the night of September 13, 2013, Huruy heads to Rotana Café in Toronto’s Danforth and Coxwell area where he ran into Dominic Parker playing cards with other café patrons.

Just after midnight, Huruy got up and attacked the off-duty firefighter, straddling him and stabbing him repeatedly, the final blow driving the knife blade all the way into Parker’s left jaw, between the ear and chin. Two days later Parker died in hospital and Huruy was charged with first-degree murder.

Earlier this month, Superior Court Justice Ian Nordheimer found Huruy not criminally responsible in the stabbing death of the firefighter cum reserve soldier.

In his ruling, Nordheimer said experts concluded that Huruy likely suffers from schizophrenia and did not know his actions were morally wrong.

One question left unspoken and unaddressed is the role religion might have played in the actions or schizophrenia of Nabil Huruy.

Never in the court proceedings did anybody say that the events began on the anniversary of the al-Qaida terrorist attacks against the United States. Evidence that Huruy was “talking about Allah, etc.” was never referred to again. Instead of “Highway of Heroes,” many police witnesses exclusively used the term “Highway 401.” At no point in the proceedings was Parker’s status as a reserve soldier mentioned.

As 2015 draws to a close, the number of terrorist killings this year has reached 378, meaning there was an average of just over one terrorist attack every day. Hundreds have died across the globe and invariably the killers are Muslim, claiming to kill in the name of Islam and for obtaining the pleasure of Allah.

Was Saudi-born Nabil Huruy one of the many killers motivated by a jihadi understanding of Islam? We will never know. Perhaps we don’t want to.