Two terror trials unfolding on Canadian soil should cause enough concern over the spread of radical Islam in Canada.
Both Chiheb Esseghaier and Dr. Khurram Sher, the pathologist and former Canadian Idol contestant, have openly ranted against Canada.
But there’s also another more insidious form of Islamism at play in Canadian universities and public institutions that some of us may shrug off as innocuous.
The University of Calgary is hosting a conference Saturday where Memphis imam and one-time Holocaust denier Yasir Qadhi will speak.
Imam Qadhi lectures at Rhodes College in the Department of Religious Studies. In the past, he argued Jews are not “semites” but “European” from “Russia.” He also encouraged his audiences to read The Hoax of the Holocaust and called the Holocaust false propaganda.
He later retracted and apologized for these statements, arguing one must distinguish between the actions of the Israeli state and the Jews as a people, but some statements should set off alarm bells even after retraction.
Qadhi will speak on the subject of “Better Your Bitter Half”. A press release advertising the speech from Muslims of Calgary says he will outline “psychological” differences between men and women which will be useful in “elevating” existing spousal relationships and entering new ones with “the right mindset”, presumably after blessed enlightenment from the imam.
Here in Ontario, another university funded by tax dollars is refusing to allow Moray Watson, a non-Muslim, to audit a course on Islamic preaching, public speaking and worship. The course at Huron College was designed by Ingrid Mattson, a Canadian convert to Islam who used to head the Islamic Society of North America.
She is considered the face of Muslim enlightenment and even feminism.
Having paid at least lip service to women’s greater role in public life, she has also advocated and engaged in interfaith dialogue.
Her stance in disallowing a non-Muslim student to audit the Islamic course is hence all the more concerning. It calls into question her sincerity as a votary of interfaith harmony.
Indeed, as chair of Islamic Studies at Huron, she should have insisted on allowing Watson to audit the course.
Universities have the right to determine their own prerequisites, but they must be truly academic and not discriminate based on religion.
Is it possible Prof. Mattson fears Watson’s criticism of Islam will undermine the course’s stated objective of training Muslim men and women to proselytize?
In other examples, university officials, public servants and other public agencies have capitulated to Islamist doggedness and religious zeal.
They try hard to project their tolerance of an exotic religious and cultural perspective. The unsavoury effect of this perseverance is that the Islamists usually win, sometimes by default, because no one dares challenge their agenda.
None of the arguments offered by Huron College in defence of its decision cut any ice.
If Watson wishes to enrol in any publicly-funded university course, including one entitled The Muslim Voice: Islamic Preaching, Public Speaking and Worship, he should be able to do so.
It’s a separate debate whether publicly-funded universities should even offer courses only available to members of one religious faith.
Canada is becoming a venue for Islamist inroads into public institutions.
Islamists would love to undo the strides we have made toward liberty and egalitarianism, and they seek out every chance to advance their obscurantist views and elitist ideas.
Canada must thank people like Watson for challenging this agenda. Universities need more people like him.