The annual Manning Centre Conference in Ottawa — Canada’s answer to CPAC — focused on free speech and “Islamophobia” Friday.
Interim Conservative Party of Canada leader Rona Ambrose began the event with a passionate pledge to “continue to fight for freedom of religion and free speech.” Ambrose had led the fight the previous week in the House of Commons to stop an “Islamophobia” motion from an Ontario Liberal Member of Parliament (MP) that could eventually criminalize criticism of Islamic extremism.
The Conservatives were the only political party to oppose Motion M-103, opting to propose their own that would not have granted special status to Islam and its adherents.
At a special session at the event, noted critic of Islamic extremism Raheel Raza, herself a Muslim, warned the audience that radical Islam is dedicated to “infiltrating and destroying” Western countries like Canada and the U.S. After reading from polling that revealed a majority of Muslim around the world are in favor of Sharia law replacing the secular criminal codes of the countries in which they live, Raza stated that radical Muslims “have an ideology that is not in-synch with human rights.”
Raza noted that she can’t remember how Canada removed the Lord’s Prayer from schools when she was a child but now in Toronto-area schools “there are Muslim prayers on Friday,” that has established an ominous double-standard.
She blasted M-103 as “akin to a blasphemy law” and ridiculed the motion’s author, MP Iqra Khalid more suggesting that one million Canadian Muslims are “victims of racism and bigotry.”
Raza asked, “Seriously?”
She suggested that Canadians are being subjected to a disinformation campaign by Muslim extremists while the Canadian government continues to “deny the existence of radical Jihad.”
The Muslim Brotherhood, she said, has publicly stated its intention of “eliminating and destroying” U.S. civilization from within.
Raza was followed by Terrorism and Security Experts Network director Thomas Quiggan, who also said the Liberal “Islamophobia” motion was a danger to free speech and democracy. Quiggan said that the motion’s author should be asked, “Is it Islamophobic to say that women might not enjoy being beaten,” after citing Muslim literature that advocated wife-beating.
Quiggan said the Quebec City mosque shooting was a “clear failure of intelligence” because the targeted congregation had received threats prior to the fatal event. With that tragedy, Quiggan said, “the cycle of violence has come to Canada” — with terrorist organizations raising money, indoctrinating agents and ultimately breeding more violence and death.
In a question and answer session, Raza contradicted one member of the audience who termed radical Islamic terror as “delicate issue,” saying, “It is an important, not a delicate issue. It has an aura of delicacy around it because of political correctness.”
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