Many Canadian organizations, including the
Muslim Canadian Congress (MCC)--of which I'm becoming a huge fan--the Canadian Council of Hindus (CCH) and the
Canadian Jewish Congress (CJC), are asking the Canadian government to refuse entry into Canada to Shaykh Riyadh ul Haq, a British Muslim cleric, on the basis of his past inflammatory rhetoric. In past speeches, ul-Haq has promoted anti-Semitic stereotypes and stoked historical cleavages between the Islamic and Hindu faiths.
Ul Haq is scheduled to speak next week at a youth conference hosted by the
Islamic Foundation of Toronto.
In a lecture entitled "Masjid al-Aqsa and the Children of Israel", Ul-Haq claims that Jews and Christians around the world are plotting to destroy the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem to hasten the coming of the Messiah and the second coming of Christ.
Allah says in the next verse [recites Koranic verse in Arabic, then translates] when the believers saw the hordes of the kuffar [infidels] coming, this is exactly what Allah and his Rasul-allah [the prophet] promised us, Allah and Rasul-allah spoke the truth and this did not increase them in anything but submission and faith and imaan [belief]. Among the believers there are those who have proved their word and agreement with Allah and thus they have expired their lives, meaning they are martyred in the way of Allah. And the rest of the believers, they are waiting for martyrdom. They are waiting for shahada [martyrdom]. We should follow in the footsteps of the shahada. We may be under siege at the moment but have hope. Just as in the trench, surrounded by the kuffar, an army of 12,000, an unprecedented army in the Peninsula.... We may be besieged, living in a state of gloom, melancholy and despair, but we shouldn’t. Trust in Allah ... But don’t just rely on him and sit back, carrying on 9 to 5 lives in our rat race. No, but be willing to sacrifice anything that may be required of us in the way of Allah [cries of Allahu akhbar]. If we see masjid al-Aqsa liberated and we pray that we do in our lives, then hamdulillah [praise be to god] , otherwise we are willing to die in the process inshaallah [if god wills].
In a lecture entitled "The Globalized Suffering of the Muslims", Ul-Haq glorifies Jihad abroad.
The moment we say something, we are branded fanatics, terrorists, extremists, and no one dare utter the 'J' word. The 'J' word has become taboo [...] the 'J' word can never be mentioned [...] So much is happening and yet we are expected to remain silent, we cannot even say `ouf’. [...] The 'J' word is Jihad in the way of Allah subhana wa ta’alaa [Islamic praise of God]. When the Chechenians rise, when the Palestinian Muslims rise, when the Kashmirians rise, when any Muslim force rises against the oppressors, they are branded extremists and fanatics. Not only is their blood made halal [meaning, shedding their blood is permissible], but anyone who is affiliated to them in anyway, his blood is made halal [...] Allah subhana wa ta'alaa says: 'And why should you not fight in the way of Allah and in defence of those poor, weakened, oppressed men, women, and children who are calling out and pleading to Allah `Oh Allah, remove us from this city whose inhabitants and occupants are so tyrannical against us and so oppressive against us''.
In a lecture entitled 'Imaan, Islam, Ihsan, Signs before The End of Time & the Taliban', Ul-Haq argues that the world is living the end of time and that the war against global Jihad is actually a war against Islam.
This is the reality of the time before the final hour, when realities will be confused, roles will be reversed, trustworthiness and honesty will be lost, when everything will be flipped, truth will become falsehood, falsehood will become truth, war is peace, peace is war, naked aggression is self-defence. They continue to remind us that this is not a war against Islam and the Muslims and we believe them [...] In Kashmir, the Muslims are being brutally oppressed, many killed, hanged, simply because they are Muslims. But this is not a war against Islam and the Muslims as George Bush and Tony Blair are saying and George Bush and Tony Blair are honourable men. And what’s happening in Iraq, almost a million Iraqi children have died [...] but this is not a war against Islam and the Muslims because George Bush and Tony Blair say so and George Bush and Tony Blair are honourable men. And what’s happening in Afghanistan is not a war against Islam and the Muslims simply because they say so.
In the same lecture, Ul-Haq describes the Taliban as honest 'servants of Allah':
[Quoting a saying of the prophet] The honest will not be believed, but the liar will be believed and trusted [endquote]. The Taliban say that thousands of civilians have been killed. And the answer, Donald Rumsfeld, the American Secretary of Defence stands up and says: 'numbers, ridiculous numbers'. The Prime Minister tells Muslims in this country that whatever the Taliban says about casualties, etc., you should treat it with caution, you shouldn't believe what they say. Those servants of Allah are declared liars.
In another lecture entitled 'Jewish Fundamentalism and the Muslims', Ul-Haq explains the Western media sees all Muslims as fundamentalists but considers as moderates those Muslims he describes as follows:
The only Muslims who are considered moderates are those who for example, forgive me for polluting the masjid atmosphere by saying this, but those Muslims who openly advocate lesbianism, those who are publicly declared homosexuals, Muslims who don't believe in segregation - the hijab - who feel no shame bowing down and kissing the Pope's hand, those Muslims who feel absolutely no shame, or they don't see any sense of irony in the fact that they openly declare that Israel should be recognized as a Jewish state, not only should Jerusalem be handed over completely to the Jews, but even the Masjid al-Aqsa.
In his lecture 'Jewish Fundamentalism and the Muslims', Ul-Haq insists that Jews and Hindus are enemies of Islam.
The verse which I recited in the beginning is from surah al-Ma'idah most assuredly, of the whole of mankind you shall find that the most intense in their hatred towards the believers, the most intense in their hatred and enmity towards the believers al yahoud wa-al-ladhina ashraku, the Jews and the mushrikin, the idolaters. Allah subhana wa ta'alaa said it. Of the peoples of the earth, the ones that hate Muslims the most, the ones who are bitterest in their enmity towards Muslims, the most unrelenting, unforgiving, are the Jews and the mushrikin, idolaters in all their forms. And lest someone says that is provocative, or that is anti-Semitic, Allah the creator of the Semites says that.
Allah places the Yahoud [Jews] and mushrikin together. And the chief mushrikin of this day and age, the chief idolaters, are none other than the Hindus [...] many of you will recall a number of years ago Babri Masjid in Ayodhya, Northern India, was destroyed by these Hindu fanatics [...] because they claimed this masjid was built on the foundations, sorry, on the ruins of a temple. So they pulled down the masjid and they vowed to rebuild the temple. People say oh these were just a few madmen of India. Untrue. Most Hindus from this country, from England, sent golden bricks to be used as part of the reconstruction of that temple. These were not just a few madmen.
In his `Jewish Fundamentalism and the Muslims' lecture, Ul-Haq misconstrues the Judaic notion of the chosen people as Jewish supremacy and racism.
The reason for this difference in treatment of Jews and non-Jews is because the Jews believe they are a special race [...] they believe that the Jews are superior to every other race [...]
In the same lecture, Ul-Haq claims that the tenants of Judaism lead Jews to view Muslims as subhumans and deliberately kill children.
Nobody speaks about Jewish fundamentalism. In fact, fundamentalism is too soft a word. Nobody speaks of Jewish extremism. In order to understand the current crisis, and in order to fathom why soldiers armed to the teeth are shooting little children, girls and boys in the head with live ammunition, without any shame, without any loss of moral feeling, without any conscience, in order to understand this, one has to look at Jewish extremism. There is no other explanation. And then we will understand why they behave in this manner. And we're not just talking about a handful of trigger-happy soldiers, we are talking about the very foundations on which the state of Israel was formed. We are talking about the very tenants of their religion on which the whole of Jewish society, except for the few secular ones, is founded [...] it's this mentality which persists and which leads them to viewing Muslims as being subhumans, in fact as aliens.
Ul-Haq concludes this lecture imploring God that Muslims may understand and reveal the deceit of Jews.
May Allah subhana wa ta'alaa expose the Yahoud for what they truly are. May Allah give all Muslims, individuals and leaders, especially, and our governments the understanding and the sense to see through their propaganda, their lies, and deceit and to view them as they really are and thus treat them accordingly.
In his `Masjid al-Aqsa and the Children of Israel' lecture, Ul-Haq claims the Jews have monopolized everything.
They've monopolized everything: the Holocaust, God, money, interest, usury, the world economy, the media, political institutions and organizations, names, they've even monopolized the term Semitism [SIC, both `Semitism' and `anti-Semitism' are terms crafted by pseudoscientific Jew haters in the late 19th century]. The Semites are the Arabs, as well as the Israelis. But when you say Semitic, you mean just the Yahoud [Jews] [SIC, `Semitic' refers to a family of languages which include both Arabic and Hebrew]. Monopolized everything. They monopolized tyranny and oppression as well. And injustice.
In the same lecture, Ul-Haq details how the Jews allegedly monopolized the Holocaust and God and claims the Jews have exaggerated the facts and figures surrounding the genocide of European Jewry.
Bani Israil [Children of Israel] say that `we are God's chosen people'. Do you know they monopolized everything? They monopolized everything, they even monopolized the Holocaust. And, I don't need to say this, a Jewish author who is a survivor of a concentration camp in Nazi Germany who lives in America just recently published a book in which he speaks about, he bemoans, he laments the condition of his people for having commercialized and having monopolized the suffering of humanity. Because it wasn't just the Jews who died, many others died. What are the figures and the facts of the Holocaust? It's a fact that the Yahoud did not suffer as much as they claim they did. And they monopolized this so that by using the Holocaust - I mean what's happening in Palestine, isn't that a holocaust? The Holocaust is not a Jewish word. It's not a Hebrew word. The Holocaust is a word used in English as well but they monopolized it. Like everything else they monopolized and commercialized, the Holocaust. And not satisfied with that, they even monopolized Allah. How? They say, they don't call God `god'. Look into their literature, they say, God of Israel. You see that God of Israel is different to the God of the Christians and the Muslims and the rest of the world's population.
So what do YOU think, dear Kossaks: Do you think that the cleric shall be banned from speaking in Canada?
More generally, where shall we draw the line between free speech and hate speech? Shall we even be policing speeches or be absolutely liberal in this regard? Shall we censor some people on the basis of past utterances or not?