As we enter a new year, politicians seem to be ready to
ratchet up their control on citizens’ thoughts. Political correctness has taken
over in our education system and now governments want to punish us for speaking
out. What are the dangers of legislation concerning Islamophobia?
In many industrialized world, there seems to be a reaction
to governments’ bad policies regarding the influx of immigrants from Islamic
countries as a result of increasing terrorists attacks, citizens are expressing
their feelings about Islam. However governments are imposing laws that protects
free speech against Islam, but not against any other religion. The meme of “Islamophobia” is now used
to muzzle citizens’ angst and fears.
The late Christopher Hitchens said that Islamophobia –
"A word created by fascists and used by cowards to manipulate
morons." Well it seems that the Trudeau government has chosen the path of
using the word to manipulate public discourse and garner votes by controlling
speech. Furthermore his actions since becoming Prime Minister have shown a
complete lack of distinction between photo-ops and policy making. It is said
that one may be guilty by association. Well Trudeau’s association with certain
groups and more importantly his public pronouncements, or lack of it, about
terrorism clearly shows a bias.
From an unbiased point of view, I would agree that singling
out Muslims as a violent monolith, would be very wrong, but ignoring that the
majority of terrorism acts have been perpetrated by people either of the
Islamic faith or affiliated to an Islamic Jihadist group would be very
dangerous.
What is truly disturbing is that many governments are now
influencing the media in their reporting of terrorism. In Canada as in other
countries the media and governments take a long time to declare an incident as
an act of terrorism, even when it is clear that it is perpetrated by a
Jihadists shouting ‘Allahu Akbar”. Recently in Edmonton a truck was used to
plough into a crowd as the driver proclaim his faith, but to date the crime has
yet to be labelled an act of terrorism.
Our Prime Minister mistakenly takes every opportunity to
show his policy of ‘inclusiveness, and diversity by associating himself with
causes and persons of dubious affiliations. To ensure that his message gets
across he encourages laws to be passed in Parliament to either control speech
or even punish speech against Islamic terrorism.
Trudeau’s silence on the protest in Iran is further proof of
his political position. It seems that he is following a script used by Obama
during his presidency. Play along to be loved by everybody, and yet ignore the
risks posed by Islamic terrorism. What is interesting is that in Canada we are
using laws to protect the use of the Niqab, and Burka, while today the women of
Iran are removing their Hijab in protest against a regime that oppresses them
through laws that imposes what they can wear.
In recent past, Trudeau has met publicly with the returning
family of Joshua Boyle, who is now been
charged with criminal offences. Boyle is
the man who converted to Islam married and
then divorced Zaynab Khadr, who
once lived in Osama bin Laden’s compound in Afghanistan. Zaynab Khadr is the
sister of the convicted terrorist Omar Khadr .What is being ignored is that
Boyle decided to take his wife to Afghanistan and was captured by the Haqqani
network, who according to his statements had offered him to join them. His whole story of abduction and torture, is
still debatable, or are yet to be confirmed. The question is why Trudeau would
decide to make his meeting with the family so public?. Why would his government
agree to give $10.5 million to Omar Khadr and considering similar legal cases
by former terrorists to get compensations?
Sam Harris said: “There is no such thing as Islamophobia. his
is a term of propaganda designed to protect Islam from the forces of secularism
by conflating all criticism of it with racism and xenophobia.” If Harris is correct, should we not be worried
that our Canadian free speech rights are being infringed for political reasons?
.
What worries me is that governments may use their powers to
muzzle ordinary citizens from expressing their concerns about a religious
threat of terrorism. I have many friends of the Islamic faith, I know that they
are not terrorists, but I must also acknowledge that given past terrorist acts that
there is a certain element emanating from that faith that threatens us. Does
that mean that as a writer and member of the public, I will be under the
scrutiny of my government and perhaps charged with a hate crime for expressing
my opinion? Has Canada under the Trudeau government reached a point where
censorship has reached Stalinist proportions? Is it time to question the
actions of the Prime Minister or is it too late?
