More than 10,000 people are expected to attend the Journey of Faith Conference in Toronto on July 2, 3 and 4. That may sound benign, but that fact alone should alarm this entire country.
The conference, sold as one of the largest Islamic conferences in North America, headlines speakers with such vile and repugnant views, that to repeat them almost smacks of satire and farce.
The big draw for the event was, until earlier this week, Dr. Zakir Naik, a popular Indian Muslim televangelist, who has -- thanks largely to the alarm raised by Tarek Fatah, founder of the Muslim Canadian Congress -- been denied a visa to come to Canada.
Naik, billed as an expert on the Qur’an on the conference website, has said “every Muslim should be a terrorist,” that gays and lesbians should be sentenced to capital punishment, that a man has the right to beat his wife, though he warned his devoted followers to avoid leaving a mark or hitting her on the face, and, surprise, surprise, he says that Jews are the “staunchest enemy” of Muslims. He is, ironically and comically, the founder of Peace TV. You couldn’t make this stuff up. It’s as Orwellian as, well, Orwell’s 1984 in which the Ministry of Truth promoted slogans like: “War is Peace,” “Freedom is Slavery,” “Ignorance is Strength.”
Despite being denied a visa to Canada and being banned from Britain where he was to attend a “Peace” conference there, Naik was still listed as the headline speaker on the event website until Friday morning and he dominates the benign-looking posters covered in Barbie-doll pink splashes of colour that are apparently still hanging in Toronto subway stations.
This is how he was described on the Journey of Faith website until Friday morning: “A medical doctor by professional training, Dr. Zakir Naik is a renowed (sic) international orator on Islam and Comparative Religion. Dr. Zakir Naik clarifies Islamic viewpoints and clears misconceptions about Islam, using the Qur’an, authentic Hadith and other religious Scriptures as a basis, in conjunction with reason, logic and scientific facts.”
According to many Muslims, however, it is Naik and his ilk who reinforces misconceptions of Islamic viewpoints.
The website continues: “He is 43 years old, (though on a different part of the website it says he was born in Mumbai in 1965.)”
The conference organizers sought out Naik because he’s considered an expert on the Qur’an and that’s the theme for this year’s event -- “The Holy Qur’an.”
“We sincerely hope that thousands of Muslims from Canada and the U.S. would attend the event in an attempt to renew their forgotten relationship with the Divine Manual,” states the website. Dr. Naik was to help attendees attain that renewal apparently by telling them that they should all be terrorists.
Now, however, that the jig is up and his livelihood -- so reliant on the wilful blindness of the tolerant West -- is being jeopardized, Naik is saying his comments about terrorism were taken out of context. You be the judge. Here are Naik’s exact words from a 2007 video: “But if you ask my view, if given the truth, if he (Osama bin Laden) is fighting the enemies of Islam, I am for him. If he is terrorizing the terrorists, if he is terrorizing America the terrorist, the biggest terrorist, I am with him. Every Muslim should be a terrorist.”
There is no way that comment can be taken out of context. He is saying that anyone who commits mass murder on the United States -- as Osama bin Laden takes credit for doing on Sept. 11, 2001 -- he is someone to support, admire and emulate.
So, naturally, it’s a huge relief that Naik isn’t allowed into the country, right? Not at all, says Tarek Fatah, founder of the Muslim Canadian Congress, which fights Islamism. The other lecturers slated to speak -- while not as high profile -- are a pretty scary bunch as well, with no less repugnant views about homosexuals (they should be killed), Jews (they are “filth” and should “go to Hell,”) and Americans (they are terrorists).
“Every participant in the event is guilty of endorsing gay-bashing, Jew-hatred and the second-class status of women,” explained Fatah on Friday. “These young men and women may not be the infantry of the worldwide Islamist jihad against humanity, but they are certainly its cheerleaders and are playing the role of termites undermining the foundations of Western civilization.”
Saying repugnant things is -- and must be -- allowed in Canada. However, urging people to break the law by beating their wives, becoming terrorists and advocating the killing of gays and lesbians are not acceptable forms of speech. It’s one thing to say, “I hate (fill in the blank),” and quite another to urge people to kill them.
And so it was right to deny Naik entry to Canada, but much of the rest of the show will go on. The only thing that could stop it is if no one showed up. If many people do, then the conference slogan, “Peace: the solution for humanity,” is a smokescreen to attempt to keep the West blind to a dangerous ideological war that is raging before our very eyes.