Latest TweetsIn Brief
October 27th, 2004
The news keeps happening much faster than I can keep up on it. Funny how that happens, ain’t it? At any rate, until I can successfully build my time machine that will allow me to “pause live reality” and catch up while everyone else is in freeze-frame, here’s an in-brief recap:
- Sharon’s Gaza disengagement plan was approved by the Knesset after some typically-Israeli political jockeying that’s still ongoing. Netanyahu’s threatening mutiny unless Sharon agrees to hold a referendum, but so far, Sharon’s not budging. The settler fringe is of course up in arms – somewhat literally – and on the anniversary of the Rabin assassination, some can’t help but wonder if Sharon is looking over his shoulder these days. Despite being uncomfortable with the idea of the plan being perceived by the Palestinians as a reward for terrorism, and my general overall pessimism about the whole conflict, I can’t help but think that despite the mess, Sharon will land on his feet. He always does. For more, see Allison and Jonathan.
- The CJC has Issued another statement responding to the remarks by Canadian Islamic Congress leader Mohamed Elmasry that said that all adult Israelis are ‘legitimate targets’ for terrorism. The CJC statement called the CIC marginal and irrelevant, no matter whether Elmasry resigns or not. The CIC, you will recall, likes to believe it speaks for all Canadian Muslims. I personally am waiting to hear a huge outcry from Canadian Muslims who believe that this organization does not represent them. I’m still waiting. I think I’ll be waiting a while. The police, by the way, are investigating Elmasry’s remarks as a hate crime.
- Speaking of the CIC, they’re the same group that issued an election report card urging Canadian Muslims to vote for or against specific candidates (seemingly based on how pro- or anti-Israel they are). Damian points to anti-American remarks by Liberal MP Yasmin Rantisi, the first Muslim woman elected to Parliament. Something tells me the CIC would give her an “A”.
- Arafat’s ill health continues to dominate the news. My feeling is that this is an overexaggeration designed to cause panic and an outpouring of sympathy for Arafat. Meryl’s not betting on anything but she does have an interesting idea for a Magen David Adom matching fund if any Arab dictators croak. Arafat would be included in this, it seems. MDA is one of my favourite charities and the irony just seems deliciously appropriate.
- Less than a week before the US election and it’s still too close to call. I’m thinking Tuesday might be a good time to actually get some work done, since everyone will be preoccupied with voting and watching the results. Hmmmm.
- There was a lunar eclipse tonight. I didn’t get much of a view of it but I hear that people who had clear skies and lines of sight were wowed.
- Oh yeah, and the Red Sox won the World Series, breaking an 86-year “curse”.
Posted in Canada eh, Israel, Middle East, Sports, USA | 
Tags: arafat, ariel sharon, baseball, benjamin netanyahu, cjc, disengagement, gaza, magen david adom, mohamed elmasry, red sox, us election
“personally am waiting to hear a huge outcry from Canadian Muslims who believe that this organization does not represent them. I’m still waiting. I think I’ll be waiting a while”
Oh dear. Not you too Sari. Do you want personalized letters? E-mails? Perhaps individual visits?
Ikram, it’s quite simple really. There are wingnuts from every religion, ethnicity, and creed. But when the mainstream makes excuses for the wingnuts and tacitly endorses their views, instead of loudly and rapidly decrying and marginalizing them, then it is cause for concern.
There have only been a couple (literally) of Letters to the Editor from Muslims, published in the Vancouver Sun so far. To be fair, The Van. Sun may be holding them back in order to publish them all at the same time as a feature.
Of the two (that I’ve seen) the first was from an Islamic group that’s been monitoring Elmasry’s rhetoric for at least two years and had written him previously telling him to clean up his act. They are NOT supportive of his brand of Islam and are part of a larger movement of Muslims, Christians, and Jews trying to establish inter-faith links etc.
The other letter was from an Ismaili Muslim (a Vancouver Lawyer) who, very eloquently, dumped all over Elmasry and his rhetoric; no punches pulled in that last letter.
Sorry, I’m having trouble accessing my Van. Sun on-line acct. or I would post them here.
Oh yeh, NO surge of letters from our Socialist friends…
There was also an article on the Globe by Irfan Syed, and negative comments from other CIC officials, and a condmenationf from CAIR Canada. That’s just off the top of my head. Also, a few letters in the G&M and I think something from an Arab Canadian org.
Just because you haven’t been reading the relevant papers or looking for the quotes, (or even talking to people one-on-one) doesn’t mean they don’t exist.
I suppose I could collect them all for you, Sari, and put them on my blog. But (to quote Jon Stewart on crossfire) I will not be your monkey. If you really want to investigate the issue, do your own homework. But absent that, don’t use your ignorance to accuse thousands of bigotry.
The Van. Sun may be holding them back in order to publish them all at the same time as a feature.
I doubt it. This issue isn’t important enough to devote tons of newspaper space to. Submarines, Danny Williams, The Greatest Canadian, China, and other more important things will bump CIC letters. A paper will publish one or two samples, then move on. The samples you saw are all the evidence you should need.
Unless you’re reluctant to become a “Muzzie-lover”. What happened to that?
Ikram, I do my own research thank you very much. And some of the condemnations you mentioned were true, no-punches-pulled ones, but others had a “nudge nudge wink wink” tone to them, making excuses and trying to provide “context”. Excuse me but what possible “context” could possibly excuse those remarks?
For example, CAIR and the Muslim Canadian Congress both felt the need to preface their condemnations with caveats of how occupied people have the “legitimate right to resist occupation”, and neither condemned suicide bombings. Also, CAIR seemed to feel that these remarks were inappropriate because they could “hurt the interests of the Canadian Muslim Community”, and not for any real inherent problems with them.
More telling perhaps is that the CIC itself hasn’t immediately booted Elmasry out on his behind, nor have any prominent members issued dissociations with his statements.
Oh yes, I’m reluctant to become a “Muzzie-lover”. I didn’t used to be biased, but the last few year’s explosion of anti-semitic diatribes and
!)
violence have ‘lifted the scales from mine eyes’.
( The local Iranian women, on the other hand, are drop-dead gorgeous and could definitely tempt me….speaking of Muzzie-lovers. No burkhas in THAT crowd
Hyman Roth has been dying of the same heart attack for 20 years.
— The Godfather.
Please. That baseball news was more important than anything else going on right now. Congrats to the Sox and their long-suffering fans for laying the Curse of the Bambino to rest…makes the US election seem downright insignificant.
Yes, both CAIR and CIC could do better. But the number of anti-ElMAsry letters from Msulims hasn’ stopped. Another one in the G&M today — this for a week old news story!
I guess Sari, when I read your entry, I read you as saying that all Canadian Muslims are jew-haters, including me. I thought this was unfair. Did I read you wrong? OR Am I wrong that this is unfair?