CAIRO – The citations of the Oslo terrorist Anders Behring Breivik's 1500-page Manifesto include the writings of well-known anti-Muslim personalities like Robert Spencer, Pamela Geller, Daniel Pipes, Walid Shoebat and Mark Steyn. Steyn is the author of ‘The Future Belongs to Islam' (Maclean's Magazine - October 23, 2006). In his article, Steyn feeds anti-Muslim world view by asserting: a. Muslims living in the West share the basic goals and objectives of terrorists: they wish to impose an oppressive branch of Shariah Law on Western societies. b. Muslims are multiplying too quickly in Europe and North America. In particular, the number of Muslims is “expanding like mosquitoes”. c. Muslims, due to their inability to be loyal citizens of Western societies, are likely to join the global “jihad”, being waged by Muslims against the West. d. The growing Muslim population in the West poses an increasing threat to national security. e. Due to multiculturalism, Muslims have far too much freedom of movement in Western societies. f. Muslims are attempting to colonise the West in a manner similar to that in which the “white man” colonised “Indian territory”. g. Muslims are willing to wage a “bloody” civil war in Europe. h. Non-Muslim, Belgian kids have no future in their country due to the presence of Muslims. Following the publication of “The Future Belongs to Islam,” Dr Mohamed Elmasry, founding president of The Canadian Islamic Congress filed a complaint with Canada's Human Rights Tribunal saying: “In general, we regard this article to be flagrantly anti-Muslim. Adopting a fear mongering tone, the article focuses on the influx of Muslim immigrants into Europe and North America. Its thesis is that this influx poses a threat to the fabric of Western society, to democracy, and to human rights due to the religious identity and beliefs of Muslims in general. Another significant theme contained in the article is that there is allegedly an ongoing war between Muslims and Non-Muslims, that Muslims are part of a global conspiracy to take over Western societies, and that Muslims living in the West need to be viewed through this lens as the enemy. Finally, other all-encompassing and negative generalisations are made about the Muslim population in the West.” Dr Elmasry and CIC soon found themselves attacked in the Canadian media by other anti-Muslim writers in defence of Steyn and Maclean's. Few examples: Andrew Coyne, Maclean's National Editor, states the following in Maclean's (“Got a complaint? Call 1-800-Human-Rights”, December 5, 2007): It is for this sort of exquisite sensitivity that the CIC is justly famed in newsrooms across the land. Reporters and columnists have grown used to being accused by the CIC of anti-Muslim bias on even flimsier grounds than I was. And not only reporters. The well-known spokesman for a rival Muslim organisation, the Muslim Canadian Congress, resigned his post last year after the president of the CIC, Mohamed Elmasry, accused him publicly of “smearing Islam”—a charge, essentially of apostasy, that left him fearing for his safety. To most of us, however, the CIC has seemed little more than a nuisance. Margaret Wente wrote (“So whose fuelling the prejudice?” The Globe and Mail): For grievance-mongers such as these, no insult is too small to whip up into a hate crime. This week's example is supplied by the Canadian Islamic Congress, a grandly named lobby group that, for all I know, consists of six people and a website. They're mad about a Mark Steyn piece called “The Future Belongs to Islam” that ran a year ago in Maclean's. This week, they launched a bunch of human-rights complaints against the magazine for promoting hatred against Muslims. Curiously, the four complainants in the case are all law students or graduates from York University's Osgoode Hall. You might think that law students, of all people, would be very big on stuff like civil liberties, tolerance and free speech. I guess not. The CIC has lots to say about Islamophobia in Canada, but not a word to say about rape victims being flogged in Saudi Arabia or teddy bear demonstrations in Sudan. Plenty of Muslims wish it would just shut up, and for good reason. If the CIC wants to know who's fuelling prejudice against Muslims, maybe it should look in the mirror. And Ezra Levant wrote (“Censorship In The Name Of 'Human Rights'”, The National Post, December 18, 2007): It's odd: Mohamed Elmasry, an apologist for Islamo-fascism, using the same tools as an "anti-racist" leftist like Richard Warman. At first glance, they may seem like opposites, but they're actually identical: Both are illiberal censors who have found a quirk in our legal system, and are using it to undermine our Western traditions of freedom. Steyn's full article can still be a good reference for all the anti-Muslim hatred and can be accessed on the Maclean's website at: http://www.macleans.ca/article.jsp? El Masry is professor emeritus of comuter engineering Univieristy of Waterloo. He can be reached at elmasry @thecandadiancharger.com
