Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper is not speaking out against an alleged anti-Muslim backlash in the wake of the recent terror attacks in that country. Considering the history of Muslims when it comes to faking hate crimes [here, and here], Harper is likely doing the right thing.
Predictably, Muslims in Canada are not happy with his silence.
Muslim groups are disappointed that Stephen Harper hasn’t spoken out against a spike in anti-Muslim hate crimes since two separate attacks by jihadist sympathizers left two Canadian soldiers dead last week.
The prime minister has not publicly uttered one word of support for Canadian Muslims following the incidents, which Harper and the RCMP have labelled acts of terrorism.
He’s remained silent despite an apparent backlash against Muslims, including the defacing of a mosque in Cold Lake, Alta., racist slurs against Muslim candidates in Toronto’s municipal election and threats against the B.C. Muslim Association.
In the latest incident, windows were smashed early Friday morning at the Assunnah Muslims Association mosque in Ottawa.
Mosque president Mohammed Mostefa believes the vandalism was “probably” in response to last week’s incidents: the hit-and-run murder of a soldier in Quebec and the killing of an honour guard at the National War Memorial by a gunman who then stormed the Parliament buildings.
In both cases, the killers were Canadians with an alleged history of drug addiction, mental illness and admiration for extremist Islamic terrorists who’ve been on a brutal rampage in Iraq and Syria.
Muslim groups have condemned the killings and the extremist beliefs which apparently motivated them. But they say their efforts to demonstrate that most Muslims do not share those beliefs and to show solidarity with non-Muslim Canadians need to be reinforced by political leaders, particularly the prime minister.
“We are trying to work together with our law enforcement and our authorities to end this what is called radicalization of youth. We are trying to do our utmost to help,” said Mostefa.
But when political leaders denounce Muslim extremists but don’t come to the defence of moderate Muslims, Mostefa said young Muslims will think: “This is my country and you don’t come to my support to stand by my side.”
Considering how Muslims have a history of defacing their own property and committing crimes against themselves to carry out a blood libel, perhaps Mr. Harper is waiting for some more facts to come in. One of the more despicable examples was in San Diego when a Muslim man murdered his wife and left a note suggesting that it had been an anti-Muslim hate crime. Potentially adding fuel to that fire was the timing of the murder. It took place at a time when the country was already engaged in the Trayvon Martin / George Zimmerman debate.
CAIR came to the man’s defense. That would be the same CAIR (which changed its name to the National Council of Canadian Muslims) that laid a wreath at the site of Canadian soldier Nathan Cirillo’s death at the hands of a Muslim terrorist.
For additional irony, in the days after the San Diego murder / blood-libel / fake hate crime, a supposed Muslim civil rights group referred to the man who murdered his wife as a family friend.
h/t BNI