The government of Canada has been calling for greater work towards identifying the causes of extremism and radicalization in Canada. In an August 2016 statement, Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale stated that, "We need to know how to identify those who could be vulnerable to insidious influences that draw certain people — especially young people — toward extremism leading to violence."
One source of extremism is clearly in educational institutions. If the government of Canada is truly serious about attacking extremism in Canada, then having a national level investigation into educational institutions would be a good place to start.
Muslim children need to be stronger so they "won't get mixed with the moral degeneration of the Canadian community." At least this is the view of a teacher who explains why an Ottawa Islamic school uses the textbooks it does to keep Muslim youth firmly in the Sunni (Islamist) camp.[1] At York University in Toronto, the Muslim Student Association has handed out literature that says beating a wife is permissible and that some wives will enjoy the beating.[2]
These examples serve to highlight the many other instances of what is being taught in Ontario schools under current provincial Premier Kathleen Wynne and national leader Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
Lovers of Death
Young Muslims of Canada, based in Mississauga, is an offshoot of the Islamic Circle of North America (ICNA), which has offices in Canada and the USA. Its website, aimed at young Muslims, tells them that they should: "Prepare for jihad and be the lovers of death. Life itself shall come searching after you."
Advocating martyrdom is also being taught in Islamic (Islamist) schools in Ontario. School textbooks discuss the role of al-Khansaa[3], who was a contemporary of the Prophet Mohammed.[4] All four of her sons died in a battle and she is reported to have said, "Praise be to Allah who honored me with their martyrdom." Should we be teaching young Muslim girls that as mothers they should be pleased when their sons die as martyrs?
Text Books in Islamic Schools
Currently, a number of full-time Islamic day schools in the Ottawa area are using textbooks imported from the Middle East. This means that the students are exposed to a version of Islam based on the typical Sunni Wahhabist sect popular there.[5]
This type of practice does not seem to be limited to Ottawa. In Toronto, a full time Islamic day school was the subject of a 2012 hate crimes investigation by the York Regional Police. The Jaffari Mosque (Shia), which runs the East End Madrassah (Islamic religious school), was found to be using textbooks imported from Iran. The teaching material was flamboyantly misogynist and anti-Semitic. The books contrasted Islam to "the Jews and the Nazis."
The York Regional Police also found the following statement:
"Islam has allowed boys to engage in sports for one specific reason and that is to always keep them healthy and strong. But why should a Muslim be healthy and strong? Firstly, it is necessary to take care of the body because it is a gift from Allah. Secondly, so that you may physically be ready for jihad whenever the time comes for it." (Level 7 Curriculum).
The same investigation also revealed that: "Girls should stick to 'hobbies' that prepare them to become wives and mothers." (Level 7 Curriculum).
The East End Madrassah, one of three madrassahs operated by the Jaffari Mosque, founded in 1973, had more than 400 students when it was suddenly shut down in the middle of the police investigation.
A similar complaint was made about another Jaffari Mosque-operated madrassah in the fall of 2014. The York Regional Police have not yet responded to, or acted on, this complaint.
Ontario Public Schools
The Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms guarantees equality for women (Sections 15 and 28) -- provisions regularly ignored by the Toronto District School Board.
In the Valley Park Middle School, for instance, Friday Muslim prayers are being run in the school cafeteria. Boys are positioned at the front, girls at the rear; "unclean" (menstruating) girls are forced to sit outside the hall or at the very back of the room. Only boys can be prayer leaders; girls are forbidden from doing so. Forcing girls to sit at the back, denying them a leadership role and identifying them as "unclean" is a clear violation of their rights in a public, taxpayer-funded school.
This school is in the Don Valley West home district of Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne and it was the first in Ontario to allow such a practice. The Province of Ontario Ministry of Education is aware of the current situation: it was reported by the Toronto Sun, which broke the story -- subsequently followed up by the Toronto Life, the Toronto Star and others.
University Life and Beating the Wife
The Muslim Student Association, which has a number of connections to extremism, held an annual Islam Awareness week in January 2015 at York University in Toronto. During this time, its followers handed out a number of books, including Women in Islam. This book has a section on disciplining one's wife. It advises that wives should only be beaten as part of a three-stage correctional process. It also suggests that there are different kinds of women, including the quote from the book: "Submissive or subdued women. These women may even enjoy being beaten at times as a sign of love and concern."
Misogyny and Violence against Women and Girls
Dr. Iqbal Al-Nadvi, the chairman of Canadian Council of Imams, was also recently elected as the Amir (President) of the Islamic Circle of North America (ICNA). ICNA openly advocates, among other policies, that women are inferior to men and that wife-beating is permissible. It also condones holding women, under certain circumstances, as sex slaves. Above all, ICNA claims that Islam is totally incompatible with democracy. As noted, ICNA also advocates that Muslim youths in Canada should become lovers of death in the pursuit of martyrdom.
Notwithstanding its violent, misogynist and anti-democratic view, the government of Canada regularly interacts with ICNA and the Canadian Council of Imams. Canada's Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship, John McCallum, received an award for his "outstanding service" from the Canadian Council of Imams in April 2016. Patty Hajdu, the Minister for the Status of Women, is aware of this situation but has not made any public comment.
Canada's so-called feminists have, of course, also remained silent on the issue of prescribed wife-beating, inequality for women and the generally misogynistic views advanced in schools, universities and public groups such as ICNA. In certain circles, apparently, brown women's lives do not rate as highly as white women's lives. At the same time, the social justice warrior scale places Islam -- even its Islamist variety -- at the top of the protected scale. Therefore, feminists allow the advocacy of Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) and wife-beatings while refusing to condemn those who advocate it, including Canada's Minister for the Status of Women.
If Prime Minister Trudeau truly is a feminist, as he says, why are he and the third- and fourth-wave feminists not speaking out against such activities?
[1] "The Lovers of Death"? Islamist Extremism in Our Mosques, Schools and Libraries, by Saied Shoaaib and Thomas Quiggin, Second Star Publishing, Ottawa, 2016, p 13.
[2] Ibid, p 41.
[3] There are a number of interpretations and explanations of her role in history. For one, see article by Islam Web.
[4] "The Lovers of Death"?
[5] Ibid.
Albert Reingewirtz