To: Leona.Alleslev@parl.gc.ca, Bill.Blair@parl.gc.ca, Stephen.Fuhr@parl.gc.ca, marc.garneau@parl.gc.ca, kevin.lamoureux@parl.gc.ca, andrew.leslie@parl.gc.ca, Karen.McCrimmon@parl.gc.ca, robert.falcon@parl.gc.ca, michel.picard@parl.gc.ca, Yves.Robillard@parl.gc.ca, Dan.Ruimy@parl.gc.ca, Harjit.Sajjan@parl.gc.ca

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Dear Sir or Madame,

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First off, thank you very much for your service as a Member of Parliament. I note that it is not your first venture into national service as you have also distinguished yourself in a uniformed capacity with a Canadian security force. Your sense of duty and selflessness is quite apparent and has been of great service to Canada.

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As a true patriot, I know that you care deeply about the nation, its security and the protection of the rights and freedoms that it affords all Canadians. Given these demonstrated facts, your Party’s stubborn support for the use of the term “Islamophobia” as a recognized ground of discrimination and as a central theme in establishing a special day of “remembrance and action” must give you pause. After all, this stance flies in the face of the deep concern that everyday Canadians have expressed through letters and protests and your commitment to serve these same citizens. A commitment that has characterized the whole of your working life.

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There can be little doubt that the concerns of Canadian citizens over the “Islamophobia” narrative are justified. They are corroborated by testimony submitted by a wide variety of experts to the Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage as part of the Motion M-103 study process. These witnesses included:

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• Tarek Fatah who was emphatic in stating that the acceptance of Islamophobia as a form of religious discrimination was akin to denying Canadian Muslims the right to defend themselves from the religious bigots he called ‘the mullahs’”;

• Yasmine Mohammed, the former wife of an al Qaeda operative, who asserted that the term Islamophobia is about protecting the religion of Islam rather than those who practise it;

• Farzana Hassan, Author and Columnist, who stated that the term Islamophobia was part and parcel of a Muslim narrative controlled by fundamentalist voices seeking special accommodation for the religion of Islam and "political Islam"; and

• Dr. Zuhdi Jasser, founder of the American Islamic Forum for Democracy, who expressed the opinion that Islamic regimes and Islamist organizations use “Islamophobia” as a weapon to restrict free speech.

 

In addition, these concerns have been manifested in the European context where the fight against “Islamophobia” has been raging since its inception in the mid 1990’s. In Sweden, senior citizens are being charged criminally with “hate speech” for commenting on migrant lawlessness. In Britain, “Asian” rape gangs in Rotherham and Telford escape scrutiny from police forces that are afraid of being labelled Islamophobic and racist. In Germany, photojournalists are charged and jailed for six months for simply publishing a photograph depicting a WWII Nazi official with the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem. Is there really any reason to believe that the introduction of “Islamophobia” into the Canadian human rights lexicon will not result in the same curtailment of Canadian free speech rights?

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I implore you to consider distancing yourself from your Party’s position on the dangerous Islamophobia narrative. You can affect this distance by voting against the Heritage Committee recommendation to institute a “National Day of Remembrance and Action Against Islamophobia”. This recommendation is before the government now and rejecting it will benefit fundamental Canadian rights and the best interests of your constituents - even as you remain faithful to your own creed of humble servant-leadership.

 

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