Islamophobia-phobia Grips Canadian Media

Imagine you attend church one Sunday morning and in the sermon  a guest priest unleashes a blistering attack on Muslims.

“kill them one by one” and “make their children orphans and their women widows.”

I can imagine certain congregants placing their hands over their children's ears and many others rushing the exits. More importantly I imagine the furious reaction of the congregants who didn't come to church to hear that type of hate speech.
And I doubt seriously that a video of the sermon would survive two years online without someone raising a red flag.
I've no doubt that it wouldn't take more than a day for someone to complain to police about the hate-tirade and I can imagine the haste with which the police would react.
After all, in today's Canada, Islamophobia is more important than antisemitism or Christophobia, our Prime Minister and his Parliament tells us so.

You all know that I'm alluding to the imam who preached just such hate against Jews in a Montreal mosque without any of the congregants or mosque officials breathing a word of reproach.
In fact mosque officials tried to spin the speech, telling reporters that the call to 'kill Jews' was taken out of context. Out of context...Really???
And that is a direct knock on the Muslim community in general who tell us that radical elements among them enjoy no popular support.

How on Earth did nobody in the Muslim congregation denounce and report the flagrant antisemitic screed to the police and how is it that a Jewish watchdog group was the only entity that raised an alarm.
An isolated incident? I think not.
In Toronto 's Masjid Toronto mosque another sermon prayed to Allah for;

"[O Allah!] Give us victory over the disbelieving people… O Allah! Give victory to Islam and raise the standing the Muslims. And humiliate the polytheism and polytheists.

....O Allah! Purify Al-Aqsa Mosque from the filth of the Jews!

It went on and on ..... Link  
None of the faithful attending that service deemed the sermon offensive enough to report any of it to the police.
That particular sermon happened in 2016 and was not reported until 2017, again by another Jewish watchdog group. Only then did the mosque apologize, something the Montreal mosque never did..... I suppose that's progress.

Now readers, when in your lifetime did you hear of a Christian preacher in Canada offer a sermon from the pulpit extolling God or congregants to kill Jews or Muslims. For that matter In which Canadian synagogue did a Rabbi call for the deaths of Muslims?
Are the two above mentioned incidents an aberration or are other similar incidents occurring in Canadian mosques? It certainly begs the question and we cannot be branded anti-Muslim for asking.
 The mantra of Prime Minister Trudeau is that Islam is a peaceful and benevolent religion where the extremists within who preach and conduct violence are an insignificant minority enjoying no support in the overall Canadian Muslim community. 
The underlying message of the Parliamentary motion condemning Islamophobia is that anyone who doesn't agree with that gentle interpretation and who question any aspect of Islam's violent, antisemitic, homophobic and misogynistic aspects is racist.
It is a dangerous, naive and patently false interpretation of reality, foisted upon the Canadian public by apologists who see the world as they would like it to be, rather than what it is in reality.

“Needless to say, there are people who hate Arabs, Somalis, and other immigrants from predominantly Muslim societies for racist reasons. But if you can’t distinguish that sort of blind bigotry from a hatred and concern for dangerous, divisive, and irrational ideas — like a belief in martyrdom, or a notion of male ‘honor’ that entails the virtual enslavement of women and girls — you are doing real harm to our public conversation. Everything I have ever said about Islam refers to the content and consequences of its doctrine. And, again, I have always emphasized that its primary victims are innocent Muslims — especially women and girls. ”  - Sam Harris

Richard Martineau is a columnist for the Journal de Montreal who writes extensively on organized religion and who is without a doubt, not a fan.
He is an equal opportunity disparager, taking aim at Judaism, Christianity and Islam. His columns offer the opinion of an atheist who sees all manner of organized religion as a negative force in society. Fair enough.
He generally points out the absurdities and excesses that he sees in religion, but cannot in any way be considered a racist, unless you consider someone to be a racist because he thinks religion is bad.
But for a doctoral student at UQAM (where else) Martineau by his many criticisms of Islam contributes to Islamophobia in Quebec. The insignificant and patently stupid essay was given exposure by none other than Radio-Canada who embraces the notion that any discussion or criticism of Islam is Islamophobia. And so ultra-Liberals rush to condemn any discussion of Islam as Islamophobic, with the very real effect of sending a chill in the mainstream media so fearful of being branded Islamophobic that it is intimidated into silence.
The effect is called Islamophobia-phobia.

“For decades, Muslims around the world have rightly complained about the Israeli government labeling even legitimate criticism of its policies "anti-Semitic," effectively shielding itself from accountability. Today, Muslim organizations like CAIR (Council on American-Islamic Relations) have borrowed a page from their playbook with the "Islamophobia" label — and taken it even further.
In addition to calling out prejudice against Muslims (a people), the term "Islamophobia" seeks to shield Islam itself (an ideology) from criticism. It's as if every time you said smoking was a filthy habit, you were perceived to be calling all smokers filthy people.

The phobia of being called "Islamophobic" is on the rise — and it's becoming much more rampant, powerful, and dangerous than Islamophobia itself.” Link

So deep is this chill in the Canadian mainstream media that the reporting of the arrest of a suspect in the bomb threat against Muslims in Montreal was completely tainted.

Not one mainstream media outlet including the CBC, CTV, Global, national newspapers mentioned the very pertinent fact that the hoaxer in the Montreal bomb hoax targeting Muslims, was an Arab and very likely a Muslim himself.
I reached out to an editor and asked why he didn't feel it germane to the story and he told me that there was not 100% confirmation that the hoaxer was indeed Muslim.
Really??? Let me see.
An Arab from Lebanon with the very Muslim given name of Hisham.

Hisham is an indirect Quranic name for boys that means “noble”, “gracious”, “honorable”. It is a Sahabi name. It is derived from the H26-Sh-M (to break something, to be humble) root which is used in a number of places in the Quran.  Link

If a bearded and kippah wearing Israeli civilian named Moishe Klein  shot up a mosque, near an Israel settlement, I think the media would have no problem identifying him as a Jew.

The fact that the hoaxer is an Arab and most likely a Muslim is central to the debate over the incident. Too many apologists were jumping to the conclusion that it was the evil islamophobic Quebec society responsible for the threat.
Is Hisham Saadi an Arab (likely a Muslim) with a particular and personal hatred of Muslims?
Is he just a nutcase or mentally ill?
Did he make the hoax as a false flag in order to bolster the notion that Muslims are innocent victims of a hostile Quebec society?
Our media is too intimidated to ask any of these questions.
There are other questions that the media won't address, the publication ban over court proceedings is one of them. Are there other factors, like security concerns because others are  involved or is the court itself suffering from Islamophobia-phobia and fearful of stirring the pot?

The bomb threat letter sent to the media was so well written that it begs the question as to whether a non-native English speaker could have written it alone. If in fact Hisham Saadi did write the letter himself it shows an extreme high level of intelligence. Read the letter

And so, many, many question surround this affair, but because of the journalistic chill engendered by Islamophobia charges, our media is too frightened to report on it.

Gutless reporting. Thank you Prime Minister Trudeau for frightening the media into silence.
Shame, Shame,  Shame ....

There is a difference between hating all Muslims and debating the very possible threat that radical Islam represents to Canada and the world.
Canadians know the difference and I imagine that while most of us are concerned with the threat to our society, only a tiny minority of us hate Muslims for being Muslims.

Islamophobia-phobia is more dangerous than Islamophobia.