Posted on 01/07/2004 7:04:04 PM PST by PokeyJoe
VANCOUVER - Copies of a B.C. Muslim newspaper have been turned over to the province's hate crimes unit after the newspaper published an article accusing "the Jews" of everything from faking the Holocaust to staging the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
The Canadian Jewish Congress made a complaint seeking a criminal investigation into what it called "a virulently anti-Semitic article" published in The Miracle, a weekly newspaper distributed in Lower Mainland mosques. The edition featuring the page-long list of misdeeds it claims were committed by Jews also includes a column by Liberal Senator Mobina Jaffer and an advertisement by local Liberal MP Joe Peschisolido.
"It isn't Arabs lying about and guilt-tripping us with 'the Holocaust' -- it is Jews," the article reads. "It wasn't Arabs who caused the Great Depression -- it was Jews. It wasn't Arabs who started WWI [the First World War] -- it was Jews. It wasn't Arabs who started WWII [the Second World War] -- it was Jews."
The Dec. 19 article, by Idaho resident Edgar Steele blames Jews for 81 other items, ranging from pedophilia and organized crime to "race-mixing," militant feminism and "forcing us to allow homosexuals to lead Boy Scout troops."
The congress said the Southern Poverty Law Centre, a respected U.S. civil rights organization that tracks hate groups and fights them in the courts, identified Steele in its fall 2003 Intelligence Report, as an anti-Semite and anti-black racist, including him in a list of top-40 extremists "to watch."
Jewish congress president Keith Landy said: "It is appalling to see that a Canadian newspaper would even consider printing an article by Mr. Steele whose earlier works include In Defence of Racism, a venomous piece on the purported intellectual inferiority of black people and their 'propensity for violence and primal satisfaction,' and It's the Jews, Stupid, a particularly noxious treatise blaming the Jews for all things nefarious past, present and future."
The Miracle, published in Delta, has a circulation of about 2,500. Its editorial page claims it is dedicated to "Islamic brotherhood" and bringing "harmony amongst all Muslim and other communities."
The paper also includes a disclaimer that "articles do not necessarily reflect the views and opinions of The Miracle."
Chief editor Nusrat Hussain said he had no regrets about publishing the article.
"We try to keep freedom of speech and not necessarily that we agree with the article and that is what Canada is about," he said.
"We certainly did not publish it with intentions of hate crime. But if [the Jewish congress] considers it that, then of course it is their right to think that way."
Hussain said the newspaper published the article because the editors found it "interesting."
The latest edition claims the capture of Saddam Hussein was a hoax.
"We are truly disgusted to see this racist trash appearing in a local newspaper that claims to cater to a particular faith community," said Nisson Goldman, Pacific regional chair of the Jewish congress. "This article trots out all of the typical anti-Semitic lies familiar to Nazis and white supremacists and invents a few more."
The B.C. hate crime team operates within the solicitor-general's ministry. The ministry Web site says the role of the team is to coordinate hate- and bias-related investigations by working with local police, sharing experiences and information, and communicating results from the centrally maintained data base.
The team includes representatives from the RCMP, municipal police departments, the ministry of public safety and solicitor-general and other agencies.
In addition, there are full-time police officers, a community coordinator and support staff.
It has a mandate to maintain a system for tracking and analysis of data on hate-related offences, including hate propaganda and offences which include hate as a motivating factor.
| Rank | Location | Receipts | Donors/Avg | Freepers/Avg | Monthlies | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 14 | Washington | 495.00 |
22 |
22.50 |
461 |
1.07 |
285.00 |
17 |
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Remember, the Canadians are close to finding Biblical verses they don't agree with to also be a hate crime. This newspaper should be exposed but not censored.
LOL! What's even funnier is that if you put that screed next to a genuine white-supremacy/Holocaust-denial essay, you'd be hard-pressed to tell which was real and which was the parody.
My post wasn't intended to suggest that. The reference to darker skinned persons was intended to make fun of the inability of the left to see that 'people of color' can be rascists and hateful, just like those bad ol' white folks.
BC, (british columbia for those of you in british columbia), is next to the BEAGLE for communication!
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