Posted on 04/19/2007 6:56:52 PM PDT by Clive
TORONTO (CP) — A Muslim journalist beaten with a cricket bat outside a Toronto-area home fears for his life after facing repeated death threats apparently because someone has deemed his writing to be anti-Islam.
Jawaad Faizi, a columnist for the weekly Urdu-language Pakistan Post based in New York, suffered cuts and bruises in the attack, which has alarmed his wife and three children and drew the condemnation Thursday of free-press advocates.
“I’m really very, very scared,” Faizi said in an interview on Thursday.
“I’m scared especially for my kids.”
The Pakistan Post, North America’s largest Urdu-language newspaper with an office in Mississauga, Ont., is published in Toronto, Montreal and Calgary as well as in 16 major American centres.
Faizi, 35, said the threats began after he wrote in January about a lecture at a Toronto-area mosque given by a Pakistani cleric, Muhammad Tahir Ul Qadri, leader of the international Islamic-based organization, Minhaj ul Quran.
Two weeks ago, Faizi wrote a critical column based on news reports from Pakistan about charismatic claims made by Ul Qadri, who often visits Canada, that he had inscribed the name of the prophet on the moon.
That sparked further telephone threats accusing him of apostasy, prompting Faizi and Post editor Amir Arain to complain on Monday to police, who advised them to be careful.
On Tuesday, just as he arrived at Arain’s Mississauga, Ont., home, Faizi said two men attacked the vehicle. They smashed the windshield and windows, leaving him with cuts and bruises on his head and arm. They fled when he dialled 911 on his cellphone.
“It was very shocking to me,” Faizi said. “They were saying so many bad things to me in Urdu and Punjabi.”
Canadian Journalists for Free Expression expressed dismay at the attack and called on police to take the incident seriously.
“That this attack happened here in Canada is of great concern to us,” said Anne Game, the group’s executive director.
A spokeswoman for Peel region police said the criminal investigation bureau was indeed investigating.
Just last month, Secretary of State for Multiculturalism Jason Kenney said he was deeply disturbed by a threat to “slaughter” two members of the moderate Muslim Canadian Congress for “smearing Islam.”
Congress founder Tarek Fatah, a target of the death threats, said Thursday that such intimidation is common in places like Pakistan or Egypt.
“For it to be rearing its head in Canada is very, very scary,” Fatah said.
Faizi, who was a well known investigative journalist in Pakistan, and his wife Ayesha Jawaad, 30, fled the country for Canada in 2002, where they sought political asylum.
Now, they said, they have no idea where to go to be safe.
“We thought that we were safe now, but I don’t think that any more,” said Jawaad, adding her writer father was murdered in Pakistan by extremist Muslims five years ago.
“I’m really scared. I’m feeling lost. I don’t know what I’m going to do and what’s going to happen in the coming days.”
Faizi, who works part-time at a dry-cleaning plant, said he’s afraid to go to work.
Also, the family’s two boys, aged 10 and five, and four-year-old daughter are staying home from school at the urging of the vice-principal.
“She advised me it would be safer for them to keep them at home,” said Jawaad.
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Cricket bat? No hockey stick? No curling iron?
“For it to be rearing its head in Canada is very, very scary,” Fatah said.
But very familiar.
Uhhhh? Anyplace with no towelheads... That crap would never fly in Alabama!
I guess we should be thankful that Muslims are vehemently averse to drinking alcohol.
C’mon folks, get with the program.
In 1914, the French were considered a militant nation. Not in 1920. In 1939, the Germans were considered a militant nation. Not in 1947.
The only thing these militants will ever understand or respect is the naked display of greater might directed at them. Smash their mud hut cities into rubble. Destroy everything of value to them. Lay waste to their lands.
They might still be militant, but they will fear us more. Either that or go down to the mosque and start kissing carpet. The choice is pretty simple.
Now, they said, they have no idea where to go to be safe.
In a way this is like the problem of trying to move "ghetto people" to good neighborhoods. It is impossible. The definition of a "good neighborhood" is one that does not contain "ghetto people."
In the same way, how can Muzzies move to safe places, when to be safe, a place needs to be free of Muzzies...
Muslim-on-Muslim violence? Yup. That’s the religion of pieces.
Oookay, right.
I used to work with a recent Russian immigrant. One day he told me that he had got in some mild trouble because he had accidentally discharged a gun in his apartment and the bullet had gone through the wall into another apartment. He made a big point about how this could never have happened in Russia because they have more solidly built walls there.
Cricket bat culture?
He must be thinking on multiple choices of new religions to transfer to right now...
if chooses Christianity he'll be fine, even if he'll leave it later, no one will beat him nor kill somebody else because he left Christianity.
I dont have any comment for other religions.
I wonder if a throat can be slit with a cricket bat?
Now a baseball bat would be a horse of a different colour.
But then baseball is not a popular sport in Pakistan whereas cricket is. So one must make do with the tools at ones disposal.
And a cricket bat is better for hitting for a six against your opponent.
;)
But I suppose one might try pulling up a wicket and stabbing one's opponent with one of the stumps.
;)
Maybe another opening should be made on CNN...
Sayyaf beheads 6 abducted workers (More Murderous Muslim Mayhem)
Manila Times | 20 April 2007 | AFB via Manila Times
Posted on 04/19/2007 6:47:45 PM PDT by Cornpone
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1820377/posts
Hurling stick?
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