Posted on 09/08/2002 6:44:47 AM PDT by Lorenb420
Don't use the term "Islamic terrorist" when talking to Mohamed Elmasry.
The head of the Canadian Islamic Congress is tired of Islam being blamed as the cause of terrorism in the Middle East.
Mohamed Elmasry, a professor of electrical and computer engineering at the University of Waterloo, said he wished the media would describe the actions of such terrorists as crimes committed by people who use Islam to justify their actions.
Elmasry complained the negative portrayal of Muslims in the media and elsewhere has helped spark some of the 200 incidents of anti-Muslim hate crimes, including death threats, recorded in Canada since Sept. 11. Elmasry said he's received hateful e-mails and voice mails.
"They say, basically, 'we are going to come and kill you bastards. Why don't you go home?' Every other word is an F-word," he said. His 23-year-old son was also harassed at work.
"Someone said: 'Watch this guy, he might have his pilot's licence,' " Elmasry said. "It affects your daily life if your security and your family are compromised."
The Canadian Islamic Congress -- an affiliation of mosques across Canada, representing about 75% of Canadian Muslims, about 650,000 people -- says statistics from police forces in major Canadian cities are lower because many Muslims are afraid to contact authorities.
But Elmasry said even police statistics show there were about 100 recorded hate crimes against Muslims in the nine months after Sept. 11, 2001, an increase of about 66%.
HATE CRIMES ON RISE
The statistics don't reflect hate crimes meant to target Muslims but misdirected toward other ethnic groups like a Hindu temple in Hamilton set on fire four days after Sept. 11.
In March, Toronto police stats showed hate crimes had soared to their highest level in eight years.
On Oct. 20, 2001, Molotov cocktails were thrown into mosques in Mississauga and Burlington. An Ottawa-area Arab boy was beaten by white kids, and a Saudi doctor in Montreal was allegedly spit on and assaulted.
As a result, Muslims have experienced anxiety and loss of self-esteem, especially among young people.
Elmasry said the intimidation had a more subtle effect on some Muslims, who stopped going to the mosque to pray, hoping that would reduce the backlash.
The Jewish community is also more anxious since Sept. 11.
"The Jewish community, because of the Israeli conflict, are hypersensitive to attacks from the Arab world," Ed Morgan, of the Canadian Jewish Congress, said.
"We had barely recovered from the fallout from Sept. 11 when things heated up in the Middle East."
Oh right. I forgot. 9/11 is on Wednesday and the commie media wants to be sure we all go into that day feeling guilty and with our "priorities straight".
I wouldn't use any of these papers to catch poop falling from a dog's butt, let alone read them (anywhere except here).
Yes you are
Uhhhh, maybe it is because it is true? The wide failure of the Islamic world to condemn this terrorism is approval of it, tacit or direct. I don't see the good professor condemning bin Laden here or anything like it.
ps: get off my planet, animals.
It's a start anyway.
So, feeling concerned, just what are the apologists going to do to help restrain the extremists? I have not SEEN anything yet.
One more September 11, and I suspect this fellow will have a LOT to complain about.
And nobody will care.
History renders this statement false.
X42: "I did not have sex with that woman"
Nah! Nothing evil about that. Or running planes with women children and infants into buildings full of innocent people. Some folks forget that their goal was to kill 10's of 1,000's of people.
Nothing evil about strapping bombs to themselves and killing innocent men, women and children. Nope! In the name of Islamic martyrdom.
Hey Mohamed Elmasry! I've got your number. I've read about your "religion" and I've seen what it does to innocents. Go to hell!
Elmasry's point is understandable, but when the world asked, "Would the real Muslims please stand up!" a mixture of terrorists and people who were luke warm, at best, in their denunciation of terrorists and terrorism rose to their feet.
Furthermore, it's hard to believe that the terrorists are not real Muslims when the overt goal of Islam is the establishment, by violent means as necessary, of a world-wide Islamic theocracy with the Koran as the only constitution and the shariah as international law, and anyone who doesn't know what dark-age, barbaric practices these prescribe is an imbecile.
I'm afraid it's Elmasry, and not the media, that is mistaken about Islam, what it means, and just what "god" it serves. He would be wise to convert to a different religion, and if he searches sincerely for the truth, he will.
It sounds as though Elmasry has heard the voice of God and hungers for Him and that he cannot bring himself to face the truth that the "god" of Islam is not God.
And then, of course, if he did face this truth, he would become an apostate and his fellow Muslims would murder him--a further indication of just what the "god" of Islam really is.
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