Hussein Hoballah
Holding a virtual iftar via Zoom on Thursday, May 6th, the Federal Muslim Caucus hosted Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. During the iftar, the Muslim community’s contributions to Canada were attributed by different health professionals, intellectuals and other specialists, who spoke about their work and made their wishes for the Holy Month of Ramadhan. Muslim MPs and federal ministers addressed the same issues as well.
Most notable was Prime Minister Trudeau’s statement, in which he addressed Canada’s multiculturalism and its fight against Islamophobia, which includes its recent declaration on commemorating the martyrs of Quebec’s Grand Mosque every January 29th. Trudeau as well addressed Muslims’ contributions to the fight against COVID-19 and their role in Canada’s progress.
Trudeau’s words sounded of openness and closeness to the Muslims community. Ever since holding the prime ministry, even since representing Papineau in parliament earlier, he’s been in continuous touch with the Muslim community, meeting its delegates, visiting its masjids, and taking note of its concerns. Trudeau has maintained connections with Canada’s various ethnic and religious communities, always confirming that “we are strong because of diversity,” like he said during the recent virtual iftar.
Thus, we have to thank our prime minister for his openness to our community as well as to the others, and for backing the Muslim community at all the hard times it’s been going through in Canada. And since he’s closely listening to our community’s apprehensions, we have the right to express to him the bitterness we feel because he’s completely overlooked the latest incidents in occupied al-Quds/ Jerusalem, not even mentioning that during the iftar, which lasted for 1 hour 45 minutes. Israel’s occupation forces had just violated all international laws and norms, assailing unarmed people during their prayers at Masjid ul-Aqsa, and injuring over 200 civilians.
Mr Trudeau,
Muslims of the world, and Canadian Muslims, of course, believe al-Quds is one of the holiest places ever. In religious terms, it is the world’s first of two qiblas and the third holiest mosque. Politically, both the UN and Canadian stances recognise that East Jerusalem, where Masjid ul-Aqsa and the Dome of the Rock are, is occupied.
This brings to mind that the Liberal government’s refusal of moving the Canadian embassy to Jerusalem is applauded, for all measures that Israel is taking there are illegal. Still, your statements make no mention of that, but are rather repetitive and uninteresting, showing stark bias in favour of the occupation authorities and overlooking their many crimes that include the recent ones in the Sheikh Jarrah neighbourhood.
The Right Honourable Trudeau,
By the time these lines were written, we hadn’t heard your comment on what was going on in al-Quds. Minister of Foreign Affairs Marc Garneau’s Friday statement, however, called for “immediate de-escalation of tensions and for all sides to avoid any unilateral actions.” Why has Minister Garneau spoken that way when the aggressor could be clearly distinguished from the oppressed?
Why isn’t Israel reprimanded whenever it aggresses others? Why are Palestinians equalised with the aggressors? Absurdly, when any Palestinian attacks any Israeli soldier in uniform, reactions differ, and so many Canadian officials rush to condemn “terror against” Israeli soldiers!
The Right Honourable Trudeau,
What Israel is committing in the occupied Sheikh Jarrah neighbourhood is blatant terror and a flagrant crime against peaceful, unarmed civilians. You are supposed to condemn that straightforwardly. You have to ask your “friend and ally,” as described by your minister of foreign affairs, to give back occupied Jerusalem to its rightful owners. Notably, the NCCM has called on the Canadian government “to denounce in no uncertain terms Israel’s deliberate attack on al-Aqsa Mosque and its ongoing campaign to expand illegal settlements in, and evict and dispossess Palestinians from, occupied East Jerusalem.”
That being said, I’d like to commend NDP leader Jagmeet Singh’s forthright words: “PM Trudeau must take a stand and uphold International law.” Whereas Singh’s opinion has been shared by Jack Harris, the MP for Saint John’s East, the Liberal MPs’ positions were ineffective, ironically treating the aggressors and the oppressed alike .
The Right Honourable Prime Minister,
The incidents were unmentioned, too, by Conservative leader Erin O’Toole’s social-media pages. The plight of Palestinians perhaps means nothing to him, especially when he’s in very good terms with the Israeli occupation. But we won’t be talking about that. The point is, our community feels abandoned by the Liberals. MPs have not made a clear stance on an essential cause as Jerusalem’s; whereas they should’ve done so as some of them supposedly represent our community.
The question is: Why are weak stances always made in terms of the Palestinian cause? Is it because of fear of Canadian pro-Israel groups that target politicians, activists and defenders of Jerusalem and threatens their political future, jobs and livelihoods? Why won’t some of our community representatives miss a chance to discuss the suffering of Armenians and Rohingya (which must be remembered and discussed) and other causes that matter to the other communities, but won’t say a word when it comes to a cause as big as the occupied Sheikh Jarrah neighbourhood?
Mr Trudeau,
Eventually, it is diversity that makes Canada strong, as you said, and that diversity requires equality among the social fabric; otherwise, the diversity won’t be effective, strong and lasting, and only bias will show against all claims of valuing diversity. Just as the other communities’ norms and sanctities must be recognised, the Muslim/ Arab community’s must be, too. After all, Muslims and Arabs make a large part of the Canadian social fabric, and they have sanctities and just causes that cannot be overlooked for the sake of opponents.