By Klaus Rohrich
Wednesday, July 25, 2007
Over the past few days Canadians have been outraged over the pronouncements on Vision TV by one Israr Ahmad. Ahmad had been given two one-hour shows on Vision TV during which he held forth on the concept of Jihad. Ahmad has some peculiar religious beliefs, which include the necessity to exterminate all of the world's Jews and that the Holocaust was Allah's punishment of the Jews.
Ahmad also believes that Jews are planning to rule the world by taking control of international banking. You may recall similar sentiments originating from certain parts of Europe during the 1930s, which culminated in the death of some 6,000,000 innocents.
Here in Canada, there has been near unanimous condemnation of Ahmad as well as calls to have him banned from the Canadian airwaves because of his intense and fervent religious hatred. Bill Roberts, President and CEO of Vision TV went so far as to write a letter of apology in the National Post expressing his regrets over the incident and assuring his viewers that the likes of Ahmad will never again sully Canadian Airwaves through Vision TV.
Personally, I think that's ill-advised, as it is important for Canadians to realize the implacable hatred that fundamentalist Muslims have for the West in general and Jews in particular. Canadians have become too comfortable with the conceit that we are universally loved and that no one would dare harm us or any of our citizens. Wrong, and listening to individuals such as Israr Ahmad serves to confirm that error.
Since Canada has not directly been touched by the current worldwide Jihad it is easy for Canadians to be lulled into a false sense of security. Having people like Ahmad on Canadian television allows all Canadians to see them for what they really are: base bigots who do not have an iota of decency and who are against everything for which our liberal democracy stands.
Most Canadians still seem to view radical fundamentalist Muslims as either enemies of the U.S. who have no beef with Canada, or worse, as an integral part of the multicultural mosaic that contributes to Canada's uniqueness.
Allowing people like Ahmad, the Khadrs and other radical Islamists opportunities to publicly preach their hatred will quickly disabuse most Canadians of the notion that these individuals have anything meaningful to contribute.
I think we should go one further and replay images of the planes crashing into the World Trade Centre, the bombing of nightclubs in Bali, The Madrid train bombings, the London transit bombings and all the other acts of terror for which people who harbor the same sentiments as Ahmad are responsible so that these images become ingrained in our collective psyche. In this way we can be sure that we don't fool ourselves into believing their point of view has validity.
We might even be well advised to air the videos of the countless public floggings and amputations of thieves' hands that take place in many Islamic countries today. If we need a rationale for our fight against the Taliban in Afghanistan we could show videos of the execution of homosexuals by stoning during halftime at soccer games when the Taliban ruled most of Afghanistan. Or we could watch the videos of the Taliban blowing up 3,000-year-old Buddhist statues because they believe them to be an affront to Islam.
I could go on about the Danish cartoons, the fatwa on Salman Rushdie and the torture and murder of Christians in response to Pope Benedict XVI quoting the Byzantine emperor, Manuel II Paleologus who said, "Show me just what Muhammad brought that was new and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached" but maybe that would be overkill. Suffice it to say it's important to know what these people are thinking and shutting them out of public view isn't helpful.
Canadians need to realize that whether they want to be or not, they are participants in a global war. And one effective way of attaining that realization is to give individuals like Israr Ahmad a mainstream Canadian platform from which to speak their mind.
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