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Politicians pounce on a heart-breaking human tragedy to divide us
- 17 June 2021
- 12:07 pm
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- 17 June 2021
- 12:07 pm
The Imam Munir-El Kassem pointed his remarks at the elected officials in attendance and intoned: “I just want to say - whatever is happening in Jerusalem and Gaza is related to whatever happened in London, Ontario - period." (Screencap: CP24)
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On Sunday, June 6th, the Afzal family originating from Pakistan that immigrated to and settled in London Ontario some 12 or 14 years ago and since acquired a stellar reputation in the community were hit by a pick-up truck. Three adults and a young member of the family were killed and the fourth one, the youngest, was badly injured. The truck did not stop and drove away at high speed.
Christine Douglass-Williams writing in Jihad Watch of June 8th expressed my feelings about this horrible crime when she wrote “Canada mourns. This is a case that bypasses politics. A family of three generations was run over and killed while on a leisurely walk; it could have been any of our families, and any humane person should be horrified regardless of religion. But now there is a tragedy on top of tragedy. The second tragedy is that certain politicians have undermined the human component of this story in order to use it to play a dangerous game.”
Actually, as it turns out, there were not one but two tragedies, on top of the untimely deaths of the innocent victims.
The first tragedy
The first tragedy occurred on June 7, in front of the 10,000 people that included a lot of members of the Jewish community attending the service, carried live nationally on major Canadian news networks, speaker after a speaker decried the rise of Islamophobia that they believe resulted in the killing of the Afzal family. After two hours of speeches and prayers, Imam Munir-El Kassem was invited to the stage to give the closing remarks.
The Imam declared: “There’s a reason why they say the world is a small village. Every country has a foreign policy. I just want to say, whatever is happening in Jerusalem and Gaza is related to whatever happened in London, Ontario-period.” to loud applause from the audience.
Ironically, enough London’s Jewish community have been helping their Muslim neighbours get through the trauma of the tragedy.
B’nai Brith responded the same day through Twitter: “linking this horrible crime to Jews or Israel is an irresponsible and inflammatory act.” Next day CIJA sent out a new message on Twitter: “This is an incendiary and dangerous,” especially in light of “false conspiracy theories circulating about the attack being perpetrated by a Jew.”
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The Second Tragedy
Winston Churchill said: “A lie gets halfway across the world before the truth has got a chance to put its shoes on.” He would have been right if he had substituted the phrase “telling something as it was proven” for the word “lie”.
Sure enough, the day after the killings, an Israeli electronic paper Arutz Sheva 7 came out with the headline, “Canada: Family killed in intentional anti-Muslim attack- Police say family of five in London, Ontario targeted due to their Islamic faith”.
And sure enough, the Prime Minister – a recidivist of spreading fake news – was yet again playing politics with the most regrettable murders.
I use the term “recidivist” advisedly. A few years ago, when a fire damaged a mosque in Peterborough ON., he rushed down there to blame anti-Muslims for having set the fire despite the absence of evidence to sustain his pronouncement. And the police never did find out the person who set the fire.
Then again, when a young Muslim girl told the press the story of having had her head garment ripped off by a passerby, Trudeau rushed to characterise the event as a hate crime without waiting for the outcome of the police investigation. It so happened that shortly after making the accusation, the girl admitted that she lied and wanted to spread a message about Islamophobia.
In the present case, Trudeau told the House of Commons: “This killing was no accident. This was a terrorist attack motivated by hatred in the heart of one of our communities”. And again, despite the absence of evidence, they determined that the accused belonged to the far right and announced that the government was going to fight “far right groups.” He made the statement despite the fact that according to the Globe and Mail “one of Canada’s top intelligence officials stopped just [?] short of designating [the event] as a terrorist attack.”
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The leader of the opposition, Erin O’Toole, tweeted out a message that is truthful. He wrote:
“We live in a society where people have differences of opinion. That should go without saying, but the voices screaming “diversity” are the loudest to condemn diversity of opinion and thought. Indeed, the word “Islamophobia” has disquieting implications in Canada, where the Liberal government has pushed the agenda of anti-Islamophobia Motion M-103, which would make the Organization of Islamic Cooperation proud. “
In this regard, the Government throws around the term Islamophobia despite the facts that a) the term has yet to be defined authoritatively and definitively and accepted as such by all concerned and b)the definition used by the government is an open ended one whose contents can be manipulated to match the facts of a given situation or event.
The second tragedy was compounded by the behaviour of the Conservative Mayor of London Ed Holder and by the London Police Department respectively.
The Mayor, a political opportunist whose electorate comprises a significant Muslim electorate did not lose time to declare: “This was an act of mass murder, perpetrated against Muslims.” The police on the other hand, proceeded to describe the event as a hate crime from the get go before they gathered and examined all the relevant evidence.
Hence, a Detective Superintendent told reporters: ”There is evidence that this was a planned, premeditated act motivated by hate. We believe the victims were targeted because of their Islamic faith”.
And what is the evidence and evidentiary basis of this belief? Very scant information.
The only evidence the Police presented to date is the fact that a number of witnesses stated that “the accused jumped the curb in his vehicle hit the deceased than speeded off the scene, while one witness told reporters that a black truck blasted past her and ran a red light as she was walking, and then she same upon the scene and saw “chaos … It was just absolutely like something that you never want to see.”
Well, so far, the foregoing utterances would make it hard for the accused to obtain a fair trial in London or for that matter, anywhere else since the mass media reaches all towns and cities. I do hope the counsel of the accused will motion the Court for and succeed in getting the proceedings and the trial moved as far from London and if legally feasible to Yukon, the Northwest Territory or to Nunavut.
According to the police, there is no known connection between Veltman and the victims. No evidence was presented to the public to explain a motive for his allegedly deliberately running over a Muslim family in Ontario. (Screencap: CTV News)
About the accused
Now then who is the accused monster named who is alleged to be deeply affected by Islamophobia and deadly hate for Muslims?
The accused’s name is Nathaniel Veltman. He is 20 years old and gainfully employed. He has no criminal record and there is no evidence of his prior involvement with any kind of extremist or hate group.
According to B’nai Brith, contrary to speculation and dangerous misinformation spreading online, Veltman is not Jewish.
According to the police, there is no known connection between Veltman and the victims.
The London Free Press of June 9th in an article written by three reporters titled “Suspect in alleged London Hate killings laughed during arrest” informs us precisely that. More importantly, the article reports on some interesting personal characteristics of Veltman as provided by two of his friends. More specifically:
A friend who hails from the Middle-East stated: “Nate is not a radical terrorist. He is nothing like that. He is not an Islamophobe. That is not what this kid is.” He never heard Veltman say a bad thing about the Middle East or Muslims. “Nate was a very close friend and never said anything bad to me.”
Another friend said “Veltman never said anything hurtful about any groups. He’s Christian and had a great relationship with God… He was always pretty calm towards other people.”
Now then, what do you make of this information and the fact that he is alleged to have laughed at the time of his arrest?
So far, so much for the ignorant utterances of the Prime Minister, the Mayor of London, the London Police Department, the despicable utterings of the Imam and for the many cries of Islamophobia rising from the 10,000 people at the service.
As Tarek Fatah of the Toronto Sun put it on April 7, “Canada’s Muslim Leaders Should Fight Extremism, Not Play Victim”.
And in so far as victimisation is concerned, the leaders ought to also remember the number of times the extremist clergy of the Muslim community victimised Jews, besides a number of others, in just over the last 2 years, not to mention the antisemitic utterings of other Muslim clergy in the United States that were fed into Canada through various websites and social channels.
It is certainly not a record to be proud of at least not in Canada where Jews has been invariably supportive of not only of the Muslim community as a whole but also of the mass immigration of Muslims to Canada under the Trudeau government. So much for diversity and inclusion.
Doğan D. Akman is an independent researcher and commentator. He holds a B.Sc. in sociology, an M.A. in sociology/criminology and an LL.B in law. He held academic appointments in sociology, criminology and social policy; served as a Judge of the Provincial Court of Newfoundland and Labrador, and occupied the positions of Crown Counsel in criminal prosecutions and in civil litigation at the Federal Department of Justice. His academic work is published in peer-reviewed professional journals, while his opinion pieces and other writings are to be found in various publications and in blogs.
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Thank you for choosing TheJ.Ca as your source for Canadian Jewish News.
We do news differently!
Our positioning as a Zionist News Media platform sets us apart from the rest. While other Canadian Jewish media are advocating increasingly biased progressive political and social agendas, TheJ.Ca is providing more and more readers with a welcome alternative and an ideological home.
We revealed the incursion of anti-Israel progressive elements such as IfNotNow into our communities. We have exposed the distorted hateful agenda of the “progressive” left political radicals who brought Linda Sarsour to our cities, and we were first to report on many disturbing incidents of Nazi-based hate towards Jews across Canada.
But we can’t do it alone. We need your HELP!
Our ability to thrive and grow in 2020 and beyond depends on the generosity of committed readers and supporters like you.
Monthly support is a great way to help us sustain our operations. We greatly appreciate any contributions you can make to support Jewish Journalism.
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