First Nations and Muslims

betsy · January 14, 2013

Last Friday, CBC interviewed one of the First Nations chiefs who boycotted the meeting - I didn't get his name. There was tension between him and the female anchor person, the latter seeming to sense something else behind his words and was pressing him for clarification.

He made some remarks that smacked on inciting rebellion - calling for powerful young warriors - his speech reeked with veiled threats against the economy, and he mentioned how they'd welcomed the Muslims ( I didn't follow exactly how he said it)....but the mention of Muslims is quite curious.

So I googled and found this article posted in April 2012. Chief Nelson was going to run for AFN National Chief, he's asking for support from the Muslims. However....there seems to be much more to that. Here is an excerpt of a long article.

Former Ojibway chief Nelson seeks Muslim support, announces candidacy for top AFN chief in mosque

National News | 09. Apr, 2012 by APTN National News

The three were there at the request of one of the mosque’s imams, Zafar Bangash, who invited Nelson following media reports the former chief of Roseau River First Nationwas hoping to travel to Tehran. Nelson, Brown and Smoke met with officials in Ottawa’s Iranian embassy in early March to begin preparations for a possible trip to speak to the Iranian parliament.

After the melodious and iconic call to prayer sung by a man in the congregation ended, Imam Bangash stood at the front of the room to deliver a sermon that excoriated Western culture and wove the perceived campaign against Islam with the plight of First Nations people in Canada.

“The native inhabitants of this land, the First Nations as they are referred…looked after the European colonialists when they came and fell ill,” said Bangash. “And what did the European colonialists do in return? Four hundred years ago…there were about 100 million of them on this continent…How has their population gone down, so drastically reduced, that they are left to only a few million people on this land? Because genocide was perpetrated against them.”

According to academic estimates, there were between 57 million to 112 million Indigenous people living on what is now known as North America, Central America and South America, before Europeans like Christopher Columbus made initial contact.

Bangash said the same “people” that committed “genocide” against Indigenous peoplesÂ were now “occupying” Muslim lands.

“So what kind of values would people have when they perpetrated genocide against people who were their benefactors, not their enemies? To know a civilization and how it functions and the values they carry, then look at how they treat other people,” said Bangash. “And even now, when these European colonialists and American imperialists have gone to Muslim lands, what have they done in Iraq, Afghanistan, in Palestine and other places? They have killed millions of people in those lands.”

Bangash then linked the duties of the Muslim community to his reason for inviting the three First Nations leaders to the mosque.

“Unless and until we live up to the principles of Islam of enjoining what is good and forbidding what is evil…that honour will not come to us because we do not live up to the expectations of being the compassionate community, the caring community, the giving community, the forgiving community,” said Bangash. “Military power is no power at all. It can kill, but it cannot create. It can cause misery, but it cannot provide the healing touch. We are the people that are taught to provide the healing touch. Here is the opportunity, let’s take it, let’s reach out to people who are less fortunate than ourselves.”

Wearing a ribbon-shirt and an otter fur-lined Ojibway headdress, holding the eagle feathers and cradling his father’s stone ceremonial pipe in his left arm, Nelson made a joke about camels and teepees before saying Muslim and First Nations people shared a common antagonizer.

“You are blessed today because people in the past thought about you and they resisted the Crusaders, people (who) believed that they and only they understood and owned God. Today you are blessed with the Quran,” said Nelson. “We too have met the Crusaders and they have told us and they tried to convince us that God came on a boat in 1492…Today we join with you in prayer and welcome you…to our lands.”

“(First Nations people) have no allies. They are marginalized and people…have no idea…whom this land really belongs to and at what costs this land was taken from them,” said Syed Hyder, 55, editor of a monthly Urdu-language magazine. “The Canadian economy is built on natural resources, which they did not bring from Europe, England, Ireland…That means they are still looting it, still taking it. At least they should share. Even today they are not giving any share to the people who belong to this land.”

Some of the youth in the crowd said they saw a parallel between what First Nations people face and the Palestinian situation in the Middle East.

“The chief’s speech was quite inspiring and…it reminded me a lot of what the Palestinians are going through, being kicked off their land, not being able to own any of their own property,” said Afifah Khawaja, 23. “It made me think about the value of justice for all people, not only Muslims…but that includes our native brothers and sisters and any people facing any form of oppression.”

MORE......

http://aptn.ca/pages...hief-in-mosque/

What do you make of that?

Edited January 14, 2013 by betsy

Smallc · January 14, 2013

Some people seem to think that because they're brown, they should all stick together. I don't see many Muslims in Canada having anymore patients for this kind of stuff than the rest of Canada's citizenry.

Edited January 14, 2013 by Smallc

scribblet · January 14, 2013

He's one of the more radical Chiefs. I doubt that most Muslims would want to be associated with his threats and so on.

eyeball · January 14, 2013

What do you make of that?

Wearing a ribbon-shirt and an otter fur-lined Ojibway headdress, holding the eagle feathers and cradling his father’s stone ceremonial pipe in his left arm, Nelson made a joke about camels and teepees before saying Muslim and First Nations people shared a common antagonizer.

It's sounds like a fairly accurate description of our common history. It'll be nice when we can get past it but it's a fair enough comment that still needs to be pointed out from time to time, especially these days when virtue takes such a back seat to economics.

Perhaps if we didn't spend so much time basing the superiority of our society on the glories and golden days of our past other people wouldn't be as inclined to point out the darker chapters of our history that also contributed to our apparent ascendancy.

g_bambino · January 14, 2013

It's sounds like a fairly accurate description of our common history. It'll be nice when we can get past it but it's a fair enough comment...

Care to elaborate on how the oppression of Muslims led to the "ascendancy" of the European-derived construct of the Canadian state?

bush_cheney2004 · January 14, 2013

Some people seem to think that because they're brown, they should all stick together.....

Gee...I wonder who they learned that from ?

DogOnPorch · January 14, 2013

Anything that involves Zafar Bangash is gonna get a wee goosesteppy.

eyeball · January 15, 2013

Care to elaborate on how the oppression of Muslims led to the "ascendancy" of the European-derived construct of the Canadian state?

No. I was thinking the commonest feature of our oppression was that we usually had bibles in one hand and more advanced weapons in the other.

g_bambino · January 15, 2013

No.

Well, at least you're honest about your inability to explain yourself.

eyeball · January 15, 2013

Especially when it comes to you.

g_bambino · January 15, 2013

Especially when it comes to you.

Thanks.

Rocky Road · February 1, 2013

http://sikhactivist.net/silent-no-more-a-sikh-response-to-the-idle-no-more-movement/

Silent No More: A Sikh Response to the Idle No More Movement

Written By: Santbir Singh

"I try to imagine the government coming to my house one morning and taking my five year old daughter and eight year old son away to a boarding school hundreds of kilometres away. I try to imagine that at this school, my children’s hair will be cut, their dastars and kakkars will be removed and they will be forcibly baptized as Christians. I try to imagine that they will be beaten for speaking Panjabi, reading Bani or trying to maintain their religious and cultural traditions. I try to imagine that even their basic health needs will not be looked after and they may well die from treatable infections and diseases. And then, I must admit, I am not able to imagine the rest; I can not bear to imagine them being abused, assaulted, beaten and raped."