Liberal Candidate in Ontario

[August1991]

On December 2, the Liberal candidate for Mississauga-Erindale, Omar Alghabra, made his victory speech after winning the nomination. In that speech, he reportedly exhorted his audience, "This is a victory for Islam! Islam won! Islam Won! ... Islamic power is extending into Canadian politics".

Canadian Coalition for Democracies

The Mississauga-Erindale federal Liberal candidate vehemently denies allegations he made pro-Islamic remarks during his victory speech at the nomination meeting earlier this month. Omar Alghabra, 36, said the allegations were simply "not true" and were "false and inaccurate.

"I didn't say a thing about Muslims or Islam in my acceptance speech," said Alghabra, who took 488 of the 773 votes cast at the meeting Dec. 2.

"I don't agree with mixing politics and religion. Yes, I'm a Muslim, but I'm also a Liberal, a man and an engineer. The whole thing is untrue."

Mississauga News

During the Liberal candidate selection process, this is what one local politico said:

Another disappointed would-be candidate, George Winter, said, "until political parties stop this highjacking of the political process, we will continue to have special interest or one-interest candidates. I think the Liberal Party thinks they can get away with this in this particular riding because it will still vote Liberal."

Mississauga News

Alghabra immigrated to Canada from Saudi Arabia 18 years ago. He was a presdent of the Canadian Arab Federation.

[kimmy]

You know what this means, don't you?

SCARY RELIGIOUS FUNDAMENTALISTS ARE TAKING OVER THE LIBERAL PARTY

I will let Normandchateau carry the ball from here.

-k

[Shakeyhands]

I gotta question the validity of the CCD. I can't imagine anyone saying that.

[scribblet]

I gotta question the validity of the CCD.  I can't imagine anyone saying that.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I'd have to hear it from another source also, and he is denying it. Warren Kinsella has something on it in his blog, and other sites are picking up on it http://forums.cbc.ca/ridings/2005/11/156.html some interesting comments on the CBC forums.

I would definitely like some confirmation from another source.

Gee though, whoda thunk it, Islamists taking over the liberals, dang it, and here I thought it was the Catholics.

[August1991]

I would definitely like some confirmation from another source.

So would I. The meeting was on local cable so if the quote is true, presumably there's a record.

Scriblett, that CBC forum thread is interesting. The first posts about this date from 12 Dec. Why are we hearing about this only now?

----

Alghabra is definitely not pro-Israeli, given the following quote:

"Many try to silence any critical discourse of Israel’s practices by calling it anti-Israel or anti-Semitic. The obvious fact is that the government of Israel has been labeled by many international human rights organizations and different United Nations bodies as a frequent violator of human rights and the rule of international law." (Omar Alghabra, President Canadian Arab Federation, "Re: ‘Police chief’s Israel trip was bound to blow up on him- and it did.’ Hamilton Spectator, March 26, 2005.)

Some Web Site

And judging by the next quote, he's note too pro-American either:

"As far as what she meant to say, about her dissatisfaction with the American administration, she has no reason to apologize," said Parrish supporter Omar Alghabra.

CTV

In response to the London bombings, Alghabra wrote the following:

The Arabs and Muslims singled out by media are asked not about how they feel, but about whether they condemn such violence. They are asked to distance themselves from terrorist attacks, reinforcing social opinion that they are somehow associated with them. Arab and Muslim Canadians feel they are treated like a "fifth column," always viewed with suspicion.

CAF This would put him into the Mark Steyn don't-forget-the-victimized-Arabs faction, or some such.

You can draw whatever conclusion you want from this anecdote:

... as Alghabra attempted to pass through U.S. airport immigration, an officer told him to step aside because he qualified for the procedure. After some arguing, Alghabra refused. "I said, 'This is discriminatory. It's racist. I'm not doing it,'" he recalls. The immigration officer's reply was firm: "If you don't do it, you're not going through."

Canadian Business (IMHE, I have been searched numerous times in various circumstances and have always co-operated. But that's me.)

[scribblet]

That CBC thread is indeed interesting, also comments on another discussion forum which say that on CFRB this morning, they said they couldn't find anything on the tape. The candidate has not unequivocally denied making the comment, he has simply said he didn't make that comment in his acceptance speech.

Notice there have been no updates on the CBC site since around 1:00 pm, will be interesting to see if there are any more by tomorrow.

If he actually did make those comments then I would think the riding association should ask him to clarify or at least put out a press release confirming or denying.

However, I'm guessing that whatever the outcome, the Liberals will now point to the CPC and accuse them of fabricating the whole thing.....

[cybercoma]

A vote for the Liberal Party is a vote for Islam.

A vote for the Conservative Party is a vote for Christianity.

[ferrethouse]

The statement wasn't made during the victory speech which is why Roger's doesn't have it. It was made after a follow-up speech by a close advisor...

Mr. Khaled Outhman a principal supporter of Mr. Alghabra held the microphone and shouted (inside a hall in a Christian community center) "The result tonight is a prove for Muslims unity and a victory for Islam, and that Arab mean Muslims and although Mr. Hazineh (the riding president) keep telling me he is a Christian I am telling him that he better be a muslim" He also said that this is the beginning to take over other ridings in Mississauga and later take over Canada. He also added "Do not vote Conservative they are against Islam and Muslims". For each of this statement the Alghabra's supporters cheered and clapped.

Two things to note here. THREE people who attended the meeting have verified hearing these statements. It takes some courage to make those allegations and given that ALL THREE of the people making the allegations were SUPPORTERS of the person in question you have to wonder why they would make this up.

The other important point here is that the mainstream media has COMPLETELY IGNORED this story. If this was a Christian Conservative candidate you can be SURE that every website would have this headline right now...

"Christian Conservative alleged to have made controversial comments"

The double standard is almost bigger news than the story itself.

[August1991]

Omar Alghabra doesn't seem to be a religious fanatic but it could be argued that he is something of an apologist for the Islamists. He appeared on the CBC's The Current radio programme in September 2004 (this followed the attack of the school in Beslan, Russia). The interviewer read the following excerpts of an editorial by the Director of Al-Arabiya Satellite TV and then asked Alghabra his opinion:

Certainly, not all Muslims are terrorists but we say with deep regret that the majority of the world's terrorists are Muslims.

....

These images are harsh, shameful, and humiliating for us when we collect them and put them in one album. But instead of denying and justifying them, we have to admit first of all that they are true and not embellish articles and make speeches claiming we are innocent. It will become easier for us to treat ourselves once we have acknowledged this disease.

....

Islam is wronged because of the neo-Muslims.

....

We are certainly not honored to be related to those who hold up students in a school, those who kidnap journalists, those who kill civilians, those who bomb buses whatever pains the avengers are suffering from. These are the ones who have distorted and harmed Islam.

We cannot clear our reputation until after we admit the clear and glaring fact which says that Muslims have carried out most of the terrorist actions in the world today. We must understand that we cannot reform our youths who are carrying out these atrocious crimes until we have treated the minds of our shaykhs who have turned into revolutionaries at the pulpits and are sending the sons of other people to wars while sending their children to European and American schools.

Abd-al-Rahman al-Rashid, September 2004, DG Al-Arabiya Satellite TV (Read full text here.)

Faced with a frank admission of a senior Arab journalist, Omar Alghabra had an opportunity to be honest too. Instead, this is how he responded:

It seems that the majority of terrorists are Muslim because most of the media attention has been focussed on the incidents that have been perpetrated by so-called Muslim terrorists.  But there are alot of terrorism attacks around the world by different groups.  And again that's not shifting the blame but if we really want to address this problem, of course there's a responsibility on the community, but also to deal with it, without, removed from the context around it, will not do us any good because if the root causes, the issues or the problems that create this sentiment or create a reservoir of anger will remain there and once we deal with it, and the root causes are still there, they'll happen again.

CBC - The Current - Part 3 (It's about 25 minutes in.)

----

I am inclined to think that if Omar Alghabra said something about Muslims or Arabs during his acceptance speech (or any other speech), then he was referring to the legitimate idea that their views should be expressed in the House of Commons.

I don't happen to agree with his opinions, and I wouldn't vote for him if he was a candidate in my riding, but I wonder if his views are radical within Arab circles or within pro-Palestinian circles. I am more disturbed by the mealy-mouth hesitations of someone aspiring to the political arena.

As a last point, does anyone know where he stands on same sex marriage?

[err]

You know what this means, don't you?

SCARY RELIGIOUS FUNDAMENTALISTS ARE TAKING OVER THE LIBERAL PARTY 

I will let Normandchateau carry the ball from here.

-k

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

So both the CPC and Liberals.... ...

[Shakeyhands]

Lies all lies...

Candidate rejects apology

Dec. 24, 2005. 01:00 AM

ANDREW CHUNG

STAFF REPORTER

Liberal candidate Omar Alghabra isn't satisfied by an apology issued yesterday by the coalition that wrongly said he'd made pro-Islamist remarks in his Dec. 1 nomination acceptance speech for Mississauga-Erindale.

"I'm pursuing legal action," Alghabra said yesterday. "The truth has come out, and I'm going to continue to focus on my campaign and let the courts decide what happens. I'm not going to comment on it any more."

He wouldn't say whom he intends to serve with legal notices.

The Canadian Coalition for Democracies said in a news release yesterday that it would like to "apologize for any misunderstanding."

The Toronto Star Article

I'm not surprised at all.... It sounded fishy from the get go, and I am glad that he is pursuing a legal action.

Any guesses as to what party would be interested in painting someone as an extremeist muslim?

The fallout of the lie?

Pro-Islamist words dubbed a `smear' - Toronto Star

But the damage has been done, Alghabra believes. And the contentious words, he said, are a dirty political smear attacking his background.

"It's very emotional for me," said Alghabra, a self-described secular Muslim. "The closest thing I can think of is rape. It's the closest thing I can imagine. Where people are allowed to say things that are completely lies, offensive and outrageous, I can't believe it." His campaign is pondering legal action.

[scribblet]

Lies all lies...

Candidate rejects apology

Dec. 24, 2005. 01:00 AM

ANDREW CHUNG

STAFF REPORTER

Liberal candidate Omar Alghabra isn't satisfied by an apology issued yesterday by the coalition that wrongly said he'd made pro-Islamist remarks in his Dec. 1 nomination acceptance speech for Mississauga-Erindale.

"I'm pursuing legal action," Alghabra said yesterday. "The truth has come out, and I'm going to continue to focus on my campaign and let the courts decide what happens. I'm not going to comment on it any more."

He wouldn't say whom he intends to serve with legal notices.

The Canadian Coalition for Democracies said in a news release yesterday that it would like to "apologize for any misunderstanding."

The Toronto Star Article

I'm not surprised at all.... It sounded fishy from the get go, and I am glad that he is pursuing a legal action.

Any guesses as to what party would be interested in painting someone as an extremeist muslim?

The fallout of the lie?

Pro-Islamist words dubbed a `smear' - Toronto Star

But the damage has been done, Alghabra believes. And the contentious words, he said, are a dirty political smear attacking his background.

"It's very emotional for me," said Alghabra, a self-described secular Muslim. "The closest thing I can think of is rape. It's the closest thing I can imagine. Where people are allowed to say things that are completely lies, offensive and outrageous, I can't believe it." His campaign is pondering legal action.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Actually we don't know what party was behind it, and we do know that it was a supporter Mr. Khalid Usman who said it,

Khalid Usman is not just a supporter. He is THE supporter. He is a big time fundraiser, a riding president and past candidate. Alghabra should be distancing himself from those comments. I think maybe the smear is on by the liberals.

From the CCD www.canadiancoalition.org

CCD Regrets Errors in its December 19 Press Release

Toronto, Canada - Thursday, December 22, 2005 - On December 19, 2005, The Canadian Coalition for Democracies (CCD) issued a press release that contained inaccuracies. We would like to correct those inaccuracies and to apologize for any misunderstanding that resulted.

On December 20, the Liberal Party of Canada issued a press release suggesting, among other allegations, that CCD had launched an "ethnic smear campaign" by commenting on the purported words of Mr. Alghabra on December 1, 2005.

CCD has no vested interest in any allegations that are not true and defensible, and would like to take this opportunity to set the record straight.

The December 19 press release from CCD was based on reports from several independent individuals who were present at the Liberal nomination of Omar Alghabra. While those reports were consistent, the resultant release was wrong on two key points and the inferences it drew from them. Firstly, the date of the nomination meeting was December 1, not December 2 as reported. Secondly, witnesses reported that the statements attributed to Omar Alghabra were actually spoken by Khalid Usman, the individual introduced by Mr. Alghabra as his major supporter following Mr. Alghabra's nomination victory. Witnesses reported that Mr. Alghabra's celebratory actions on the podium appeared supportive of Mr. Usman's declarations, and that Mr. Alghabra did not distance himself from the comments nor offer any correction.

On December 22, Carolyn Parrish, the former MP for Mississauga-Erindale, was quoted in the Mississauga News as saying that "He [Khalid Usman] made comments about Muslims eventually being [represented] in every riding in Mississauga ... He made it sound like [Muslims] were taking over. It was extremely inappropriate." Elias Hazineh, president of the Mississauga-Erindale Federal Liberal Riding Association, was also quoted as hearing the Markham councillor say, "this is a victory for Muslims."

Failing to distance oneself from inappropriate statements from a supporter that mix religion and politics is not the same as uttering those statements, and CCD regrets the mistake it made. CCD is forwarding this correction to all those on its original distribution list.

CCD would like to take this opportunity to respond to several damaging assertions in the Liberal Party of Canada press release of December 20 (below) distributed to media and others over the name of "Stephen Heckbert, Ontario Liberal campaign headquarters".

The Liberal press release claims that the errors made by CCD were part of an "ethnic smear campaign". This assertion is clearly false and extremely damaging, as a criticism of mixing of religion and politics stands on its own, regardless of the ethnicity of the individuals involved. Furthermore, those who alerted CCD to such statements were all of Middle Eastern origin and could hardly be accused of perpetrating an "ethnic smear". It was only the Liberal press release that generalized from the alleged actions of individuals to an entire ethnic group.

The Liberal press release is entirely justified in criticizing the admitted mistakes of CCD. However, the release emphasizes "strong Conservative ties" and even singled out individuals for their Conservative involvement from among CCD's 28-person board of directors. CCD's board consists of people from across the political spectrum. CCD's founder has been an active lifelong Liberal and campaign worker in most elections. The Liberal press release could just have reasonably concluded that CCD is a group with "strong Taiwanese ties" or "strong Hindu ties". To attempt to make any such connection is an unwarranted and damaging generalization.

The Liberal press release chose to disclose the name, private mobile telephone number and email address of Georganne Burke, describing her as "the Conservative Party's regional organizer in Toronto". Ms Burke had never herself publicly disclosed her mobile number, although Stephen Heckbert claimed that a third party had done so. Such an irrelevant disclosure clearly violated the privacy of Ms Burke as well as possibly endangering her safety. To falsely associate a woman with an "ethnic smear campaign" directed against the Muslim community and to send such a potentially libellous statement to the media is extremely threatening to the individual involved.

Prior to the Liberal release being distributed, Ms Burke received a telephone call asking if she was the regional organizer for the Conservative party of Canada. The caller then hung up without ever identifying himself. When Ms Burke called the number captured by the Caller ID, it turned out that the anonymous call has come from the Ontario Headquarters of the Liberal Party of Canada.

Within hours of the Liberal disclosure of Ms Burke's private mobile number, she received a threatening phone call from an individual who had been made aware of her private number through the Liberal press release.

The Liberal press release chose to identify members of CCD who happened to be associated with the Conservative Party of Canada, and who had no involvement in the press release containing the admitted errors. The author of the press release is not even mentioned, while those with Conservative connections are named. Had such a generalization been made on the basis of ethnicity, as opposed to party affiliation, the Liberal press release would itself have been an "ethnic smear campaign".

It is essential to emphasize that, despite the untrue inferences in the Liberal press release, no one involved with the Conservative Party of Canada had any role in the December 19 press release, and none was aware of its existence until it was distributed by CCD.

snip

[August1991]

Lies all lies...

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Not quite.

There is no doubt the controversial remarks were made at the nomination meeting since many people heard them. It's just not clear exactly who made them and when. One of the sources for this information is none other than Carolyn Parrish.

Several sources who attended the meeting said the provocative comments were made by a Markham politician who was at the nomination meeting to support Alghabra.

"He made comments about Muslims eventually being (represented) in every riding in Mississauga," said Parrish. "He made it sound like (Muslims) were taking over. It was extremely inappropriate."

Mississauga News

----

I am still inclined to view this as nothing more than the boisterous words after a successful vote.

The Liberal Party has employed such tactics against the Reform, Alliance and Conservative Parties: taking words out of context or dredging up old speeches. It is not hard to have a wry grin at seeing the hat on the other head. (For example, check this.)

Muslims represent about 2% of Canada's population and they are underrepresented in the Commons, and in politics in general. There are bound to be more politicians who happen to be Muslim in the future.

[Leafless]

err

You wrote- " so both the CPC and the Liberals."

NO, sorry err you have never heard public comment from the CPC praising Christianity as a triumphant statement concerning a successful political nomination.

Apparently the remark in question was made by a Markam councillor who grabbed the microphone out of Mr. Alghbra hand and shouted " The results tonight is prove for Muslims unity and a victory for Islam and that Arab mean Muslim and although Mr. Hazineh (the riding president) keeps telling me he is a Christian, Iam telling him he beter be a Muslim."

He also said this is the begining to trake over other ridings in Mississauga and later take over Canada.

He also added do not vote Conservative they are against Islam and Muslims.

Mr. Alghbra then got the microphone back and thanked the A.S.N.A. for supporting him BUT did not denounce one word Mr.Osman said.

http://canadiancoalition.com/forum/messages/12181.shtml

This is the result of seeds planted by Liberal policy and is this the kind of politics Canadians can look forward to??

[scribblet]

The CBC has deleted all the posts in their comments section regarding the incident. How nice of them to respect free speech.

[hiti]

The posts were deleted because they were lies.

The media hasn''t reported on this because it is a lie.

Who started the lie? Not liberals.

Who is trying to keep the lies going? The Cons.

[scribblet]

The posts were deleted because they were lies.

The media hasn''t reported on this because it is a lie.

Who started the lie? Not liberals.

Who is trying to keep the lies going? The Cons.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

And you know that how? And we do know that if a conservative Christian fundamentalist had made similar comments it would be all over the front pages.

We do know it was not a particular party that started it, and in fact we do know those words where said by Usman, a principal backer.

[Montgomery Burns]

Ferrethouse is correct. It was not made by him, but by some other Muslim who jumped up on the stage and grabbed the microphone.

The CCD has issued an apology.

The other important point here is that the mainstream media has COMPLETELY IGNORED this story. If this was a Christian Conservative candidate you can be SURE that every website would have this headline right now...

Gee, ya think?

[Montgomery Burns]

The CBC has deleted all the posts in their comments section regarding the incident.  How nice of them to respect free speech.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I'm not surprised in the least.

A while back, the CBC had a story about a Palestinian homicide bomber killing (as usual) more civilian Jews. When I posted a comment denouncing the Splodeydopes as terrorists, the CBC deleted the word terrorists and replaced it with "militants".