The Smiler With a Knife

In my serious moments I try to keep up with the heavier side of the news. That’s sometimes a tad hard to accomplish in Canada, where we’re ass-deep in info-tainment. I find that a key impediment to truth telling in the media are the professional “news editors” – those who get to decide what WE can and cannot read. Stories may get written, but editors can opt to spike them. Case in point: today I found an important Canadian story buried inside of a lengthy European Intelligence summary which I subscribe to online. The piece is in French so I had to search GOOGLE NEWS for an English translation. Only three English papers in this whole country printed it ! The story describes a new book written by Quebec investigative journalist Fabrice de Pierrebourg. It’s called MONTREALISTAN and among other functions, the book profiles twenty active Muslim terrorists who are currently living in Canada and being monitored by our Intelligence Services – CSIS, CSE and their assorted little brother agencies, 24 hours a day. Isn’t that a book a few citizens would like to made aware of? He alleges for example, that Salam Elmenyawi who is the President of the Muslim Council in Montreal, [his photo below]was once part of the worldwide network which succeeded in helping Pakistan achieve nuclear capability. Pierrebourg's research found that he was arrested in 1980, a member of a criminal conspiracy trying to re-export embargoed American technology from Montreal. Though convicted he was let off with a token fine.



This sounds like the Jyllands-Posten Danish cartoon fiasco all over again.
Here we now have a Canadian expeditionary force in Afghanistan, fighting the Taliban and hunting the militant Sunni terror group Al Qaeda, and our news editors decide the first book of 2007 discussing Muslim terrorists in Canada is NOT worthy of attention? Isn't the taint of widespread journalistic appeasement too often the response to the bared terrorist blade? Refresh your memory with my February 4th Blog report: “NOTEWORTHY DEATH OF A MUSLIM FIREBRAND”.

It’s not like Montreal and Toronto are the only bases of dangerous activity by Muslim extremists. They’re here in Vancouver too. Believe it! Just one personal anecdote is sufficient to prove my point.

In the 2000 federal election I ran for a seat in parliament. There was only one serious opponent – Herb Dhaliwal, the Liberal incumbent. About a week into the campaign I got a call from a Muslim leader who asked that I visit his place of business to talk support. I did so. He gave me a breakdown on the help that his community had given the Liberals over the years and assured me that many of his friends were disenchanted and wanted to deliver a rebuke to the Liberals by giving me some of that largesse. (That was a fun thought.) In order to demonstrate his “insider” status the businessman mentioned several things for which he took credit, including the fact that he had personally hosted an important Pakistani nuclear physicist who had passed through Vancouver a few days before, enroute to the Middle East. We agreed on a time for him to bring a delegation of Community leaders to my campaign office, for a closed door meeting. When they arrived I learned that every one was of Pakistan origin. Pleasantries aside, they were really interested in only two things – what were my personal views on Jews and the State of Israel, and assuming my party won the election, what could I accomplish with respect to Canada’s position on Kashmir? A few days later I spoke to my new “friend”. I was told the delegation wasn’t satisfied with my answers and would continue to support Mr. Dhaliwal.

About a year later I read in the news that the BC Muslim Association was starting a building fund for a mosque in Burnaby, B.C. The Ismaili community in Vancouver have a big facility in Burnaby which was inaugurated over twenty years ago, by then Tory Prime Minister Brian Mulroney. The rising Pakistan community now wanted a mosque of their own, but it's taken time. I didn’t give the matter much thought until one morning I read that the president of the local Pakistani Muslim group had been shot down in his driveway, and had died in his son’s arms. The hit took place on Jan. 5, 2003. I Googled the assassination story and also found some clear colour photos of the victim.
Riasat Ali Khan was one of the five man delegation which visited my campaign office in 2000 to check me out. His murder slowed the fund raising effort, of course.
The mosque on Canada Way in Burnaby, which is Sunni, still isn’t quite finished, but an open-house was held last week. I note there is a federal election on the horizon. All the federal parties are now “bridge building,” as they term it, in the ethnic communities which are perceived to decide local polling results. I predict that the Canada Way mosque is going to get some non-Muslim visitors, but the Tories have no chance of picking up votes there.

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Update : I just checked the Muslim Council of Montreal website, where they post immediate responses to everything which annoys them. The site is silent on the subject of Fabrice de Pierrebourg, and that speaks volumes. Further, I went to the site where most Canadian news junkies start their day and asked Pierre Bourque for his take on Pierrebourg and his book. His reply " Hi Ron, never heard of him or his book. - p " I rest my case. The media has put Pierrebourg on ignore, and that ignorance is at our expense.