Last week, people in Toronto showed support for a mosque that was reportedly the target of an anti-Islam protest.
A spontaneous outpouring of support for the Muslim community was the response to a small short-lived anti-Islam protest outside a downtown Toronto mosque on Friday.
Photos online showed a small crowd with signs stating “No Islam.”
After seeing pictures of the protest online, approximately 20 to 30 people showed up outside of Masjid Toronto, a mosque in the heart of downtown Toronto, armed with last-minute signs. But before any of them arrived, the protest had already dispersed.
And this:
A national Islamic group is expressing alarm about a small anti-Muslim protest held Friday in front of a Toronto mosque.
The National Council of Canadian Muslims says the demonstration, reportedly consisting of about a dozen participants, was a clear attempt to intimidate the Muslim community.
This seems like a heartwarming story on the face of it. People rallying around a beleaguered mosque.
But there’s more to this mosque not being reported as widely as this story was.
A few days ago, the website CIJnews exposed excerpts from supplications (originally in Arabic) from the mosque in 2016. These supplications called for slaying “the enemies of Islam” and purifying “Al-Aqsa Mosque from the filth of the Jews.”
[O Allah!] Give us victory over the disbelieving people… O Allah! Give victory to Islam and raise the standing the Muslims. And humiliate the polytheism and polytheists. O Allah! Give victory (help) to your slaves who believe in the oneness of Allah, O the Lord of the Worlds!O Allah! Give them victory over the criminal people. O Allah! Destroy anyone who killed Muslims. O Allah! Destroy anyone who displaced the sons of the Muslims. O Allah! Count their number; slay them one by one and spare not one of them. O Allah! Purify Al-Aqsa Mosque from the filth of the Jews! O Allah! Purify Al-Aqsa Mosque from the filth of the Jews!
O Allah! We ask you… [to give us] victory over the enemies. O Allah! Raise the standing of Islam and the Muslims. O Allah! Give victory (help) to your oppressed slaves all over the world, east to west. O Allah! Give victory (help) to your slaves who believe in the oneness of Allah, O the Lord of the Worlds! O Allah! Destroy the criminals. O Allah! Destroy anyone who inflicts injustice on your slaves, O the Lord of the Worlds! O Allah! Count their number; slay them one by one and spare not one of them. O Allah! Do not defer [it] on them.O Allah! Seize them with the seizure of One Mighty, Omnipotent [referring to a Quranic verse that deals with the punishment Allah inflicted on Pharaoh and his people].
O Allah! Raise the standing of Islam and the Muslims.And humiliate the polytheism, the polytheists, the infidels and the atheists. And Give victory (help) to your slaves who believe in the oneness of Allah.O Allah! Give victory to our oppressed and deprived Muslim brothers and the mujahideen (those who engage in jihad) everywhere.O Allah! Pour on them patience and steadfast their feet. And give them victory over the disbelieving people. And give them victory over the evildoersAnd give them victory over the criminals.
CJINews also revealed that the mosque published sermons with similar sentiments on their YouTube channel (the videos have since been removed).
Following the ensuing shiite-storm, Masjid Toronto released this apology condemnation:
It has come to our attention that an inappropriate supplication that was offensive to those of Jewish faith, was made in our downtown mosque, Masjid Toronto. Such language is unacceptable and against the values and practices of the Muslim Association of Canada (MAC), Masjid Toronto and the Muslim Community at large. Masjid Toronto condemns all forms of hate and racism towards any faith group or others and is committed to offering a safe spiritual space for all congregants.
“Come to our attention”? No – come to the attention of the wider world, more like it. Clearly, the mosque is aware of the supplications and sermons being delivered within it, especially when they have been dumb enough to upload YouTube videos of them. No, this is a PR exercise in response to having the hatred spoken within their walls exposed.
Not only that, but the words are not just offensive to “those of the Jewish faith” (although we got special mention as “filth”). All “enemies of Islam” (which I assume if quite a wide definition) have a right to be offended. After all, being targeted for slaying is rather offensive.
Now don’t get me wrong. I am against any hatred or unprovoked violence. But that sure as hell includes hatred and violence being advocated by many proponents of Islam. And to be blunt about it – the “anti-Islam” protests seem to be way less serious and intimidating than the antisemitic/anti-infidel prayers and sermons held in the mosque, which involved actually calls for genocide. If the protesters are going to face hate crime charges, then everyone involved in those prayers and sermons should too – even more so.
Yet as of the time of this post, one has been reported widely in the media and the other not. Why is that?
