Calgary Bus Wars: This Time Its Theological

Now that the city of Calgary has given the go-ahead for local buses to carry posters from the "atheist bus campaign", Syed Soharwardy of the Islamic Supreme Council of Canada has decided to run a counter-campaign:

"People with atheist beliefs are coming forward aggressively and with force to promote their ideas, and it's important for them to know people of faith are united."

Soharwardy is calling on believers from all religions to help craft an appropriate response to the atheist message, "There is probably no God. Now stop worrying and enjoy your life."

He's collecting ideas for a pro-God slogan at contact@islamicsupremecouncil.com, and plans to have the ads ready to run concurrently with the anti-God message.

Use this slogan generator to create pro-God poster of your own, and then send it to the Imam. Now, Mr. Soharwardy is a really sweet & holy guy, who recently finished a cross country multi-faith walk against violence, so if your poster is filthy enough, you might just be able to make him squeal.

The Blog Post They Are So Proud Of

Andrew Coyne's coverage of Macleans appearance before the BHRC, for the first day and a half astoundingly non-newsy, takes off a bit in yesterday's afternoon coverage, in which he chronicles the cross-examination of complainant Kurrum Awan by Macleans' lawyer Julian Porter. Porter seems to poke several significant holes in Awan's account of his attempted negotiations with Macleans.

In fact, the magazine looks to be halfway in the clear, which means, oddly enough, that they lose--Coyne has admitted that he would rather see this thing appealed to the Supreme Court.

But what I am interested in at the moment is this brief passage from yesterday's morning session:

11:45 AM The hearing now turns to readings from various blogs I’ve never heard of: The Brussels Journal, some Catholic blog and… oh, the late Western Standard! Not obscure, just obsolete! (The mag, I mean — the website is still in business.) The Western Standard reference: a blog post by Ezra Levant, the defunct magazine’s former publisher, dated Dec. 2 2007. This is slightly surreal: he’s sitting in front of me as I write this, laptop in hand, writing about being spoken about with reference to something he’d written about … this case. This is getting so meta I’m losing track…"

Both Ezra and the Western Standard were thrilled to get a mention at the hearing. This is bizarre, and perhaps a little history lesson will explain why.

The blog post in question is entitled Elmasry vs. Steyn, and was composed by Ezra Levant on December 2, 2007. It was in fact the last blog post Ezra wrote for the Standard before he fled the flaming wreckage of its paper incarnation. By December 5 it had attracted a comment advocating Muslim genocide:

There is no such thing as innocent Muslims. They must all be killed. All of them.

This comment was left to fester for about two weeks, until Levant adversary Syed Soharwardy discovered it. He threatened a complaint to the AHRCC, and to organize a protest against the magazine outside of Calgary city-hall. He also called in the police. As a result, the Standard's new editor, Matthew Johnston, issued an apology, and has since been making an effort to weed out the crazies that occasionally still post to the WS Shotgun Blog. Mr. Soharwardy withdrew his threatened complaint, and the comment author was traced to Ontario, presumably with the assistance of the WS technical staff.

In any case, hardly the kind of thing to be proud of.

And Macleans Reneges...

To nobody's surprise, Macleans magazine has chosen to weasel out of its earlier (alleged) promise offering complainants in the CHRC case against the magazine an opportunity to "have their say". You can link to their full response through the term "weasel" above, but I would like to make note of one statement in it:

The article in question [Mark Steyn's "The Future Belongs To Islam"] was a legitimate piece of journalism written and published in good faith.

Yeah, a legitimate piece of journalism...which Macleans hosts in the entertainment section of their website, at the moment featuring an interview with Kim Cattrall:

'I didn't want to take the Samantha role — at 40, I didn't think I was sexy enough'

Lets be clear on this. While I'm not a lawyer, the legal consensus seems to be that the case against Macleans is rather weak, and the complaint against them should probably never have been launched.

That said, the best outcome now would be if the CHRC follows the lead of the OHRC and decides essentially that, yeah, Steyn's writings are Islamophobic, and detrimental to the social order, and yeah Macleans has gone into the crapper ever since Kenneth Whyte and the other clowns from the National Post took over, but their horseshit does not meet the standard required to trigger a sanction under Canadian Human Rights legislation. And while the likes of Steyn or Ezra Levant only nominally qualify as journalists--they use, as Syed Soharwardy has argued, press freedoms to create hatred against Muslims--it is necessary to put up with their bullshit just in case a real journalist at a respectable publication should decide to tell some hard truths at some point in the distant future.

Give Macleans a stern lecture, but let 'em go, in other words.

PS. I note that Whyte does the Cattrall interview himself. Nice of the boss to take all the difficult assignments.

Ezra Admits Defeat

I believe that things are going to get worse....

It will be an awful few years in Ontario. But, as Chernyshevsky promised, because of that, the revolution will come more quickly.

Yeah. The speechy revolution is coming, Ezra! Someday just down the road and around the bend. An old socialist said so.

And, interestingly enough, on Feb. 12th Ezra wrote:

I had a preliminary discussion with my lawyer today. My aim is to file an abuse of process claim in the Court of Queen's Bench [against Syed Soharwardy] within the month. Whether or not I sue the commission itself, and its inquisitor Shirlene McGovern, is something I haven't discussed yet with my lawyers.

Its been over a month, been over two in fact. Where's all the paperwork, Ez? Maybe your lawyers are otherwise occupied?

A Recent History Of The Western Standard

Noted this short piece in the Calgary Herald this morning:

A Muslim leader is praising Calgary police for making progress in their investigation of anti-Islamic postings on a local website last year.

Syed Soharwardy of the Islamic Supreme Council of Canada thanked police for identifying two people who posted the remarks on the Western Standard website.

A quick backgrounder. When Ezra Levant abandoned the flaming wreckage of The Western Standard, he left behind one final blog post (which has since been sent down the memory hole). Fans quickly decorated the post with anti-Muslim sentiments. For example:

"...there is no such thing as innocent Muslims. They must all be killed. All of them."

Mr. Soharwardy swiftly organized protests outside of Calgary City Hall, and threatened a complaint via the AHRCC against the Western Standard, which elicited this grovelling apology from Matthew Johnston, the Standard's new Head Honcho. Afterwards, Mr. Johnston vowed to weed out the crazies posting to the WS Shotgun Blog.

What is interesting about the latest development is that, presumably, Mr. Johnston and the gang at WS must have co-operated with the police investigation.

The Radical Imam Moves On

The Rad Imam Syed Soharwardy, arch-nemesis to Ezra "Lord of All Speeches" Levant, has decided to get on with his life. He's talking about the situation in Darfur, and OMYGAWD!!!, the radical shit coming out of his mouth!

'The majority of the people on both sides of this conflict are Muslims,' says [Syed Soharwardy].

'This is absolutely a genocide and a number of major global Islamic organizations have a major responsibility, compared with any other groups, to stop this.'

Soharwardy says the leadership of the broader Muslim world, not just the Sudanese regime, must be held to account for their inaction while millions suffer.

'It hurts every Muslim because it's a crisis and nobody is taking any interest,' he adds.

Meanwhile, what's Ezra up to? Click, click, click. Hmm. Looks like he's still talking about Ezra.

Complaints Dropped Against Ezra

And Ezra, sensing a return to obscurity and darkness , decides to sue. Start flipping those burgers Ezra, or maybe learn to sing & dance & juggle a bit and see how far youtube can take you.

Ezra's rant on the issue can be found here. Compare it to the Imam's statement in the Post. The Imam is a class act; Ezra a no-class ass.

Ezra's "Radical Imam" On Muslim Women

Given this, this is interesting:

Calgary's first Muslim women's convention will seek to empower the faith's females while dispelling false impressions surrounding them, says a local imam.

Female leaders of the city's Muslim community will also address the Feb. 10 convention that will impart a true reflection of women in Islam said Syed Soharwardy, president of the Islamic Supreme Council of Canada.

[...]

He said another goal of the meet is to encourage women to bring their domestic problems to the fore, while encouraging participants to spread a message of enlightenment to their home countries.

It's hoped the gathering will also help women overcome the cultural shock felt by some immigrants unaccustomed to playing an active role in the community, he said.

Although you would think the Calgary Sun could have found some of these "female leaders" to interview.

On The Imam In Question

Since Ezra has been kind enough to link to a .pdf of the complaint made against him by Mr. Syed Soharwardy of the Islamic Supreme Council of Canada, I thought I should give it a quick read. In fact, the Imam comes across as fairly reasonable, and some of his written mannerisms seem quaintly charming. And one statement of his rings quite profound. Of The Western Standard, he writes: I suspect the result of the CHRC complaint against Ezra will be a decision that Ezra is indeed cowering behind the principle of free speech to spread hate, but that his misuse does not in the end justify the sacrifice of that underlying principle. This does NOT make Ezra any kind of free speech hero, however. Just the opposite. It is a case of protecting the rights of GG Allin so as to protect the rights of Lou Reed.

Just Like Ezra???

Update: Gary Wise lays a pounding on Ezra. Suggests he may be guilty of professional mis-conduct as a lawyer. Suggests the charges against him are far more serious than those against Steyn.