OPINION: The Trojan Horse — Al Quds Day
In the coming weeks and months, courts in the U.S. will be deliberating one of the most consequential questions of our time: What is free speech? Perhaps an even more important part of the equation is: What is not free speech? This debate dates back to the renaissance in Europe and in many ways still rages on.
Case in point is Mahmoud Khalil, a Palestinian student at Columbia University, who allegedly carried his First Amendment right of free speech a bit too far and, according to authorities, got involved in organization and coordination of protests, often violent in nature, to support Hamas terrorism during the Gaza war. Khalil came to U.S. on a student visa and married a U.S. citizen to obtain his green card.
Not surprisingly, Khalil — who is awaiting trial on charges of vandalism and coordinating violent protests that targeted Jewish students and community — is hiding behind the same old time-tested agenda of 'supporting the Palestinian cause,' while explicitly supporting Hamas.
He is seeking to invoke his First Amendment rights. So, the courts in the U.S. will have an opportunity to settle, once and for all, what is free speech and what is protected under the First Amendment. Is hate and violent behaviour targeted against one community protected under the First Amendment? If a student is violating host country's laws and is engaged in coordinating hate-based violent protests, can he be still entitled to First Amendment rights? It's important to remember that the war he was protesting did not involve the host country and the community he was protesting against are law-abiding citizens of the host country.
During this Gaza war, Canadian streets and communities experienced far worse. The hate-fest and vandalism were not confined to campuses but involved shootings at two Jewish girl's schools in Toronto and a similar attack in Montreal, as well as the vandalization of businesses and synagogues. At University of Toronto, pro-Palestine encampments were displaying banners reading 'From the River to the Sea' – a Hamas war cry and a rejection of Israel's right to exist.
A lax approach to maintain order by city police forces across the country shredded the peace and Canadian values to smithereens.
The threats and bluster blaring out of loudspeakers by Hamas supporters on the streets was something extraordinary. The playbook is allegedly the same as Khalil's – Hamas supporters in Canada, too, are seeking refuge in free speech laws.
City law enforcement kind of grants a tacit approval to this behaviour without considering that a vast majority of Canadians are not Hamas fans, and they have their right to peaceful existence, too.
On Sunday, a hate fest called Al Quds Day took place in Toronto. Al Quds Day was started by Ayatullah Khomeini's decree in Iran with the signature slogans 'Death to America' and 'Death to Israel' to incite Iranians after the Islamic revolution of 1979. It was then exported as a Palestinian cause across the world.
The common-sense question is what is this festival of hate doing in Canada?
It has been going on for decades despite the fact that Canadian Parliament in its foreign interference report cited Iran's IRGC as foreign entity involved in undesirable activities on Canadian soil. Is it in accordance with Canadian values?
We are witness to how Islamist terrorism operates. Their standard operating procedure is wrapping their hate for the West and Jews in widely acceptable and benign notions of human rights and self-determination. The strategy reaps instant advantages of rallying public support behind a 'just cause' until the time comes when 'armed struggle becomes essential to achieve the just cause.' And armed struggle often means terrorist attacks on innocent civilians.
Events like Al Quds Day act as sounding board and kind of 'softening the soil' before the seeds of terrorism are sown.
Hope is that the U.S. and Canadian authorities have learned their lessons by witnessing the 'protests' during the last two years.
— Raheel Raza and Mohammad Rizwan are directors of the Council of Muslims Against Antisemitism.
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