Al Quds Day at Queen's Park: Zionhass on Steroids

What a difference a year makes! Last year, pre-media scrutiny, the only folks who turned out for the Ayatollah Khonenini's annual hatefest were, say, three or four hundred die-hard Khomeinists and their infidels fellow travelers, and three little bloggers. The Khomeinists raged and seethed, spewed a blood libel or two (or three), chanted their Allahu Akbars when cued to do so, and hoisted their Hezbo flags. It was the trio of bloggers, though, who police deemed to be disruptive, and who urged to move along now because their presence there, according to the raging Khomeinists, had been deemed--and I quote--"provocative." The bloggers, of course, stood their ground, the Khomeinists did what they'd done every Al Quds Day up till then, and the whole thing wrapped up not with a bang but a whimper.

The bang came post-rally, when Torontonians and Jews finally woke up to what was taking place on the hallowed grounds of the Ontario legislature--and with the approval of the Ontario government. Which meant this year would be different--much different--and it was. First of all, the Khomeinists having emerged victorious in the battle against Jewish groups which had urged Ontario's Sergeant-at-Arms to withhold approval for the protest, were revved up, energized, and angry as hell. They were going to show us--show Canadians--that "Zionists" and "the right-wing fascist media" which is the property of the Zionists, and that "secular values" (everything with quotation marks is a direct quote), were not going to win this one. To that end they sounded the alarm at their mosques, and bused in hundreds upon hundreds of supporters from Toronto and environs, but also from places like Hamilton and Kitchener. And what a colourful bunch they were. Moms dressed a la their native dress, all be-hijabed or be-niqabed, of course. And the children. The beautiful, bright-eyed children. Dozens upon dozens of them. Some of them toting signs showing, say, an Israeli bulldozer about to mow down a poor, downtrodden Palestinian. All of them in the process of being indoctrinated to blindly loathe "the Zionists" just as much as their parents do.

"You've got to be carefully taught," as the Jewish songwriter said.

Then were the counter-protesters, who were equally colourful, albeit in an entirely different way. The JDLers. The Jesus freaks. The dearie toting a world map all in red, with a red heart around it, who wants everyone to love everyone (hey, who doesn't want that?), the Communists who side with the Khomeinists, the Marxists who side with Israel, the pathetic special needs women who always seems to show up at these gatherings with a stack of Socialist newspapers, even a rather bedraggled and perhaps mentally ill transsexual, in the thick of the protest and toting one of the anti-Zionism signs. (Try showing up at a rally, any rally, in Tehran, sugar, and see how that works out for you.) My favorites, though, were the anti-Khomeinist Iranians, who were every bit as angry as the Khomeinists, and who managed to scream and shout their displeasure with the revolutionary regime for a good long time until police clued in that these Iranians were not the same as those Iranians, and finally got around to separating them. (Police had already placed the JDL behind a barrier.)

As per their promise to Sarge, the Khomeinists were on their best behaviour. No Hezo flags. No blood libels. Nary a single Allahu Akbar. So unless you consider chanting "Zionism is racism" umpteen times to be hate speech (and, Zionhass being the latest manifestation of age-old Jew-hate, I certainly do) the organizers were as good as their word. And I have to say that, even though there were many, many hundreds more anti-Zionists there than at last year's rally, I didn't experience the same sense of alarm and horror this time, probably because the kooky, carnival atmosphere--and, oh look, there's the Menzoid!--made it seem far more festive and far less threatening. Also, despite having a far larger contingent of supporters, the Khomeinists' rants were more ho to hum than oy to vey; one can only hear the "the people united will never be defeated" and the names Nelson Mandela and Jimmy Carter hauled out so often before one begins to completely zone out. Luckily, a Tahrir boat chick was there (she says she's now building an "ark, " so good luck with that, Noa) and some other anti-Zionist Jews were there to get the crowds' juices flowing. (As one of the Khomeinist speakers mentioned, it is sooo unfair to call them "self-hating Jews." Too true, since these Juden, including the Neturai nutters, who were also there, are suffused with so much self-adoration that they seem to glow with it. Then again, it could be sweat.)

At the end of the official speeches, the entire throng, hundreds and hundreds of them, perhaps three or four times the number who turned out last year, men, women and kids, formed a procession, and marched down University Avenue to the U,S. embassy (because, as much as they hate "the Zionists," they hate America, the Great Satan still under unexceptionalist Obama, even more). And as I watched them pass I thought, "Wow, what a whole lot of angry Israel-haters there are." And I had to ask myself: was it a good thing to shine a light on last year's rally, small as it was, or a bad thing, because this--this much bigger rally--is what resulted from that exposure and the ensuing controversy?

So I decided to sleep on it, and when I woke up this morning I had my answer. I decided that it was a good thing, because even though it energized the Khomeinists, it also woke up a lot of Canadians, plenty of them non-Jews, to the Khomeinist haters we have welcomed into our country; haters who embrace nutty Twelver eschatology and spit on our "secular values." This is what multiculturalism looks like, Canadians--a thousand+ seething, splenetic Ayatollah-devotees trashing the world's only Jewish state on a lovely August afternoon. And guess what? You and I get to foot the bill for all the security--the cops on foot, bikes and horses on hand to keep the haters from the hatees, and to prevent the whole thing from devolving into an ugly riot.

Just part of the passing scene here in Pierre's multiculti Trudeauupia.

More from BCF (who, every time one of the Khomeists took his photo--as obviously instructed to do so by their higher-ups--took a photo of his photog), EYOAC and the Toronto Sun.)

Update: Toronto cops enforce sharia law, arrest dog-owner. (I met the pooch. He was adorable.)