No Need for Prime Minister Harper to "Apologize" for His Mosque Comments Since Tarek Fatah Has Already Let the Radical Cat Out of the Bag

Two Canadian Muslim groups are furious with Prime Minister Stephen Harper and are demanding any apology from him for saying that some Canadian mosques preach a radical message:

The National Council of Canadian Muslims (NCCM) and the Canadian Muslim Lawyers’ Association (CMLA) noted that during his announcement of Bill C-51, titled the Anti-Terrorism Act, 2015, on January 30^th in Richmond Hill, Ontario, the Prime Minister said, “It doesn’t matter what the age of a person is, or whether they’re in their basement, or whether they’re in a mosque or somewhere else. When you are engaged in activities that explicitly promote or advocate terrorism, that is a serious criminal offence no matter who you are.” 

In a joint statement released today, the NCCM and CMLA said, “Canadian Muslims are deeply troubled by the Prime Minister’s comments last Friday which implicated Canadian mosques as venues where terrorism is advocated or promoted.  The words used by our elected leaders have a profound impact on public perceptions.” 

“At a time when Canadian Muslims have faced hateful attacks and vandalism against their places of worship, the Prime Minister’s remarks have regrettably cast an unjust shadow of suspicion on Canadian Muslim communities and have distorted the nature of security threats,” noted the two organizations. 

The groups said that Canadian Mosques and organizations are at the forefront in confronting terrorism and they are calling on the Prime Minister to ‘unconditionally apologize.’...

I guess neither the NCCM (the entity formerly known as CAIR-CAN) nor the Muslim lawyers bothered to read Tarek Fatah's column in the Toronto Sun about his visit to a local mosque post-Charlie Hebdo attack:

Inside the mosque, I was hoping that in wake of the Charlie Hebdo massacre, the cleric would have the good sense not to speak about non-Muslims as adversaries or enemies, but my hopes were dashed. 

Far from condemning the acts of terror, the cleric, speaking in English, thundered that Islam “will become established in the land, over all other religions, although the ‘Disbelievers’ (Jews, Christians, Hindus and Atheists) hate that.” 

I could not believe my ears. 

There was no indignation expressed at the taking of Jews as hostages by a French jihadi that morning. 

The imam did ask us Muslims, that in reacting to insults we should take the example of Prophet Muhammad himself and follow in his footsteps. 

The problem with that suggestion is that while there were indeed times when Prophet Muhammad forgave those who mocked him, there were others when he ordered them killed. 

At the end of his “khutba” (sermon), the cleric repeated the ritual praying to Allah to grant Muslims victory over non-Muslims.

That prayer is: “O Allah, pour patience upon Muslims, strengthen their feet and give them victory over ‘Qawm -el Kafiroon’ (Non-Muslims). 

“O Allah, give victory to our brothers the Muslims, the oppressed, the tyrannized and the ‘Mujahedeen’ (those who fight jihad against non-Muslims)”. 

Then we all stood up in orderly rows, turned towards Mecca and followed the imam as he led us in the ritual prayer that is obligatory for all Muslims.

Now, maybe this unnamed mosque is a complete anomaly--one of the few where such messages can be heard on a regular basis. And maybe the moon is made of delectable green cheese. Personally, knowing as I do that many if not most mosques in Canada are funded by Wahhabi shekels, I believe the latter is more likely.