"Controversial" Montreal Cleric Sues Mayor, City, for Calling Him "Agent of Radicalization"

The imam, Hamza Chaoui, is asking for $500,000 in damages, claiming his reputation was damaged by the charge. He's no "extremist," Chaoui insists. He's just someone who "encouraged young people to pursue their academic studies."

Nothing wrong with that, right?

Poke around on the Internet, though, and you'll find that the imam harbours some ideas that are, shall we say, rather outré. Quebec anti-jihad blogger Point de Bascule has this, for example:

On June 10, 2014, the Islamist preacher Hamza Chaoui published a text on his Facebook page condemning the World Soccer Cup. The Journal de Montréal reported that Chaoui described soccer as a “scourge” because of “the display of body parts that should be covered and the presence of almost naked players at the end of the game.” On May 3, 2013, on his own YouTube channel, Chaoui introduced himself as the Imam of the mosque at Laval University in Quebec City. 

Hamza Chaoui also presented the soccer championship as a stratagem conceived to distract non-Jews from a Jewish plan of world domination. He quoted from a French version of the Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion to justify his position:

[Translation by Point de Bascule] “In order to prevent non-Jewish people from finding out about our new plans and strategies, we will entertain them with many types of games, we will advertise them in newspapers and will invite them to attend the matches. This way, these new pleasures will divert their attention away from the areas of conflicts…”

Crafty Jews employing their wiles in order to conquer the globe: nothing "extreme" about that. Why, in parts of the world--okay, primarily in Muslim parts--such notions are so mainstream that the odious Protocols, that warrant for genocide, is a perennial best-seller.

That said, the suing imam had better pray that opposing counsel don't bring up that tidbit in court.