Beth Tikvah Synagogue in
Toronto was planning on renting their space to the organization
'Canadians for the Rule of Law' for a conference entitled 'The New
Taboo: Respect for the Rule of Law in Canada' to discuss topics of
radicalism within the Canadian community. Their topics were to cover
1/ the radical left; 2/ radical Islamists; and 3/ the radical
right. This conference was to take place March 17, 2019.
The conference would
feature speakers from the Jewish community, as well as anti hate
activists such as Donald Carr, who sits on the board of CFTRL, David
Matas, legal council for B'nai Brith and Anita Bromberg, executive
director for Canadian Race Relations Foundation. The issues arose when
it was revealed that purported 'alt-right' speakers would be included
in the lineup, some of the more notable being Charles McVety, president
of Canada Christian College, Toronto, who has hosted Dutch
parliamentarian Geert Wilders and Christine Douglass-Williams, a writer
for Jihad Watch, a news source that focuses on Islamism.
The synagogue has
since decided against hosting this conference after correspondence from
Karen Mock, president of the progressive Jewish group JSpace Canada.
She argued that there would be much negative media attention due to
"the Islamophobia and bigotry associated with some of these groups
and individuals."
Rabbi Jarrod Grover
stated that the decision to pull out was to avoid a media circus, not
to stifle free speech. He reiterated that his was a religious
institution, not a political venue.
Religious
institutions, at their discretion, regularly rent their space to the
public, and of course, they have the right to choose who they rent to
and who to refuse.
In this case, was the
synagogue pressured to rescind their contract due to public pressure?
Are we feeling the chilling effects of M103?
On the other hand,
Salaheddin Islamic Centre recently hosted a conference that was to
include radical Imams, Imams that have publicly voiced their hatred for
non Muslims, and most specifically, the Jewish community.
Even though there
were articles revealing radical imams scheduled to speak, the
Salaheddin Islamic Centre went through with their conference, minus one
of the speakers after pressure from various sources.
As far as we know,
there was no public outcry about the above conference at the mosque.
There has been no public outcry about radical Imams regularly being
guest speakers at this mosque.
It's speaking out against
Islamic radicalism that seems to be verboten. M103.
'Canadians for the
Rule of Law' will still hold their conference March 17, 2019 in a venue
yet to be announced.
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