Sunday, January 02, 2022

Links - 2nd January 2022 (2 - General Wokeness)

Reclaiming Indian Food from the White Gaze - "As an adult, even my own home could make me feel judged: Whenever I made tadka in my Brooklyn kitchen, the mustard seeds tempering in ghee set off the smoke detector...   I’ve also seen the effects of colonialism in how people explain my own culture back to me, with no awareness of the power dynamics. This happens a lot at restaurants. At an Indian restaurant in Manhattan, a white server felt compelled to explain kulcha to me... I attended a Diwali puja (prayer service) only to feel sick to my stomach when I realized that I was the only brown person in the room. It’s traumatic to see your culture taken from you... As the cookbook’s curator, I knew that my recipe would say something about me, and felt a familiar existential crisis coming. If I chose Indian food, I would feel a responsibility to dispel myths, provide regional nuances, and compensate for whitewashed food descriptions (I refuse to call a dosa a sourdough crepe). But if I chose a recipe from a different culture, I would feel like a sellout... I’ve never felt fully comfortable going to Indian restaurants with non-South Asians. I know that, in some way, I will be responsible for translating the menu, affirming people’s choices, advising on spice levels, teaching them how to eat with their hands, and commenting on whether the food is authentic — a temporary tour guide...   Now I’m back in India, and it feels like a dream to not have to carry around the armor. I finally feel like I can learn without judgment, and have already warned various aunties that I’m coming over to cook after quarantine ends. I’m working to sink my feet into the spaces my ancestors created, to unconditionally love where I come from and give myself permission to explore it. It’s always going to be a process, but I want to decolonize my mind and take my power back"
Isn't it racist to assume that a brown person (who may not be Indian) knows what kulcha is?
Apparently it's bad to participate in other cultures' events. People should just stay in their lane and not intrude into other cultures' spaces
Looks like diversity means "minorities" get "colonised". So the solution must be segregation - protect "minorities" by not letting them live with other cultures

Facebook - "imagine being so fragile that you feel judged by the smoke detectors.
imagine the uproar if an Italian attended Latin Mass in Goa and said he felt his culture was being taken away from him when he was the only non-brown in the church. uh, who expects her to be a tour guide? i’d go w an indian (qua Indian) because maybe i think he/she might also like the food?
at this point i wonder if she any friends at all to eat with anywhere."
An Indian asked who sets off smoke detectors tempering spices and someone suggested that she burned them, to which the Indian replied that that was amateurish

Black Cat on Twitter - "Have you ever noticed that actual working-class people tend to be pretty racist, sexist, xenophobic, & transphobic? Classism might be kind of good, sometimes."
When they say the quiet part out loud

Virginia moving to eliminate all accelerated math courses before 11th grade as part of equity-focused plan - "The Virginia Department of Education (VDOE) is moving to eliminate all accelerated math options prior to 11th grade, effectively keeping higher-achieving students from advancing as they usually would in the school system."
One way to achieve equity is to make everyone equally bad

Changes to Vancouver school program for gifted students draw concern - The Globe and Mail - "The proposed change to the MACC program follows the board’s decision to phase out honours courses in math and sciences in the only two high schools in Vancouver that are still offering them, which The Globe and Mail reported on last month. The district said it was eliminating the courses to create “diversity, equity and inclusion” in classrooms... After Lorraine Wong learned about the proposed changes, she and her husband began preparing to apply for private schools for their son, who was assessed as gifted. He just finished Grade 2 at Annie B. Jamieson Elementary School... “I agree that there is a clear need to take steps to increase racial and social-economic equity in education,” said Carla Elfers, a Vancouver psychologist whose work focuses on supporting the needs of young people who are neurodiverse.  “However, there are no data suggesting that the existence of enrichment programs harms students who are not enrolled in these programs.”"
Of course, this is why the left hates private schools - it's a way to escape their agenda
Since equity means everyone having equal results, it's clear that enrichment programs "harm" those not in them

The Left Targets Academic Testing and Gifted Programs - The Atlantic - "The Democratic primary voters of deep-blue New York City delivered a message clearly, firmly, and loudly: “Defund the police” was stupid and is now over. The first tally of the mayoral primary showed the pro-funding and pro-reform ex–police officer Eric Adams atop a large lead. The next day, President Joe Biden urged Democratic cities and states to spend some of their billions in coronavirus-relief money to hire more cops and put them on more streets.  Last summer, mobs of people attacked stores in New York, Chicago, and other great cities. The large majority of them will get away with it. They were not arrested at the time, and even if they are arrested, most will not face charges. But the moral holiday is over—or so Democratic officeholders now insist, in hope of seizing the anti-crime issue for themselves in the 2022 elections.  The Democrats’ pivot on law enforcement offers many lessons. One should be this: It’s hard to recover after activists tie a political party to an extreme and unpopular position. The time to act is early, to prevent the association at the start.  But as unpopular as “Defund the police” is, local progressive activists have found a cause even more anathema—and are pushing it with even greater vigor. Eighty-three percent of American adults believe that testing is appropriate to determine whether students may enroll in special or honors programs, according to one of the country’s longest-running continuous polls of attitudes toward education. Yet across the U.S., blue-state educational authorities have turned hostile to academic testing in almost all of its forms... The supervisors who led the effort to end academically selective admissions at Lowell now face not only a recall campaign, but also a lawsuit from groups including the Asian American Legal Foundation. Accusations of bigotry have flowed both ways. In March, supporters of the old admissions system surfaced tweets by one of the school’s pro-lottery supervisors that accused Asian Americans of anti-Blackness. Black students at Lowell complain of racist incidents; an Asian American Lowell alum told of being bullied at another, less selective high school. These are local issues—yet they are reshaping state and national politics. Last year, Californians voted on a proposition that would have allowed the restoration of affirmative action in college admissions, state employment, and state contracting. Proposition 16 was defeated by a margin of 57.2 percent to 42.8 percent in a state where non-Hispanic whites form only slightly more than one-third of the population... One in four American children is the child of at least one immigrant parent. Fewer than half of American children are non-Hispanic white. The United States will be a new country; it will have a new politics. Neither party seems ready for the shock."

Daily Beast columnist calls Kentucky AG Daniel Cameron an ‘Uncle Tom,’ ‘disgrace to his people’ - "Daily Beast columnist and CNN regular Sophia A. Nelson called Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron an “Uncle Tom” who “is a disgrace to his people and his community” after he announced the Breonna Taylor grand jury decision.  “Uncle Tom. Step & fetch Negro. The end,” Nelson wrote to caption an NBC News tweet about Cameron facing criticism after no direct charges were filed against the officers involved in Breonna Taylor’s death... Nelson doubled down when confronted by critics, some of who accused her of using a racial slur to describe Cameron."
"Anti-racism" strikes again

Wearing second hand clothes ‘an example of white privilege’, students told - "Wearing second-hand clothes without this being blamed on “the bad morals of my race” is an example of white privilege, students have been told in a compulsory diversity course.  The University of Kent has instructed every student to complete the four-hour mandatory module, covering topics such as white privilege, microaggressions and pronouns.  The course, titled Expect Respect and seen by The Telegraph, includes a white privilege quiz where participants are asked to pick which of 13 options are societal benefits allegedly enjoyed by white people in the UK.  If the student ticks all 13, a gold star is awarded, and if not, a button appears directing them to retry... Other examples include “I can go shopping without being followed or harassed”, being sure of having “neutral or pleasant” neighbours and “I can do well in a challenging situation without being called a credit to my race”.  Scottish teachers have recently been urged to take a “white privilege test”... The course on students’ moodle webpage also claims systemic racism is “built into the very building blocks of British society”, including schools, courts and churches.  It adds that some ethnic minorities engage in “white ideology” to benefit from the power “whiteness” brings...   Staff have also been emailed by faculty managers to consider adding trigger warnings to exam papers, and carry out “pronoun checks, make a note of them and use them correctly” when meeting new students, such as they/them or ze/zir. However, it has sparked a backlash from professors, who told The Telegraph they are refusing to comply and branded it a “philistine” betrayal of academia’s core values... “Encouraging people in the academy to narrow their field of reading and narrow students’ reading seems to me to be simply philistine and irresponsible. Students are being instructed through this module that there is a correct way of thinking.”"

Fundraiser by Sophie Amieva : Examining Clown - "  We believe in the power of laughter, tears, and everything in between. The Clown journey is about accepting the self and the other. We believe in metamorphosis and growth through art and the exploration of humor. We believe clown training and work is a powerful tool for artists to question authority, and play with entrenched power dynamics.  But the Clown world is also a predominately White, cisgender one, and Clown training and performance is entrenched in privilege. How do we change this? How do we make space for every voice to be heard and spotlighted? How do we support Clowns in using this art form to highlight structural inequities, as activism?"
Literally clown world

Sesame Street Introduces 'Todd', A White Male Muppet Who Is Blamed For Everything | The Babylon Bee - "In an upcoming episode entitled "R is for Racism", Todd appears in multiple educational scenarios-- including a math teacher forcing minority puppets to learn 2 + 2 = 4, and an ignorant puppet who thinks some cops might be good.   In a particularly jarring sketch, Todd is caught teaching kids to face life’s unfairness with hard work, self-sacrifice, and hope for the future."

Thomas Sowell on Twitter - "We seem to be getting closer and closer to a situation where nobody is responsible for what they did but we are all responsible for what somebody else did."

Perma Banned - Posts | Facebook - [On Venom: Let There Be Carnage] "Imagine being a "Movie Critic" so detested by normal people that whatever they say, is almost always an opposite to what people think. The prevailing reason why the critics dislike the movie?
"Not woke enough", "No complex message", "Just a trashy action movie", "B-movie mindless fun".
Yeah, and that's why people enjoy it - its a nostalgia trip to when movies used to be fun and doesn't need some shoehorned "profound message"."

roger on Twitter - "indians arent black. they cant face racism dummy
the quotes indians wanna be oppressed so bad. yall arent black"
Talk about wanting to be oppressed

Wilfred Reilly on Twitter - "The sea is on fire but some people *still* think capitalism can be managed."
"The culprit here is literally a state-run agency in a fairly socialist country."

Carlos A. E. Montesinos on Twitter - "Men had their chance. This is what they did with it. It’s time for women. Progressive women."
"Pemex is a state own oil company that operates under the Secretary of Energy orders. She's in charge. And yes, she's from a self-described left wing party. Waka waka."

Calm down, calm down – talking like Harry Enfield to a Liverpudlian isn’t racism - "A Liverpudlian bus driver has claimed being told to “calm down, calm down” in the style of Harry Enfield was racist, a tribunal has heard.   Antony Ryan, who was born and grew up in the Merseyside city, felt “insulted” after the comments from his manager, Margaret Robertson...   Mr Ryan was so “offended” by what he believed was a reference to this stereotype, he missed two days work and was later sacked for unauthorised absence from his firm, based in Scotland.  He then brought the company before an employment tribunal.  But his race discrimination claim was dismissed, because while the comment may have been “unprofessional” and “uncalled for”, the panel ruled he was not being mocked for his English “national origin”...   The panel concluded he was not discriminated against, as the comment only related to Mr Ryan being from Liverpool and not England.  James Young, the employment judge, said: “I agree that the alleged comment could mock Mr Ryan as a Liverpudlian but not as an English person.  "I do not consider that simply because that city is based in England that Mr Ryan was being mocked for being English and so mocked on account of his national origin.”"
When you incentivist victimhood you'll get more of it
This is one peril of anti-discrimination laws. But liberals claim that they're never abused. But since they don't care about discrimination against what is coded as "white" maybe they'll pretend only "white" people abuse these laws (and since nowadays even minorities who reject the liberal agenda are "white", they'll be mocked too)

California Weighs ‘Equitable Math’: Goal of Getting Correct Answer Racist - "The California education department is considering implementing a statewide math framework that promotes the concept that working to figure out a correct answer in math is an example of racism and white supremacy invading the classroom.  The framework, titled “A Pathway to Equitable Math Instruction: Dismantling Racism in Mathematics Instruction,” is intended to be “exercises for educators to reflect on their own biases to transform their instructional practice.” The “Equitable Math” website states its training manual was funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the primary private source of funding for the Common Core State Standards...   In February, the Oregon Department of Education defended its instruction of teachers via the “Equitable Math” training manual in how to teach mathematics by dismantling as “racist” the longstanding view of objectivity in math, as exemplified by the idea that one must obtain a correct answer to a math problem."

Meme - Black girl with straight blonde hair to blonde girl with dreadlocks: "My culture is not your hairstyle."
Of course white people have no culture and cannot be "victims"

Black British actress 'is removed from poster for new Dune movie in China' - "Responding to the claim, Chinese state media alleged it was a 'smear'."
At least they don't really try to virtue signal, so this isn't so bad

Stellan Skarsgård’s ‘Dune’ Transformation: Body Suit Took 7 Months | IndieWire - "Stellan Skarsgård spent a total of 80 hours in the makeup chair in order to transform into the villainous Baron Vladimir Harkonnen (that’s over 30 percent of the total time the actor was on set)... He felt, quite correctly, that the Baron appeared more frightening and dangerous unclothed than cloaked in robes or armor."

Stop intellectualising pop culture | Financial Times - "In the America of 1990, 24 per cent of men and 18 per cent of women had four years of college education. The numbers are now 37 and 38. The spread of higher education (a British trend, too) is an emancipating force. But no social change is without its perverse consequences. The academic Peter Turchin traces “woke” culture to the rage of a generation of underemployed humanities graduates, for instance.  There is now a large slice of society that has been drilled in a certain kind of conceptual waffle. It has the tools to over-analyse and ultimately overrate what would’ve been enjoyed as Jurassic Park-style fun in the 1990s... The point of an ever-smarter society was to popularise the intellectual. It was harder to foresee the intellectualisation of the popular."

'Dune' appropriates Islamic, Middle Eastern tropes without real inclusion, critics say - ""Dune" uses explicit Islamic imagery and cultural elements, experts say. But the main cast doesn’t feature a Middle Eastern or North African, aka MENA, actor in a prominent role."
Isn't it good that the movie doesn't perpetuate the "stereotype" of MENA people being terrorists and/or insurgents?

Herbert’s ‘Dune’ had deep Muslim influences. Villeneuve’s movie erases them. - The Washington Post - "In justifying the film’s exclusion of Muslim and MENA creatives, it truly relegates “Dune’s” Muslimness to exotic aesthetics. The resulting film is both more Orientalist than the novel and less daring... the film employs “holy war,” not “jihad” — an attempt to avoid the conventional association of jihad with Islamic terrorism. In the book, Herbert’s jihad (which he sometimes calls “crusade”) is a positive description of anti-colonial resistance — but it also describes the colonial violence of the Atreides and the Bene Gesserit. The novel disrupts conventional understandings of the word “jihad”: If popular audiences see jihad as terrorism, then the imperialists, too, are terrorists... Seeking to save Muslim and MENA peoples from taking offense, Villeneuve — as Paul does to the Fremen — colonizes and appropriates their experiences. He becomes the White savior of “Dune.”"
Of course, since SJW logic is that white people are evil, both this and the previous headline are true at the same time
Apparently you need a "Muslim and MENA" creative to show Muslim influence. Does that mean that everything a "Muslim and MENA" creative produces has Muslim influence? Or does this arise from the cynical liberal view that identity matters more than achievement?
For sure, if the film had used the term "jihad", even more liberals would've been upset (including, probably, the very same ones bitching about the term not being used)

Meme - "UM, WHy IS yoUR APPLICATION ASKING AB0UT My RACE?"
"SO WE CAN SCREEN OUT PEOPLE OF UNDESIRABLE RACES OF COURSE"
"WHAT? WHAT KIND OF RACIST JOB APPLICATION IS THIS?"
"JOB?" - University Admissions"

Titania McGrath on Twitter - "Eye contact is sexist. Avoiding eye contact is racist. Take your pick."

Blackface: A Brief History | HistoryExtra Podcast - HistoryExtra - "‘Blackface is the application of any makeup or prosthetics it might be masks, wigs, fake noses, etc. to make one appear to be of another race, usually, to look, black’...
‘You mentioned it has that long history there. So, how far back does it go? I mean, it's very famously linked to a Shakespeare but is there other history before that as well?’
‘Yeah, we do think it has a much older tradition. We know that blackface performances were used in medieval plays, religious plays, when several devilish characters, when they would fall from grace, they would be depicted as having black faces after their fall. But Robert Hornback, who's another great scholar, has traced it back that there might also be classical traditions in which blackface was used in some Greek and Roman plays...
[Othello] wasn't written for a black man to play. And I think I've been called the Othello Whisperer, because I get called in to work with actors of color, now, who have most of their lives aspired to play this great large role. And when they get to play it, they experience a kind of emotional breakdown. Because actually, the largest part is Iago’s. And by and large, this is a play that has been directed by white men. The white male director ends up spending most of his time working with the white male actor who's playing Iago, and the black actor who's playing Othello ends up feeling left out that there's this kind of weird power dynamic. And then once the play run goes into production, it can often happen that the audience is on Iago’s side. And the audience, by and large in the UK, and in the US, is primarily older and white still. So there's this weird kind of psychic split. Here's a part that I've always aspired to. And I'm feeling, I'm feeling vulnerable, weak and traumatized by it...
I think this is the argument that has been made by scholars in the past that minstrelsy is a completely different performance mode, and as you say, more insidious, and in many ways, it is, right, because in, that we think it started in the 1830s… a lot of scholars have argued that this is a you know, kind of a break and a new form of, of, that denigrates blackness. I think it's important to understand blackface minstrelsy as part of a continuum that comes from blackface, that we know is at least as medieval, from the medieval period, but really came to birth in the Renaissance. Because it's the, the continuum is that performing blackness is a white property that black people don't get to perform themselves, that this is always something that is done by white people. And it can either be done as you said earlier like to like, are we just exploring different types of characters in these plots? Or are we making fun of them? It's all of that. It doesn't matter whether it's celebratory or denigrating. The the power dynamic is that white people assume that performing blackness is a white property.’
Weird. The liberal narrative is that race was invented by European colonialists to justify slavery. In that case, blackface as defined here cannot have existed before European colonialism (not to mention how a fall from grace doesn't change your race, so even her definition is internally inconsistent within her narrative)
Maybe to prevent trauma to black theatre actors, Othello should once again be played by white people in blackface
Liberals get very upset over blackface, because they think all blackface is minstrelsy. But if minstrelsy is indelibly connected to blackface because it's about whites playing blacks which is inherently wrong, the fact that women were traditionally played by men onstage, and that this goes back even further than the Middle Ages to the Ancient Greeks, means that drag should be even more unacceptable than blackface (of course this ignores the gay card, which is the real reason they love drag so much)

NJ school district removes all holiday names from academic calendar - "Have a Merry “day off” and a Happy “day off”!  That’s the message from the school board of Randolph Township in Morris County, New Jersey, which unanimously voted Thursday to remove holiday names from their academic calendar following an uproar over renaming Columbus Day to Indigenous People’s Day... Now holidays like Thanksgiving and Memorial Day, as well as Jewish holy days like Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, will simply be listed as “day off.”  “If we don’t have anything on the calendar, we don’t have to have anyone [with] hurt feelings or anything like that”...   Other residents reportedly objected to the fact that the initial vote to rename the holiday was taken without public notice... The backlash was similar to the one faced by New York City’s Education Department earlier this year when it abruptly announced Columbus Day — celebrated on the second Monday of October — would be celebrated as Indigenous People’s Day. After an uproar from Italian-American groups, Mayor Bill de Blasio announced schools would be closed Oct. 11 to mark “Italian Heritage Day/Indigenous People’s Day.”"
Not the Babylon Bee

Subway franchisees want to give US soccer star Rapinoe the boot - "the Olympic legend was slammed by former U.S. President Donald Trump, who called her bronze medal winning team “left-wing maniacs” who lost because they were too woke... the franchisees are claiming the 36-year-old athlete/activist is alienating customers... “We are so politically divided in this country and Subway should have done more careful due diligence, without a doubt, before choosing [Rapinoe]”... operators in red states are adding extra beef.  One Arizona operator said: “Spending our money to make a political statement is completely and totally out of bounds.”""

Meme - "US Soccer's Megan Rapinoe at the White House: "I've been disrespected and dismissed because I am a woman. I've been told that I don't deserve any more than less because I am woman. Despite all the wins, I'm still paid less than men who do the same job that I do."
""I'm OpReSsEd..." she whines from a podium at the WHITE HOUSE. Absolute clown."

Victoria’s Secret cancels ‘Angels', hires Megan Rapinoe, transgender models, and other woke activists to rebuild the brand - "In a desperate attempt to rebuild the brand and to save face after woke activists smeared Victoria’s Secret of not being inclusive of all different body types, the company decided to hire spokeswomen to promote the brand through podcasts and other marketing materials called the VS Collective. The spokeswomen that will be featured in a 10-episode podcast includes; soccer star and social justice warrior Megan Rapinoe, actress and feminist Priyanka Chopra, Brazilian transgender model Valentina Sampaio and others"

Nolte: Victoria's Secret Seeks to Destroy Brand with Spox Megan Rapinoe - "  What you have here is not a corporate move meant to expand a thriving business, but one meant to smooch the backside of this country’s left-wing elite, to pander to the Woke Gestapo. Newsflash: These are not the people who purchase expensive lingerie. Instead, all their money goes towards narcotics, bail, rubber women, tattoos, video games, strap-ons, and D-batteries... Outside of a tiny group of fetishists, no one finds obesity attractive, no one wants to see a guy in a dress, and no one wants to hear from Megan Rapinoe — whose only claim-to-fame is perfecting the art of sounding like your first wife as she Luxury Whines. And allow me to add this…  NO ONE wants to think of any of this when they’re thinking about sex, and that’s what Victoria’s Secret is supposed to be about, SEX.  Sex is supposed to be sexy! Sex is supposed to be fun! Sex is supposed to be carefree!"

Liberal soccer star Megan Rapinoe under fire for tweet mocking Asian eyes - "Rapinoe, the new face of Victoria's Secret, had reportedly made the tweet to former professional soccer player and Olympic gold medalist Natasha Kai"

Sargon of Akkad - Posts | Facebook - ""We need representation for normal women" is a strange thing because that's what daily life is. We see normal women all day, every day, everywhere we go."

Former Victoria's Secret Model Bridget Malcolm Slams the Company's Woke Re-Branding as a 'Joke' - "“Your performative allyship is a joke,” Malcolm said in the video, using the marketing lingo that refers to corporate virtue signaling...   Victoria’s Secret has been gradually embracing a more woke public image in recent years. The company hired its first transgender model — Brazil’s Valentina Sampaio — in 2019."

Taiwan's main opposition party Kuomintang apologises to Singaporean activist Roy Ngerng after branding him an "extreme white supremacist" - "Taiwan’s largest opposition party, Kuomintang (KMT) was recently met with criticism after branding Singaporean activist Roy Ngerng as an “extreme white supremacist” in its reply to his remarks on the Taiwanese government’s COVID-19 vaccine procurement efforts... Shen-yi Liao, who teaches Philosophy at the University of Puget Sound, said that KMT’s earlier labelling of Mr Ngerng as an “extreme white supremacist” is “awfully familiar”, as it is a common move on the part of the Chinese state media and spokesperson accounts to weaponise “racism in the US and the West to deflect criticism”.  “The style of the tweet is straight outta Chinese influence ops,” said Assoc Prof Liao."
And people think Asia is immune to wokeness

Documenting the finest woke specimens in Singapore | Little Woke Dot

CRA is unfairly focusing on Muslim charities, civil rights group says - "In a new report, a civil rights group says the Canada Revenue Agency has unfairly targeted Muslim charities for audits, causing a disproportionate number to lose their charitable status.  The International Civil Liberties Monitoring Group studied the work of the Review and Analysis Division (RAD), a unit set up inside of the CRA in 2003 to specifically look for terrorist financing connected to the charitable sector...   The report found that between 2008 and 2015, 75 per cent of the charities who have seen their status revoked were Muslim charities, despite Muslim charities representing only 0.47 per cent of charities overall.  RAD audited 16 charities during that time, and Tim McSorley, the group’s national co-ordinator, said of the eight charities that lost their status, six were Muslim, centred around mosques or other Islamic organizations... Some of the charities lost their charitable status because of controversial speakers who were invited to mosques, others lost it because funds they provided may have ended up in the hands of terrorist groups after being sent to provide aid in Muslim countries."
The underlying woke logic here is that all charities are equally prone to supporting terrorism. Basically Muslim charities should be allowed to do whatever they want, even if it's linked to terrorism

FATAH: Being allies in the fight against Islamist extremism | Toronto Sun - "There is a saying in the Indian subcontinent about the thief, who instead of showing remorse, berates the judge. There are those within the Muslim community leadership throughout North America who fit this description, where instead of admitting wrongdoing — even if it’s unintentional — and changing course so that they can be allies in the fight against Islamist extremism, they play the victim card... between 2005 and 2009, IRFAN-Canada transferred approximately $14.6 million worth of resources to various organizations associated with Hamas.  But last week’s NCCM/IIS report simply portrays IRFAN-Canada as a victim and takes issue with the way Hamas itself has been designated a terrorist entity in Canada, noting: “While policy and academic researchers recognize that Hamas has social and political/military wings, the Government of Canada does not recognize that distinction as it relates to anti-terrorism financing.” The report makes no mention of the many actions taken by Islamist extremists that have led to a fear of terror in the hearts of most Canadians and Americans.  If only NCCM had used the taxpayer-funded report to at least in part reject and condemn the mission of the Muslim Brotherhood, one would be tempted to give greater weight to its contents.   The NCCM/IIS report also took up the case of the Ottawa Islamic Centre, which was organized, as they describe it, for “purposes of advancing religion, such as offering spaces for congregational prayer and religious services, and hosting lectures and classes on Islam, among other things.”  The CRA had previously said that the organization didn’t devote all of its resources to charity and “allowed its resources to be used for activities that promote hate and intolerance,” causing it to fail the CRA’s public benefit test. The CRA listed speeches at the mosque from a number of years ago by, among others, one Abu Usamah at-Thahabi, who in a Channel 4 UK documentary, “Undercover Mosque”, repeatedly mocked the “kuffar” (non-Muslims). He said: “No one loves the kuffar, no one loves the kuffar, not a single person here from the Muslims loves the kuffar, whether those kuffars are from the UK or from the US.” Though there is no record of what this cleric said in Ottawa, the report states that he once provocatively declared: “I don’t agree with those individuals [Muslim terrorists], but at the same time they are closer to me than those criminals of the kufr [Jews, Christians and Hindus].”  If I were a non-Muslim, I would take deep offence to such a speaker appearing at places that receive support from the Canadian taxpayer."

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