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Bloc Quebecois courts Muslim votes in Salafi Mosque
As Canadians get ready to go to the polls next January 23 to elect a new federal government, according to the French Islamic website oumma.com, Bloc Quebecois leader Gilles Duceppe campaigned this week in a Montreal "Salafi" mosque.Filing from Montreal on January 17, Oumma.com correspondent Abdelaziz Djaout writes that the leader of Quebec's federal separatist party was received in the Assuna Annabawiyah Mosque at the initiative of the Canadian Muslim Forum and the Muslim Council of Montreal. The item was reproduced yesterday in the Quebec militant separatist site Vigile.net. Speaking with Judeoscope, a spokesperson of the Bloc Quebecois first downplayed the significance of the Oumma.com report, saying "serious media" did not report the event, but finally confirmed the meeting took place in the mosque building. Located in a poor Montreal neighbourhood known to locals as Park Extension, the Assuna Annabawiyah mosque became known to Canadian intelligence agencies as a hotbed for Islamic extremism in the 1990s. It was there that Algerian-born "Millenium bomber" Ahmed Ressam (convicted in July 2005) was recruited by al-Qaida operative Abderraouf Hannachi in a failed plot to bomb the Los Angeles Airport. Ressam admitted in American custody that he and his cell considered attacking Montreal's Outremont district aiming to murder Hassidic Jews. Oumma.com, which describes the mosque as "Montreal's largest Salafi mosque", is a news portal considered as ideologically close to controversial preacher Tariq Ramadan, a grandson of Hassan al-Banna, the founder of the Egyptian radical salafi Ikhwan al-Muslimin (Muslim Brotherhood). Salafi is an adjective which describes Muslims whose creed it is that genuine Muslims are compelled to imitate scrupulously the ways of Mohammed's companions (Salaf) in order to restore the Umma (community of believers) to its former pre-eminence under the unchallenged sovereignty of Allah and the rule of his law (sharia) over all things human. While not all Salafi Muslims espouse violent struggle to achieve their aims, followers of the Muslim Brotherhood and its foremost Jihadi ideologue Sayyid Qutb, Saudia Arabia's Wahhabi sectarians, adherents of Pakistani Islamic revivalist Syed Abul Ala Maududi and all the splinter groups and strains in-between, including al-Qaida, consider themselves to be Salafi. The Bloc Quebecois has actively been courting immigrant communities, hoping to strenghten its position in the upcoming elections at the expense of the scandal-ridden Liberals traditionally favoured by immigrants and minorities. Its candidate in Montreal's Papineau riding, Vivian Barbot, who is challenging current Foreign Affairs minister Pierre Pettigrew, was endorsed earlier this month by an Algerian community association as well as pro-Palestinian militants. However, Oumma.com's reporter casts doubt over some of Montreal Muslims' newfound sympathy for the separation of Quebec from Canada, arguing that reflexion on the Bloc Quebecois' independence project for Quebec is limited among Montreal's predominantly French-speaking Muslims. On the other hand, in its Election 2006 report, the Canadian Islamic Congress (CIC) notes that the Bloc Quebecois' party track record agrees with the "CIC's positions regarding Canada's involvement in Afghanistan, Iraq and Palestine". Indeed, anger with the Liberal government's perceived pro-Islael policy shift and introduction of the Anti-Terrorism Act decried by some Islamic organizations as discriminatory against Muslims coupled with distrust for the Conservative Party, often reviled by Muslim and leftist critics as a radical right-wing "Zionist" party, may have made the left-leaning Bloc Quebecois an attractive alternative for many of Montreal's Muslims due to its vocal opposition to the war in Iraq, its calls on softening anti-terror laws and some of its members pro-Palestinian political activism. It remains to be seen whether this apparent political shift among Montreal Muslims will prove more lasting than present electoral concerns. Outside Quebec, the New Democratic Party, whose positions on security issues and foreign policy are similar to the Bloc Quebecois, is expected to receive substantial support from Canadian Muslims. In the meanwhile, Oumma.com reports that a few days from now it will be the Bloc Quebecois' turn to invite Muslim militants and dignitaries to dine with some of the party's star candidates, including party leader Gilles Duceppe. Posted by: tipper 2006-01-20 |
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