...born with the gift of laughter and a sense that the world was mad

“Hate speech” in the Globe: Under the terms of the anti-hate speech sections of our federal, provincial and territorial human rights acts—which, for the moment, override our fundamental Charter right of free expression—the truth is irrelevant if it has the potential to expose an identifiable group to “hatred” at some unspecified point in the future. In light of that legistlation, how can the Globe and Mail justify its report about Ottawa lad Mohammad Momin Khawaja, who is said to have “lived for jihad” (hey, who doesn’t?)? Khawaja is in the dock for his alleged involvement with some British home-growners who apparently wanted to take their paintball training to the next level by slicing and dicing real live kafirs:

OTTAWA -- Mohammad Momin Khawaja thought of little else but holy war, an Ottawa court heard yesterday.

As the trial of the first man charged under Canada's Anti-Terrorism Act got under way four years after police raided his home in the Ottawa suburb of Orleans, the Crown gave a two-hour summary of its case, in which it will present dozens - perhaps hundreds - of intercepted conversations to show that the accused admitted he had a one-track mind. Mr. Khawaja, the court was told, wrote that "that devotion to the effort of jihad is part of me" and said that not a day went by in which he didn't want to join the mujahedeen, or holy warriors.

He also allegedly said, "The kuffar [infidels] are treacherous and understand only death and destruction."

The Crown alleges Mr. Khawaja, now 29, was involved in a trans-Atlantic conspiracy dating back to two years before his arrest in 2004. It is alleged that he met fellow extremists in London and learned at a training camp in Pakistan how to fire AK-47s and rocket-propelled grenades. He is accused of trying to build a remote-controlled detonation device for a British cell that wanted to attack civilian targets in London, including possibly a night club and power grids.

Prosecutors said yesterday that Mr. Khawaja was so deep into the idea of holy war that even his attempts at marriage foundered after he told a prospective bride she had to understand he was "down with J" - or armed jihad, battles aimed at changing world governments or, at the very least, securing martyrdom for himself.

The Crown also said he was caught wiring funds to terrorist co-conspirators through a female friend selected because, as Mr. Khawaja wrote to her, "sisters don't get caught, brothers, if they send money, they get caught."

As the charges were read, the soft-spoken Mr. Khawaja, shaven and with long hair parted in the middle, said "not guilty" seven times, responding to each charge against him.

Members of his family, who have frequently accused the RCMP of building a racist case, sat in the courtroom in silence. Counterterrorism experts and international journalists looked on with interest, as the trial promises to provide insight into both radicalization and the incestuous nature of international jihadi schemes…

“Jihad”?  “Kuffars”?  “Mujahedeen”? Isn’t it, um, Islamophobic to mention such things? Won’t it just make the disaffected young lads even angrier, resulting in even more plots of this nature?

If I were Khurrum Awan, I’d give serious consideration to lodging a complaint with one or more of Canada’s anti-hate bodies, because this type of report is likely to expose Muslims to far more “Islamophobia” than anything ever penned by Mark Steyn.

Posted by: scaramouche at 09:41 | link | comments (3)

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