Muhammad Abdullah Domeini XI, XII |
The Minarets and Steeples War Johnny: Yes. Returning to the event that ignited the conflict. Your Excellency is free to interrupt at anytime if you feel that I have not been historically accurate. Muhammad: If I don’t correct you, Allah, The Responsive, surely will and you will not like it. Johnny: There was this small town in the then province of Québec where people lived in religious peace – everybody got along. Eventually this small town became the home of a sizable Muslim community who built a wonderful mosque with a long slender minaret in the center of town, not far from a large Catholic church. Some parishioners had initially expressed reservations about the size and location of the mosque, reservations which were quickly dispelled when the town’s mosque, with its tall and graceful minaret, became both an attraction for the faithful and tourists. Muhammad: Yes that minaret was a wonder to behold. Johnny: [looking at his producer] Do we have a picture? Maybe we will have one before the end of the show. As I was saying, everything went well until the leadership of the mosque approach city council for the right to perform the ritual call to prayer. Perhaps your Excellency could elaborate on what is the call to prayer. Muhammad: Sunni Muslims are called to prayer five times a day, This was a Sunni mosque. The call to prayer is heard at dawn, at midday, about the middle of the afternoon, just after sunset, and at night fall about two hours after sunset. The muezzin, a man appointed to perform the call to prayer, climbs the minaret and he calls the faithful to prayers in all directions. To be heard today he usually makes this call over a set of loudspeakers. Johnny: Thank you. The council refused the Muslim community’s request saying it would be in contravention of existing noise bylaws. Muhammad: Imagine denying the call to prayer because of some silly noise bylaw. Hell is too good for them. Johnny: This refusal became a rallying cry for the Muslim community. They claimed it was religious discrimination. Muhammad: IT WAS DISCRIMINATION! The church next door’s bells could be heard far and wide at noon everyday, for Sunday mass or on special occasions such as weddings and funerals. Johnny: The religious leadership then called on Muslims to vote their religion. In the next elections, voting as a block, they replaced the council with Muslims or council members who were favourable to their demands. To ensure a favourable vote they had even invited Muslims from neighboring communities to move to this small Québec town. Muhammad: What is wrong with that? Johnny: Some parishioners protested that this was using, abusing the democratic process to further religious objectives. Muhammad: By using man-made laws to further the cause of Allah, The Opener, The Judge, we were using democracy the way it was intended, to vote God into government and to vote out those who would exclude Him. Democracy never had a more noble purpose. Johnny: The end justifying the means. Muhammad: Talk about hypocrisy. When Israel was using the same tactics to gain control of Palestinian lands, Canadians never raised as much fuss. Unlike the Zionists, Muslims were just trying, through non-violent means, to build a community where they could live in peace and harmony, worshipping God in accordance with Allah’s, The Lord Of Majesty and Bounty, and the Prophet Muhammad’s, the peace and blessings of God be upon him instructions. Johnny: After the Muslim faithful were successful in gaining control of the city council, it wasn’t long before the lyrical wailing of the muezzin over loudspeakers was heard far and wide, five times a day, seven days a week. Muhammad: What a beautiful sound, thought it did spook some cows on neighboring farms who were not accustomed to the gentle, insistent call to prayer. Johnny: Unfortunately for the muezzin, many in the community did not share his taste in music especially the dawn and after dark rendition of the call to prayer. Muhammad: Barbarians! Johnny: It wasn’t too long, in spite of strict gun laws, before the early morning and late night muezzins were dodging bullets and it wasn’t long before one found its mark and a muezzin came plummeting to earth from the top of his graceful minaret … dead before he hit the ground. The response from the Muslim community was immediate and loud. Across Canada Muslims started a national call to prayer protest. The call to prayer could now be heard over loudspeakers from every mosque in Canada. Muhammad: Canadians during those days lost a lot of sleep. Johnny: One of the demands from the Muslim community was that the federal police, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police investigate the murder. Muhammad: How could a mainly Catholic provincial police force be trusted to investigate the death of a Muslim! Johnny: The Canadian government agreed to this request which silenced the mosques outside the province of Québec. In Québec, politicians were incensed at federal interference in what they considered a provincial police matter. A number of Catholic bishops and parish priests started talking about an assault on the Catholic Church and the Catholic traditions and culture of Québecquers. And then it happened. Almost as spontaneously as the national call to prayers, Catholic churches started ringing their bells across the province, usually to coincide with the Muslims call to prayer. In Montreal the din of bells and the wailing of the muezzin was so loud that it caused dogs to howl in pain adding to the cacophony of sounds that filled the Montreal air from dawn to dusk. Something had to be done! Two solutions were proposed. One was a typical Canadian solution, the other a typical Québecquer solution. The Canadian solution was introduced by the party in opposition at the time, the Liberal Party of Québec. In keeping with the Canadian tradition in these matters which can be summarized as “if you can’t please everyone then please no one”, the provincial Liberals, with support from the national party, recommended passing a law banning the call to prayer and the ringing of church bells. The governing Parti Québecquois would have none of it. They maintained the ringing of church bells was a four hundred year old Québec tradition and Québec tradition took precedent over the traditions of what they called “the newcomers” “les nouveaux arrivés” and simply outlawed the call to prayer. This of course led to more violence, minarets and steeples being the choice targets for bombers on both sides and more restrictions placed on Muslims, eventually leading to the exodus of Muslims from the province, today the country of Québec. Muhammad: While you did not mention the name of the many martyrs in this unequal struggle your recounting of the events is acceptable. Muslims And Québec Independence Johnny: Thank you. Does it surprise you that the initial violent confrontation occurred in the Canadian province of Québec as oppose to say – Ontario – where the struggle between the secular authorities and the Islamic courts had been center stage for such a long time. The two issues already discussed; the age of consent and beating your wife being the most obvious examples. Muhammad: Not at all. [leaning forward] My turn to tell you and your viewers about a little known, unappreciated piece of Canadian, Québec history. The heroic history of how committed fighters and martyrs in the name of Allah the Conqueror, infiltrated the Catholic fortress of Québec. In 1992, Algeria's military-backed government cancelled parliamentary elections in which the Islamic Salvation Front, an organization intent on governing by Koranic law, was set to win. This action led to the war between the followers of Allah, the Victory-Giver, and the anti-Muslim Algerian military. The Front split into a number of armed factions. The most glorious of these being the Armed Islamic Group, which is credited with the slaughter, between 1993 and 1998, of an estimated 70,000 worthless souls who would not accept the rule of Allah The Kind One. Unfortunately, our glorious fighters for Allah The Opener were not successful in their struggle to establish the Islamic Republic of Algeria, but they did live to fight another day, in Québec no less. Johnny: Huh??? Muhammad: Being French-speaking, they fled to Québec, some were accepted as immigrants, most as refugees. The Canadian government accepted the refugees’ argument that they would face death if returned to Algeria. This was true. The Algerian government of the time did not make any distinction between killing in the name of Allah, the Compassionate and killing for other motives. Johnny: Interesting that their next fight or at least their children’s fight would not be to establish an Islamic government in North Africa but in Canada, even if those were municipal governments. Muhammad: Allah The Patient, The Delayer works in mysterious ways and the battle to establish his sovereignty over all nations of the world is not over. The Holly Alliance of Muslim Municipalities is no small accomplishment and is part of the inexorable march of history towards an Islamic future for all mankind. Johnny: No small accomplishment indeed. The Holly Alliance of Muslim Municipalities has been holding talks with the Government of Québec about allowing Muslims from the former province of Québec to return to the country of Québec. Has the Holly Alliance of Muslim Municipalities made peace with Québec? Muhammad: Muslims and Québecquers had and have more in common than most people think. It was unfortunate that we came to blows since we both were trying to protect something we considered more valuable than life itself: our culture, our traditions, our religion. We should have been allies in the fight against Canada’s attempts to deny us these things which we held in such esteem. Johnny: Québec had survived as a distinct French Canadian society, in a sea of mainly protestant Anglophones, thanks in large part to the informed, enlightened policies of the central government in which they were active participants. How was it that at the end of the twentieth and beginning of the twenty-first century their culture, their traditions even their religion was threatened? Muhammad: It was because of the bad application of a good idea. In the last quarter of the twentieth century Canada welcomed immigrants from the four corners of the world, promising them that under its policy of multiculturalism, they would be allowed to keep their traditions, their values – even after becoming Canadian citizen. The problems began when the Canadian government broke that promise. Breaking that promise not only threatened Muslim traditions and values but Québec culture and traditions as well. Johnny: How is that? Muhammad: Multiculturalism that dilutes the values and traditions of all is not multiculturalism. Today we have true multiculturalism. Johnny: But to get this true multiculturalism the country had to fracture. Was it worth the price? Muhammad: Today, Muslims in the former territory of Canada can practice their religion as Allah, The Most Glorious One and The Prophet, the peace and blessings of God be upon him, intended. You tell me, was it worth it? Of course it was!
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