Time Immortal

“We recognize the conflict in Afghanistan as a liberation struggle, waged by the Afghan people and their allies, against oppression, against obscurantism, illiteracy, and the most brutal forms of misogyny. It is a fight for democracy, and for peace, order, and good government. It is also a struggle waged by the sovereign Government of Afghanistan, a member state of the United Nations, against illegal armed groups that seek to overturn the democratic will of the Afghan people. In Afghanistan, the great global struggle for the recognition and protection of basic human rights � universal rights - is being waged with a particular and necessary ferocity. We cannot and must not retreat from that struggle.”

And the Manley Commission recommends that Canada renew its commitment to Afghanistan and extend the mission deadline past Febrary 2009, possibly taking it into 2011 if needed.

“We often seek to define Canada’s role in the world. Well, for whatever reason, we have one in Afghanistan. Let’s not abandon it too easily,” Manley wrote last fall in a Canadian political journal following a return visit to Afghanistan in May 2007.

“But let’s use our hard-earned influence to make sure the job is done right.”

It’s really nice to hear this sort of level-headed honesty coming from a former of Canada cabinet minister (John Manley), although I imagine that is somewhere blowing a fuse over this.

And at one “revival” rally, women were asked to enter by the back staircase. One wants to believe that there is a something in Islam that not only can be salvaged and fashioned into something that truly gives glory to the will of God and benefits the world. Unfortunately, there seems to be a dwindling body of evidence that any such thing exists.

On Friday, congregations at some of Canada’s mosques made their contribution to remembering Ms. Bhutto. At one Mississauga mosque where supporters of Ms. Bhutto had requested a prayer for their departed leader, the imam refused to utter her name from the pulpit. After the prayer, he was asked why he had not mentioned Ms. Bhutto by name. He responded in a nonchalant manner, “It was not necessary.” When pressed to clarify, he said, “I did not wish to name a specific person.” He was reminded that in his sermon he had mentioned the name of a man, why not Benazir. This time, Imam Mohammed Moutaz Chara, a Syrian-American, touched the questioner’s chin in a condescending manner and gave him a huge smile as he walked away.

A few kilometres away in one of Canada’s largest mosques run by the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA), Skeikh Ala ElSayed refused to utter the words “Benazir Bhutto” from the pulpit, as if it was a profanity.

….

At other mosques, the story was the same. Not a word about Benazir Bhutto. Reporters at one mosque seemed bewildered and asked why her name was not being mentioned. What no one was willing to tell them is that perhaps the imams consider the words “Benazir Bhutto” unclean and unIslamic. After all, she had vowed to take on the Islamic extremists and hence she was an adversary; the mere mention of her name may pollute the sanctity of the mosque.

And if there was any doubt about the agenda of the Islamist enterprise, it was on full display at the so called “Revival of the Islamic Spirit” conference held in Toronto this weekend. Among the dozens of Islamic speakers, there were only two women and they too were assigned the role of addressing issues such as pornography. There was barely any mention of the assassination of Benazir Bhutto, other than the rhetorical praying for victims of violence. While men commanded the podiums, young women manned the clerical work as receptionists. There were no Benazir Bhuttos at the conference; only those who had not noticed her death.

It’s shameful that memorials of this woman — and while there isn’t much doubt that a Bhutto government would have been as corrupt as any that Pakistan has seen, hers was a voice set against the Islamists, and thus important — have been polluted by partisam pettiness and radicalism…but I suppose such phenomena are becoming more prevalent in Canadian mosques.

Related note: Canadian feminists seem eerily quiet on the open sexism of said mosques. Asking women to enter by a side door, reserving the main entrance for men only? People get in such a tizzy (rightly so) when a priest requests that women not step onto the altar at a Christian church, but Islam seems to get a pass from the chattering classes. What gives?

(In Soviet Russia, hat tips you: Small Dead Animals and Kathy Shaidle)