A CONVICTED terrorist, who took part in the hijacking and subsequent blowing up of of a TWA flight that was on its way from Rome to Athens, has been invited to take part in a UBC Alma Mater (Student) Society Conference Saturday.
Leila Khaled, according to Wikipedia, didn’t even serve out her criminal sentence, but was freed in an exchange after her group, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, kidnapped more CIVILIAN HOSTAGES! She later was reportedly involved in additional hijackings carried out by the terrorist group Black September.
Khaled is now described as the “poster girl for Palestinian militancy”.
Of course, with her criminal record, Khaled can’t personally get into the country. No problem! The pro-Palestinian student group that has invited her, and UBC’s Student Union are getting around that… and will feature her, using Skype.
But she is exactly the kind of militant Islamist, with a record of violence, who apparently has never apologized for her actions (or what she put innocent airline passengers through) should have NO PLACE at any conference table in Canada.
Canadians have recently been forced to come to terms with the reality that VIOLENCE-PRONE Islamic militancy IN Canada, BY Canadians is growing. A lot of attention is being focussed on possible recruiting or agitation that may be taking place at some mosques and community organizations.
We should look at Canadian universities as well.
This is not a matter of freedom of speech: judging by who is organizing it, I don’t expect the “conference” to be a fair discussion of Mid-East issues, but another one of those anti-Israel agitation campaigns that now permeate Canadian university campuses.
No one seriously expects anything good … like encouraging peace or dialogue or compromise by both sides ….to ever come out of these things. They are meant solely to propagandize, create anti-Israel (and anti-Jewish) sentiment that can do little more than further divide and separate Canadian society.
I support freedom of speech, but couldn’t these agitators at least find peaceful anti-Israel critics to further their agenda? There’s a whole slew of them at the highest levels of the United Church, the Canadian Union of Postal Workers, British MPs, other Arab spokespersons, organizers etc.
But a convicted terrorist? No! Not in my country!
When agitating activists invite unrequited convicted terrorists to take part … that’s is going too far.
What possible beneficial reason would there be for Khaled … who, even evaded justice through her terrorist allies seizing hostages to free her … be welcome to participate in a conference at the University of British Columbia?
Canada already has a growing problem of growing Islamic militancy. Who’s to say, or guarantee, that NONE of those attending or taking part, won’t be motivated by this militancy “hero” to “action” or join Jihad themselves?
UBC is ignoring its responsibility to protect Canadians from criminal agitators.
Harv Oberfeld
I wonder how loud Oaken Noggin spoke out when Ann Coulter and other speakers from the right, including one of Canada’s best investigative reporters, were shouted down and left unprotected by what is loosely called “security” at various other universities?
(Response: We must be very careful to protect free speech … not ban people just because we disagree. But as I say there ARE legally established limits ..and I think a convicted terrorist who avoided justice exceeds those limits. (Try to imagine the fear of those passengers she helped hijack on that plane from Rome to Athens … or the victims or families of the those kidnapped and threatened by Black September to extort her release.)
I don’t think you can correctly categorize Khaled as an Islamist, her actions predate that phenomenon, she seems much more a secular nationalist. This distinction is important because while the former is irreconcilable with western values the latter is not.
Without condoning her actions or diminishing the anguish of the passengers caught up in the hijacks, her personal motivations are easy to comprehend. Her family was expelled from Haifa in 1948 and they can never return to the city of her birth for no reason other than their race. Also let’s not forget, she didn’t kill anyone, which is more than can be said for many former terrorists from that region who went on to become successful politicians, I’m thinking specifically of of Begin and Sharon.
I admit it’s a difficult call but she appears to be the kind of person with whom negotiation and resolution would be possible, given the willingness to take difficult decisions. For that reason alone, even setting aside the principle of free expression, the UBC decision seems to me justifiable.
(Response: You can call her what you want. The fact is she IS a convicted terrorist, who not only committed a horendous crime, but who also who escaped justice by escaping after her “friends” took civilian hostages! Unless you’re willing to say free speech is TOTAL free speech (be very careful to weigh what that would really mean, on the streets, in mosques,at rallies etc. ) we have to have limits in this country; and surely someone who did what she did and avoided justice crosses our line. And I have no doubt if UBC students relish the idea of having some other anti-Israel speakers appear at a totally one-sided propaganda rally, they can find them among others who are not at least convicted terrorists. h.o)
Harvey, I have never agreed with any blog more than this one. People in this country have deluded themselves into believing that Canada is not a target for terrorist activities. Ive mentioned before I was at Fraser Surrey Docks the day the USS COLE was attacked. About a dozen of my “fellow” truckers erupted into an impromptu victory dance. The same happened after 9 . 11. Many of my fellow truckers passed cartoons of George Bush with an airliner stuck up his ass. The influence of the radical arm of Islam has permeated our culture. We only need look to Europe to see the problems of allowing this to go unchecked.
As far as thinking that university students need freedom to express their views that is also missguided. Universities are perfect places to infiltrate and propogandize people that are at a rebelious age.
I fear that we have allready lost any hope of stopping radical Islamic followers from becoming “HOME GROWN” terrorists. I predict that in the years to come the Boston bombings will become a fact life in North America.
(Responses: I believe Canadian universities ARE purposely being used by Islamic militants to spread their message. This really should be investigated by the media much more deeply. At my old alma mater, Concordia University, I have heard that pro-Palestinian militants enrolled in just a couple of classes so they would qualify as “students” and then spend much of their time organizing many, many anti-Israel on-campus events. They take advantage our “free speech” liberalism when it suits their purpose , but interestingly, at Concordia, they turned violent … rioting and smashing windows … to prevent Israel’s Netanyahu from speaking there. Canadians had better wake up to what’s going on at our campuses. h.o)
“I have heard that pro-Palestinian militants enrolled in just a couple of classes so they would qualify as “students” and then spend much of their time organizing many, many anti-Israel on-campus events”
Harvey–I have lots of respect for your journalistic talents. Have you checked out that story and verified it or can point to someone who has?
If true, it should be exposed and the university should be condemned. If not, well that’s the same quality of journalism I expect from Faux news and the other corporate shills…
(Response: Yes. Someone I know who works there now. And some of the “student” activities involve some very sophisticated, week-long anti-Israel activities, dramatizations, complete with “sets”, actors playing roles etc. I was pretty active at university, but never had that kind of resources, access to money or, most importantly, TIME that would be needed to carry some of these activities. h.o)
Harv
why is she not turned back by canadian border services
this is not about freedom of speech, it is about condoning terrorism
the universities are ripe picking for subversives , always have been always will be.
(Response: They got around that by having her participate, as I mentioned, on Skype. The responsibility is paramount with the university to ensure end runs around Canadian laws and anti-terrorism stance do not take place on campus…. not just put their heads in the sand and hope that no jihadist violence eventually comes from it. h.o)
Maybe there is an upside to an event such as this. If CSIS is doing their job they should be able to infiltrate the venue at UBC and begin collecting intel regarding the students in attendance Then if something happens down the road they will have a list of potential suspects to work with.
Just a thought.
(Response: I wouldn’t be surprised if CSIS already knows/watches the organizers and their “regulars” very well or will have an observer on site. But we have to be careful: it’s their right to hold events like this … but I’m not sure a university should allow itself to be used for events where actual convicted airplane hijackers are featured guests. h.o)
So she is Skyping in. The students group are not breaking any laws, they are using the internet to creative ends . We may not agree with them ( i wouldn’t waste a minute to listen) but they have the right to hold this event. Voices whether we agree with them or not are free to connect. I am with them. Students have been pushing boundaries forever…
(Response: So therefore a radical Imam, openly supporting violence against, let’s say Canada and the West,like hijackings and blowing up airplanes, should be able to spread his message at mosques, rallies and radical gatherings across Canada, as long he does it via Skype? That’s exactly the naieve ultra liberal thinking that is allowing radical Islamists to take advantage and spread their militancy in Western countries. And then we wonder why home-grown disaffected misfits build bombs to attack our own sites and kill many people if they can. h.o)
I tend to be with Harvey on this matter, and I tend to think that SunMedia is in the vanguard of those networks that are shining a bright light on some long hidden facts. Universities, and public run networks like CBC are more likely to be against Israeli policy in the middle east, but then they are opposed to most Catholic moral stances too. Though none are totally in the right; ever hear some Orthodox Jews on the subject of the messianic aspect of Jesus Christ, and the Christian faith in general. Still in general we are more likely to stand together against radical Islam. The NDP will eventually, if in power long enough, defund Catholic and other parochial schools, and I think it foolish to deny that fact (though many of the schools are Catholic in name only) but boy do we make concessions for Islamic schools and practices, even in so-called ‘public’ schools! Sorry for the ramble!
Agree 100% with 13! Hadaway has had his day, on this subject and a dozen others. As soon as the say “…. without condoning her actions” he claiims and then goes ahead and does exactly that. If they think they are going to change by force and intimidation of the Judeo-Christian way of life, they are sadly mistaken.Have they forgotten the Battle of Lepanto already?
Larry Bennett, there’s a difference between condoning a person’s action, which I don’t, and understanding why they acted that way, which I do. I have said before that having seen the effects of terrorism first hand I view it with repugnance. However can any of us be certain how we would behave in the event that, for example, we had been expelled as a child from our home and languished for years in the despair of a refugee camp? I think not.
I’m always happy to have factual errors pointed out, but can do without the puns and arcane history.
Just finished watching Ezra Levant on SunMedia on channel 177 at Shaw Cable (to their eternal shame, Telus does not carry it) talking to Pamela Gellar who will be coming to Toronto to talk at a local synagogue about growing influence by Islamists. The Rabbi of that synagogue was threatened by a Muslim spokesman of the York police, saying he would lose his place as a “padre” for the force should he allow her to speak! Absolutely unbelievable!
(Response: Talk about a double standard. Do you think if she hijacks her flight and then has the plane blown up after it lands, she would be more acceptable and her right to participate would be more defensible? h.o)
Political correctness, muticultural, tollerance , these are just a few terms that all Islamic terrorists embrace.
(Response: Yes…when it comes to themselves. Ever notice how intolerant they are towards everyone else …including moderate Muslims! h.o)
This would be the Pamela Geller whose blog, Atlas Shrugs, showed fake photographs of (Jewish) supreme Court judge Elena Kagan wearing a Nazi uniform, President Obama urinating over a US flag, another with the face of a pig superimposed on the Prophet Mohammed, a video ‘proving’ Muslims have sex with goats, accusations that Obama had sex with a crack whore, is the illegitimate son of Malcom X and his mother appeared in pornography.
But I still think she has a right to speak freely.
(Response: Freedom of speech has nothing to do with taste or vulgarity. But we do have laws … and I think that, while horrible3 “art” is not illegal, hijacking, blowing up airplanes and taking hostages kind of is! At least in my country. As for Pamela I hope she expresses her art some day in Iran, joshing Amedinijad or in Saudi Arabia, despoiling a pic of the King. h.o)
Harv – settle down…remember the rules and what is right / wrong …. they are for us…. the majority.
Minorities dont have to follow them because they play the race card, or the no-english card, or the religion card.
In Canada, minorities also get a get-out-of-jail-free card….if you are willing to go to a sweat lodge.
Dont forget your sunscreen folks ( most of you anyways…)
🙂
(Response: Now, now. It just SEEMS the majority are being discriminated against, because of all the rulings, exceptions, accommodations, excuses, being given only to and for the others. While churches, synagogues or community centres are bombed or regularly burned overseas …their followers live in terror of their “neighbours” or struggle under barbaric “laws”, or even are BANNED outright from even visiting certain countries. Why? Because WE, despite our lack of perfection, are more civilized ..and these others come from countries others that are not…. and then DARE to tell us WE have to bend further to accommodate them! h.o)
GeeBee007 – I would certainly be willing to a sweat lodge instead of jail (as long as it isn’t male only, or Masonic). That said, if I were caught speeding and told the cop that it was okay because I had a St. Christopher on the dash, I am bloody well sure Father Flanagan or whomever, wouldn’t back me up on that!
Well Harvey, once again a ex-journalist raging about freedom of speech…..except when….. Tell us Harvey, do you know the names of the Group called the IRGUN who are responsible for the bombing of the King David Hotel. The planners of the Lavon Affair, the attempted sinking of the USS Liberty and the murder and maiming of the Sailors on that ship? As a matter of fact, this Benghazi Incident which the American Congress won’t let go of is earily similar to the attempt by Israel to sink the USS Liberty. And keep in mind, most people do not have any problems with Israelis, it’s the Zionists that seem to be behind all of the greif in the Middle East. I assure you, if the United States did not provide the Zionists with the high tech weaponry they have then Israel would soon be making peace with the Palestinians, as well as learn to get along with other nations affairs.
(Response: I guess your values are different from mine…and almost all other Canadians. It doesn’t matter what group terrorists identify with…if they proudly proclaim their terrorist acts have been CONVICTED for them …but got out of jail only because other terrorists took civilian hostages and threatened them unless their friend was freed …. WE DON’T welcome them in Canada as speaking guests! As for the Zionists being behind all the grief in the Middle East..your bigotry is showing. How in the world can you blame Israel for the civil war in Syria, the oppression of freedom in Ran and the revolutions in Egypt, Libya??? I have no doubt most people, without your hatred, would surmise those actions have EVERYTHING to do with the dictators who ran those countries. Only a few like you would blame the Jewish state for those problems. I feel sorry for you, really. h.o)
“The Israeli Initiative is loosely based on the yearlong “Israel Inspires” campaign last year at Rutgers University, when the National Student Conference of the Palestine Solidarity Movement held its annual event in New Brunswick, NJ, the Rutgers base….Jewish students at Duke have planned an anti-terrorism rally and rock concert, followed by a pro-Israeli Shabbaton to coincide with the PSM gathering.
While many leftists have happily worked with Arab or Muslim groups in opposition to perceived U.S. or Israeli imperialism, alliances between leftists and Islamists are relatively unusual, and Taheri’s sole example of a leftist actually praising Islamist terrorists is from Carlos the Jackal, a terrorist himself. As discussed above, leftists widely condemned the September 11 attacks, although some differed from those to their right by contextualizing the attacks in terms of what they see as comparable or worse acts of imperialist violence. More typical examples of leftists working in anti-war coalitions with Muslims would be the membership of American Muslims for Jerusalem in UFPJ or of the Muslim Student Association, American Muslims for Global Peace, and Atlanta Masjid of Al-Islam in ANSWER. These are Muslim groups, but they are not Islamist groups.