A renewed and aggressive launch is underway to smear the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) as “Islamophobic” for investigating highly questionable Islamic charities. A relentless effort to stop the CRA has been ongoing. Now comes a portentous news item from the Hill Times: “Civil liberties groups call for immediate moratorium on ‘prejudiced audits’ of Muslim charities pending NSIRA review.” The article begins:
Nearly two years after raising concerns that the Canada Revenue Agency is unfairly targeting Muslim charities, civil liberties advocates say the formal review into the agency’s auditing process should not be an excuse for the federal government to ignore “ample evidence of systemic discrimination” in its approach to countering terrorist financing in the philanthropic sector.
On March 8, the National Security and Intelligence Review Agency (NSIRA) notified the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) it had started a review that would focus on the CRA’s Review and Analysis Division (RAD), primarily its “national security activities and decision-making relating to registered Canadian charities, to assess their reasonableness, necessity, and compliance with the law.”
There is no “systemic discrimination” against Muslims in Canada. Any efforts to combat anti-Muslim bigotry are completely separate from confronting national security issues and jihad terror financing. The National Security and Intelligence Review Agency (NSIRA) is one of Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s fox-guarding-the-henhouse groups, comprised of a chair and committee members appointed by Trudeau.
Who are the “civil liberties groups” mentioned in the Hill Times report who are making demands? Two out of three have little standing, and one (the National Council of Canadian Muslims) is well known for employing the “Islamophobia” subterfuge. The little-known International Civil Liberties Monitoring Group, with a staff of two, has “concerns about national and international anti-terrorism legislation.” These laws are in place to help victims of terror and to prevent or stymie terrorism. For instance, Canada Revenue Agency’s Review and Analysis Division (RAD) operates under the Anti-Terrorism Act, and is responsible for preventing “the abuse of registered charities for the financing of terrorism.”
The Toronto Institute of Islamic Studies is another so-called “civil liberties group” at the University of Toronto; it is “temporarily closed.”
The National Council of Canadian Muslims (NCCM) is the real power broker. Much has been written about this organization at Jihad Watch, and for good reason. See HERE. This Muslim advocacy group (formerly CAIR-CAN) is an offshoot of unindicted co-conspirator CAIR.
As Suzanna Johnston writes in her article, “Canada’s Islamists Impede the Counterjihad while Seeking Taxpayer Monies”:
NCCM’s influence became further evident in June of 2021 when Canadian MPs unanimously voted to host an emergency summit to combat “Islamophobia” which took place the following month. The NCCM used the summit to boost its long-standing campaign to cripple the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA), which had been auditing Muslim charities suspected of sending money to terror organizations overseas. The NCCM has long pushed for the repeal of the 2015 Anti-Terrorism Act, which established the Review and Analysis Division (RAD), a bureau within the CRA charged with preventing “the abuse of registered charities for the financing of terrorism.”
The CRA put itself on NCCM’s agenda after it shut down two Muslim Brotherhood-linked charities. In 2011, the CRA closed the International Relief Fund for the Afflicted and Needy-Canada (IRFAN Canada) for supporting Hamas, a listed terror organization by Canada and the United States. Three years later, the Canadian government listed IRFAN-Canada itself as a terrorist entity in 2014.
Also, in May 2021, during Operation Guardian of the Walls, a defensive Israeli operation in response to a barrage of Hamas rocket fire, the NCCM formally urged the Canadian government to “condemn the attacks on Al-Aqsa Mosque,” and sent out a petition for supporters to “demand” that the government “publicly” condemn “the Israeli incursions onto Al Aqsa and the killing of multiple civilians,” as well as to “chart forward a clear and public vision for how to hold Israel, one of Canada’s allies, accountable for repeatedly breaking international human rights law.”
This egregious misrepresentati
Against this backdrop of the abuse of Islamic holy sites by Palestinian extremists, one might have expected to see widespread condemnation by Canadian Muslim organizations against this appalling desecration and defilement of a sacred holy site. One organization, the National Council of Canadian Muslims (NCCM), published a condemnation, but rather than pointing the finger at the Palestinian perpetrators who committed the violence, it opted to blame Israel.
Nonetheless, despite the record of the NCCM, Trudeau appointed the NCCM’s former communications director Amira Elghawaby as Canada’s “Islamophobia czar.”
Among the two biggest agendas for the NCCM have been: 1. smearing the province of Quebec as “Islamophobic” due to Quebec’s secularist law Bill 21, which bans the hijab (and other religious symbols) while on the job. When Canada’s Supreme court decided in 2020 that it wouldn’t hear any challenge to this law, the NCCM vowed to “continue fighting the law in court.” The second big agenda for the NCCM is smearing the Canada Revenue Agency as “Islamophobic” to stop it from scrutinizing Muslim charities.
For now, the NCCM has backed away from its first agenda to fight Bill 21, because of severe backlash from Quebec over Elghawaby. After she became “Islamophobia” czar, her disparaging words about Quebec returned to haunt her. She had stated:
Unfortunately, the majority of Quebecers appear to be swayed not by the rule of law, but by anti-Muslim sentiment.
In the same obscene manner that she attacks the “majority of Quebecers,” she and her allies now smear the Canada Revenue Agency as “Islamophobic” for doing its job. Yet Trudeau’s National Revenue Minister Diane Lebouthillier issued a blanket statement about the Trudeau government, indicating that it “stands with and supports Muslim communities across Canada and reaffirms its commitment to take action to denounce and tackle Islamophobia, hate-fueled violence, and systemic discrimination whenever and wherever it occurs.”
Does that “support” extend unconditionally to all Muslim lobbies?
In a positive statement, Gabriel Bourget, Lebouthillier’s director of communications, made an important fact clear:
The Canada Revenue Agency is an independent, arms-length agency, and as such, the Minister of National Revenue does not intervene in the audit operations of the Agency.
So now it appears that the only recourse left for the NCCM is to use any willing media or advocacy group to try to smear the CRA as “Islamophobic,” and to continue to lobby for any support it might get.
Back in December, the Globe and Mail published an article about the CRA “targeting” Canada’s largest Muslim Organization, the Muslim Association of Canada (MAC). The article exposed “an elaborate fiction about federal investigators using paid informants to build a terrorist-funding case against the charity.” The investigators in question were from the RCMP and Canada Revenue Agency; they were said to be using underhanded tactics to implicate the MAC.
For more than a year, the Muslim Association of Canada has been receiving documents from an anonymous sender that suggest authorities are attempting to entrap the organization, sowing turmoil within the grassroots group. It operates 22 mosques and community centres and 30 schools in 13 cities.
But a Globe and Mail investigation discovered all the documents to be fake. The mysterious documents were defamatory and malicious, suggesting that “Islamophobic” acts were committed by paid informants of the RCMP and Canada Revenue Agency. From where did this set-up originate? It’s a mystery, but nevertheless, the Muslim Association of Canada went into full attack mode:
Despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary, MAC is not convinced the documents are fake. The organization is calling on the federal government to launch an independent investigation aimed at determining whether someone in a government department or agency is engaging in “Islamophobic tactics against the Muslim community”.
Indirectly, the Trudeau government is doing just that by siccing the National Security and Intelligence Review Agency (NSIRA) on the Canada Revenue Agency.
The Muslim Association of Canada has a disturbing background. The National Post published an article, “The Liberals are funding hate. How else to describe the speakers at this Toronto convention?,” which bore the subtitle: “Speakers at Muslim Association of Canada gathering will include one who advocates the death penalty for homosexuality and another who says it’s OK to beat your wife.” As the article points out, the Trudeau government, which boasts of its commitment to “diversity” and “inclusion,” provided the MAC “with more than $3 million in federal ‘anti-hate,’ youth engagement and security funding over the past three years.” Jihad Watch reported more on this HERE .
Last April, the Muslim Association of Canada launched a Charter of Rights challenge against the CRA, claiming “systemic Islamophobia.” The MAC insisted that a CRA audit posed “an ‘existential threat’ to the organization because it threatens to revoke its charitable status and raises the possibility of damaging sanctions.” The Charter challenge held (or holds) little merit. United Press International reported some disturbing findings about the Muslim Association of Canada and its connection to IRFAN-Canada in 2015:
The Muslim Association of Canada (MAC), one of the largest Muslim organizations in the country, is being accused of funneling money to designated terrorist organization IRFAN-Canada. A Canadian police raid found that MAC gave $296,514 to IRFAN-Canada between 2001 and 2010, according to The Toronto Sun.
The Toronto Sun headline is no longer online, but here’s a screenshot:
Another report from 24News.ca:
The Mounties, citing Canada Revenue Agency disclosure, say: “The Muslim Association of Canada (MAC) provided $296,514 between 2001 and 2010” to IRFAN-Canada.
A year before that (2014), Revenue Canada concluded this about IRFAN:
IRFAN-Canada is a not for profit organization operating in Canada. Between 2005 and 2009, IRFAN-Canada transferred approximately $14.6 million worth of resources to various organizations associated with HAMAS, a listed terrorist entity under the Criminal Code.
The MAC is rooted in the Muslim Brotherhood, according to its own words, although the statement has since been removed from its website:
Is the CRA really “Islamophobic” to investigate Muslim charities? No, not based on its troubling record. But the CRA’s reputation is now under the unwarranted scrutiny of the Trudeau-appointed NSIRA. In the meantime, Canada can expect the NCCM (and any willing collaborators) to continue their efforts to protect questionable Muslim charities from scrutiny and investigation by the Canada Revenue Agency.
