We are launching this report on Rebel Media and its influence online in a world where click-bait content, conspiracy theories and untruths become fact in the minds of some.

DOWNLOAD THE REPORT HERE

This report, entitled ‘Rebel Media – a platform promoting division, white nationalism and fear mongering‘ highlights the following. Key points include the following:

• Ezra Levant has made a career out of using inflammatory language to gain audiences. He is the founder of Rebel Media and he has previously accused Gypsies of being “rapists, drug-dealers, thugs and murderers”.
• Former contributors on the payroll of Rebel Media have included Tommy Robinson, Lauren Southern, Katie Hopkins and Paul Joseph Watson. They are notorious for their anti-Muslim, anti-refugee and anti-migrant views as well as promoting views of a clash of cultures between the West and the East.
• Central to Rebel Media’s message is the platforming of far right ideology, many would identify as ‘counter-Jihadi’ and with slants that seek to portray a world view of ‘them and us’ – with Muslims in Europe being viewed as ‘them’.
• There are three heavily emphasized themes that make up Rebel Media’s output. These include, white nationalism, the rejection of ‘political correctness’ and its criticisms of Islam.
• It has 1.156 million subscribers on You Tube and 169,000 plus Facebook followers. It also has 161,000 Twitter followers meaning that it has a substantial online reach that can influence people across national boundaries.
• Groups like Rebel Media have successfully tapped into a wellspring of discontent and unease, ramping up fears that white people are facing a rapid decline managed by elitist institutions on the side of minorities and ‘homosexuals’ and by using immigration as a tool against white people.
• Rebel Media essentially believe that there is an Islamist infiltration through increased number of Muslim migrants.
• Ezra Levant, the founder of Rebel Media, was investigated for possible contempt of court charges for filming inside the Old Bailey in September 2018. The investigation was subsequently discontinued. He was filming Tommy Robinson during his trial for recording a short social media film outside Leeds Crown Court, which was hearing a grooming trial at the time.
• Two former ‘Rebel’ staffers have suggested that Rebel Media raises over $1,000,000 dollars in subscriptions per annum. It also received a $2 million payment from the anti-Muslim think tank, the Middle East Forum.
• It continues, like Infowars, to promote a view of white victimisation in a global world where liberal elites are conspiring against them.

The author of the report, Rabbil Sikdar said:

“Much more work needs to be done to counter the fake news around Muslims and the insinuation that building mosques or having halal-certified food amounts to a ‘Muslim takeover’. It alludes to a soft power approach by Islamists. People who buy into this false narrative are then likelier to protest against Islamic institutions like mosques and faith schools or call for fewer Muslims, or even support authoritarian measures against them. Rebel Media are essentially existing as a platform for the spread of fear and hate, and all their contributors work on this line. They have essentially globalised hate and we should be really concerned by that”.

Canadian Muslims travelling to the Hajj pilgrimage face delays coming back due to a diplomatic dispute with Saudi Arabia that is also prompting thousands of students from the kingdom to scramble to sell their assets and return home to meet a month-end deadline.

As the stalemate continues, Canada is reaching out to its allies, including the United States and European Union, to rally support, and talking to Saudi Arabia to resolve the dispute.

Riyadh abruptly severed diplomatic and trade ties earlier this month in response to Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland’s tweet demanding the release of civil society activists in the kingdom. Riyadh also ended state-backed educational and medical programs in Canada, resulting in Saudi students hustling to return home.

In Halifax, the Ummah Masjid organised yard sales to help students sell their furniture, electronics and even cars.

“Some of them, they only come one week ago and they are prepared to leave,” said Abdallah Yousri, the mosque’s imam. “Some of them, they were in Saudi Arabia for summer vacation, and they just came to sell their products and then [leave].”

As of the end of June, there were more than 5,100 Saudi students with valid study permits for post-secondary institutions in Canada.

Many Canadian Muslims had booked flights with Saudia, the Kingdom’s official airline, to perform the Hajj pilgrimages in the Saudi city of Mecca, which takes place from August 19 to 24 this year.

While Saudia trips to Mecca before August 13 were not affected, returns home prove to be a concern for many.

“We’re nervous as a family because we don’t want her to be stranded in an airport,” Jawad Chaudhry, a real estate broker in Hamilton, said of his mother, who is travelling via Saudia for Hajj.

SILENT ALLIES

Freeland has spoken with officials of the European Union, Germany, Sweden and the United Arab Emirates in an effort to find support, a spokesman for the foreign minister told Reuters.

“We have a dialogue that is continuing with the Saudis, that’s encouraging, we know that we need to maintain an open dialogue with them to resolve this issue,” he added.

But silence from Canada’s traditional backers has sparked some soul-searching in Ottawa.

The big issue is the future of foreign relationships in a world where Canada can no longer count on support from its major allies, said Roland Paris, a former foreign affairs adviser to Liberal Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

“We’re getting a glimpse of what the world looks like when the United States isn’t a strong advocate of human rights, one in which liberal democracies are keeping their heads down,” Paris said.

The U.S. State Department last week urged Canada and Saudi Arabia to use diplomacy to resolve their dispute, which did not come up during a phone call between U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman on Monday.

Bob Rae, former leader of the federal Liberal party, said Canada has to be more strategic about how to push its human rights agenda.

“There needs to be a clearer sense of strategy about why we are intervening in some situations and not in others, and how one would ever expect countries to take criticism without responding,” Rae told Reuters.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Wednesday said he would keep pressing Saudi Arabia on civil liberties amid a major diplomatic dispute but also offered an apparent olive branch, saying the kingdom had made some progress on human rights.

Saudi Arabian Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir – infuriated by Canada’s demand last week that jailed rights activists be released immediately – said earlier on Wednesday that there was no room for mediation, adding that Ottawa knew what it needed to do to “fix its big mistake.”

Riyadh on Sunday froze new trade with Canada and expelled the Canadian ambassador. It also ended state-backed educational and medical programmes in Canada.

Trudeau – who referred to the matter as “a diplomatic difference of opinion” – told reporters in Montreal that Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland had held a long conversation with her Saudi counterpart on Tuesday, but gave no details.

“Diplomatic talks continue … we don’t want to have poor relations with Saudi Arabia. It is a country that has great significance in the world, that is making progress in the area of human rights,” he said.

“But we will continue underscoring challenges where and when they exist, in Saudi Arabia and elsewhere,” he continued.

On Friday, Canada expressed concern over the arrests of activists in Saudi Arabia, including prominent women’s rights campaigner Samar Badawi.

Her brother Raif Badawi, a prominent blogger, is serving a 10-year sentence and has been publicly flogged for expressing dissenting opinions online. His wife and children live in Canada and are Canadian citizens.

A number of women’s rights activists, who campaigned for the right to drive and an end to the kingdom’s male guardianship system, have been targeted in a government crackdown in recent months, human rights’ groups say.

Jubeir said the kingdom was still “considering additional measures” against Canada, but did not elaborate. Canadian investments in Saudi Arabia were still ongoing and would not be affected by the dispute, he said.

The Financial Times, citing unidentified sources, reported that the Saudi central bank and state pension funds had instructed their overseas asset managers to dispose of their Canadian equities, bonds and cash holdings “no matter the cost”.

The central bank did not immediately respond to a Reuters query for comment. Canada’s foreign ministry said it was seeking clarity from the Saudi Arabian government.

A source at a Saudi bank told Reuters it was contacted by the central bank on Wednesday asking for information about all its Canadian exposure – investments in Canada and foreign exchange positions.

THREAT TO INVESTMENT?

Since rising to power in 2015, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has courted Western allies to support his reform plans, offering billions of dollars of arms sales and promising to fight radicalism in the kingdom.

But the row threatens to slow Riyadh’s foreign investment drive, a campaign already unsettled by a series of assertive foreign policy initiatives by the top oil exporter.

“Saudi Arabia simply cannot afford to alienate any other sections of the global community in the midst of its unpopular military engagement in Yemen, its indirect confrontation with Iran,” commentator Jamal Khashoggi wrote in the Washington Post.

In addition to the trade freeze, Riyadh has stopped sending patients to Canadian hospitals and told hundreds of trainee doctors to leave Canada with only weeks’ notice.

That could disrupt Canadian hospitals and end a 40-year-old program to train specialists for the kingdom.

Saudi authorities also suspended educational exchanges, and moved Saudi scholars to other countries. Saudi’s state airline said it was suspending flights to and from Toronto.

Saudi Arabia’s main state wheat-buying agency told grains exporters it will no longer accept Canadian-origin grains in international tenders, European traders said.

Bilateral trade between Canada and Saudi Arabia is worth nearly $4 billion a year. Canadian exports to Saudi Arabia were about $1.12 billion in 2017, or 0.2 percent of the total value of Canadian exports.

On Tuesday, Reuters reported that Canada planned to seek help from United Arab Emirates and Britain to defuse the row.

A Sikh man has taught his local mayor in Canada how to tie a turban and dance bhangra – and the video of the process has gone viral with more than a million views.

Gurdeep Pandher suggested the idea to the mayor of the City of Whitehorse, Yukon, Dan Curtis, who described it as the “coolest thing he’d ever been asked to do”.

As well as seeing the mayor dance, the video also serves as a tutorial on how to tie a Sikh turban as the complete video shows the process from beginning to end.

“It shows we can still connect people from other communities and cultures and build bridges with each other,” Pandher told Reuters, when asked about his inspiration for making the video.

On November 14, firefighters responded to a fire at the only mosque in Peterborough, Ontario, Canada.  The fire at the Masjid Al-Salaam broke out at around 11pm. Heavy smoke damage inside the mosque could cost more than $80,000 to fix. Nor did the flames injure anyone inside.

Around 30 minutes earlier, 70 worshipers had welcomed and celebrated the birth of a young couple’s child.

Peterborough Police Service are treating the fire as a hate crime. At a press conference they confirmed that a mosque window was broken and an accelerant was placed inside and then set on fire.

It shocked communities of all faiths and none into action. Within hours, thousands had donated to an online crowdfund in support of the mosque. Within 48 hours of the arson, donations had reached $91,000. In total, the appeal raised $110,536. The Kawartha Muslim Religious Association (KMRA) asked to stop the fundraising appeal after meeting its repair goal. Any outstanding money will go to other charitable causes.

Canada’s Anglican community also helped raise funds. The clericus of the regional deanery in Peterborough donated $250 and asked other parishes to match the amount. That appeal should help raise thousands of dollars, according to Dean Gloria Master.

Friday prayers have taken place in the Mark Street United Church.

Mark Street United Church opening its doors to Masjid Al-Salaam mosque members: https://t.co/48WN2gjxE1 #ptbomosque pic.twitter.com/ZsseAzueIy

— CHEX Newswatch (@CHEXNewswatch) November 20, 2015

It then switched to the local Beth Israel Synagogue. In the evening, worshipers used the space for their annual evening potluck social. In respect of the kosher settings, it was their first vegetarian potluck event.

Next week, Friday prayers will take place inside the Anglican All Saints’ Church.

Communities in Toronto responded to rising prejudice with solidarity events with Muslim communities. In Newfoundland and Labrador, hundreds, irrespective of faith, attended a solidarity event at a local mosque.

A Facebook page setup in support of the mosque has attracted thousands of likes and vast amounts of public support.

The post How faith and non-faith communities helped repair a mosque damaged by arson appeared first on Religious Reader.

In a blow to Stephen Harper’s government, the Federal Court of Appeal found a ban on wearing niqabs at citizenship ceremonies unlawful.

Three justices wanted to rule now so Zunera Ishaq could take her citizenship oath and vote in the elections that will decide Canada’s next parliament on October 19.

Ishaq, 29, moved to Ontario in 2008 to be with her husband. She had agreed to remove her niqab for an official before completing her citizenship test in 2013. But objected to removing it during a public ceremony, as required under a 2011 rule change.

“The government of Canada will seek leave to appeal to the Supreme Court of Canada in the Ishaq case,” Immigration Minister Chris Alexander said in a one-line statement.

Paul Daly, Assistant Professor at the Faculty of Law at the Université de Montréal tweeted:

Very, very little chance leave will be granted. https://t.co/US9m5EKXd1

— Paul Daly (@pauldalyesq) September 16, 2015

Judge Keith Boswell argued that citizenship judges must allow for religious freedom when administering the oath.

Boswell questioned the practicalities of a policy that asks individuals to ‘violate’ or ‘renounce’ tenets of their religion.

The judgement brought tears of relief to Ishaq, her family, and supporters. Ishaq later spoke of her pride and desire to vote in the upcoming election.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper, who faces a tight campaign to get re-elected, argued that the niqab derives from an ‘anti-woman’ culture. The opposition Liberals and New Democrats argued the 2011 ban stokes anti-Muslim sentiment. Harper argued that the niqab is antithetic to Canadian values. To prove this point, the niqab ban became a campaign issue.

Agree with @pmharper? Sign your support: https://t.co/uWOOR2B0Pv #cdnpoli #cpc pic.twitter.com/lxoURIcRHL

— Conservative Party (@CPC_HQ) February 17, 2015

A subsequent campaign email that promoted the petition confused the niqab with the hijab (a non-face veil).

Of course it is possible that someone in #CPC land didn’t know the difference between hijab and niqab. #cdnpoli pic.twitter.com/E9qn6xiT9G

— Susan Delacourt (@SusanDelacourt) February 18, 2015

In a heated debate in the House of Commons back in March, Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau had questioned why Prime Minister Stephen Harper seemed to suggest that Islam is ‘anti-women’. Harper responded that a majority of Canadians, including moderate Muslims, favoured a ban.

New Democrats Leader Tom Mulcair criticised both Trudeau and Harper’s inflammatory rhetoric. Mulcair remarked that ‘it’s undignified from a Canadian prime minister‘ to suggest that Islamic culture is ‘anti-women’.

Some women used the hashtag #DressCodePM to ask if their own clothing choices would gain Harper’s approval.

During an earlier debate on Canada’s counter-terrorism legislation, Harper noted on the topic of radicalisation that “It doesn’t matter what the age of the person is, or whether they’re in a basement, or whether they’re in a mosque or somewhere else”. Mulcair then responded “It was irresponsible of the prime minister to throw the mosques into his comments. It was a form of Islamophobia and it was wrong.” A  spokesman dismissed the accusation in an email to CBC.

Anxieties towards the niqab reflect how some attach broader and negative attitudes more broadly associated with Muslims with a desire to veil. The decision to wear (or remove) a veil presents  complexities beyond simplistic assumptions.

In an op-ed for the Toronto Star, Zunera Ishaq wrote, ‘I have taken my niqab off for security and identity reasons in every case where that’s been required of me’. A decision to wear the niqab, she argued, had  religious and non-religious aspects. The latter created a sense of empowerment through a concentration on the inner self.

In spite of the defeat, the Conservatives intend to introduce legislation to ban niqabs at citizenship ceremonies in “the days ahead.”

The post Canada’s niqab ban at citizenship ceremonies ruled unlawful appeared first on Religious Reader.