Calgary court bans Syed Soharwardy, Nagah Hage, from Jewish mall
Calgary anti-Semites Nagah Hage and Syed Soharwardy have been leading the pro-Hamas, pro-Hezbollah hate marches in the Jewish neighbourhood of Calgary. Neither Hage nor Soharwardy live anywhere nearby, of course; they truck in their foul-mouthed supporters -- who fly the flag of the criminal organization, Hezbollah -- to chant "death to the Jews", and wave swastikas in the face of the local citizens.
The mob comes week after week.
At the last hate march, one of Hage's followers declared -- within earshot of a policeman -- that he was ready to become a suicide "martyr" in Canada or anywhere else. Another one spat at a Jewish rabbi on the way to the next-door synagogue.
Soharwardy himself wrote a proud letter to the Calgary Herald, wishing that Hamas could see their rally. Soharwardy tends to say things like that. After the tsunami, Soharwardy claimed that Western aid agencies were actually kidnapping little Muslim children, not helping them.
What a bunch of bigots.
What puzzled me about the whole thing, though, was that it was all going on on private property. The mall is owned by RioCan. Like all such malls, the owner invites the public onto their property to do business. But it is not an unconditional invitation, and it is not irrevocable. 200 shoppers bused in from across town is one thing; but 200 Hamas supporters blocking tenants and screaming at Jewish customers is something else altogether.
On Friday -- finally! -- RioCan went to court. (I contend that a court appearance was never necessary; RioCan doesn't go to court when skateboarders loiter -- they just tell the trespassers to leave or they'll call the cops.) RioCan appeared before Justice C.S. Brooker of Calgary's Court of Queen's Bench. Justice Brooker granted an injunction banning Hage, Soharwardy and all of the other trespassers from the mall.
That order was posted conspicuously at the mall, where the mob typically gathered.
And on Saturday at noon, they started to gather again.
The Jew-hating Hamas supporters showed up, as per usual. But this time -- for the first time -- the Calgary Police Service didn't act as the mob's bodyguards. They pointed to the court order, and told the Hamas supporters to leave.
And after some grumbling, they did.
In fact, there were never more than 30 Hamas supporters there at any one time, and they were there only briefly.
No Jews were spat at.
No terrorist flags were flown.
No swastikas were thrust in the face of Jewish tenants or customers.
Hage and Soharwardy are surely not done. The fact that their bigoted rally was planned for this weekend -- though Israel's incursion into Gaza was long over by then -- shows that this really wasn't about Gaza at all. It was about exactly what their signs and chants said it was about: hating Jews, destroying Israel, and -- as per their chant -- "death to the Jews".
The fact that it was planned for a Saturday, a block away from a Jewish synagogue, shows they meant to emphasize the anti-Jewish nature of their march.
Is this a happy ending?
In a way it's a happy ending -- if three weeks too late.
But the question is: why did it take a court to have to make that order?
Why were local politicians silent about this display of bigotry, week after week?
Why did the Calgary Police Service permit this unruly mob onto private property in the first place? Why were trespass charges not laid against them weeks ago? Why did the police do nothing when a pro-Israel counter-protester had a shoe thrown at him, and when a rabbi was spat at? Why were assault charges not laid against them?
The answer is obvious: local politicians have done their math. There are only 8,000 Jews in Calgary, and more than 75,000 Muslims. Denouncing anti-Semitic bigotry is fine for politicians when the bigots are politically powerless neo-Nazi skinheads. When they're radical Muslims, funded by Saudi Arabia, the politicians fall silent.
Same for Canada's Orwellian human rights commissions. They claim to be against "hate". They're awfully brave at taking on Christian clergy who preach the Bible's "hateful" Book of Leviticus. But notice their cowardly silence in the face of mass hate marches in the streets. Jennifer Lynch is probably off on some other five-star junket to study how Cameroon keeps their people so free.
The police aren't much better: it's easier to tell a handful of pro-Israel supporters to leave than to tangle with 200 angry Muslim radicals. It's not only the politically correct thing to do, it's just plain easier. I mean, really: who's more likely to throw a molotov cocktail at you, or stab you -- a few middle-aged Jews, or some just-off-the-plane radicals from Pakistan and Saudi Arabia, here to promote sharia law?
A friend sends me this news from Sweden: there was a pro-Israel rally that was crashed by Hamas supporters. The Jews had a protest permit; the terrorist supporters did not. The Jews were peaceful; the terrorist supporters cut the P.A. system, and:
Bigots like Soharwardy and Hage used the Israel-Hamas war as a fig-leaf to justify their hate marches. But it wasn't about that -- that was just the excuse of the day. Hage and Soharwardy have a permanent anti-Semitic campaign, a campaign to undermine the West, to support terrorist groups that would destroy Canada, and to bring in sharia law, to replace our Canadian constitution.
Hage and Soharwardy won't be back at the mall in Glenmore Landing. But they're certainly not done their foul mission yet -- and as long as our political, media and police establishments continue to treat them as polite company, they'll keep right at it.
The mob comes week after week.
At the last hate march, one of Hage's followers declared -- within earshot of a policeman -- that he was ready to become a suicide "martyr" in Canada or anywhere else. Another one spat at a Jewish rabbi on the way to the next-door synagogue.
Soharwardy himself wrote a proud letter to the Calgary Herald, wishing that Hamas could see their rally. Soharwardy tends to say things like that. After the tsunami, Soharwardy claimed that Western aid agencies were actually kidnapping little Muslim children, not helping them.
What a bunch of bigots.
What puzzled me about the whole thing, though, was that it was all going on on private property. The mall is owned by RioCan. Like all such malls, the owner invites the public onto their property to do business. But it is not an unconditional invitation, and it is not irrevocable. 200 shoppers bused in from across town is one thing; but 200 Hamas supporters blocking tenants and screaming at Jewish customers is something else altogether.
On Friday -- finally! -- RioCan went to court. (I contend that a court appearance was never necessary; RioCan doesn't go to court when skateboarders loiter -- they just tell the trespassers to leave or they'll call the cops.) RioCan appeared before Justice C.S. Brooker of Calgary's Court of Queen's Bench. Justice Brooker granted an injunction banning Hage, Soharwardy and all of the other trespassers from the mall.
That order was posted conspicuously at the mall, where the mob typically gathered.
And on Saturday at noon, they started to gather again.
The Jew-hating Hamas supporters showed up, as per usual. But this time -- for the first time -- the Calgary Police Service didn't act as the mob's bodyguards. They pointed to the court order, and told the Hamas supporters to leave.
And after some grumbling, they did.
In fact, there were never more than 30 Hamas supporters there at any one time, and they were there only briefly.
No Jews were spat at.
No terrorist flags were flown.
No swastikas were thrust in the face of Jewish tenants or customers.
Hage and Soharwardy are surely not done. The fact that their bigoted rally was planned for this weekend -- though Israel's incursion into Gaza was long over by then -- shows that this really wasn't about Gaza at all. It was about exactly what their signs and chants said it was about: hating Jews, destroying Israel, and -- as per their chant -- "death to the Jews".
The fact that it was planned for a Saturday, a block away from a Jewish synagogue, shows they meant to emphasize the anti-Jewish nature of their march.
Is this a happy ending?
In a way it's a happy ending -- if three weeks too late.
But the question is: why did it take a court to have to make that order?
Why were local politicians silent about this display of bigotry, week after week?
Why did the Calgary Police Service permit this unruly mob onto private property in the first place? Why were trespass charges not laid against them weeks ago? Why did the police do nothing when a pro-Israel counter-protester had a shoe thrown at him, and when a rabbi was spat at? Why were assault charges not laid against them?
The answer is obvious: local politicians have done their math. There are only 8,000 Jews in Calgary, and more than 75,000 Muslims. Denouncing anti-Semitic bigotry is fine for politicians when the bigots are politically powerless neo-Nazi skinheads. When they're radical Muslims, funded by Saudi Arabia, the politicians fall silent.
Same for Canada's Orwellian human rights commissions. They claim to be against "hate". They're awfully brave at taking on Christian clergy who preach the Bible's "hateful" Book of Leviticus. But notice their cowardly silence in the face of mass hate marches in the streets. Jennifer Lynch is probably off on some other five-star junket to study how Cameroon keeps their people so free.
The police aren't much better: it's easier to tell a handful of pro-Israel supporters to leave than to tangle with 200 angry Muslim radicals. It's not only the politically correct thing to do, it's just plain easier. I mean, really: who's more likely to throw a molotov cocktail at you, or stab you -- a few middle-aged Jews, or some just-off-the-plane radicals from Pakistan and Saudi Arabia, here to promote sharia law?
A friend sends me this news from Sweden: there was a pro-Israel rally that was crashed by Hamas supporters. The Jews had a protest permit; the terrorist supporters did not. The Jews were peaceful; the terrorist supporters cut the P.A. system, and:
"At some point, about a half an hour after the protest began, pro-Palestinian protestors began to throw eggs, bottles, and even a tear gas grenade," Meier recounted.Got it? A peaceful Jewish protest was physically attacked. The police response was to clear away the Jews. That's one step worse than police in Canada, but not a very big step.
...police stepped in and asked the unruly protestors to leave. Officers then proceeded to clear the square of all present, including those who had received permission to demonstrate.
Bigots like Soharwardy and Hage used the Israel-Hamas war as a fig-leaf to justify their hate marches. But it wasn't about that -- that was just the excuse of the day. Hage and Soharwardy have a permanent anti-Semitic campaign, a campaign to undermine the West, to support terrorist groups that would destroy Canada, and to bring in sharia law, to replace our Canadian constitution.
Hage and Soharwardy won't be back at the mall in Glenmore Landing. But they're certainly not done their foul mission yet -- and as long as our political, media and police establishments continue to treat them as polite company, they'll keep right at it.
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