WARMINGTON: Caliphate conference's cancellation a win, until they organize a new one
Full credit to the Jewish groups who fought off the terror conference, but they all know without listing the organizer as a terrorist organization, they could be facing a new event very soon
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So, the radical Islamic terror conference promoting a caliphate has been cancelled again.
Good news. Or is it, really?
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WARMINGTON: Caliphate conference's cancellation a win, until they organize a new one Back to video
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When it comes to antisemitism, I guess you take your wins when you find them.
“Breaking News. Israel Now reports that the Hizb Ut-Tahrir terrorist conference is cancelled,” the organization reported on X.
B’nai Brith Canada posted to X it is “proud to announce that the Hizb ut-Tahrir Khilafah Conference 2025 has been cancelled following our advocacy and engagement with senior officials, law enforcement, and concerned Canadians.”
The Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs (CIJA) posted: “More than 13,000 Canadians united to call on the federal government to stop the pro-Hamas Hizb ut-Tahrir from spreading its dangerous agenda” and “today, Hizb ut-Tahrir announced that it is cancelling the conference, which was originally scheduled for Jan. 18.”
The Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Centre (FSWC) wrote “we welcome news of the cancellation of a controversial conference planned by an Islamist group notorious for antisemitic, extremist rhetoric.”
Everybody did their part.
But like a dandelion on a lawn, if you don’t get the full thing from its roots, you know it will grow back again.
“While all of the groups fighting antisemitism did a great job in getting this event cancelled, what we didn’t achieve was getting the group that sponsored listed as a terrorist organization like they are in many other countries,” said Meir Weinstein of Israel Now. “This means we cannot to be lulled to sleep that we ended this problem. It’s a massive problem that exists here, and the people behind this conference will have another move, which means we’ll need to be ready for what they do next.”
Director of Research and Advocacy for B’nai Brith Canada Richard Robertson pointed out “the federal government continues to play catch up when it comes to recognizing threats to our national security and to the well-being of our society.”
“Canada should not be lagging behind the rest of the world when it comes to screening and listing terror entities,” he said. “The recent publicity surrounding Hizb ut-Tahrir must serve as a wakeup call, the organization must be listed and our entire approach to monitoring and designating terrorist entities must be reviewed.”
Needless to say, this was a victory that came about with the help of Mississauga and Hamilton mayors Carolyn Parrish and Andrea Horwath, who publicly and behind the scenes made it difficult for organizers to find a place to host this bizarre gathering.
But while I don’t want to rain on anybody’s parade or take anything away from the hard work that the community groups did to discourage this event from happening, I would be remiss if I failed to note that not only did no one ever know where this was going to take place, no one seems to know who was organizing it.
Or was this a massive prank to jack people up, forcing groups to use up manpower and resources, knowing this thing would never happen?
We may never know. There are lots of games being played.
All we do know is the confirmation that it is going to not happen – as posted to Facebook where it states “As Salaamu’Alaykum, Hzib ut Tahrir Canadian hereby announces with regret the cancellation of the Khilafah Conference 2025” and “this decision was necessitated by circumstances that were beyond our control.”
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It’s weird that we even have to put up an effort to stop such conferences from happening.
Yet, ironically, there is a form of such a thing happening in the Greater Toronto Area every week – where antisemitic demonstrators, most masked and not revealing their religion or identity, gather to bring their hate and sometimes Swastikas.
Sometimes it comes in the shooting up of a school or vandalizing a synagogue or business. But it keeps on coming.
Sure, they kept this hate fest from happening in a local event room.
But nothing has changed from the same sorts of ugliness happening on the street.
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