Troubling remarks by anti-Israel activist part of worrying trend: expert

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OTTAWA — Statements made by a notorious Toronto anti-Israel activist are part of a worrying trend of extremism and hate in Canada, one expert warns.

On Aug. 20, comments made by Toronto activist Firas Al-Najim during a webinar organized by Imamia Student Organization Pakistan prompted the Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Centre (FSWC) to file a report with Toronto police, accusing Al-Najim of hate speech. 

Addressing participants in English, Al-Najim is seen in the video referring to Jews as “deviants,” contending they use deception and treachery to achieve their goals.

“They are people who have a very treacherous and very deceiving manner,” al-Najim told the webcast.

“They know how to work with the media, they know how to convince people, they know how to steal, they know how to bribe, they know how to blackmail, they know how to do all kinds of treacherous activities.”

Al-Najim ended with a prayer in Arabic, which he ended by saying almawt li’iisrayiyl — “Death to Israel.”

“This individual holds a leadership role in the anti-Israel movements locally,” FSWC’s Jaime Kirzner-Roberts said.

“We can really see the mask slipping off, if we look at the evolution of the rhetoric this individual and others in leadership positions in these movements have been using.”

Inquires by the Sun to Toronto Police about the status of the complaint went unacknowledged.

Kirzner-Roberts said the days of activists using euphemisms like “zionists” in lieu of “Jews” has come to an end.

Hate crimes against Jews skyrocketed in Toronto since the Oct. 7 terror attacks, with anti-Israel marches through Jewish neighbourhoods, and anti-Israel encampments occupying numerous universities.

In an interview, Al-Najim denied his comments were antisemitic.

“I think they’re very biased and creating a certain narrative that’s incorrect,” he told the Sun of the FSWC’s allegations.

“I was clearly saying that there’s deviant people of every religion — there’s deviant Muslims, there’s deviant Jews, there’s deviant Christians that deviate from the true teachings of their religion.”

Several thousand years ago, Al-Najim said, these “deviant” Jews rebelled against such figures as King David, Moses and prophets at the time.

“In our books and in the teachings that we’ve learned, they killed many prophets, the deviant Jews,” he said.

“Obviously there’s righteous Jews, I have a lot of allies who are anti-Zionist Jews that I’m good friends with, there’s a lot of coordination and cooperation and respect between us.”

Casey Babb, a senior Macdonald Laurier Institute fellow and an advisor to Secure Canada, said unfettered antisemitism is reaching dangerous levels.

“You have people preaching, calling for the death of Jews in front of hundreds, if not thousands of individuals, Jewish day schools being shot up, synagogues being burned, Jewish people being harassed on campuses, including professors,” he said, emboldened by troubling levels of tolerance by both politicians and police.

Canada, he said, has a very serious problem with extremists — citing the number recent of arrests for foiled terror plots in Canada, including a Pakistani man arrested last week near Ormstown, Que., with plans to conduct a terror attack in the United States on Oct. 7.

“Canadians really need to wake up to the fact that we have serious issues here,” Babb said.

“Our tolerance is going to end up getting us killed.”

bpassifiume@postmedia.com
X: @bryanpassifiume

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