CALGARY, Canada: First Muslim mayor of major city slams anti-maskers as ‘thinly veiled white national supremacists’
BY CHRISTINE DOUGLASS-WILLIAMS
republished below in full unedited for informational, educational & research purposes:
Calgary mayor Naheed Nenshi — the same mayor who took the liberty in his position of privilege to give mosques permission to break noise bylaws during Ramadan last year, so that they could broadcast the Islamic call to prayer over loudspeakers — has smeared Canadians who were protesting lockdowns and mask-wearing.
Nenshi is the first Muslim to be mayor of a major Canadian city. Canada is hyper-sensitive, under Justin Trudeau’s government, of “offending” Muslims. To ask questions, to point out that jihad terror and other human rights abuses are sanctioned in Islamic law, earns you the dreaded “Islamophobia” label, which comes in Canada with possible punitive action. This label gained even more traction with Canada’s anti-Islamophobia motion M-103. It was backed by a 23-million-dollar funding package attached to the document entitled “TAKING ACTION AGAINST SYSTEMIC RACISM AND RELIGIOUS DISCRIMINATION WHICH INCLUDES ISLAMOPHOBIA.” This document included plans to “monitor citizens for compliance” and to train law enforcement to detect online and offline hate speech. Little wonder that Canada is now grappling with bill C-10, which has created backlash as debates continue about its capability to restrict the freedom of speech, as if that freedom weren’t already restricted enough in Canada.
Given the state of the freedom of speech in Canada, Nenshi has escaped virtually unscathed after his attack on Canadians who have protested against mask rules. You see, in Canada, “taking action” against racism doesn’t apply to him. He has free rein, since an act of “racism,” as far as the woke are concerned, could only be committed against a visible minority by a white person, not the other way around. Therefore it is deemed to be within the range of what is acceptable for Nenshi to malign a segment of white Canadians for no justifiable reason. However, it is unacceptable merely to point out the truth about the violent and stealth Islamic jihad, and if anyone does, Islamic supremacist groups pull out the “Islamophobia” battering ram, with full agreement from the woke.
Lorne Gunther asks: “Does Nenshi mean all ordinary Albertans who feel that way are racist?” But what about visible minorities who don’t support masks and the lockdowns? They don’t exist in Nenshi’s mind. To him, it’s about “white nationalist supremacists.”
“Calgary Mayor Naheed Nenshi’s remarks comparing anti-maskers to white supremacists are disgusting and ignorant,” by Lorne Gunter, Edmonton Sun, May 11, 2021:
Remarks made by Calgary Mayor Naheed Nenshi over the weekend on Global News’ The West Block would get him run out of office if he made them about any other group.
Speaking about people who rally against social distancing and mask wearing, Nenshi said “Those people at those anti-mask protests … are marching in thinly veiled white nationalist supremacist anti-government protests.”
Some of the participants in anti-lockdown rallies are over-the-top wrong.
Lockdowns may be a mistake and an overreaction. If that’s your purpose for protesting, that’s a legitimate point of view.
The lockdowns, though, are not socialist plots to enslave the population, as some protestors say or tweet.
Does the over-reliance on “experts” and the instinct to lockdown society come, in part, from a misplaced faith in the infallibility of government? Sure. And so does the impulse to spend hundreds of billions of dollars we don’t have “resetting” society.
But that’s not the same thing as a communist takeover.
While some of Nenshi’s anti-maskers take things to an extreme, can you imagine the reaction if a right-of-centre politician used the old soft-racist phrase “those people” to refer to Black Lives Matter or Indigenous Lives Matter protestors?
It’s wrong to make broad assumptions about people based on race, gender, immigration status or faith.
Yet that is exactly what Nenshi did. He tarred everyone who comes out to voice their discontent with government restrictions as a white nationalist.
On Monday, he even doubled down on his racist rhetoric from Sunday.
The white supremacy at protests, Nenshi upped the ante, “is not thinly veiled at all.” It’s “completely out in public.”
Calling every hardworking Alberta small-business person a closet bigot just because some are protesting the forced closure of their salons or restaurants is disgusting.
Calling every small town resident the equivalent of a Klan member, for speaking up against the shutdown of their local café is revolting.
And have no doubt, it is also racist. It was Nenshi, not the protestors, who made an issue of their race. It was Nenshi who prejudged their character based on the colour of their skin.
If I were one of the protestors, I might file a human rights complaint against the Calgary mayor (who is not seeking re-election in the municipal campaign this fall).
Nenshi, who is rightly proud of being the first Muslim to be elected mayor of a major Canadian city, would likely rail against anyone who said “those people” (meaning Muslims) are all terrorists. Yet insisting “those people” (protestors) are all white supremacists is just as wrong….
“Calgary mayor says anti-mask rallies are ‘thinly veiled white nationalist’ protests”, by Amanda Connolly, Global News, May 9, 2021:
Calgary Mayor Naheed Nenshi says some recent rallies billed as opposing the wearing of masks during the pandemic are really just “thinly veiled white nationalist” and “anti-government” activities.
In an interview with The West Block guest host Abigail Bimman, Nenshi expressed his frustration with the fact that people refusing to wear masks and gathering in large crowds are endangering others.
“Those people at those anti-mask protests, let’s not kid ourselves. They’re not people who [are protesting because they] need to eat. They are people who are marching in thinly veiled white nationalist supremacist anti-government protests,” he said.
He was asked specifically about comments he made during the 2013 southern Alberta floods, in which he said he was not allowed to use the words he wanted to describe people out canoeing on the volatile and flooded Bow River, and that he had been told he could not invoke “the Darwin law.”
“Here’s the problem. It’s that these folks are not just flagrantly putting themselves at risk. They are putting others at risk, he said in the interview….