Juno News - Muslims stand up to gender ideology in schools

00:00:00.000 Hi there, everyone, and welcome to the Rupa Subramanir show. Today, we're talking about

00:00:23.760 the fact that many parents across Canada have been protesting against gender ideology,

00:00:30.400 which they claim is being aggressively pushed by our public education system, particularly here

00:00:35.840 in Ontario, where there seems to have been a complete bulk capture of the curriculum,

00:00:41.920 ironically under a premier and a government that are nominally conservative. Now, what's been really

00:00:48.000 interesting about these protests against gender ideology is that in recent weeks, many of the

00:00:53.200 protests have been led by visible minority groups, including Muslim Canadians. These are people who

00:00:59.120 believe in the founding values of their religion and have not been swayed into accepting woke ideology

00:01:06.400 that they believe is being thrust upon them by our progressive political elites.

00:01:11.680 To talk about these protests against gender ideology, what's animated the Muslim Canadian community,

00:01:17.680 please join me in welcoming Bahira Abdul Salam, a recent Toronto mayoral candidate in Ottawa entrepreneur,

00:01:25.040 Kamal El Shaikh. Bahira and Kamal, thank you so much for joining the podcast. And I'm really looking

00:01:32.960 forward to the conversation that we're going to have today. So let me start with you, Bahira. Can you tell

00:01:42.160 us what has animated these recent protests against the gender ideology curriculum in the school system

00:01:50.320 here in Ontario? What specifically about this issue do you find problematic that has led so many people

00:01:57.760 to take to the streets and protest?

00:01:59.440 Bahira Abdul Salam, So I believe we have been feeling the issue and it is not new. It has been there for a

00:02:11.440 while. But I think what really triggered this issue was the incident that happened in Alberta where the video

00:02:21.360 went viral and a teacher was trying to discipline students for not participating in the parade. So this

00:02:32.240 really triggered a lot of families and then they started to share their own stories about what has been

00:02:41.040 happening happening in schools. So I believe this is what what has been going on. And like it is not a new

00:02:52.720 issue and that many people have been talking about it. Many people have been communicating with school

00:02:58.320 boards and schools. However, maybe this incident, I believe this was the key incident that triggered

00:03:07.280 the oldest. Yeah, so it this the incident being in the Edmonton school where teachers berating a Muslim

00:03:17.600 student for for not for not being fully into the whole pride thing and then basically saying that, you

00:03:26.800 know, basically telling this kid to leave Canada and if you don't like our values, so to speak. Kamal,

00:03:34.960 what about you? You know, what what specifically about this do you find problematic? What what's animated

00:03:41.520 you to get involved with the protests against gender ideology? Well, I mean, as Behira was echoing, Edmonton

00:03:50.000 was one of them. But actually, that's that's one of many, to be honest with you. I had the privilege of

00:03:56.880 personally meeting the Alexanders, the family themselves, the mom and dad and Josh himself. And they're not

00:04:04.880 they don't live too far from me. So I got first look on this issue about six or seven months ago when

00:04:12.880 Josh got expelled from school and then, you know, obviously got banned from all schools in Ontario.

00:04:19.200 And Josh is the same age as my teenage son, Marty. So for me, that hit home. And, you know, he's a born

00:04:27.520 again Christian. I'm a Muslim. Right. And we're both Canadians. And and so that was problematic for us.

00:04:34.160 And, you know, he's a devout born again Christian. Right. Likes to hold his Bible and stuff like that.

00:04:38.560 So it was kind of an infringement on his values. But Canadian values are diverse. What's to say?

00:04:44.800 What is the Canadian value? So that's one of them. But it's just, you know, the the the

00:04:50.000 incidences of indoctrinations in the school, you know, kids are, you know, I got relatives,

00:04:56.880 kids are forced to color different gender fluid things, flags, stuff like that. So I think I can't 0.58

00:05:05.120 really pinpoint one incident because they all equally influence people to just, you know, want to do

00:05:12.720 something. I think, you know, the problem we had as a Muslim community, even the Christian community,

00:05:18.080 they were actually relatively new to the dance. The problem we had is, you know, we wanted to be

00:05:24.000 kind and we want to respect other people's views. But then when compulsion came in and many attributes

00:05:30.480 throughout the country, that's when we said, you know what? Hang on a sec. This is getting out of hand.

00:05:37.760 But here I'm turning to you. You've been quite vocal on social media, especially on Twitter.

00:05:45.440 And you pointed to the opaque school regulations concerning gender ideology.

00:05:51.520 That you said that this this is even being taught to kids, even in grade five. And you've also pointed

00:05:58.400 to the fact that, you know, you know, that parents don't really even have the option to opt out if they

00:06:05.840 wish to. And you've you've detailed all of the problems with the with the regulations that govern the

00:06:11.760 school system. What kind of reforms would you like to see in the management of our schools as far as

00:06:20.320 this issue is concerned? So there's complete transparency and and parents have enough notice

00:06:29.040 that they can pull their kids out of such events that they find problematic.

00:06:33.200 Well, at the the issue and the it is very com complex problem and like we respect diversity and

00:06:48.800 we are not trying to impose any like religion or values or we don't have any hate toward and towards

00:06:58.320 anybody, specifically children like all child or children. We love them. We care for them.

00:07:06.800 So what I found that asking for our rights to not to have certain ideology imposed or over our children,

00:07:19.200 it turned out to be like a completely different story. And and this is part of the problem because

00:07:28.160 freedom of expression, freedom of of religion, those are essential part of our Canadian Charter of Rights and

00:07:36.480 Freedom. So when someone tries to speak up against

00:07:41.760 justice, like the school education or system that it's not working and then we are getting all this

00:07:51.120 hate and attack, this is a proof of that there is a reform that has to be done. This proves that

00:08:00.080 there is a need for change. So what change I am proposing?

00:08:04.560 So I am we need to have our children raised or educated in an environment focusing on their like 1.00

00:08:18.160 the subjects, the math, the science, the ethics. However, we shouldn't impose any ideology on them. So

00:08:27.680 we need to have a reform about the education system and the curriculum to ensure that and also we have to

00:08:36.480 ensure the diversity and in the of our educators because our educators and the values they carry, of

00:08:48.240 course, they are it doesn't matter what the curriculum is. So they carry specific values and they teach

00:08:56.480 teach by example to their children. So ensuring that we have diverse teachers and qualified,

00:09:04.000 this is also a critical issue that we need to look into in our system.

00:09:10.080 Yeah. How how forthcoming has the school system been, the administrators and the people in the

00:09:17.600 Ministry of Education? I don't know if you've had any kind of any interactions with these people,

00:09:21.920 the people in charge of formulating these policies. Have you first of all, have you have you reached out

00:09:28.320 to them? And if so, how receptive have they been to your concerns?

00:09:34.080 So I have I am actually a representative of parents in Word 14 in Toronto. I was recently elected to be in

00:09:47.120 this position because I also joined the parent council of Valley Park Middle School. And I wanted to raise the

00:09:59.520 awareness among parents about the importance of their contribution and how they need to be actively

00:10:09.760 involved in the system. Some schools, they don't even have any parent council. And this is really a

00:10:22.160 a problem. Some parents are not aware about the importance of the parent council. So this is

00:10:29.760 something we need to raise the awareness about. So we like when there is something happening, we need

00:10:38.640 to look into what are the factors that contributed to the status that we are in. People shouldn't be

00:10:46.880 afraid. You shouldn't be afraid of expressing your opinion and and being proud of your identity. And this is

00:10:54.560 why I'm really getting so vocal to to set an example for everyone. Like no matter what messages that you

00:11:03.680 are sending me or like I am a Muslim. I'm proud of my identity. It is not something that I should be 1.00

00:11:10.320 shying out of. I'm proud of my my own values. And I want to raise my children on those values. So I believe

00:11:20.480 that this involvement is important because we are in a democratic system, right? And everything works

00:11:31.280 according to democracy. So if we contribute more and if we are more active in our school boards, I think

00:11:42.800 this will solve a big part of the problem. And another thing is I see that the school boards,

00:11:52.560 the system is designed in a way that school boards are not that the government has no influence on the

00:12:03.360 school boards. So this is something really I think we need to have to look again into the power that we

00:12:12.480 are giving to the school boards and to have more auditing about what is going on inside those school

00:12:18.800 boards and which resulted in the status that we are having now. Yeah, I have a lot of other ideas.

00:12:29.520 Yeah, no, no, no, I appreciate that. Kamal, turning to you, you've also been pretty active on Twitter

00:12:38.880 lately. And and you tweeted that when Justin Trudeau, the Prime Minister, dismissed Muslim Canadian

00:12:46.800 protesters protesting against gender ideology as victims of disinformation, allegedly coming from

00:12:55.040 the scary far right in the US. You said this was extremely disrespectful to Muslim Canadians because

00:13:02.960 it implies you guys are just so dumb and gullible and so naive that you're just allowing your views to 1.00

00:13:09.200 be shaped shaped by right wing influencers south of the border. How did that make you feel? 1.00

00:13:15.440 Well, I mean, obviously, it made it was demeaning, you know, Beheera is a PhD, and she's an elected

00:13:25.280 official in the education board. So I mean, that's an example of a Muslim myself, I mean,

00:13:30.720 I got a background in corporations and auditing and accounting, right. So, you know, to suggest that,

00:13:36.720 you know, we need to be, you know, guided by a hand to tell us exactly what to think and when to think.

00:13:43.360 Both our Prime Minister and the pride community think that they need to tell us what to think. 1.00

00:13:52.000 And that's where the problem lies. I mean, Muslims, we're a compassionate bunch. We're proud Canadians.

00:13:59.680 I mean, me in Ottawa, I had Hindu Sikh friends growing up Jewish and Christian and all sorts. And that's the

00:14:07.680 beauty about Canada. I mean, we all had the same issues. We all complained about the weather and

00:14:12.000 stuff like that. But to suggest that, you know, we lack intellect to make our own decisions when

00:14:20.800 we're praying five times a day, fasting Ramadan 30 days, like a month. And, you know, there's a lot of

00:14:27.200 Muslim PhDs. Every fourth person you meet in the world is a Muslim. It's either a doctor, an engineer, 1.00

00:14:33.280 a cook, a restorator, you know. So they come in all walks, all walks and creeds, right. So to suggest

00:14:39.520 that, oh, you know what, these guys live in a little cocoon and we got to, you know, tell them

00:14:45.440 what to think. That is the meaning for sure. And, you know, I felt insulted and that's why you saw

00:14:51.440 that tweet go viral. Yeah. Bahira, how does it make you feel that you're being called a far-right

00:14:59.600 white supremacist? And I believe, yeah, and I asked this question as someone who's also been called a

00:15:10.720 far-right white supremacist. So, yeah, to you, Bahira. I guess that makes three of us, right?

00:15:18.080 Yeah. There's more of us who are brown and who are far-right white supremacists, apparently. So 0.65

00:15:24.000 it's a growing tribe. But anyway, Bahira, how does that make you feel?

00:15:27.280 Well, yeah, of course, we need to put politics aside when we are talking about the future of our

00:15:42.640 children. This is, yeah, this is, it is very critical. Like, people can survive

00:15:52.240 living in a very stressful situation, getting very low wages, like struggling with affordable housing.

00:16:04.400 So all those issues are issues that people are living now. But when it comes to their kids,

00:16:13.600 we don't really care about right or left or middle. We have values and we have our love

00:16:21.920 to our children. And we need, and this is why we are here in Canada, because we believe that this is

00:16:29.200 a country that respects human race and freedom, and we are not here for ourselves. We are here for the

00:16:37.600 future of our children, right? So being, we don't really, we are not influenced by anything other than

00:16:50.080 our love to our children and our care and our love to everyone. We don't only love our children. As

00:16:57.840 Muslims, we are very peaceful. We love everyone. We don't hate anyone. However, we have to put limits to

00:17:08.240 our freedom. Your freedom shouldn't be pushing me away from our, my rights and vice versa. So

00:17:19.040 we agreed that the school system will be free from religion, but not to be anti-religion, right?

00:17:27.840 That's an interesting point. You, Bahira, have received a lot of flack on social media. I think you

00:17:33.920 pointed in one of your tweets that you've also received death threats. You know, what does it suggest to

00:17:43.280 you? But the, to my mind, this suggests, you know, hypocrisy of the progressive left, you know, they 0.66

00:17:50.800 like you just fine, as long as you know, you agree to their, to their views, and, and that you have to

00:17:58.880 basically be part of their cult. And, you know, and they like you just fine, if that's the case. But

00:18:05.520 the minute you start, you know, exercising your own right to free speech, and you start expressing

00:18:12.560 your own views, and you draw in the, a line in the sand, you know, in terms of where you, you, you are

00:18:19.200 on this issue. Does that not reek of hypocrisy from the progressive left? 0.92

00:18:23.520 Yes, of course, it is hypocrisy. It is a kind of ignorance. So I see that there is a lot of 0.99

00:18:37.360 misunderstanding and ignorance about other cultures, and about other people, and about the, the way they

00:18:45.040 think about their values. So the comments I have been receiving, it made this more clear to me. So in

00:18:53.360 instead of attacking people, try to understand their objectives, try to understand their struggle,

00:19:01.840 because I was reading something in like, in psychology about the, when a minority, they are

00:19:11.920 looking for their right, they can be so extreme to the extent they turn to be the monster themselves,

00:19:21.040 right? We shouldn't, we shouldn't exceed or reach this level, right? We should be understand that as

00:19:29.920 much as we have our rights, the others, they have rights, and we are here not to impose our ideology

00:19:38.800 on each other. This is the beauty of Canada. Every group of people, they have this, their specific

00:19:46.240 culture that, and this diversity. But I see that there is like, kind of like the definition of

00:19:56.560 diversity, it's getting some changes, like, why diversity, it's not only about sexual orientation,

00:20:04.640 there, there are, or maybe this is what the message that they are trying to teach us. Pride is not only

00:20:15.040 about being LGBTQ. I am proud of my identity. I'm proud of being a Muslim and wearing a scarf. And this was,

00:20:24.720 by the way, the title of the demonstration. It, we are not, we were not protesting. We, we call that

00:20:34.960 I wasn't one of the organizers, by the way, I was just attending, but they called it

00:20:41.680 rally, which means like modesty. And we were saying that modesty is our pride. So when people are proud

00:20:52.320 of their identity, doesn't mean that this is demeaning any other people or culture.

00:21:00.480 No, I think also some of the, some of the issues we are facing with, with this, it's kind of like a, almost

00:21:06.640 like a narcissistic condescending behavior. My rights trump yours. And we, we as Canadians, heterosexual

00:21:14.080 Canadians of all walks, you know, Christians, Muslims, you name it, all other creeds. I think

00:21:20.080 we didn't want to insult or be rude. So we were silent. And we said, you know what, you want to have your

00:21:26.080 pride walks, whatever you do, whatever you want. We don't want to offend. But I think sometimes

00:21:31.040 kindness can be taken for weakness. And that's where the problem lies. There's a, there's an element

00:21:36.160 of negligence on all our part. We're all responsible for not saying anything, but for, for 30 years,

00:21:42.560 you know, equal rights, uh, tolerance, you know, you need to tolerate us. I, you know, people don't

00:21:48.240 want to, uh, you know, insult or demean, but it got to a point where you had to say something. And I

00:21:54.960 think what's happening today is the fabric of Canada is changing where all other creeds are saying, Hey,

00:22:01.600 listen up, we're going to be active. We're going to be active in all levels of government, municipal,

00:22:07.520 you know, uh, provincial and federal, but we're also going to be active in the, in the school,

00:22:13.360 trustee boards. And we're going to be active in every organization that concerns our child, because

00:22:19.360 you got to a point where you, you took our kindness for weakness and that's where the line

00:22:24.720 has been drawn. So there's a different, there's a shift, a seismic shift from coast to coast of people

00:22:30.800 saying, Hey, diversity does not just mean your sexual orientation. Diversity also means

00:22:37.520 straight nuclear families, Muslim families, Christian ones, sequence, all that kind of stuff.

00:22:42.880 That's diversity too. And, you know, uh, for a long time, there's one flag and now I find that

00:22:50.080 problematic. Okay, great. You, you like your flag, but what about the Canadian flag? We all can carry

00:22:55.680 the Canadian flag. That's, you know, we're aren't, aren't we all one nation under God? And that's,

00:23:00.480 that's where we'd like to go with that as hands off the kids, parents, that's parental consent,

00:23:06.480 just like you come. Uh, you know, uh, my, my, my, my, uh, uh, son's friend has to take my permission

00:23:15.440 through his parents to see his best friend, to organize an activity. You have to take my

00:23:20.720 permission, uh, for my kid to go on a field trip, but you can't take my permission for hormone

00:23:26.000 blocking pills and a gender modifying therapy for four year olds at some point. Like there's that

00:23:31.840 rhetoric. And then of course, you know, the pornographic, uh, uh, books in the schools and how

00:23:38.320 does that feel? And how does this feel? Well, you know, you're, you're completely, uh, disregarding

00:23:44.560 people's beliefs with respect to raising their kids. And that's where we draw the line.

00:23:50.640 Okay. So that's a good segue, uh, to my next question, because you, you spoke about beliefs,

00:23:57.600 um, and you're both, uh, uh, you know, Muslim Canadians. And, uh, as I understand it, Islamic

00:24:03.760 doctrine would be opposed to, uh, not only to gender ideology, um, but even more basically to homosexuality.

00:24:12.720 How do you address this issue in opposing gender ideology in schools? Are you also opposing homosexuality?

00:24:19.520 Um, you know, do you, so do you oppose gay rights? For example, uh, gay rights is now firmly entrenched, 0.61

00:24:26.880 uh, as part of Western society, including gay marriage. Um, do you, do you feel, um, there's

00:24:33.200 some desire to push back against these entrenched rights as well? Um, you, you know, or are you able

00:24:40.640 to draw a line in the sand between gender ideology and gay rights? Okay. Um, so let me, let me make 0.93

00:24:46.640 something clear, um, growing up in Ottawa. I mean, I came here when I was seven years old,

00:24:51.120 I was supposed to be born here, but my dad decided, you know, to come later. Uh, so I grew up in Ottawa.

00:24:56.000 So, you know, it's not like we're living in this little bubble and, you know, you, you don't have

00:25:01.200 a gay colleague at work. I had, I managed a team of 3000 employees. There's some people that were in

00:25:07.840 transition, uh, some that were homosexual and I didn't care about your sexual orientation. I don't 1.00

00:25:13.200 want to know about it. I just want to know how productive you're going to be at work and how,

00:25:17.680 how good you're going to be in a team. Okay. And some of them were exceptional in terms of work.

00:25:22.800 Uh, I had a gay boss. I actually had three gay bosses. So, you know, I'm going to separate the work 1.00

00:25:29.760 from, from the way of life in Islam. Yes, it is forbidden, uh, as a sexual orientation. Yes. Now,

00:25:36.960 is there Muslims that are gay? Sure. But you know what, uh, you can't practice the faith and, and, 1.00

00:25:42.880 and, you know, continue to do that, but that's completely up to you. Who am I to judge? In the

00:25:47.280 end, we know that the creator judges. My prerogative is as a Muslim, because you're my Christian best

00:25:54.400 friend and you eat pork. I still can't eat pork to be your friend. Right. And so we agree to disagree.

00:26:01.120 I have best friends that ate pepperoni pizza in front of me. You know, I'm not going to hate them.

00:26:06.480 I still love them. We're still best friends since elementary school, but that's, that's the melting

00:26:12.240 pot of Canada that I recognize. And I want to go back to that. You want to be gay. You go, you do 1.00

00:26:17.680 whatever you want, but don't compel me to engage in your, you know, pronouns and, and, and adhere to

00:26:26.000 your indoctrination because it's forbidden in my faith, just like pork is just like alcohol is. I got

00:26:32.320 good friends that drink. I still don't hate them. That's their life. Who am I to say what, what to

00:26:38.080 do and not? Bahira, for you, I mean, the same question for you, but I would like to, you know,

00:26:44.960 modify it a little bit. You know, a lot of school teachers say that, that, you know, they worry that

00:26:53.520 some students come from conservative religious families. They might feel very afraid or scared

00:26:59.760 to share their feelings. Perhaps they're feeling, uh, gender dysphoria, or they feel that they might

00:27:05.200 be gay and, and they're afraid to share that with their families because they might get a strong 1.00

00:27:10.160 reaction from their parents because their parents are, uh, observant, uh, whatever Christian, uh, um,

00:27:19.840 Sikhs, Hindus, whatever. Um, and, and, and this is why teachers feel that they need to intervene,

00:27:26.080 that school should be sort of a safe space for such, uh, you know, where kids feel free to express

00:27:31.920 these things to the teachers. What do you make of this argument? And, you know, and you both have

00:27:37.680 children, I mean, what if one of your child? I, I have friends who have been through this experience.

00:27:44.880 Yeah. They, they came, their children came and talked to them and told them that, uh, I'm a gay

00:27:50.560 or I am whatsoever. Like, we are not, uh, monsters that are going to kill our own children. We understand

00:28:00.880 that this is something children are going through because of many reasons. I don't,

00:28:07.600 I don't want to elaborate on this, but we, uh, parents have the right to deal with issues regarding

00:28:16.960 their kids. If there are some exceptional cases where there are some violence or some extreme,

00:28:26.240 so this is not the role of the school. If the school want to intervene, we need to have more social

00:28:34.480 workers at school to, uh, to look into the psychological problems of the children. This is a, a, a, a complete

00:28:43.440 different story and a complete different, a problem we are having in our schools. So if you really care

00:28:50.800 about the problems, psychological problems as children are going through or any struggles, why do you put

00:29:02.320 a, a social worker at half a day for, uh, a school of thousands of, of students? Social workers are qualified

00:29:12.640 to deal with, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, situations. Uh, teachers, they need to be there to teach, not to

00:29:22.400 interfere with, uh, any kind of, uh, uh, and especially at this age, like children at, uh, at this young age,

00:29:31.600 they don't have, uh, those kind of, uh, uh, challenges. We need to love them, to care for them

00:29:38.640 and to give them the education they need. I've made this argument that, um, you know, even if, um,

00:29:44.880 devout Muslims or devout, devout Christians, any, any group, any denomination, uh, even if they didn't

00:29:51.600 accept homosexuality, um, you know, tolerated, um, you know, this, accepted it as a, as a fait accompli, 0.98

00:30:00.720 that this is it. This is, you know, we're, we're in this country. These are the values, um, of this country.

00:30:06.400 We may not necessarily agree with this, but, you know, it's, we have a live and let live approach,

00:30:12.800 essentially. Just don't, um, uh, you know, push this, you know, on us in the way that, that, that's,

00:30:20.720 that's, uh, unfolded with gender ideology. So the question really is, you know, do you, do you oppose

00:30:27.920 gay rights? Opposing gay rights? I don't know if it's, it's really opposing gay rights and stuff like

00:30:35.120 that. I think, you know, again, I worked with gay colleagues almost all my life. Um, so, you know,

00:30:42.000 to, to come out and say, oh, I oppose gay rights. I mean, it's, this is Canada. Canada is not, uh,

00:30:49.760 it's not one, uh, one, uh, doctrine. It's not Muslim. It's not Christian. It's not gay either. 0.81

00:30:56.720 Okay. So Canada, I don't think you have to worry about violence in Canada. Canadians are really,

00:31:03.120 pretty peaceful bunch. 35 million Canadians. I don't think you see, uh, gay people, uh, burned at

00:31:09.440 the stake, uh, you know, and stuff like that. So, you know, uh, I know that question often comes up.

00:31:15.440 Like I, I, I've been to nine protests in three weeks and I will say to you, I've, I've been called

00:31:21.840 terrorist. I've been called fascist. I've been called hater, murderer. And it's like, holy smokes.

00:31:27.440 I know you guys are having, and some of you guys are having some real social issues with your gender

00:31:32.960 dysphoria and I could see it on the ground. And I, you know, I'm here saying, Hey, can we send all

00:31:38.400 Canada together? Right. And so there, there's a lot of anger and distaste coming from that side.

00:31:46.480 Us as, as Muslims, I will tell you in Islam, it is forbidden. It's a, it's a forbidden sexual, uh, uh, 0.81

00:31:55.600 uh, sexual misconduct. Like the Dalai Lama said, he said that, uh, in an interview, uh, but again,

00:32:02.480 who am I to judge? You want to be gay. This is Canada. You go do whatever you like. And if you 0.99

00:32:08.240 want to be a drag queen, I don't think anybody had a problem with you. I mean,

00:32:12.880 I disagree with it. I'll tell you that. But when you were in the strip club stripping for other men,

00:32:18.000 I don't think anybody came near you. The problem is you came and in a, in a drag queen event in 1.00

00:32:25.040 Toronto, you stripped in front of kids and your genitalia fell out. That's where the problem lies 1.00

00:32:30.160 for us. So it's, it does seem like, Oh, you know what? We're here to take your rights away. It's not

00:32:35.680 about that at all. I don't care what you think you can go and, and, and identify as a space martian

00:32:44.160 and, you know, ask Elon Musk to take you to space with them. Go do whatever you want. Who am I to tell

00:32:49.520 you what to do? But in the end, when it comes and it infringes on my kids, my society, my ideals,

00:32:57.840 that's where we draw the line. So gay rights, gay rights in Canada, you know, came about,

00:33:03.360 what is that 10, 15 years ago? Now you can, you can get married. You can, you can do whatever you

00:33:09.360 want. Like, I, I don't know, even, even in conversations at work, we're not talking about

00:33:15.040 my gay colleague. I'm actually talking to them about a public relations thing that we need to

00:33:20.080 get done. And the deadline is on Monday. So I don't care what your personal life is. And again,

00:33:27.520 this is Canada. This is not someplace in the world where people get burned at the stake.

00:33:34.240 Okay. And let's, let's, let's validate that. And that rhetoric, that aggressive rhetoric, 0.68

00:33:40.560 I don't think should, it should be had anywhere in our narratives. Let's talk about where you

00:33:46.640 infringed on Muslims and Christians and Hindus and Sikhs and Buddhists. Okay. Because you're telling them,

00:33:54.800 this is the way to be Canadian. This way. That's it. Drag queens, pedophilia to kids, 1.00

00:33:59.760 four-year-old gender hormone therapy. And we're going to use they, they, them pronouns. 0.89

00:34:07.120 Wait a sec here. That's your ideology. It's like me saying, I won't talk to you, Rupa,

00:34:13.120 unless you fast 30 days of Ramadan. Then we can talk. Or I won't talk to you, Rupa, 0.88

00:34:19.120 unless you pray five times a day, disregarding what you believe, Rupa. So that's where it doesn't

00:34:24.560 make sense to us. Yeah. Yeah. Bahira, do you want to take, what is your, where do you stand on this?

00:34:33.200 Yeah, definitely. I, I agree about that. We are in Canada. We believe that everybody, they,

00:34:43.360 we are not aiming or hoping to change Canada to be an Islamic country.

00:34:51.920 Islamic state or fatwa or apply the Sharia law. Yeah. And I've heard that a lot in the protest.

00:35:00.640 Thank you. Yeah. There is another flag for those who are calling for Sharia law. We were carrying 0.55

00:35:06.480 Canadian flags. Canadian flags. We have a Muslim flag, by the way. Yeah. We have one with a large. 0.93

00:35:11.200 I don't think you see that in any of our protests.

00:35:12.640 We are raising this black flag. This means that, oh, those guys are, are going, they are calling for, 0.62

00:35:22.000 like, I promise you, you, you should be alarmed at this time, but we are not, we are not actually,

00:35:29.440 yeah, we are, uh, um, we are respectful for the law, for the constitution of Canada. And, uh, uh,

00:35:38.560 personally, I have been working with some of the leaders in the LGBT community, uh, in, in politics.

00:35:47.520 I have been helping them and I didn't care. I don't care really who, what you, uh, your, uh, what

00:35:57.520 you are doing at home. This is your own business. This is not my business, right? What we are, uh, uh,

00:36:03.680 uh, uh, uh, the, the, the problem starts to happen when it is touching the education of our children

00:36:12.720 at school and when the opt out option even is not allowed. And when our, and, and, and by the way,

00:36:22.400 there are, uh, uh, the flag and the signs and this, uh, psychological, uh, like, uh,

00:36:32.160 indoctrination. Yeah, it is, it is affecting the kids for sure. Yeah. So we, we are in a country

00:36:39.760 that is, uh, uh, like, it, that doesn't have any, uh, influence of religion or ideology at school. So

00:36:47.920 this is what we really need. Yeah. And here's a, I'll, I'll give you a Quran, a quote, uh, to, to,

00:36:54.560 to, to, to make the equilibrium between me, my comments and Bahira's. There's no compulsion in religion.

00:37:02.320 That's, that's a Quran, a quote. So we can't compel anybody to do anything against their will.

00:37:08.880 Now, unfortunately, the media likes to spin that and, and, and use what is convenient in terms of

00:37:16.400 rhetoric to silence people. Just like you would go to a, a white Canadian good Christian person 0.67

00:37:23.360 that's a law abiding citizen, doesn't have a, uh, uh, a criminal record telling them,

00:37:29.200 Oh, you're white. You're often misogynist. You're the fringe. You know, that's how you silence them. 0.98

00:37:34.160 You see, you do the same thing, uh, with Muslims, right? Uh, and then you do that with every other 1.00

00:37:38.560 creed. You can pinpoint anything to silence anybody. Right. And that's, that's where the problem lies.

00:37:44.480 Yeah. And, uh, uh, just, uh, I wanted to comment about the different, uh, people who approached me

00:37:52.560 saying, telling me, Bahira, we are with you. We support you. And, uh, even atheist,

00:37:58.880 atheist who have, have no religion. They told me, Bahira, don't forget us. We are also with you.

00:38:05.280 I got that too. And they're on my team. They're on my planning teams. So amazing. Yeah. No, this is,

00:38:13.120 this is, I mean, it's, it's, it's so heartening and also funny at the same time. Uh, uh, it really

00:38:19.120 is quite surreal. Um, we're running out of time, but I really want to get, uh, get this question to

00:38:24.800 the two of you. Um, you know, since 2015, when Trudeau was first elected, um, uh, you know,

00:38:30.720 it's well known that the liberals, um, get, you know, uh, view the Muslim, uh, Muslim Canadian

00:38:37.440 constituency as an important one, uh, as does the NDP. Do you think that pushing on this gender 0.67

00:38:44.560 ideology issue as aggressively as they have Trudeau and Jagmeet Singh, you think they've lost the Muslim

00:38:51.520 vote and, and, and, and Muslims could possibly be seen as voting conservative because of this issue?

00:38:57.440 Here's what's happening. Um, obviously this campaign is very nonpartisan. We're putting

00:39:03.600 pressure on all political parties because all political parties are, you know, some kind of

00:39:08.400 using that political rhetoric to get the votes. Now, obviously Muslims, if you look at, uh, uh, 0.65

00:39:15.200 the past, uh, I would say 40 or 50 years, generally Muslims voted NDP and liberal. You're right. 0.99

00:39:21.760 Now in the past five or six, I'll be honest with you. I see a lot of Muslims voting

00:39:26.960 conservative PPC and all that kind of stuff. So, you know, I guess, I guess what I should say is,

00:39:33.040 yeah, you're, you're right. At this point, Trudeau has lost the Muslim vote. Uh, does that mean all

00:39:39.440 liberals don't get voted in? No, there are, there are some good liberal candidate candidates and, and,

00:39:44.800 and some of them are close friends of mine. Um, it's not about that. It's about, wait a sec here.

00:39:50.880 All you parties are just, uh, banking on a vote. Oh, we'll have the Muslim vote. We'll say this, 0.75

00:39:56.320 we'll say that. And we'll say this and we'll just get in. No, no, no. You're taking us for granted

00:40:00.080 here. We're going to hold you all up to a standard to represent all Canadians fairly. And then we're

00:40:06.560 going to vote accordingly. So the Muslim, uh, uh, vote Muslims are very, very well educated individuals.

00:40:16.080 Obviously they're concerned with their motherlands wars and whatever, depending on where they came

00:40:20.480 from, but they love Canada. They embrace the nation. Uh, they identify as Canadian, right?

00:40:26.080 They love the Canadian flag, love the Canadian values and stuff like that. They might complain

00:40:30.240 about the weather a bit, but that's, that's pretty much it. Um, yeah, they want to see Canada prosper

00:40:36.400 and, and that diversity. Like, I mean, Trudeau, uh, he, he won Muslim hearts in 2015 when he said,

00:40:44.080 a Canadian is a Canadian is a Canadian. And then we're, we've come together based on our commonalities

00:40:50.880 while respecting our differences. Oh, you know what? I think you made a mistake there because

00:40:56.320 now you're not respecting differences and you're not coming on our commonalities. You're just taking

00:41:01.920 one distinct group and you're pushing it all on, on other groups and you're demonizing the,

00:41:08.000 the groups that dare to question and say, Hey, this is not a fair game you're playing.

00:41:14.080 Right. And, and he openly goes out there and, and, and, and puts pressure, uh, and, and just hypes,

00:41:22.160 you know, the visible minority community, which is the pride community. So it's kind of like causing 1.00

00:41:26.880 a friction of some sort, which is, which wasn't there before. And I don't think Muslims are a very 1.00

00:41:33.760 compassionate bunch. They're very humble, no matter how educated or how much accolades they get,

00:41:40.480 they still got to prostrate, put their head on the ground and be reminded that they're, that they're

00:41:45.120 a human being going back to dust. Right. So they're compassionate. And the Canada that Muslims want

00:41:51.680 to see is we're going to hold all politicians accountable. And the, the politician that best

00:41:57.680 represents all Canadians fairly is the one that we're going to vote for. Okay. Bahira, what about you?

00:42:03.760 Uh, well, I see that, uh, uh, like, uh, lots of Muslims have been supporting the liberal party for

00:42:15.200 the same reason. I'm one of them. I have been supporting the liberals for volunteering with them

00:42:20.160 for a, a very long time. And, uh, um, even before I, I, I was a Canadian before getting my citizens,

00:42:30.160 because really, I believe in the importance of political, uh, involvement and, uh, being active.

00:42:39.520 And I, I believe that the liberals were the best party to represent me, uh, to give the rights for each

00:42:48.720 group. Um, however, um, uh, uh, the moment, uh, like, um, uh, I have seen a lot of my friends,

00:42:58.800 Muslim friends, they are turning to be conservative, supporting the conservative party because of the

00:43:04.880 LGBT agenda. I've seen that too. Yeah. Yeah. A lot of them. And, uh, uh, like every party, they have their

00:43:14.800 own, uh, like, uh, shortfalls and they, their, uh, points of strength. And, uh, but, uh, when it comes

00:43:23.360 to a critical point like this, uh, when we don't get, uh, the support, we, when we don't find, uh,

00:43:31.040 ourselves valued and having the rights like everyone else, I will, uh, I will not be, uh, really

00:43:38.560 supporting, uh, the liberal party. I will, uh, uh, and, uh, uh, I was, uh, so much, uh, shocked by the, uh,

00:43:48.240 the, uh, post, uh, the tweet of, uh, uh, the mayor of Mississauga. And, uh, I believe that, uh, when,

00:43:58.160 when she wrote, uh, in a negative way about the protest that, uh, we did this incited more hate

00:44:06.000 between people. And, and this is the role of leader. The leader should be there and should

00:44:12.320 be very sensitive to what they are saying. So it should calm everybody down too, because it's a

00:44:18.240 very intense issue. People are stressed out. Parents, mothers, like what is a woman? Now we're

00:44:24.800 asking what a woman is persons with the ability of, of carrying a baby. Really? Okay. So these are,

00:44:31.760 these are the challenges that we're facing right now. It's stressful times and leaders have to be

00:44:36.800 leaders by bringing people together and, and asking for calm. What's happening is, wait a sec,

00:44:42.480 I'm going to pick this and I'm going to bet all my bar marbles on this group. And then obviously hate

00:44:47.680 comes back and forth and that's what's happening in the political climate. Yeah. I, I think they,

00:44:53.520 uh, they, uh, they miss, uh, calculated, uh, how, uh, uh, uh, the effect of, uh, what they are doing

00:45:02.960 or those policies on the Muslim community, uh, and, uh, how offensive, uh, those, uh, comments or those

00:45:11.840 policies are, uh, uh, uh, are, uh, right now. So, um, I feel that, um, they are losing, uh, a lot and,

00:45:23.520 uh, um, it, uh, uh, and definitely many people, uh, maybe will be voting for other parties because

00:45:32.880 unless that we see real change, like if. Yes. Let me add. Yeah. Sorry. Let me add something to

00:45:41.760 that. But here, you said something very important and, uh, let me give you an example of, of what

00:45:46.400 happened when, when, uh, uh, Rupa was asking the conservative question, like in Ontario, for example,

00:45:52.800 obviously, uh, you know, Muslims voted for Trudeau, uh, at the federal level, then, uh, you know,

00:45:57.360 voted in Doug Ford at the conservative level, uh, because they, they Muslims ousted Kathleen Wynne 1.00

00:46:04.880 for bringing in the pedophile books into the school. And Doug Ford promised a conservative

00:46:10.320 Doug Ford promised that he'll take those books out yet. The agenda is going forward. So let's,

00:46:16.320 let's be, let's be honest here. Conservatives and liberals have been guilty of, of this, uh,

00:46:22.320 indoctrination all across the board. Yeah. Uh, yeah. Kamal, just to quickly jump in and,

00:46:28.080 you know, we're really running out of time. Uh, but, uh, on that, I mean, it's a very important point.

00:46:33.360 The conservative party of Canada, the federal conservatives have, have not exactly waded into

00:46:38.720 this completely, you know, they've kind of been on the sidelines and I, you know, I have criticized them

00:46:46.160 in, you know, in, in, in, you know, in various places for not, you know, for not taking this, um,

00:46:52.480 seriously enough to actually take a position on it. Um, what, what would you like to see from Pierre

00:46:58.320 Polyevre and the, and the, and the conservative party, uh, regarding, uh, a gender ideology and,

00:47:04.160 and, and, and yeah, he did mention a few words in the Calgary stampede. Again, I'm watching all

00:47:10.640 politicians with a magnifying glass and I'm, I'm an upset and concerned Canadian for, for the nation

00:47:16.320 and its prosperity moving forward. So Pierre Polyevre, uh, you know, I know he's trying to get more

00:47:22.080 votes and, and he's, he's slowly, you know, uh, capitalizing on some of these and he's saying,

00:47:28.720 uh, Mr. Trudeau hands off the provinces type thing and stuff like that. So we heard that, but again,

00:47:34.720 I mean, people see the flip flop back and forth. Do you really want to run this country?

00:47:41.440 Uh, stand for principles and stand stern. Okay. Uh, you know, indoctrination, let consent be for the

00:47:48.640 parents. If you're under 18, you must have parent consent, hands off the kids. You want,

00:47:55.600 you want to be a transgender at 18, you go right ahead, do whatever, uh, whatever you like. You're 0.92

00:48:01.520 in Canada. Nobody's going to hold you to the stake. Okay. But again, what's happening today,

00:48:07.840 the pornography in the schools, uh, um, I have two cases that came to me.

00:48:14.000 One, uh, Muslim lady from, from Toronto came to a protest in Ottawa that the one that we had 1.00

00:48:19.520 thousands on parliament Hill. She told me a drag queen and a teacher sexually harassed her son,

00:48:25.760 a five-year-old kid. Another one, uh, from Montreal, her son, uh, also got raped. So there are, 0.99

00:48:34.720 there are issues like this now these, and these are both Muslim mums. I had a, uh, a Christian girl, 0.94

00:48:42.240 33 years old say, thank you for, for doing this beautiful campaign. She's crying to me. I didn't

00:48:48.320 know why she was crying. I had to actually go to the side and talk to her. She said, I was raped as 0.86

00:48:52.560 a kid and I see this as liberating for me. So those are the people that I think about when we're going

00:48:59.040 into these protests where we're also not, you know, like trying to get back what Canada stood for.

00:49:05.440 We're also kind of inspiring lives and giving people hope. So what I'd like to see from the

00:49:10.720 Conservative Party, just, Pierre Poliev himself said, listen to Canadians. Go down there and listen

00:49:18.800 and don't just look at polls and stuff like that. Be genuine about it. People see that

00:49:24.240 and people are watching. That's a, that's a very good point. Uh, just last question to you,

00:49:29.920 um, Kamal, uh, I want to, uh, uh, just, and very quickly tell us about this march that you're

00:49:35.920 organizing in the fall. Um, and, uh, you know, what do you, um, you know, when is that happening?

00:49:42.320 How, you know, and, um, uh, do you expect it to be as big as you, that, the, uh, that, that it,

00:49:48.800 that you hope it would be, uh, in, I believe it's going to happen in September, just real quick.

00:49:53.440 Yeah. So it's a fall. Um, so, so here's, what's been happening. Um, I'm not organizing the march and

00:49:59.440 saying it's in this area and that area. What's happening is my phone has blown up. I got people

00:50:07.040 from Calgary saying, Camille, we're going to go down. And then I see thousands. And then I see,

00:50:11.520 I get my phone, I get calls from Toronto and Mississauga telling me, Camille, we're going down.

00:50:16.800 I say, Hey, kudos to you. And then I see thousands of protests there. Then I get Montreal. I've been

00:50:22.720 doing interviews in Arabic overseas and Lebanon and Iraq and stuff like that. So, um, what's

00:50:29.280 happening is people like, you see, but here, I just met be here. Things are happening organically.

00:50:36.480 I've met you organically. People are coming together. It's, it's a protest that's going

00:50:42.080 to merge several protests. Uh, I just talked to billboard Chris himself, and he said, I'm

00:50:48.320 organizing a protest in Toronto on September 22nd. Well, guess what? This 1 million people

00:50:54.400 March that we've been compiling based on data and based on, uh, our team. Uh, I have people telling

00:51:02.640 me, and this is just the Muslim schools in Ottawa, Ontario, that, that area, 30% of the schools are

00:51:09.280 Muslim and they're committed to walking out along with their parents. One of the schools in Ottawa has

00:51:15.680 70 to 75% Muslims. So, and this is just talking the Muslim demographic, but then you get somebody like,

00:51:24.720 Dana, uh, Metcalf with project indigo, who, uh, who's a good friend of mine today that I also met

00:51:32.240 organically. And Chandra, I haven't met yet in Niagara Falls, uh, taking back the rainbow. They had

00:51:38.160 thousands of Christians, uh, protest and say, hands off the kids and everybody is on the same team. So 0.93

00:51:45.360 what I've, what I've been put into is as a, as a dad coming in, I came, I didn't even organize any of

00:51:53.360 the protests. I, I came in and I was asked, you know, we need you to speak. We need you to do this.

00:51:58.080 And organically all this came together. And now all of a sudden we have chapters throughout the

00:52:03.920 country. So 1 million people, I think at times it also feels like an under estimate. Uh, I think,

00:52:12.800 I think we're going to have a lot of people come down just like you would see pride hundreds of

00:52:17.600 thousands come down and they're a minority in Canada. Well, the heterosexual populace,

00:52:23.920 you know, that's, uh, over 97 to 99%. That's, I mean, 1 million out of the 35 million,

00:52:33.360 that's a minority, I would say. So I'm just making it easier. And I'm just saying,

00:52:37.520 1 million people March in September, it's on and it's on from coast to coast.

00:52:43.120 Okay. Well, um, on that note, I'm going to have to sadly, um, you know, um, bring this to a close,

00:52:50.240 uh, but I really want to thank you both Bahira and Kamal for joining, uh, me and, uh, for, for,

00:52:57.360 for this great conversation and, uh, best of luck to the two of you with everything that you're doing.

00:53:02.320 And I'm sure I'm going to have you guys back, uh, uh, perhaps in September before the million,

00:53:09.280 million March. Um, and, uh, which, which, which probably will end up giving both Trudeau and

00:53:15.200 Singh more nightmares than, than they hope for. But, uh, but yeah, good luck to the two of you and,

00:53:21.440 um, and yeah, uh, and I hope to have you again soon. Thank you so much.

00:53:25.680 Thank you very much. Thank you for doing this.

00:53:32.320 Thank you.

Juno News - July 22, 2023

Muslims stand up to gender ideology in schools

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