EZRA LEVANT ｜ I went to that Regina mosque that blasts the Muslim call to prayer
Episode Stats
Harmful content
Misogyny
1
sentences flagged
Toxicity
24
sentences flagged
Hate speech
94
sentences flagged
Summary
A mosque in Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada is blasting the call to prayer in all four directions for all of the city s citizens to hear. Ezra explains why they chose to do so, and why they think it's a good idea.
Transcript
00:00:00.000
Tonight, the Lord's Prayer is out, and the Muslim call to prayer is in.
00:00:05.400
It's June 29th, and this is The Ezra Levant Show.
00:00:25.880
On this sunny summer's day, I'm in the heart of Regina,
00:00:29.020
saskatchewan regina is the latin word for queen in fact i'm standing on victoria avenue behind me
00:00:36.740
is queen elizabeth court it's what they call that massive city hall i wouldn't have thought they
00:00:42.100
needed such a big city hall to run a city of 270 000 but there it is we really are in the center
00:00:48.860
of town over there is the court of king's bench over there is the taxation office around where
00:00:54.660
we are within a block or two in many directions are several old churches, the most prestigious
00:00:59.720
hotel in town. It is the center of the action. There's even a YWCA, Young Women's Christian
00:01:05.920
Association building over there. But there's a new arrival in the heart of Regina, and it's just
00:01:11.880
down at the end of the block there. An old building has been bought and is being renovated
00:01:17.160
to be turned into two things. One of them is an Islamic school, the other an Islamic mosque.
00:01:26.860
You bring people from around the world with different faiths.
00:01:29.340
They have freedom of religion in Canada, something they often don't have in other countries.
0.97
00:01:36.800
Last week, it decided that it would blast the call to prayer called the Adan in Arabic
00:01:54.660
The call to prayer is just what it sounds like.
00:01:58.240
And if you've ever been to the Middle East, you may have heard it in its natural habitat.
00:02:03.820
The muazin or the singer climbs typically the top of a minaret and calls people to prayer.
00:02:10.220
Because that's how it was when Islam was founded some 1400 or so years ago.
00:02:21.820
you called people out by singing a prayer. It's 2026, and this is Regina. Why are you blasting
00:02:30.520
a call to prayer? Well, it's a question that a lot of Regina's were asking, and the answer is, well,
00:02:37.120
I'm not sure if they were persuasive, especially since some of the answers came from Regina's
00:02:43.120
police department. Bizarrely, the police weighed in on this matter, saying they're making notes of
00:02:48.900
anyone who's hateful, and there may be criminal charges. Now, noise is a sensitive issue in every
00:02:56.040
city. And on one hand, I mean, there's the sound of everyday life and traffic and whatnot. But even
00:03:02.160
right in front of City Hall, you can see that there are citizens petitioning for noise-dampening
00:03:08.020
rules, noise-dampening walls. Noise is an issue. And for this mosque to go ahead and blast the call
00:03:15.780
to prayer in all four directions, what are they doing that for? It's not like there's Muslims
1.00
00:03:21.740
wandering by who would have forgotten what time it is and they need this. That is a dominance move.
1.00
00:03:27.500
That is a political dominance move to assert their territory. It's similar to what we've seen
00:03:34.180
in other Canadian cities like Toronto and Montreal, where hundreds of Muslim lie down for prayers
00:03:41.020
in the middle of the street there's a hundred mosques in montreal a hundred mosques in toronto
00:03:46.160
there's no need to pray in the street i say again that's a territorial domination move
00:03:51.480
and there's one more thing that's on my mind of course it's not just the noise it's the message
00:03:58.260
itself i looked up the adan to get a translation i already knew what some of the words meant you
00:04:04.000
probably do too it starts with allahu akbar four times in a row you probably know that means
00:04:20.080
And then it says, I bear witness that there is no God but Allah.
00:04:28.500
And then there's come to prayer, come to success.
00:04:38.900
How do you feel about a message being blasted all over town that there is no God?
00:04:43.740
There's a church literally across the street from that mosque.
00:04:47.080
It's going to be blasted with messages that there is no God.
00:04:59.360
And even if you think you have a God, don't you know that Allah is greater?
00:05:03.500
They're going to blast that out on the loudspeakers.
00:05:05.720
You know, I've seen the regime media cover this story fawningly.
00:05:12.540
I don't know why, other than it undermines Canada's Christian heritage.
0.97
00:05:16.440
I mentioned Queen Elizabeth, Queen Victoria.
1.00
00:05:20.980
You may or may not know this, but constitutionally, the British monarch is the head of the Church of England.
00:05:27.240
There actually is a state religion in the UK, and those monarchs are our monarchs too.
00:05:32.820
King Charles is the head of the Church of England.
00:05:36.560
Now, of course, we do have freedom of religion.
0.53
00:05:38.900
But since when do we repaint Regina or any other Canadian city as an Islamic territory?
00:05:45.860
Since when do we grant them a special status?
0.97
00:05:52.860
When the message you're blasting is there are no other religions, then there are no other gods.
00:05:56.800
And when you're aiming that at the churches in the area, don't tell me that that's a message
00:06:02.500
of diversity. That is a domination tactic to blast at the city hall, to blast at the Young
00:06:08.800
Women's Christians Organization, to blast at the churches and cathedrals. That's what that's about.
1.00
00:06:15.360
It's 11 a.m. We're here a little bit early because they're going to have a press conference
00:06:20.080
at 1 p.m., the hour that they intend to blast the message out today. It'll be interesting to see
00:06:28.540
They did send us a formal invitation, which we took up.
00:06:33.940
It's more expensive to get here than you think.
00:06:36.320
If you're glad that we're out here to have independent reporting on this
00:06:39.180
rather than the fawning coverage of the CBC,
0.87
00:06:44.340
to help chip in a few dollars towards our airfare and sign our petition.
00:06:49.340
I think that it's important that the political leaders of this city
0.63
00:06:52.700
realize that this move to assert dominion over the heart of the city by one religious group
00:06:58.860
preaching intolerance when you say there's no other god but Allah when you say Allah is the
00:07:04.260
best and when you're blasting that at the church I'm sorry you can't get away with saying that's
00:07:08.160
about diversity you just can't all right we've got two hours to the press conference I'll let
00:07:12.320
you know how it goes. Do you guys have an opinion about the mosque playing the call to prayer over
0.99
00:07:25.840
the loudspeakers? Have you heard about that one? No, I'm worried about it. I'm a Lutheran pastor
00:07:30.300
and I think that religious freedom is extremely important in our society and that we're much
00:07:37.540
too quick to clamp down on people who may look or think or believe a little differently.
00:07:42.640
Can I talk to you about the mosque? About the call to prayer? How do you feel about the call
00:07:46.780
to prayer that's going to be maybe Adan? Sorry, I don't have that. Okay, no problem. See you later.
00:07:53.040
Maybe he needs to hear the call to prayer to remember to go in. Yeah, I don't want to.
00:07:57.860
That's a spicy one, isn't it? Yeah, I know. Okay, see ya. For what? For Apple News? Yeah. Oh,
00:08:02.440
I'm okay. Thank you. Okay, see ya. Have you heard that? No. Do you have an opinion on that?
00:08:12.880
How do you feel about the call to prayer being broadcast on the speakers?
00:08:23.300
Yeah, now concentration close the road, yeah.
0.99
00:09:01.640
you guys don't come to our community starting problems man you guys just bring your
1.00
00:09:05.640
alt-right bullshit to canada you know putting me on camera too all you guys are alt-right
1.00
00:09:12.160
you guys are like the maga of canada you guys are like the maga of canada you guys are not
0.99
00:09:17.520
welcomed in canada you guys are not welcome in our community so please just exit well where are
0.97
00:09:22.120
you from originally where are you from originally i'm from canada fourth generation too we have an
00:09:26.960
accent no i don't have an accent you have an accent i don't think you're actually from canada
00:09:33.900
You guys are Scottish. You guys are not Canadian, man.
00:09:47.580
I see a lot of stuff in the media. I want to see it for myself.
00:09:55.300
I think they're afraid of publicly saying something that is politically incorrect.
00:09:59.120
well that's pretty much the norm these days isn't it being called a racist for
00:10:03.620
everything yeah I think that's what's happening
00:10:13.120
how are you doing today I'm Andrew it's my friend Lincoln do we expect someone
00:10:18.240
from the police to I was gonna say is there anyone from the police that's gonna
00:10:21.080
say anything okay that's all I'm asking there's someone gonna be speaking here
00:10:26.360
today from the police? So they won't be here in person or they will be? You're not being very
00:10:34.100
helpful. I mean, I'm not asking you a substantive question. I just want to know, will the police
00:10:40.120
spokesman be here or not? Are you here to make hate crime charges against people who question
00:10:49.100
the mosque? That's an easy one to say no to if the answer is no. All right. There's Regina's
00:10:58.160
Finest. My first question was a pretty simple one. Will there be a spokesman from the Regina
00:11:04.460
police here? And the reason I ask is threefold. First of all, it's very unusual. I think I have
00:11:12.800
to look into this some more to get a broadcasting permit, a sound or a noise permit from the
00:11:18.920
police rather than from city hall why is it happening through the police second of all is
00:11:24.720
the regina police put out a statement that could only be seen as menacing if you ask the wrong
00:11:29.280
questions you could be facing criminal prosecutions i would also ask hey how are you boss i'm trying
00:11:35.660
to find a spokesman is there going to be a spokesman down here today do you know if there's
00:11:41.380
going to be a spokesman down here today no no you're just here to make sure nothing gets out of
00:11:46.260
hand? They're not so brave when the camera's on. But what I want to know is why are the police
00:11:57.900
putting out statements with some menace behind it? Who told them to do so? Did the mosque ask for
00:12:04.060
that? Did a politician ask for that? The police involvement here is not trivial. We tried to ask
00:12:10.500
a bunch of people in Saskatchewan, in Regina here, what they thought of this, and they were afraid to
00:12:15.700
to say anything at most they said no comment and others said oh i can't answer that i wonder if it's
00:12:21.780
because they're worried they're going to face a hate speech charge i think it's really weird
00:12:25.460
to have what they call in law prior restraint to threaten in advance if the police want to make a
00:12:31.960
charge because something bad happened fill your boots but to say that before anything happened
00:12:37.120
before there was any criticism to threaten people that's called prior restraint and and i think it's
00:12:43.280
highly inappropriate for the police to have done so and I think they sort of know it because they're
00:12:48.200
not answering any questions are they they won't even tell me if they can answer questions by the
00:12:52.880
way you know I grew up in in Calgary I'm out east these days but Regina in particular has a really
00:12:59.900
bad crime problem and I'm not going to get into the details of it but believe it or not on a
00:13:05.580
proportionate basis on a population basis it's one of the most violent cities in Canada and you can
00:13:11.740
sort of see it just walking around the downtown core but the police think it's so important to
00:13:16.880
threaten people questioning a mosque broadcast that they've got a couple of police cars here
0.56
00:13:21.280
and some warning so that's the priority for crime fighting in regina taxpayers it's people who
00:13:27.440
question a broadcast from a mosque there's a lot of police here and i tried to ask them about their
00:13:33.080
tweet that i thought was a little bit menacing where they suggested if you say the wrong thing
00:13:37.220
you could be in trouble what do you make of that whole thing i mean democracy's gone right um i
00:13:43.940
don't know what i'm allowed to say i came as a catholic just to represent myself here in my
00:13:47.680
church i don't know what i can say i really don't i i mean i've heard people talk about coming and
00:13:52.940
just blaring their car horns or something but even that could be a noise violation now or a hate
00:13:56.700
crime what is hate you know define hate i don't even know anymore those words have no meaning
00:14:01.240
anymore so what do we do i think the mosque broadcasting is beautiful in my opinion are
00:14:08.040
you muslim yourself i'm muslim yeah could you tell by looking at me uh well the beard you know and
00:14:13.320
uh that was just a guess on my part okay and the fact that you used the word beautiful what's uh
0.67
00:14:18.800
what's your stand on it well i'm trying to figure it out to me i i let me put the my harshest
00:14:24.260
criticisms to you so i'm gonna put my toughest stuff to you okay so one of them is you don't
00:14:30.880
need to broadcast the call to prayer in 2026 you don't need to you know in you know a thousand
00:14:37.300
years ago maybe that's what you needed to get people to come to prayer now you don't need to
00:14:41.360
interrupt 95 percent of the people right um so that's the first thing the second thing is it's
0.67
00:14:47.260
a kind of domination right and then the third is domination well it's it's you know Allah who
00:14:53.980
Akbar Allah is the greatest I do God is the greatest well Allah in particular right yeah
00:14:59.620
But Allah in particular, it's not one being Allah has 99 names.
00:15:04.900
So let's what about my first point, which is we don't need to broadcast to call the prayer in 2026.
00:15:11.940
My rebuttal to that would be it's just cultural, right?
00:15:15.700
If you're promoting multiculturalism in Canada or even in Regina itself, it's just a cultural thing.
00:15:22.180
Nobody's forcing you to pray, but you're being forced to listen to it.
00:15:25.860
But you're forced to listen to church bells then because they ring down the street.
00:15:36.780
It's the same thing as blasting music down the road.
00:15:40.600
Well, I think the fact that it's a religious message, Allah is the greatest.
00:15:52.800
If you translate that to English, which I can...
00:15:55.080
So let's say you're Hindu and you believe in multiple deities.
00:15:58.660
Why do you have to listen to someone saying that you don't have a real God?
00:16:05.160
Nobody's going to stop them on the street and tell them,
00:16:10.180
Well, but this mosque is going to broadcast that,
1.00
00:16:13.420
They're telling you to go pray, whether you believe in Jesus.
00:16:22.760
How are you telling me that when the Christians play the bells, bells is the call to prayer, it's the same message?
00:16:28.020
Even if that were the same, and I don't think it is, this is a Christian country, it was founded by Christians.
00:16:32.760
It was founded by indigenous people, really. It was taken over by Christians.
0.95
00:16:38.380
Your cathedral is literally kitty-corner to the new mosque. What's your view on the call to prayer being broadcast on loudspeakers?
1.00
00:16:46.860
Yeah. I think it's great, actually. As a faith leader that shares this space downtown, I'm happy to share the space. I'm happy that we exist in this country under the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, which guarantees that my community and any other community can worship the way that they want to and they feel called to.
00:17:03.140
I'm not angered. I'm not mad. I'm intrigued as to why this is happening in a Christian nation without like a consent. There was no consent of never mind all the people. People are saying they weren't asked. They didn't even ask the first people of the first nations or no. I didn't hear there was no voting.
00:17:27.140
Like, there should have been a, maybe like a vote of the, how should I say, like a poll, maybe a poll in the city, before they tested the waters with something like this.
00:17:45.940
The call to prayer says there's no God but Allah, and Allah's the greatest.
00:17:53.660
Well, it's the Muslim God, it's not the Christian God.
00:17:55.980
it's the it's the arabic word for god no so the word in arabic for god but it doesn't refer to
00:18:02.380
jewish or christian gods if you're speaking to arabic speaking christians yes it does
00:18:06.860
or if you're speaking to arabic speaking jews it does they say allah yes okay um the word for god
00:18:13.180
to use to speak about god what do you think no i don't have an opinion fair enough i'm as much
00:18:18.700
canadian as you you know that i'm as much canadian as you well do you believe in the separation of
00:18:24.140
mosque and state who believes in that so you don't have that have to do with here well you're
00:18:30.540
projecting uh muslim call to prayer in a secular city when the church bells rings do you do anything
1.00
00:18:37.020
oh does it you know so that's why you guys are not welcomed in our community man do you have an
0.99
00:18:42.220
objection to it absolutely this is in the middle east broadcast in some languages nobody understands
00:18:49.340
you know where's all the french and english that's right but it's not bilingual we used to
00:18:56.160
be bilingual anymore once in a while the church bell rings isn't it the same what would you say
00:19:02.260
to him not at all the bells are literally no different from the glockenspiel down there just
00:19:05.960
telling you what time it is essentially this is a call for again i don't know what i'm allowed to
00:19:11.000
say right it's different and anybody who's read the quran knows what i'm talking about and i'll
00:19:14.620
leave it at that you can't control everything in the world man all i'm saying is you know i see
00:19:20.400
something in toronto and even freedom right yeah should i have the freedom to express whatever god
00:19:26.560
i like right but but freedom is different from the power to broadcast it over everyone here and
00:19:34.020
and by the way i i would doubt that anyone trial brother yeah well and then what's next people
00:19:39.700
really don't like it it's a ratchet it will stop really i don't think it'll i think things
00:19:44.500
only go one way i think that there's an islamification of the public square in canada
00:19:49.060
i think there's big islamophobia in canada well i mean some people are afraid of islam because
00:19:54.440
they see terrorism done in the name of islam i think people just take on uh whatever they see
00:19:59.440
on the internet and live with it well i'm muslim i don't i've never committed a terrorist i believe
00:20:04.460
you act i would never do something like i'm very glad yeah but many people people calling me
0.99
00:20:09.640
terrorists well and that's unfortunate but do you unfortunate but it's your people muslims don't go
00:20:15.760
around telling people you're a terrorist just because you're that color you're that religion
1.00
00:20:20.240
nobody does that but christians committed bare acts lots of infidelity lots of like disgusting
0.85
00:20:28.020
acts in the world but no like it's something you're just looking to fight but it's nothing
1.00
00:20:33.180
to fight what if you don't want to have your daily existence interrupted by a moment of islam
0.99
00:20:39.120
Yeah, first of all, I'll just correct you there. We do ring our bells on occasion, and that's for everybody.
0.98
00:20:47.860
Is that the same as actual specific messages about there's no God but Allah? It seems that it's fairly different.
00:20:54.560
Well, I think you could probably understand it as being different. I don't, because that's an expression of our faithful understanding.
00:21:01.320
This is an expression of theirs. So I don't see any difference there.
00:21:04.780
And actually, as far as noise downtown, if you were to stay here any longer than about 10 minutes, what you would hear over and over again, aside from the reason that you're here, are ambulances and fire trucks that are being called out multiple times a day.
00:21:19.660
But there's no political reason. There's no political meaning behind those sirens. You're not being forced to listen to a Islamic prayer in the siren. The siren is get out of the way. We're saving a life.
00:21:29.300
Yeah, that's also, I think, a call to each one of us to be aware of things that are actually problems in our neighborhood.
00:21:40.280
I strongly believe that Canada is a Christian nation and that it was founded on the treaties.
00:21:46.680
And this is maybe an attack on the identity of a Canadian identity and the treaties that we founded this nation.
00:21:54.500
because we'd founded the treaties and the basis of this nation on Christian values.
00:22:00.040
Everyone within a kilometre hearing this, whether they want to or not.
00:22:06.100
So the bell is a different thing than a message.
00:22:08.720
It's exactly the same message that the bell gives.
00:22:11.340
And the church did that for how many hundreds of years?
00:22:18.100
But isn't Canada a Christian country in its values, in its history, in its culture?
00:22:27.240
Isn't Canada a multicultural democracy in its cultures and its value?
00:22:31.880
Yes, it is. And it is not and was not founded as a Christian country.
00:22:38.760
It was founded on religious freedom because the people who came here as colonizers had suffered through the Thirty Years' War.
0.99
00:22:46.720
and they didn't want to repeat that kind of stupid insanity and that devalues destroys and
0.98
00:22:54.400
undermines the very foundation of christianity when you use christianity as a cudgel to those
0.99
00:23:00.560
of other faiths christianity by the way also only functions well when it's in the underclass
0.79
00:23:06.960
and not in power when the church gets in bed with the emperor the church gets a social disease
00:23:13.280
You guys are bringing your division, your conspiracy theorists.
00:23:22.480
Well, we are welcomed. We were specifically invited by the imam.
00:23:27.460
Well, maybe not by you, but I don't even know your name.
00:23:31.920
Yeah, you're repeating yourself. I think you've run out of things to say.
00:23:34.280
No, no, I don't. I know what you guys are about. I know what you guys' agenda is about.
00:23:40.160
i haven't said a word to you you you antagonize fake news there shouldn't be rebel news there
00:23:45.680
should be fake news i don't want to say it's fear because like i mean if you read the bible a lot
00:23:51.280
of people went to jail for this kind of stuff i'm trying i'm just trying not to be a coward but at
00:23:55.200
the same time too oh man i just have no words right now i don't know what i'm allowed to say
00:23:59.680
i am genuinely rattled by this and i know a lot of people in the city are too and it's just it's
00:24:04.400
gotta stop listen you and i have had a good conversation here i appreciate it thanks
00:24:07.600
very much for stopping to talk with me. Well that tells me everything right there doesn't it?
00:24:15.120
You know when you say that there's not a that there's been a separation of church and state
00:24:18.240
I know that that our particular denomination was was right in there with uh with forcefully
00:24:22.560
forcing people into residential schools uh based on their on their race um we joined with the
00:24:27.920
government in that there's not been a separation of church and state so again I don't I don't see
00:24:33.120
I don't see that there's a problem and I don't see it as as bustling in I see that the police are here
00:24:37.280
because I've been talking to them all week, to make sure that everyone in this place is kept safe, regardless of what you believe.
00:24:42.540
I see it as an erosion on maybe an attack on the treaty and the Canadian identity.
00:24:47.900
And I'm very, I don't know, I'm passionate in upholding, as an Indigenous young man,
00:24:55.820
upholding the past and tradition and what the treaty is and what this nation stood for at the end of the day.
00:25:03.160
Should there be a separation of Washington State or not?
00:25:09.500
Well, because some people don't want to hear an Islamic evangelical message.
0.61
00:25:15.440
And some people don't want to hear the bells proclaiming.
00:25:23.980
You've had some great points, and I appreciate you stopping to talk to me.
00:25:31.340
If we can all learn to love each other, we can figure it out easily.
00:25:33.780
All right. Well, let's not talk about the jihad. Very interesting folks there.
00:25:42.820
We got a lot of nerve saying he doesn't belong here and I don't belong here.
00:25:45.940
We were here before you were. Nobody says you're not welcome.
00:25:52.420
Why are you trying to force your religion down our throat?
00:25:54.500
We keep forcing on you guys. We have our permits. We have our permits.
1.00
00:25:57.620
How do you get a permit from the police? That's a new one, isn't it?
00:26:02.260
People have the premise from police all the time.
00:26:05.260
Do you think the police should arrest Rebel News?
0.53
00:26:12.180
You know, you are online posted online, not rebel.
00:26:19.180
From what I can tell, this went through the police rather than City Hall.
00:26:23.140
I've heard that now, again, politicians are the most politically correct people around.
00:26:32.220
If this goes to the broader city council, how do you think it's going to go?
00:26:39.580
I don't like to make predictions or assume anything in the world anymore
00:26:43.180
because it could go either way now at this point.
00:26:45.440
But yeah, no idea. No idea. I can't even predict.
00:26:58.880
who came from different Christian denominations
00:27:12.840
as a Christian leader, I don't think it's fair to say
00:27:28.440
But he's not making decisions on behalf of the church.
00:27:31.940
So I'm trying to understand, if it's not a Christian country, what are the values that infuse it then?
00:27:39.620
What would you categorize as Islamic values?
0.99
00:27:42.380
Well, I would, you know, I think I look around the world and there's no Muslim country that has the equality of men and women,
00:27:49.360
that has protection for minorities, that has the liberties that we do.
1.00
00:27:53.540
I think, unfortunately, Muslim countries have a propensity towards solving problems through violence, through the jihad.
00:28:00.640
So I don't think that those are I think that those are some of the qualities I look around the world contemporarily and historically.
0.99
00:28:07.460
Obviously, thank God, most Muslims or many Muslims do not subscribe to those views.
0.98
00:28:12.400
But I don't think it's accurate to say that Canada is infused with Muslim values.
1.00
00:28:17.460
yeah i i think that canada is infused with uh with the values of inclusion and welcome
00:28:23.820
but you guys are not welcoming you guys trying to act tell me
00:28:26.900
well you're the one who told us i have to leave you're the one who told me i have to leave but
0.98
00:28:30.600
i'm not welcome you're like a freaking fourth generation scottish or something or irish or
0.99
00:28:34.940
shit like that you know you guys are not even freaking freaking canadians you know what i i
0.99
00:28:41.800
rarely receive compliments like that but being called a fourth generation scots irish
0.99
00:28:46.820
is one of the nicest things anyone has ever said to me.
00:29:00.740
can I ask why you're dealing with the police instead of city council and I mean the police
00:29:26.040
put out a tweet that was slightly menacing, suggesting if people did the wrong thing,
00:29:33.000
Isn't the dialogue that you say you want, isn't the right way to do that through city
00:29:37.720
council, through debate, instead of getting it done through the police?
00:29:41.220
I highly appreciate and I respect what you are saying.
00:29:45.820
I totally agree with you because if there is any problem in between us, it's first to
00:29:52.640
discuss together before we inform the police. It is just not like me that I inform police,
00:29:59.760
it's the police they involve because this is an issue, right, for the greater community.
00:30:07.600
It is not me that I involve police first because the comment that we have received,
00:30:13.120
like from the social media, those are also threats. And when we feel that we also need to
00:30:18.640
contact the police because this is not the counselor issue this is the police
00:30:23.920
issue so what kind of threats like were you receiving or were people in the
00:30:27.640
community receiving give an example the example I can share with you I have
00:30:33.660
received phone calls I have also received emails that is saying the
00:30:43.200
speaker on the rooftop that they are coming and they are taking it out so
00:30:47.960
So that was the one thread, another thread they are saying like they do not understand
00:30:54.840
like what we are saying in Arabic and they are afraid about this and so he was very angry
00:31:03.340
at the beginning and after that I explained him and I said what exactly you feel the problem
00:31:12.040
find there are several like ayat like in the Holy Quran that is contradictory with their
00:31:18.220
like a like a like a based on the explanation that they have from from the other people so
00:31:26.620
we discussed on that matter over the phone he was very angry at the beginning and after that
00:31:33.160
he come down and then he said the way you explain it to me I am not only one person I'm calling
00:31:40.300
actually on behalf of 50 other people who are with me so they told me to contact
00:31:45.700
with you to find out what exactly is your planning are you doing it for a
00:31:50.000
short time or you are continuing it for permanently but was there actually
00:31:53.440
threats so someone saying you didn't understand and was angry I don't know if
00:31:57.880
that's a threat so the threats like because they do not understand the
00:32:02.920
meaning of call to prayer so the threat they said they are coming to take the
00:32:09.340
mic out that's one right so another like the call i i received the messages it says to stop
00:32:18.780
like a like a like a call to prayer and he doesn't want to see that um so what will be the consequences
00:32:27.020
like that i don't know because this is the i think in in in canada this is the first attempt
00:32:35.340
that we have taken that we also would like to continue so we'd like to clear to the community
00:32:42.620
like what are they thinking because a different community they have different cultural background
00:32:47.740
some of them maybe they do not understand will you have a public consultation because
00:32:52.860
it i understand that city council felt sort of short-circuited here that you went a different
00:32:58.300
route and only now you're talking about consultations. I went to the city of Regina in person
00:33:04.500
before we have the call to prayer because I do not know what is the bylaw from the city of
00:33:10.100
Regina. Was there a consultation, like a public consultation, public hearing? Like a public
00:33:15.180
hearing because we want to make sure that we follow the rules in Canada, right? So that is
00:33:25.740
the reason because city of Regina just step away and we always keep in touch with them
00:33:32.420
to make sure we are doing everything right. So we understand that there will have a loud
00:33:38.100
speaker and the call to prayer will have a loud sound. So first I thought to visit city
00:33:44.580
of Regina. So I went there and then the lady I spoke with and told me would that be five
00:33:51.500
times a day? Will that be early morning? Will that be at night? And then I clarify all this
00:33:58.260
that no, it will be only on Friday, two to three minutes, the noon time, like before
00:34:03.580
the noon prayer, like because it depends on the sun position. Then she said, no, it is
00:34:10.440
not a problem then. So you need to go in person to the Regina Police Services and you talk
00:34:17.520
a question about christian christianity in the public square the lord's prayer isn't is no longer
00:34:23.200
said at the beginning of meetings or school crosses are being removed from official emblems
00:34:29.520
so christianity is being driven from the public square in the name of diversity or tolerance but
0.96
00:34:35.040
your call to prayer says allah is great allah is the only god so it's bringing islam into the
0.86
00:34:42.000
public square what do you think about people who might say it's a it's a dominating move
00:34:51.040
well i think i think a lot of people think this is a religion in the public square
00:34:56.720
we've removed christianity from the public square why is islam coming into the public square
00:35:04.400
we are not here like to dominate anything right or any any public we are here to follow our
0.99
00:35:11.200
religion. So there are other religions also, right? And we have a religion of freedom in
00:35:18.120
Canada, right? We are free to follow our own religion. But a microphone or an amplification
00:35:26.100
system for one kilometer, people who are critics of Islam, skeptics of Islam, who might be
00:35:33.080
apostates of Islam, must listen to your particular prayer. And they have no choice about it.
00:35:41.200
And so you say it's a religion of freedom, but you're imposing, we call the prayer on anyone within a one kilometer radius.
00:35:48.960
I highly appreciate the question that you are asking.
00:35:52.200
That is also one of the reasons why we pause this Friday, because we also would like the neighbor's opinion about the sound distance, right?
00:36:05.320
So that is what also we are assessing from the local community to understand what are they thinking about the volume of the sound.
00:36:18.360
If it is required to reduce the volume, obviously, because we are here working with each other and helping each other.
00:36:26.720
So if we don't want to bother anybody, so we will assess that to determine the volume of the sound.
00:36:35.320
how far that would be like appropriate from this point so we are thinking that it should be less
00:36:42.120
than one one kilometer because they're in that direction i think there are offices on that
00:36:48.040
direction there are residential areas so we also will visit and check to see what are they thinking
00:36:53.880
because our priority is the neighbors so if the neighbors has no problem we should not have any
00:36:59.640
problem what if they're afraid to say they have a problem i spoke to a number of people who are
00:37:03.640
worried that they'll be deplatformed or canceled if they criticize Islam and of
00:37:08.980
course I did I did streeters outside and a number of people said they don't want
0.98
00:37:14.980
to go on camera criticizing Islam and the police have said that they'll
00:37:20.880
prosecute people who cross the line so I'm can you really hear from people who
00:37:26.380
are skeptics if they're afraid of being called racist they were Islamophobic or
00:37:30.700
they're afraid that all these cops are going to follow through on their threat to prosecute under
00:37:34.540
the hate speech law so this is a new issues arised right so as i mentioned the survey uh we will not
00:37:43.100
we are not collecting any name any contact information right so it will be anonymous so
00:37:50.220
anybody who want like they can participate they can attend right and if anybody they don't like
00:37:57.180
it i would suggest that we also collect those information because the call to prayer will not
00:38:04.220
be for only one day it will be continuous and also based on this area so there are also a specific
00:38:12.780
criteria like whom the president police services take issue permits so as we feel that the that
00:38:20.860
it is not bothering anybody here right because it will not be at night time not early morning
00:38:26.620
is only once a week in the afternoon time. So I don't think this will be a big issue,
00:38:34.220
and that is also the reason, like, we are collecting also the opinion from the neighbors
00:38:40.140
who also will decide what do they want. And there will not be any particular information
00:38:46.620
that we are collecting to identify who attending this search. So you're collecting the information
00:38:51.260
Yes, we are going through from today we are starting a printout survey to share to the
00:39:02.140
Yes, and we also will share this with the regional police services.
00:39:08.160
So there's lots of people following blindly what they see online about this.
00:39:13.120
What do you say to them about their following these people blindly and their hatred and
00:39:18.480
Yes, that's a very good question, because the problem actually arising, there are many
00:39:27.320
people, they actually don't know what is Islam, right?
00:39:31.640
Because they hear through the media, right, what is happening in Afghanistan, what is
00:39:36.000
happening in Dubai, Qatar, in different countries, right, in Iraq, right?
00:39:40.800
So I'm actually, we are not actually blaming the people who have that negative comment,
00:39:45.980
okay, because we feel sorry, right, because for the last 1,400 years we could not answer
00:39:54.740
those questions, you know, it keeps happening around the world, but this is Canada, right,
00:39:59.620
so if there is any problem and if we are not resolving these issues, that is why I would
00:40:05.800
like also a message from the Saskatchewan Premier and also from the city mayor, right,
00:40:14.980
we have a religion of freedom, so keeping quiet is not answering what exactly we want
00:40:24.460
So we also have children, we also have a generation, we need to end these issues, right?
1.00
00:40:30.920
And here, the Muslim community also from around the world, they are coming here, right?
00:40:37.380
We also don't want them to be treated negatively, right?
00:40:42.140
What is in the religion that is more important than what the people are saying, right?
00:40:49.320
So you know, like we don't expect, you know, to have a positive feedback when they don't
00:40:55.320
have the experience, like the positive experience, right?
00:40:59.240
That is why we need to discuss meet and greet, right?
00:41:02.840
We encourage also like the door is open, right?
00:41:06.460
Anytime anybody they want to come, you know, and meet and greet and talk, right?
00:41:11.440
So we can find out what exactly is the problem, what do we need to do to resolve this problem.
00:41:21.500
Thank you very much for this question, because we also need to reach to the people who have
00:41:29.300
And unfortunately, we don't have the chance to reach them, because we don't know their
00:41:33.880
number, they're in Regina or they're outside of Saskatchewan, we don't know them.
00:41:39.200
So we encourage them because it also will, inshallah, continue.
00:41:43.980
We also encourage everybody, whoever has any questions, come with and greet,
00:41:48.300
have a coffee together and share what we have the positive in between us
00:41:52.980
and share what we can find better and best for the community.
00:41:58.780
More of a comment than a question, but I'm your neighbor directly across the street.
00:42:08.640
And we're glad that you're here and we're here to work together.
00:42:12.980
And we support fully your presence here, your expression here, and look forward to getting to know you.
00:42:21.180
And I highly appreciate that we have the opportunity to meet and greet today.
00:42:26.400
And inshallah, we also will visit along with the other members that we have to your place.
00:42:33.720
And we also will see how we can work together and what opportunity that we can bring for our community here.
00:42:41.080
Well, after all that, they didn't actually play the call to prayer on those speakers strategically located on the roof,
00:42:50.320
which makes sense because that mosque is not in operation,
00:42:54.580
nor was it operational a week ago when they played the call to prayer then either.
00:42:59.540
So it's clearly not done to actually bring people to this mosque.
00:43:06.400
It's about projecting that message into the community and maybe causing a bit of a kerfuffle.
00:43:12.360
I was waiting outside here for that sound to go off.
00:43:16.980
And then I saw the imam himself come down to the door and usher in, I'd say, about a half dozen journalists and about a half dozen activists.
00:43:25.640
Earlier, I met the priest who runs St. Paul's Cathedral, and I understand being neighborly.
00:43:32.540
That's a very Christian thing to do, but he was positively an advocate for the projection
00:43:40.260
I would encourage him to visit Bethlehem, if he could, and see how the mosques dominate
1.00
00:43:48.300
that most important Christian site, which has a submissive status in Islam called being
1.00
00:43:55.360
a Dhimmi, D-H-I-M-M-I. It's a subordinate status that requires the payment of a Jazeera
1.00
00:44:02.360
tax. When Islam conquers Christian communities, they often offer different paths. One is be
0.99
00:44:09.700
killed. Another is convert. Another is live under the Jazeera. I saw this when I went
1.00
00:44:15.660
to Iraq and I saw the Islamic State. It almost feels like the boss of that Catholic church
1.00
00:44:25.360
wrong Islam. And earlier I, I spoke with someone who didn't want to appear on camera who said he
00:44:32.300
was Catholic and felt it was very demoralizing to have the call to prayer physically aimed at a
00:44:41.320
Catholic church across the street. He thought it was demoralizing, but he didn't want to go on
00:44:46.100
camera. And I don't blame him because the mockery and the derision that is heaped on anyone who even
00:44:52.980
ask questions i went in there and i asked a few questions i'll let you be the judge of if they
00:44:58.020
were good questions and i thought the answers were better than nothing but the clucking and
00:45:03.780
the hissing and the laughing of the regime journalists in there was truly gross it was
00:45:09.780
sort of incredible by the way the imam himself was fine with me being there and he answered my
00:45:15.220
questions to the best of his ability i asked him about the riddance of christianity from the
00:45:21.540
public sphere i mean it was only a generation ago where everyone knew the lord's prayer and that's
00:45:26.420
how you would start the day at a school at a public meeting now it's practically banned i know that
00:45:33.060
emblems are having their crucifixes removed from them i mean thinking of if i'm not mistaken it's
00:45:37.940
the university of alberta or university of calgary i can't remember which one removed the cross from
00:45:41.940
their emblem anything christian is being denuded from the public square but here is bold confident
00:45:48.580
islam going to project itself in a one kilometer radius even when there's no one actually praying
0.97
00:45:54.740
at this mosque and the local catholic priest couldn't be happier um there were no police
00:46:03.540
inside the mosque but it was interesting because i asked the imam what alleged threats he had
00:46:10.580
and he said someone said i'm going to take those loudspeakers down and the i mean is that a threat
00:46:16.500
I suppose I think that's more someone just engaging in some puffery and then
00:46:21.000
he said someone was angry because he didn't understand the Arabic meaning of
00:46:24.900
the prayers I'm sorry those are not threats but the police published that
00:46:29.520
there were threats and the media published that they were threats I
00:46:32.400
particularly pressed the Imam what threats have you had and that was all
00:46:36.960
he had someone was angry sorry being angry with your plan to broadcast
00:46:41.500
Islamic prayer throughout Regina that is not a threat and what bothers me is that
0.95
00:46:47.280
Islam is both at the same time hyper confident but also hypersensitive I
1.00
00:46:52.820
mean you're literally gonna blast a one kilometer area with an Arabic prayer
1.00
00:46:57.880
that says Allah is great there is no God but Allah you've got the confidence you
0.96
00:47:02.500
got the balls to do that but someone is upset because they don't understand it
0.66
00:47:06.760
and you're calling that a threat and here's all the police on standby ready
0.94
00:47:10.420
to make arrests i asked the imam uh for now who says he wants to consult why didn't he consult in
00:47:16.280
the first place why were there not hearings at city council why did he and he described the
00:47:20.940
process that he talked to some clerk at city council and that was enough i don't know i think
00:47:25.640
that there's a lot of uh institutional force that's being deployed in support of this imam what
00:47:33.660
What I mean by that is the people most excited about the Arabic call to prayer being blasted
00:47:40.680
for a kilometer, they're not in the mosque because there is no one in the mosque.
0.52
00:47:45.820
The people who are positively erotic about it are the Catholic priest, the regime journalists
0.96
00:47:51.880
and people who see Islam as the greatest challenge to the West.
0.96
00:47:59.900
You know, when I was growing up in the 70s and the 80s, leftists made alliances with
00:48:06.100
Soviets, peaceniks, they wanted disarmament.
0.82
00:48:09.400
That was the great counterweight to the West, the Soviet Union.
0.82
00:48:13.160
And so you saw Marxists and Leninists and activists on the left.
0.83
00:48:17.100
Now the great counterweight to the West is Islam and I suppose China as well.
0.83
00:48:22.200
And so you see all the Marxists who in the 70s and 80s would have been defending the
0.58
00:48:26.140
The Soviets are now just excited about the fact that there's going to be a call to prayer,
00:48:37.260
The Imam said that he will personally conduct a survey.
00:48:40.320
I asked him, I asked him how the survey is going to be done.
00:48:47.100
Oh, well, I'm sure no one would be shy about telling him to get lost.
00:48:51.920
the thing is that it is terrifying to people who have a job that's a jeopardy
1.00
00:48:57.140
to say you know I don't like an Islamic call to prayer I'm not living in
0.87
00:49:01.580
Pakistan or Bangladesh can we just please have Regina you know there's
0.90
00:49:06.080
something to the fact that Islam is more confident than ever and the West is less
00:49:12.140
confident than ever we're the kind of people who accuse ourselves of genocide
0.96
00:49:16.580
against indigenous people we're the kind of people who say we have to pay
0.94
00:49:20.280
reparations to blacks, even though we never had black slavery in Canada. And even at City Hall
0.95
00:49:26.620
today, I saw such a mishmash of monuments about what is Regina. I saw a statue of Confucius. I
00:49:35.340
saw a statue of Mahatma Gandhi. I saw an attempt to sort of blend indigenous rights with settlers
00:49:49.320
And if you stand for nothing, you'll fall for anything.
0.85
00:49:56.380
You've got other churches so delighted to show how tolerant they are.
00:49:59.700
We even bumped into a pastor who said he couldn't be thrilled.
00:50:05.000
There's a reason why those mainstream churches are empty.
00:50:10.880
A very interesting day out here. I came out here with my colleague, Lincoln Jay. We actually brought with us a sound measuring device to measure decibel levels. And it looks sort of interesting. We tried it out on a passing ambulance in a fire truck, and we got the volume level for that. And we were ready to test the volume here. But alas, they said they elected not to do it. I think it was probably a good idea not to do it again.
00:50:38.000
but they say that they have a permit to to do the loudspeakers for several months and they
00:50:45.640
intend to do it i don't like this because i think that canada is historically and culturally and by
00:50:54.320
our tradition and our law and our society it's a christian country it it's tolerant of minorities
00:50:59.880
i'm a jew but there was no better place in the world for a jew to be born and raised than in
00:51:05.920
There's no one else that would be, I mean, America,
00:51:13.280
And you might have recalled that one Muslim man on the street
00:51:24.180
And then that one fellow who pretended to be such a gentle man from Albania,
00:51:28.660
but in the end he refused to shake my hand.
0.99
00:51:30.580
I think we have, as Osama bin Laden would say, a strong horse and a weak horse.
00:51:37.760
And people prefer the strong horse now, don't they?
00:51:41.160
Canada is led by politicians who don't believe in our own country.
00:51:46.920
They say Turtle Island, or at the very least, they give a land acknowledgement.
00:51:50.820
They won't even say that we own the country, let alone stand for everything.
00:51:56.160
They tear down statues of Sir John A. MacDonald and Queen Victoria.
00:52:00.340
Regina is literally named for the word queen in Latin.
0.92
00:52:04.400
And yet they couldn't be happier to embrace a religion that would put a queen in a full hijab or a burqa.
00:52:10.920
And I saw that Global News has dispatched their hijab-wearing reporter on this file.
00:52:16.380
But, of course, you know, I'm for freedom of religion.
00:52:20.160
And I think if someone wants to practice their religion peacefully, go to it.
00:52:24.260
I think the problem is one degree earlier.
0.89
00:52:26.580
the mass immigration that has brought into this country hundreds of thousands of people who do
0.57
00:52:31.440
not share our values and in fact are quite hostile to them if pressed. There is no Muslim country in
1.00
00:52:37.980
the world, there is no Muslim majority country in the world that is tolerant of minorities. I suppose
1.00
00:52:42.960
you could say the United Arab Emirates but frankly that's a majority of the people in that country
00:52:48.200
are expats. I fear that what made Canada such a wonderful place to grow up, its gentle Christianity
00:53:06.500
If you want to help us out, including covering the,
00:53:10.080
it was more than a thousand bucks for each Lincoln and I
00:53:17.440
It costs us about a thousand bucks each to get out here.
00:53:20.020
If you can help chip in, go to stopislamicdomination.com.
00:53:24.260
that's stop islamicdomination.com and while you're there you can sign the
0.89
00:53:29.120
petition I think this deal is being done on the low down I think that the police
00:53:34.820
were happy to wave it on through it was not subject to a debate in city council
00:53:39.140
let alone a public hearing and even now the Imam says he'll handle the survey
00:53:43.400
of neighbors himself I think that this isn't the most pressing crisis in the
00:53:48.640
world but it's the nose it's the camel's nose in the tent isn't it and as it goes
00:53:53.640
in regina today it's one call a week then it'll be one a day then it'll be five a day and it'll
0.71
00:54:00.680
be every other mosque in the country does canada have a core does canada have a belief system a
0.55
00:54:07.160
culture a tradition a history you damn rights it does and i think that's what this battle here is
0.65