By Shlomo Kapustin
Tribune Correspondent
MONTREAL – As political campaigns across the country continue to heat up, a web-based fracas is brewing in Montreal. The controversy centres on the closely fought riding of Brossard-La Prairie, and concerns a recent posting to the Montreal Muslim News web site suggesting that Muslims not vote to re-elect the Honourable Jacques Saada, the Liberal MP for the riding and a Tunisian-born Jew. The posting, authored by Ammar Khan of the riding, refers to Saada as a “Zionist zealot.”
In the short posting, Khan first cites a Canadian Jewish News article as proof of Saada’s Zionism. The article, which includes Saada’s biography, mentions that he once belonged to Hashomer Hatzair, the Zionist youth movement, volunteered for the Israeli army in the Six Day War of 1967 and spent the following year living in a kibbutz.
Khan then cites the ‘F’ grade that the Canadian Islamic Congress gave Saada in its pre-election review of candidates for much of the country and which appears on its web site. (Others receiving an ‘F’ include Jewish MPs Susan Kadis, Richard Marceau and Justice Minister Irwin Cotler, as well as many others.)
In e-mail exchanges with this reporter, parts of which were also posted on the Judeoscope web site, a French-English web site that was launched in 2004, both the editor of the Montreal Muslim News web site and Khan took pains to distinguish antisemitism from anti-Zionism. As the editor for the site, Yahya Abdul Rahman, wrote, “Saada is not being singled out for his ethnicity or religious background, but his politics, both past and present.”
Khan defended his posting by citing the anti-Israel position of the fringe ultra-Orthodox Neturei Karta, which is well known for its implacable hostility to the idea of a Jewish State in the Jewish people’s ancestral homeland. He then buttressed his case with reports from human rights organizations that have condemned Israel’s conduct.
Saada spoke with the Jewish Tribune last Friday. He indicated that he had been apprised of the posting, but that he was wary of giving these comments a “profile.” He did, though, categorize the Montreal Muslim News as “a marginal group that is always trying to incite Muslims” on voting issues.
When pressed to suggest a possible explanation for these comments, he mentioned that “this group doesn’t believe in a two-state solution; they’re against the state of Israel.”
Saada also made a few points of his own.
First, he denied having ever served in the Israeli army.
He also said that he enjoys excellent relations with the Muslims in Brossard-La Prairie and that he has “been forcefully endorsed by the Muslim leadership” in the riding. As further evidence of this relationship, he pointed to his intervention on behalf of Muslims in his riding when they required a building for prayers.
In fact, when swastikas defaced his campaign materials in the last election, “the first group that stood up in my defence was the Muslim community.”
In addition, he said that he has always made sure that the Muslim community was represented when it came to safety and security issues in Canada.
Finally, he mentioned that as Minister responsible for La Francophonie (in which role he handles relations with French-speaking nations throughout the world), he has “tried to unite both Israel and the Palestinian Authority” and provide “a forum to engage together.
“Instead of bringing harmful values to Canada,” he said, “I want to export peace to the Middle East.”
This is not the first time that Saada has faced opposition from some members of the Muslim community. Before the 2004 election, Mohammed Sherif Kamel of the Canadian Muslim Forum stated: “I could not vote for a thief. Zionism is theft…Jacques Saada is a Zionist, he is therefore a thief.”
Pierre Langlys, a representative for Marcel Lussier, the Bloc Québécois candidate in the riding, declined to comment about this incident. Tenzin Dargyal Khangsar, the Conservative candidate, could not be reached before press time.
The Jewish human rights group B’nai Brith Canada called Khan’s remarks “offensive.”
“By invoking the candidate’s early ties with Israel, Khan appears to suggest that anyone who has an interest or sympathy with the Jewish state is somehow contaminated,” said Frank Dimant, B’nai Brith Canada’s executive vice president. “Would he suggest that MPs who have visited or professed an interest in Arab countries similarly to be declared unfit candidates?”
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