A CANADIAN extremist who has allegedly called for the “extermination” of Jews has been charged with promoting genocide, marking the first time such a case filed in Canada.
Salman Hossain was charged by Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) following an investigation into Internet posts that advocate the mass killing of Jews in Canada and other Western countries.
At a press conference, out-going OPP Commissioner Julian Fantino and Deputy Commissioner Vince Hawkes announced the unprecedented charge against the Bangladeshi-Canadian, who left Mississauga for South Asia before the five-month police investigation was finished.
The charges were welcomed by the Canadian Jewish Congress, which has long pressed the Ministry of the Attorney General — which must approve hate crimes charges — to streamline the process, and move forward with the case against the 25-year-old.
“Auschwitz did not begin with gas chambers, but with words,” said Bernie Farber, CEO of the Canadian Jewish Congress. “Mr. Hossain’s words and actions speak for themselves, and he must be held accountable under the law.”
“I think it is the beginning of the end of political correctness,” said Tarek Fatah, founder of the Muslim Canadian Congress. “I’m glad that more people are waking up to the realization that if you want to fight malaria, you have to drain the swamps — you can’t just shoot down mosquitos.”
Police first took an interest in Mr. Hossain after he allegedly posted messages on the Internet about the arrests of suspects accused of plotting terrorist attacks at a German military base and at Frankfurt International Airport.
“Kill as many western soldiers as well so that they think twice before entering foreign countries on behalf of their Jew masters,” he allegedly wrote in late 2007.
Over the past three years, Salman Hossain has openly called for terrorist attacks in Canada, cheered the killing of Canadian troops in Afghanistan and urged fellow Muslims to "exterminate" Canada's Jewish population.
When police started showing up at his suburban home in Mississauga in 2007, he was not chastened. He wrote that he "honestly got a kick out of pissing off the RCMP.... HAHAHA.... You can't charge me for possessing a thought."
The announcement comes nine months after Ontario Attorney-General Chris Bentley told the Jewish community the Crown had decided not to proceed with charges against Mr. Hossain because he was in a rehabilitation program to correct his behaviour.
Far from being rehabilitated, however, Mr. Hossain has only become more outspoken since then. He now openly urges Muslims to organize an invasion of Canada to overthrow the "Jewish run Canadian government" and begin the "mass extermination" of Canada's Jews.
While Mr. Hossain will face criminal charges, arresting him will be more complicated. He left the country before the OPP investigation was completed and is now in South Asia, where he continues to advocate racist violence on his U.S.-based website.
"Yes, I am a fanatic," he wrote in one of his recent posts from abroad. "I am ready to kill millions." Recently he wrote, "We must never cease in our efforts to eliminate the Jewish people from the face of the earth. Their permanent liquidation and destruction is the only solution."
Under Canada's hate propaganda law, it is illegal to advocate or promote genocide against an identifiable group. Offenders face up to five years imprisonment for each count. The law has been on the books for decades, but it has never been used.
Canada's only genocide trials to date have involved suspects accused of mass atrocities abroad, in countries such as Rwanda. The government has also deported suspected war criminals on the grounds they were complicit in genocides.
But Mr. Hossain's repeated calls for the mass killings of Jews may have prompted the authorities to put the genocide law to its first test. All charges under the hate propaganda section of the Criminal Code require the approval of the provincial Attorney-General.
In addition to filing charges, the OPP could use the Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty to ask its law enforcement partners in the United States to shut down the website that posts Mr. Hossain's alleged hate materials.
Mr. Hossain did not respond to an email asking whether he would return voluntarily to Canada to face charges, but his "official spokesman" told a Post reporter on May 21: "You need to stop your harassment of Mr. Hossin, because he's not the only one calling for your execution you rat faced scumbag ... Every last Jew on planet earth needs [sic] executed IMMEDIATELY ..."
Born in Bangladesh, Mr. Hossain immigrated to Canada with his parents, who once told a reporter her son was "stupid, an idiot and immature." Online, he has described himself as "a regular Muslim supporting the jihad overseas" and a friend of the Toronto 18 terrorists who have pleaded guilty to plotting attacks in southern Ontario.
The Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) and Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) started investigating Mr. Hossain at least three years ago, when he began calling for terrorist attacks in Canada. In response, students at the University of Toronto Mississauga launched a campaign to have him expelled.
Shortly after Mr. Bentley's announcement, Mr. Hossain resurfaced on Filthy Jewish Terrorists, a conspiracy theory website, with headlines such as "The Jews and the West must be nuked" and "The destruction of the West is the only way to exterminate the Jews."
He also do not spare other non-Muslim groups, he writes harshly about Christians and moderate Canadian Muslims, whom he dubs them as "traitors."
On the website, Mr. Hossain uses terminology reminiscent of the far right and neo-Nazis, writing that "a genocide should be perpetrated against the Jewish populations of North America and Europe." Another post on the site reads, "we need to start carrying out genocide against the Jewish people ... Their permanent extermination is the only solution."
York University suspended Mr. Hossain after the National Post reported he was under investigation. "I do not believe in 'Canadian' values whatever they mean," he responded on his website. "I forfeit my Canadian citizenship and will not literally participate in their fabricated judicial system."
If he has revoked his Canadian citizenship, it is likely that he has switched to citizenship of Bangladesh.
“Canada’s Charter of Rights and Freedoms includes the right to freedom of speech and freedom of assembly,” said Commissioner Fantino. “But we must not stand idly by when these rights are used as a shield to promote hatred against in a community.”
The National Post first reported in January 2008 that police were investigating Mr. Hossain after he allegedly posted messages online saying he enjoyed “watching the blood flow from the western troops” and allegedly said “the Jews are literally the most treacherous nation on the face of the Earth.”
He is now facing charges of wilfully promoting hatred and advocating or promoting genocide against an identifiable group.
Although Mr. Hossain is no longer living in Canada, Deputy Commissioner Hawkes said the OPP is “doing everything in our power to bring him to justice.”
Editors Note: Well it is not clear where he is presently living. Canadian security agencies believe he has either hiding in Bangladesh or sneaked into Pakistan. Canadian authority hopefully will contact Bangladesh to help deport the anti-Jew hate-offender.
Canada does not have an extradition treaty with Bangladesh, but Ottawa is likely to request Dhaka to arrest and return him to stand trial. At the very least, the approval of charges means he will be immediately arrested if he sets foot in Canada again.
Bangladesh may detain fugitive Salman Hossain, but it is likely that he will not be deported, as Canada has earlier refused to extradite renegade military officer Nur Chowdhury, accused of assassination of Bangladesh founder Sheikh Mujibur Rahman in August 1975 military putsch. #
First published in the National Post, Canada, July 8, 2010
Links:
http://news.nationalpost.com/2010/07/08/canadian-extremist-salman-hossain-charged-with-promoting-genocide/#ixzz0tRPi0Okj
http://www.nationalpost.com/news/canada/charge+Muslim+extremist/3248369/story.html#ixzz0tRN8Smdm
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