Jerusalem Day events in Toronto
The speaker is Zafar Bangash. Left: A picture of Khomeini held aloft.
The spokesman is Maulana Assad Jaffery, an Iranian student from the city of Qom.
Pictures from the Demonstration
Pictures from the Demonstration
The flag of Bahrain carried in the demonstration
 Left: A demonstrator holds a picture of Iran’s Supreme Leader Khamenei. Right: Hezbollah flags (YouTube) |
Overview
1. On August 28 Jerusalem Day was marked in Toronto, Canada, with a rally in Queen’s Park. It was attended by more than 100 people who marched from Queen’s Part to the nearby American consulate. The event was organized by CASMO, the Canadian Shia Muslims Organization, an organization founded to connect Shi’ites throughout Canada, which has a number of branches (CASMO website, September 5, 2011).
2. Featured were Hezbollah flags, pictures of Iranian leaders and anti-Israeli banners, such as "From Iraq to Palestine, Occupation is a Crime" "Down with Zionism" and "Zionism is Racism." There were also many Bahraini flags bearing the inscription "Not Shia Not Sunni Just Bahraini." The demonstrators shouted anti-Israeli, anti-Zionist and anti-American slogans such as "Shame, shame, Israel, shame, shame, USA," "Free, free, Palestine," "Allahu Akbar," and others.
3. A number of speeches were given slandering Israel, the Jewish people and the United States:
1) Zafar Bangash, an imam, journalist, a leader of the Muslim community in Toronto and director of the Institute of Contemporary Islamic Thought attacked Israel (calling it the "Zionist parasitical state"), and the United States (calling President Obama "This black man in the White House"). He presented his vision of the day "when we the Muslims will march on Palestine and liberate Palestine for all the people in the world, for the Jewish people, for the Christian people, for the Muslim people, and under Islamic law they will all be living as equal citizens" [followed by cries of "Allahu Akbar"]. Of the events aboard the Mavi Marmara he said, "They killed nine peace activists on the Mavi Marmara…that is what makes them racists, that is what makes them inhuman, that is what makes them barbarians. That is why we oppose Zionism."
The speaker is Zafar Bangash. Left: A picture of Khomeini held aloft.
2) Maulana Assad Jaffery, a student from the Iranian city of Qom, said that "…wherever you see injustice happening there is a one percent, a two percent, a one hundred percent involvement by the Zionist regime. The same Zionist regime that sucks the resources, the blood, and everything that belongs to the people all across the world, and use it for themselves." He ended his speech the the slogan "Zionism is racism," which was repeated by the crowd
The spokesman is Maulana Assad Jaffery, an Iranian student from the city of Qom.
The banner at the right reads "Israel is a terrorist regime. Israel terrorizes children" (YouTube)
3) The rally leader (who was not identified) compared Israel to cancer, saying that the first thing it did was to take all the resources of the healthy cells around it, then it multiplied, and finally it occupied all the organs which kept the body alive. The situation with Israel, he said, was in no way different. The world was the body, and the body had cancer, and the cancer was spreading, and the Palestinians were not the only ones who were suffering…
4) Another anonymous speaker called, in the name of those who attended the rally, for an immediate an unconditional end to the so-called "occupation of Palestine" by what he called "the illegal state, Israel." He also demanded the immediate withdrawal of foreign forces from Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya and Bahrain. He appealed to the Canadian government to take Hezbollah off its list of terrorist organizations, called the United States and Europe "a gang of criminals," and supported the popular resistance in the Arab-Muslim world while denouncing the call of the world powers for President Assad to resign.
Pictures from the Demonstration
(YouTube)
Anti-Israeli banners. Lower picture: A reference to the Mavi Marmara flotilla, reading "Now featuring, commando raid on humanitarian aid – only in apartheid Israel"
The flag of Bahrain carried in the demonstration
1 Supplement to the August 31, 2011 bulletin "Annual Jerusalem Day events organized by Iran and its proxies around the world again stressed hatred for Israel and the United States and support for Hezbollah and Hamas. In the Arab and Western world, participation and media coverage were generally slight, contrary to Iranian expectations. In the West (especially Britain), the Iranians joined anti-Israeli organizations participating in the campaign to delegitimize Israel" at http://www.terrorism-info.org.il/malam_multimedia/English/eng_n/pdf/iran_e130.pdf. The Photos courtsey of The Center for Israel and Jewish Affairs in Canada
