Word on the Street 2009 - Part 11 - Pathfinder Books

Pathfinder Books: presenting Malcolm X, Che Guevara, Thomas Sankara, the Communist Manifesto and The Jewish Question.

(Click to enlarge.)

Word on the Street 2009 - Part 10 - Pathfinder Books

This is the other side of the Communist League flyer that was given to me at the Pathfinder Books booth at Word on the Street.

An excerpt:

"The working class needs to answer this war on our class by organizing a revolutionary struggle to take state power out of the hands of the rulers. We must reorganize the economy and all social relations, from top to bottom, in the interests of workers and farmers."

Click to enlarge and read it all.

My interpretation: Let's fire the rulers so we can rule over you. Let's throw out all the laws because our laws are better and we know best. Because Communism has always worked so well for the people.

Note: "All social relations" means they'll even dictate the correct way to conduct your relationships with friends and family.

Word on the Street 2009 - Part 9 - Pathfinder Books

This Communist League flyer was given to me by the folks at the Pathfinder Books booth.

Some of their demands:

"Nationalization of the land and housing stock. This is the only way to guarantee working people inexpensive, attractive, and quality housing without fear of eviction by a landlord or foreclosure by a bank...

"Guaranteed lifetime medical care and retirement pensions for all...

"End all income taxes on workers."

Click to enlarge and read the rest.

Word on the Street 2009 - Part 8 - GlobalAware

I cropped one of my photos of a GlobalAware button board so I could point out this one: "Bombing civilians is always a war crime."

Since leftists (and Islamists) are irony-impaired, I am certain the folks at GlobalAware thought only of Israel when they made and pinned this button to their board and didn't even pause to apply that standard to the Arabs who have sent thousands of rockets into Israel with the sole purpose of injuring and killing civilians.

(See the bottom photo in this post for the full shot.)

Update: Welcome, fellow fans & readers of Blazing Cat Fur!

Word on the Street 2009 - Part 7 - GlobalAware

This is the only photo I took at GlobalAware's booth at Sunday's Word on the Street. (I have blurred the children's faces.) While I was checking out the booth, there were a few children looking at the displays and rifling through the bins of buttons. I could not take photos without the children being shown and, whenever possible, I avoid showing children in my photos and videos.

It was a lot less crowded two weeks earlier at GlobalAware's booth at the Junction Arts Festival and I was able to take several photos of their buttons and postcards then. I think it's safe to say that their inventory did not undergo a drastic change between September 12th and September 27th. (See the posts below for those photos.)

The GlobalAware rep that I spoke to on September 12th said their buttons are made by members and sold to raise money so they can give lectures to schoolchildren. They have to raise their own money to do that, he explained, because although children are interested in politics, society does not want to educate them on the subject because then they would challenge "the system".

He pointed out that children were drawn to their button displays and, indeed, at both events I saw children avidly reading the buttons' messages.

When I remarked on the political nature of the buttons (I was taken aback to see them at a supposed local arts festival), he said that all of their products were political because their organization's aim was to oppose "the system".

If you click on the photo, you might be able to read their sign, which reads, "Make Affluence History." That definitely sounds anti-capitalist to me.

So we see that, in addition to allowing Islam to be proselytized by an Islamic group, The Word on the Street enabled GlobalAware to demonize Israel and promote anti-capitalism.

More to come.

Word on the Street 2009 - Part 6 - GlobalAware

Note: I only took one photo of GlobalAware's booth at The Word on the Street. These photos were taken on September 12th at GlobalAware's booth at the Junction Arts Festival. Click to enlarge.

Update: Welcome, fellow fans and readers of Scaramouche!

Word on the Street 2009 - Part 5 - GlobalAware

Note: I only took one photo of GlobalAware's booth at The Word on the Street. These photos were taken on September 12th at GlobalAware's booth at the Junction Arts Festival. Click to enlarge.

Word on the Street 2009 - Part 4 - GlobalAware

Note: I only took one photo of GlobalAware's booth at The Word on the Street. These photos were taken on September 12th at GlobalAware's booth at the Junction Arts Festival. Click to enlarge.

Word on the Street 2009 - Part 3 - GlobalAware

Note: I only took one photo of GlobalAware's booth at The Word on the Street. These photos were taken on September 12th at GlobalAware's booth at the Junction Arts Festival. Click to enlarge.

Word on the Street 2009 - Part 2 - Proselytizing for Islam

According to its website, "The Word On The Street is a national celebration of literacy and the written word."

Perhaps they should amend that to include the created word, since the Koran was so heavily promoted there by the Islamic Information Center at University of Waterloo.

Don't just take my word for it; read what a Muslim website says about the event (note: dawah means proselytizing for Islam):

Events

Type: Dawa

Title: ***LARGEST DAWAH EVENT IN CANADA*** FREE QURAN FOR COMMUNITY

Date: 9/27/2009
Time: 11.00AM - 5.00PM

Suitability: Men, Women, Youth, Non-Muslim, New Muslim

Contact Info: Islamic Information Center
www.uwislam.com
info@uwislam.com

Place:
1). Queen's Park, Toronto Downtown
2). Victori Park - Kitchener Downtown

Comments: Assalam-O-Aleykum Brothers and Sisters

This edition of E-News includes:

1. Largest Event of the Year in Kitchener and Toronto (Sept 27)
2. Weekly Islamic Information Booth (Sept 23)
3. Volunteers Needed

1. Largest Dawah Event of the Year in Canada:

Alhamdullilah, IICUW is actively participating in one of the largest event in Canada, called, Word on the Street in Kitchener as well as in Toronto on this coming weekend, Sunday, Sept 27, 2008.

Over 210, 000 people attending this event in Toronto (equal to 10 times of full UW population) and 10, 000 people in Kitchener (half of the full UW population). This is Canada's largest book and magazine festival at National Level.

Sept 27, 2008, 11.00am – 5.00pm, Victoria Park, Kitchener Downtown
Sept 27, 2008, 11.00am – 5.00pm, Queen's Park, Toronto Downtown

Islamic Information Center, by the Grace of Allah, is FIRST and ONLY Islamic organization who is participating in Kitchener and IICUW is the FRIST and ONLY Islamic organization who is participating in two cities in Canada last year 2008 when thousands of dawah material was distributed to our non-Muslims community.

Alhamdullilah, we also participating this year.

[...]

The Islamic Information Center at University of Waterloo's website states:

Literacy Awareness Campaign

• Learning how to read Qur'an in Arabic
• Free Access to books in Multilanguages
• Awareness of Community Diversity
• Family Values Literacy in Multiculral* Society
• Community Relations Awareness

and, for all I know, that is enough of a tie-in to The Word on the Street.

However, literacy was not mentioned to me by the folks at their booth. Instead, I was told that women have equal rights in Islam and that a woman -- Mohammed's wife -- was the first person to become a Muslim. I was also told that the Koran is the only holy book that has an entire chapter devoted to women (titled, "Women") yet it does not have a chapter called "Men." In addition, I was told that a lot of Christians were converting to Islam and that 60-70 percent of the people converting to Islam are women.

I was given an English-language Koran (The Quran, translated by Maulana Wahiduddin Khan). Inside the small paperback were tucked two tracts from the Islamic Information & Da'wah Centre International: How to Train Your Willpower to Work for [sic] and 7 Reasons to Read The Glorious Qur'an.

Another booklet that was given to me, Islam: Balancing life and beyond by Suhail Kapoor, was used to relate the wonderful story of Yvonne Ridley.

I'll let the booklet tell the miraculous tale:

"Muslim women's sense of sisterhood makes 'Western feminism pale into insignificance', says Yvonne Ridley, the tabloid journalist who converted to Islam after her experiences in a Taleban Jail. Where she claims that not a finger was laid on her nor was she mistreated during her captivity. Her study of the Qur'an after her release left her with no choice other than to embrace Islam."

I was also given a booklet, The Amazing Quran by Gary Miller; three pamphlets: The Qur'an, The "Final Revelation" And "Divine Guidance" From The Creator (author not given but seven websites listed), Islam Teaches Kindness to Animals and Depression How Islam Can Help (both by The Center for Islamic Development); and a DVD titled, The Fog is Lifting, part I, Islam In Brief, produced by Bridges Foundation.

Despite what was written on the Muslim website about the event, the Korans were only given away for free to non-Muslims. When a Muslim asked for one, she was flat-out refused. Literacy was not mentioned to her, either.

Why was The Word on the Street used to promote Islam to non-Muslims?

With all of the egregious human rights violations taking place in Islamic countries today, and the oppression of girls and women in Muslim households even in non-Muslim countries, why was this group allowed to present Islam as being strong on women's rights?

I didn't ask questions or attempt to engage the earnest proselytizer in dialogue. I wanted to mention the terrible plight of girls and women in Islamic countries. I wanted to list the names of Muslim girls and women who have been the victims of so-called honour killings. I wanted to bring up the topic of female genital mutilation. But why bother? I wasn't likely to get honest answers and I wasn't in the mood for an argument. I listened as if I was interested, took the freebies and left.

There were communist books and buttons to see, after all. More on those later.

Word on the Street 2009 - Part 1

BlogTO gives a glowing report on yesterday's Word on the Street event held in downtown Toronto and concludes with:

"Overall I had a great afternoon in the park, and I get the sense that many others did too, as the event was obviously well attended. There really was something for everybody, even library-cardless types like myself."

Great photos and interesting notes here.

I was there yesterday, too, and, as you might expect, I have a slightly different take on it.

While there, I ran into RightGirl, who was mum about her meet-up with Salim Mansur. His new book sound interesting; hopefully, RightGirl will treat us to a review after she's read it.

More to follow.

Al-Quds Protest, Queen's Park, Toronto, 2009 - Video - Part 8

This video is a bit shaky at the beginning. I had left the crowd to take photos and get a good spot for taping as the people started on their march. For some reason, I thought they were going to start marching after Khaled Mouammar finished his speech.

But another man took the stand and started reading from a list of demands, so I turned my camera back on midway through his first demand. The most notable was #3: a condemnation of Prime Minister Harper's government for assigning a terrorist designation to Hamas and Hezbollah. The balding man in the crowd who boos this designation and shakes his finger against the government is the same man who demanded to know my name and affiliation (update: Ali Mallah, vice president of the Canadian Arab Federation). Sure, I'll give my name to a supporter of Hamas and Hezbollah; what could possibly go wrong?

The speaker told everyone to walk together and walk slowly to make it look like they were a bigger crowd and then they all started on their way. I taped part of the beginning of their march and then my camera's back-up battery died.

This is my final Al Quds Day protest video. I'll start on the Jesus in the City video tomorrow.

Al-Quds Protest, Queen's Park, Toronto, 2009 - Video - Part 7

This video shows the first part of a speech by Khaled Mouammar, president of the Canadian Arab Federation.

The back-up battery on my video camera was dying; I turned it off before he finished speaking because I hoped to have enough juice left to photograph the people as they marched.

There's one more video to come.

Al-Quds Protest, Queen's Park, Toronto, 2009 - Video - Part 6

This is the conclusion of Suzanne Weiss's speech (pay no attention to her mesmerizing shadow).

The rest of the speeches and the beginning of the march will have to wait until tomorrow.