Searching for God # 126

 Writing in the National Post, on July 30, 2026, Terry Newman, columnist, in an editorial entitled, “Integration or Islamicization?” reported and commented on a Muslim youth conference in Montreal on July 26, 2026: 

‘On July 26, an Islamic convention called “LIT” was held at the Embassy Plaza in the Montral suburb of Laval. What was said there raises serious concerns about how some Muslim communities integrate into Canadian society. The conference’s website states that the target audience of ‘Montreal’s largest Islamic convention’ was youth aged 15 to 30, and its purpose was to ‘unify the Muslims.’ Yet based on the recordings of the talks reviewed by the National Post, the purpose of unifying Muslim youth appears to include encouraging them to detach themselves from Canadian society and its ‘immoral’ western law-based paradigm, in favour of a community-based Islamic one. Attendees were urged by one speaker to build a ‘circular economy’ by supporting Muslim businesses, where Canadian currency might be replaced with gold and where their wealth may be used to exert political influence. LI’s title sponsor was the Qibla Foundation, which recently received a grant of over $20,000 from the federal government. According to attendees and photos of the conference circulated on social media, the main hall was segregated, with women on one side and men on the other, separated by a curtain. (Of 11 speakers) of particular note were speeches made by Navid Aziz, Yasir Nadeem, and Daood Butt. Aziz’s bio at the Islamic Information Society of Calgary, where he serves as director of religious and social services, says he’s ‘focused on the education and integration of Muslim youth’ But his speech on July 26 raises serious questions, from my perspective, as to whether that include integrating them into Canadian society. Aziz began by telling attendees that he’s happy to now see Halal food everywhere, but finds Quebec’s new lactate law ‘very, very disheartening,’ and suggested that, despite their numbers, Quebec Muslims ‘are still unable to protect’ themselves. In an effort to explain why Muslim youth need to live for Allah and not just for material things, Aziz told a story about a Jew, A Muslim and a well in Medina. The well, he said, was owned by a Jewish man who ‘knew that he had a monopoly, that he could charge whatever he wanted because there was no competition for him.’ Long story short, the Muslim tricked the Jew into selling half the well and is then able to give Muslims the water for free on specific days, foiling the Jew’s plans to make money. The Muslim, in contrast, is presented as trying to make the world a better place. Aziz told the youth that it’s great to have political aspirations, but that ‘there’s a ceiling that Muslims will reach in the political sphere’ and ‘eventually you will have to compromise your beliefs.’ Because of this political ceiling, Aziz suggested that Muslims should amass wealth in order to influence politics, explaining that this is something that the Zionist lobby does this amazingly well.’ ‘They have no problem in lining the pockets of the politicians They don’t need the politicians to believe in their causes. They just need to line their pockets so the politicians will log and advocate for them. And that’s what I need you to think about. Aziz then argued that to create wealth, Muslims must build a ‘circular economy’ where they buy from their own community. Aziz said that he is trying to develop an infrastructure solution where Muslims can avoid using fiat currency, and instead back their wealth in gold. The solution is called ‘Phi Wallet.’ Aziz then told them that for every dollar that Jews spend, 92 to 97 cents stays within the Jewish community. 

Urged also to have ‘friends who remind them of Allah’ by another speaker, and not to date ‘others’ who are not Muslims, and to regard support for the LGBTQ+ community as sin, are some of the other warnings delivered at the conference, according to Ms Newman’s piece.  

How can one reflectively respond to such ‘red flags’ without expressing rage, anger and a reciprocal animus?  

Well, for starters, Aziz, for one, seems to have fallen into the binary trap, pitting Muslims against, and comparing Muslims with Jews...as if they were the sole ‘power-brokering source’ in Canadian (or any other nation’s politics). That trope has a long history, and just for a modest clarification, the Canadian economy and political system, while leaning in favour of Israel historically, seems to have developed a ‘crack’ through which we can only hope ‘the light can enter’ (thank you Leonard Cohen).  

Needless to say, also, the recent American-Israeli military debacle in Iran and in Gaza and Lebanon, and the mindless bellicosity of human depravity that continues on all sides, has helped to tilt world opinion against both the U.S. and Israel. In that process, antisemitism is rising globally. However, there is no justification for a Muslim speaker or speakers jumping on that ‘opportunity’ to pile on against Zionists and Jews in Canada. In a parallel situation, just because Iran has hundreds, if not thousands, of secret agents embedded around the world, ready at any moment to execute terrorist attacks is no reason for Christians or Muslims to attack all Iranians or all Muslims. 

Indeed, the specific and deplorable perspective that power is exclusively attained by ‘lining the pockets’ of politicians (while there is a considerable degree of legitimacy to the charge) is among the most cynical, and inhuman and also unethical starting place for any serious analysis of Canadian politics. As a faith that seeks to champion a rigid ethics, linked to a marriage of both state and religion, the Muslim faith, as does each and every faith community, continue to have much to examine within, critically, honestly, forthrightly and without blindness to their own paradoxes and absolute certainties. It is those absolute certainties that provide the fertile soil for most, if not all, of the profoundly disturbing, intractable and ungodly conflict that is obviously only continuing to grow and fester, right here is this innocent, naive and ultra-polite Canada. 

Le’t’s not forget that Jews, for decades, in some places centuries, have been excluded from even holding public office and owning land, and attending universities, and over those centuries, naturally, as would any other ethnic or religious group, developed profoundly nuanced and deployable skills and insights about how to make and earn money. In more recent decades, Jews have also used their individual and collective ambition and imagination to enter, and in many cases rise to the top of their chosen academic and/or professional field. Competence, diligence, exaggerated commitment to their own survival, (which of us would not have responded to the Third Reich?) including a determination to ‘prove their intrinsic worth and value to humanity, (something Netanyahu seems to have gone blind to!) have, as might have been expected, generated back-lash. Much of that animus (whatever it is called, jealousy, intimidation, revenge, or simply racism) continues to slosh around in world culture as if it were a permanent stain on the conscience of the human race. A similar racial, religious, ethnic and nationalistic pride/hubris/isolation/superiority/exclusivity/supremacy, while it may already have a ‘white, Christian nationalism and supremacy’ title,’ is a psychic, religious, ethnic, ideological, political virus seemingly residing and waiting for an opportunity to ‘erupt’ from many sources, many of them unexpected and unexplained.  

And for this virus, (obviously a metaphoric reductionism) there is neither a scientific lab, nor a graduate school designed, funded and universally (under United Nations auspices) and politically endorsed to begin the international research (not directed to prosecution) into how to bring about a human, shared, open, honest and obviously somewhat vulnerable perception that each of us is a carrier of this virus. And each of us is a potential ‘spreader’ of the venom on which this virus depends for survival. 

Needless to say, also, this virus is incompatible with all faith dogma, theory, and praxis, whether the leaders, hierarchy and most fanatical proponents agree or are even willing to become open to consider such a proposition. 

One of the most menial, meagre, and yet significant tasks for us ordinary, nameless, and highly private men and women is for us to begin to take formal and informal conscious steps to ensure that we are not unconsciously vulnerable to the temptation to engage as ‘willing ‘spreaders’ of the hate that underlies the Muslim conference in Montreal this past week.