Sohail Qureshi -- pro-Taliban, anti-democracy, and....relativist?

Sohail Qureshi of Calgary was arrested in Afghanistan on suspicion of terrorist activities. He traveled there this year. He has since been released and is back at home. From the article:

He talks about Islam as historically being "spread by the sword." He urges the removal of foreign forces from Afghanistan and other Muslim lands. He lauds the period when the Taliban ruled Afghanistan.
...
His father also spoke to a local imam of his son's extreme religious views, including an announced intention to become a jihadist in Afghanistan. The imam, in turn, reminded the young man the Koran prohibited such actions.

"After he confirmed this was his intention, I told him he had to stand down," Imam Sheik Alaa Elsayed recalled.
...
Mr. Qureshi, however, has much to say. Mr. Elsayed spoke without having the "slightest bit of evidence" about why he was captured in Afghanistan, Mr. Qureshi says, adding that the imam is spreading false interpretations of the Koran.

"The reason is because he and others following his path wish to please the Christians and Jews by creating an image of Islam and Muslims which they will accept, instead of trying to please Allah by spreading the true Message of Islam," he explains.

Qureshi writes about sharia and democracy in Canada:

"It is quite difficult for Muslims to live in Canada according to the true Message of Islam," Mr. Qureshi wrote. "This is because they are ruled in their everyday lives by secular, democratic law, which is in opposition to the values of Islamic sharia."

He also says, "the allegations made against me is terrorism from the point of view of those in the West" This is really the same thing you hear a lot: "One man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter. " Whenever this is said it always strikes me as the most inane comment. I mean, of course that's true! No one actually believes they're doing the wrong thing. Who actually believes that terrorists go to bed at night thinking "Oh, I'm an evil terrorist; it's too bad I have to wake up tomorrow to do more evil things." It's obvious they believe they're on the side of good, but it's equally obvious that, despite their belief, they are not actually on the side of good. And that's why the statement always betrays a relativist sentiment: "Whatever you believe actually is true!"

Last point. Look at his reason for traveling to Afghanistan:

Afghan officials said at one point that Mr. Qureshi claimed to be in Afghanistan to find work, due to lack of employment opportunities in Canada.

Oh yeah, real hard to get a job in Alberta lately. And his father's a millionaire, why would he need a job so badly that he would travel to the other side of the world for? And he has a university degree in computer-science: How many positions in computer programming are there in Afghanistan? Wait? From a millionaire family? And he's a university graduate? So much for poverty being the cause of extremism.

Well, aren't you glad he's back? No, me neither.

Cross-Dressing Canadian Criminals Fund Islamic Terrorists

I would say this pretty much makes them terrorists too and should be charged with regards to whatever relevant laws there are for funding terrorist activities. Oh yeah, the cross-dressing. They dressed up in burkas while they used counterfeit credit cards to steal money from bank machines.

The burka has been used in the US for more than one bank robbery. Here and here.

Islam is Peace in Word, but...in Deed?

(<-- Click for bigger version; on John Trenchard's request)

Everyone believes they're on the side of good. The Islam Is Peace Campaign believes Islam is peaceful, and so did the June 7th bombers. [And it's their two viewpoints on what exactly this peace is that are juxtaposed in the image here.] All Muslims, moderate and extremist alike, say that Islam is peaceful, but does Islam actually bring its fair share of this uncontested good, peace? Or is it better thought to bring, as the Pope in his infamous Regensburg speech quoted Byzantine Emperor Manuel Paleologus II, saying, "things only evil and inhuman, such as [the] command to spread by the sword the faith..."

That quote comes from 1391 AD, but this is not an early example of linking Islam to violence. In fact, the earliest of all known bits of writing on Islam (earlier than the Quran itself, which wasn't compiled and standardised into its present form until 650-656 AD) includes the Doctrina Jacobi of 634-640 AD, which mentions a prophet of the Saracens (Arabs) who had came "armed with a sword." For as long as Islam had been around, it has been seen as violent. So we see ourselves in no different a situation today with this criticism continuing.

But what does this criticism lead to in response for groups like the Islam Is Peace Campaign, and CAIR, and others who would rather Islam be seen as peaceful? The Islam Is Peace Campaign lists their approach as having five steps. Numbers two to five are: 2) Create dialogue; 3) Address grievances; 4) Be creative; and 5) Create friendships. Four and five seem vacuous. Two and three read like they are acting towards peace, but they are actually the opposite of what you may expect. Two is not creating dialogue with extremist Islam so as to convince them otherwise, but actually with the rest of society, so that they may warm to Islam evermore. And three is not addressing grievances of the victims of Islamic terrorism, but rather the grievances of the Islamic terrorists! So the response to violence is to give those who commit it what they want, and, to those who suffer it, nothing but empty words. And, last but not least, step one is, "To fight Islamophobia," where Islamophobia includes any poignant criticism of Islam.

So where are the actions against the violence of Islam, and not just the words? They seem to be contained only to the purely reactive and defensive measures of the counter-terrorism departments of the intelligence agencies. Any pro-active, constructive steps to combat it are pushed out of bounds by accusations of Islamophobia. This goes so far that even Muslim groups are accused of being Islamophobic.

[I hope to get some comments before I keep on making posts, so that I may know someone cares that I'm saying anything.-KC]