Anti-Israel Rally's "Ultimatum" Draws Toronto Police Attention

Police in Toronto reportedly are investigating whether an annual Iranian-inspired anti-Israel rally last Saturday crossed the line into illegal hate speech.

Elias Hazineh, a former president of the non-profit Palestine House in Mississauga, spoke to a modest crowd at the annual "Quds Day" rally in Toronto. It is an annual call for Israel's destruction created by Iran's Ayatollah Khomeini 34 years ago. It features events in Iran, Lebanon, Pakistan, and in North America.

Hazineh invoked Khomeini, saying the late Ayatollah promised that "Jerusalem is ours and will remain forever ours." It is unacceptable, he said, that Jews from Russia and Europe lived where his ancestors did.

"We have to give them an ultimatum," Hazineh said. "You have to leave Jerusalem, you have to leave Palestine … I want to remind you of how police work. When somebody tries to rob a bank, the police gets in. They don't negotiate, and we've been negotiating with them for 65 years. We say: Get out, or you're dead. We give them two minutes, and then we start shooting.

In addition to its inherent threat, Hazineh offered a revisionist view of history with his claim of "negotiating with them for 65 years." That overlooks the Khartoum Resolution's "three no's" regarding Israel: No peace, no recognition and no negotiations that drove the conflict for decades. It remains the ideology of the terrorist group Hamas, which has governed Gaza since 2008.

Similarly hateful rhetoric at past Toronto Quds Day events prompted officials there to deny the group a permit for this year's rally. A rally organizer told the crowd that the event would draw scrutiny and offered an ironic warning.

"Our behavior today will reflect respect, good manners and dignity," he said. "The opposition we face here today represents the oppressors. And from our experience from past encounters, they may try to provoke us through hate speech, aggression, and abusive language … Anyone who incites violence, or preaches intolerance, does not stand with our cause."

But Hazineh's talk of shooting after an ultimatum drew no rebuke. As we have reported previously, such violent and hateful rhetoric is a staple of Quds Day rallies.

Tahir Gora, a liberal Muslim who has been subjected to death threats for his views, criticized the Quds Day rally and the people behind it. "This Al Quds rally is a clear exhibit of Antisemitism," he wrote in a Huffington Post column.

"They create a mess in the month of August every year and give a bad name to Islam and create a false image of Muslims that Islam is a religion of violence and Canadian Muslims are the people who care more about conflicts in the Middle East and hatred against 'Zionists' than their own livelihood in Canada."

Former CIA Deputy Lists Syria as Top Security Threat

A recently retired senior CIA official calls Syria's ongoing civil war the No. 1 threat to U.S. national security due to an increasing al-Qaida presence.

"It's probably the most important issue in the world today because of where it is currently heading," Michael Morell, who announced his retirement as CIA's deputy director in June, told the Wall Street Journal. He predicted President Bashar al-Assad's government ultimately will fall. Other threats Morrell listed included Iran, al-Qaida, North Korea, and cyberwarfare.

The Syrian crisis is similar to the situation prevailing in Libya leading up to the fall of the Muammar Gaddafi regime, Morell said. Weapons now controlled by the Syrian government "are going to be up for grabs and up for sale" like they were in Libya.

Morrell's remarks reflect the dilemma faced by U.S. policymakers as they seek to arm Syrian rebels fighting the brutal Assad regime that has reportedly used chemical weapons to squash the rebellion. Policymakers fear the arms supplied to Syrian rebels might fall into the hands of terrorists fighting on the side of the rebels, including the al Nusrah Front, al-Qaida's affiliate in Syria.

According to a recent ProPublica report, the Syrian conflict also has emerged as a top security threat for Europe. "The global jihad has prioritized the Syrian conflict as its principal front," an unnamed senior Spanish intelligence official told the news outlet. It has served as a magnet for hundreds of Europeans and thousands of Sunni Muslim fighters wanting to wage jihad.

There is concern that Europeans radicalized in the Syrian conflict could bring their jihad home, or potentially attempt to attack U.S. targets.

Jihadists to Syrian Christians: Convert to Islam or Die

Islamic militants connected with Jabhat al-Nusra, al-Qaida's Syrian affiliate, have marked Assyrian Christians for death unless they embrace the group's hard-line interpretation of Islam.

Assyrian refugees from the town of al-Thawrah in north-central Syria report being threatened with death should they return to their homes. Jabhat al-Nusra fighters seized the town and its strategic dam on the Euphrates River in February.

The Assyrians are descendants of Syria's original inhabitants who have lived in the area since before the advent of Islam. They adhere to a form of Christianity that broke ranks with Catholicism and Eastern Orthodoxy in the 5^th century.

Christians saw their properties seized by the Islamists and their possessions sold on the black market to buy weapons and ammunition.

"Everything now is in Jabhat al-Nusra's hands," an Assyrian refugee told the Assyrian International News Agency (AINA). "All the Muslims stayed here, but if any Christians want to go back they have to become Muslim or else they will be killed."

One Christian man said the Islamic extremists would call or text him on his cell phone ordering him to do as they said or be killed. Christians report they hesitate to provide too much information over the phone or on the Internet for fear Syrian rebels are monitoring communications.

Many feel paralyzed – they've been threatened if they return home, but if they try to leave the country, "All of the roads are full of rebel fighters," an Assyrian refugee from al-Thawrah told AINA. "There is nothing now, nothing to return to. We just need help to get out of here and settle in a country that's safe."

Christian leaders already have been targeted. Two Orthodox bishops were kidnapped in April. Their plight has been a top concern or Eastern Christians across the globe and has galvanized the powerful Russian Orthodox Church, which has supported Vladimir Putin's effort to back dictator Bashar al-Assad. They may be being held as bargaining chips to get Russia to end its support for Assad's regime.

The bishops' fates remain officially unknown, but a report in al-Monitor suggests that they likely were killed hours after their abduction by Chechen terrorists. Syrian refugees, the report says, claim that the jihadists slit the bishops' throats in keeping with their reading of Islamic law.

Reports: MB Negotiating To Give Morsi Way Out

Conflicting reports suggest a deal could be in the works with Egypt's military rulers to let deposed Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi and the Muslim Brotherhood save face and end a month of demonstrations by Morsi's supporters. The Independent reported Monday that the deal would allow Morsi to officially "resign" as Egypt's president and go into exile.

Ideas being floated around include giving the Muslim Brotherhood at least three ministerial posts in a new unity government.

Morsi has not been seen in public since Egypt's military announced on July 3 that he had been removed as president. Clashes between Brotherhood supporters seeking his restoration to power and Egyptian troops have left more than 100 people dead. Evidence shows that some of the deaths came as a result of incitement on behalf of Muslim Brotherhood Supreme Guide Mohamed Badie and other Brotherhood leaders.

These clashes have prompted concern among many in the West that Egypt could spiral out of control and lead to civil war.

Brotherhood supporters remain encamped in eastern Cairo despite military threats to disperse them – an action that would no doubt result in a bloodbath.

Allegations of torture in Brotherhood encampments by Amnesty International have reinforced the view among Egyptian liberals that the Islamists are unfit for power. The human-rights watchdog reported that anti-Morsi supporters had informed them that Brotherhood loyalists had beaten them or subjected them to electric shocks or stabbings. At least eight bodies have shown up at the Cairo morgue bearing signs of torture, and at least five of them were discovered near pro-Morsi sit ins.

"The initiative will be made so that we can end the crisis and have the Brotherhood end their sit-ins," a military source told Reuters.

Brotherhood negotiators have begun privately conceding that Morsi will never return to power, but plans to try Badie and his deputy Khairat al-Shater on charges of inciting violence later this month could complicate matters.

An anonymous European Union (EU) official told The Independent that Morsi's allies may be willing to sacrifice Morsi's power in exchange for releasing the Brotherhood officials under the condition that they would refrain from political activism.

Egyptian military and presidential sources denied that talks had taken place or that any offers had been made to the Brotherhood, The Guardian reported Monday. A security source said that any deal must include the Brotherhood ending its sit-ins and protests.

The EU official's statement was contradicted in the Guardian report, which said that only those Brotherhood members who had "not incited violence against the state" could be released.

A Brotherhood official similarly denied that a deal had been reached.

"These are all lies," Gamal Heshmat, a member of the Brotherhood's Freedom and Justice Party National Committee, told the Guardian. "The Brotherhood did not nor will it accept to make deals of this sort. Any resolution will have to be part of national reconciliation involving the national coalition that involves the Brotherhood and other groups opposing the coup."

Libyan Deputy PM Resigns Amid Ongoing Chaos

Libya's Deputy Prime Minister Awadh al-Barassi resigned Saturday to protest the dysfunctional nature of the nation's post-Gaddafi government. Libya remains a lot like the Wild West where terrorist militias control much of the country and police and military forces remain weak.

The state of anarchy that allowed al-Qaida terrorists to sack the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, killing Ambassador Christopher Stevens and four other Americans last September persists.

Much of eastern Libya remains under the control of various militias – some with al-Qaida links – and the interim government exercises little direct control.

Al-Barassi slammed the government for being unable to prevent a security breakdown in the country that includes a string of political assassinations. The interim government has also failed to gain the trust of the Libyan people and adequately fund its ministries.

"The lack of authority has hindered all efforts to deal with the government's privileges and responsibilities towards the security situation in Benghazi and Libya as a whole," Al-Barassi said in an Asharq Al-Awsat report. "Most of the problems that occurred in various areas, and what followed in the form of a deterioration in security and the escalation in violence, were caused by the government policies."

Many Libyans blame infighting and political rivalries for the militias' rise and the country being awash with weapons. Libyan weapons have made their way all over the Middle East and Africa, from Mali to Syria, as a result of the chaos that followed the Arab Spring.

Libya has struggled to rebuild its army and police force in the subsequent two years.

Several incidents have taken place in the past week to underscore the ongoing anarchy.

A Libyan army colonel was shot dead in the eastern Libyan city of Derna and another was wounded in Benghazi. In another incident, a car bomb wounded a Libyan naval officer in Benghazi on July 29. More than 1,200 inmates broke out of Benghazi's central prison further underscoring the chaos the day before.

Hamas Official Blames Morsi's Fall on "Zio-American" Scheme

If a light bulb goes out somewhere in the Middle East, someone will come forward to blame a Jewish conspiracy.

So when the Muslim Brotherhood's man is forced from office in the wake of massive Egyptian opposition rallies, it can't be due to his failings in office. Rather, Mohamed Morsi is the victim of a "Zio-American" scheme, senior Hamas official Salah Bardawil told Jordan's al-Sabeel earlier this week. The goal is not only to wipe out the Muslim Brotherhood, Bardawil said, but to destroy Egypt "in service of the Zionist project in the region," al-Sabeel wrote.

The newspaper is considered to be an arm of Jordan's Muslim Brotherhood.

Morsi, Bardawil said, stood by Palestinians during Pillar of Defense operation aimed at ending Hamas rocket fire from Gaza last November. "President Morsi is now being punished for his heroic stance in that war and for standing by the Palestinian resistance, through the fabricating of false cases," Bardawil said, according to a translation of the al-Sabeel article by the Investigative Project on Terrorism.

Bardawil has blamed "Zio-American" conspiracies before. It's a near-reflex action for Islamists in the region, who have blamed Jews for the global drug trade, for unrest in Turkey, and for a suicide bombing at a Coptic church in Egypt.

Egypt announced last week that it was keeping Morsi in custody while it investigated possible connections between him and Hamas in plotting a 2011 jailbreak that freed Morsi and 30 other Muslim Brotherhood officials. Egyptian officials also have claimed Hamas may have had a hand in an attack last August that killed 16 soldiers.

Bardawil hit back at those allegations, saying Hamas was being set up by the Palestinian Authority and its Fatah Party.

Viva Palestina Again Faces UK Charity Commission Probe

Viva Palestina, a UK-based charity that seeks to provide "humanitarian aid" to Palestinians and "break the siege" of Gaza" has come under renewed scrutiny by the Charity Commission for failing to file its financial statements since 2010.

The Charity Commission told civilsociety.co.uk that "it has opened a statutory inquiry into Viva Palestina, and one of the regulatory issues to be examined by the inquiry is its overdue accounts."

Viva Palestina was founded by British Member of Parliament George Galloway in January 2009 and has led several humanitarian convoys into Gaza in support of the Hamas-led government in the region. Evidence unearthed by the Investigative Project on Terrorism shows that the Viva Palestina campaign is more about supporting and legitimizing Hamas, a designated Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO), than it is about providing aid to the needy. This was made abundantly clear in March 2009 when Galloway personally delivered a bag of cash to a Hamas Minister. Prominent leaders from the organization have openly advocated for the destruction of Israel.

Hamas officials greeted Viva Palestina officials at a number of convoy stops in Turkey, Syria, Jordan and Gaza.

Viva Palestina has several international affiliates, including in the U.S., Canada, Indonesia, Turkey, Italy, Arabia, and the Gulf. Viva Palestina's website however has not been updated since 2011 and the website of its U.S. affiliate has been inactive since November 2010. When it was active, American activists for the group repeatedly acknowledged their work was "not about charity ... but in every way that we cut it, it is political."

The charity's former director Kevin Ovenden, however, blames the Charity Commission for Viva Palestina's delay in submitting its financial paperwork. The UK Charity Commission had conducted an earlier investigation into the charity's fundraising activities in connection with a February 2009 convoy to Gaza but subsequently concluded that the organization did not provide money to Hamas.

It did find that Viva Palestina exaggerated it's the amount of money it raised. It claimed more than £1 million in aid was delivered during the first convoy, But Viva Palestina books showed the group raised less than a fifth of that amount. Galloway told investigators that the bag of cash he gave a Hamas official in 2009 contained his own money, not Viva Palestina's.

Hamas Holds Secret Meeting With Iran

Hamas, Hizballah and Iran held secret talks last month in Lebanon in an effort to smooth over strained relations stemming from their rival stances on Syria, according to the London-based Asharq al-Awsat.

Hamas has supported Syrian rebels trying to overthrow Bashar al-Assad's regime and individual Hamas members have unofficially joined in the rebellion. But arms and fighters supplied by Tehran and its Lebanese proxy Hizballah have helped Assad rebuff rebel advances. Iran has retaliated against Hamas by dramatically cutting funding to the Palestinian terrorist group.

That, combined the overthrow of the Muslim Brotherhood government in Cairo, has put Hamas in a difficult bind. The Egyptian army has destroyed dozens of smuggling tunnels that fueled the economy in Hamas-run Gaza.

Mousa Abu Marzook and Muhammad Nasr, who belong to Hamas's political bureau, represented the terrorist group at the recent meeting. Hamas leaders remain hopeful that Iran's support will return to past levels.

"We have not lost allies; on the contrary, we are keeping all our friends, but there are issues that led to some apathy in the relationship, and we as a movement and government are eager to keep our fraternal relations with all the countries of region, which have a degree of cooperation, coordination, and support because Palestine is the cause of the [Muslim world] and not only the cause of the Palestinians. Therefore, we are eager to iron out all the differences in the interest of our people and cause," Hamas spokesman Ahmad Yusuf said in a statement.

Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Abbas Arghachi said that Hamas and Iran are close to resolving their differences and misunderstandings over Syria.

American Reported Killed Fighting for Al-Qaida in Syria

A Pittsburgh man may be the latest American killed as part of the global Muslim jihad against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. The man, identified as Amir Farouk Ibrahim, 32, was reportedly killed July 22 in fighting between Syrian Kurdish forces and those linked to the Islamic State of Iraq, an al-Qaida affiliate.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a British-based Syrian opposition group, posted pictures of Ibrahim's American and Egyptian passports on its Facebook page. Ibrahim's passport appeared alongside about a dozen others belonging to men from around the Islamic world, underscoring the fact that the Syrian conflict has become a transnational one.

"The documents were found after the ISIS (Islamic State of Iraq and Syria) retreated from the town after intense clashes last week with the YPG (Yekineyen Parastina Gela Kurdish faction)," the Syrian Observatory wrote on its Facebook page. "We do not know the fate of the owners of these documents, whether they are dead or alive and still active in Syria."

Ibrahim would be the second American killed fighting in Syria's civil war. Nicole Lynn Mansfield, 33, a Muslim convert from Flint, Mich., was killed fighting in Syria in May.

Ibrahim's relatives, who now live in Cairo, Egypt, told the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review that he traveled to Turkey in February or March and then crossed into Syria. Turkey has been a major entry point for Islamist fighters looking for a piece of the action.

Ibrahim's father said his son had told him that he was in Syria helping people evade the fighting.

"He came to me and asked me if he can go to Syria. I told him, 'Over my dead body,' " Ibrahim's father said. "If you go, I don't want to hear about you at all."

About a dozen American citizens reportedly joined the fighting in Syria, the New York Times reported Sunday. Their involvement, along with jihadists from various European countries, has counterterrorism experts concerned they will bring their violent ways home with them.

"Syria has become really the predominant jihadist battlefield in the world," National Counterterrorism Center Director Matthew G. Olsen said earlier this month. "The concern going forward from a threat perspective is there are individuals traveling to Syria, becoming further radicalized, becoming trained and then returning as part of really a global jihadist movement to Western Europe and, potentially, to the United States."

Classified and unclassified sources said that 10 percent of the approximately 6,000 foreign fighters who have entered Syria came from North America, Europe or Australia. Many of these fighters have joined al-Qaida's affiliate in Syria, Jabhat al-Nusra.

Eric Harroun, 30, a former U.S. soldier from Phoenix, was indicted in Virginia last month on charges that he was fighting for al-Nusra. He bragged on his Facebook page back in February: "Downed a Syrian Helicopter then Looted all Intel and Weapons!"

Morsi Charged, MB Slammed As Egyptians Rally

Hundreds of thousands of Egyptians took to the streets Friday in competing rallies for and against the military's July 3 ouster of President Mohamed Morsi.

The Muslim Brotherhood and other Morsi backers have held constant demonstrations since, many of which have turned violent. That prompted Army Gen. Abdel-Fattah el-Sisi to call for a rally Friday to show the depth of popular support for removing Morsi. The Brotherhood criticized that as a pretext for civil war and called for its own demonstration to show support for Morsi.

At least four people died in early clashes in Alexandria. They follow an edict by Brotherhood spiritual leader Yusuf al-Qaradawi that Morsi's power be defended violently. "If he, who has disobeyed the ruler, does not repent, then he must be killed," Qaradawi said on Al Jazeera Sunday.

Morsi has been in custody since being forced from office. Before Friday's rallies began, Egyptian prosecutors ordered him detained for more 15 days while they investigate espionage, murder and conspiracy charges against him in connection with a January 2011 jailbreak. Morsi was among 30 Muslim Brotherhood members freed in the jailbreak, while 14 security officers were killed.

The investigation seeks to determine if Morsi conspired with the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas in the attack. Morsi has an association with Hamas that goes back at least a decade. A Brotherhood spokesman rejected the allegations as "nothing more than the fantasy of a few army generals and a military dictatorship."

But a former prominent member of the Brotherhood says the military had to force Morsi from office.

In an interview with Asharq Al-Awsat, the Brotherhood's former European spokesman Kamal Helbawy said Morsi's ouster was not a coup, but a response to massive popular sentiment that kept a tense situation from growing more violent. The Brotherhood, Helbawy said, brought this on themselves.

Morsi and the Brotherhood failed "to propose a vision for the country," Helbawy said. "Moreover, [Morsi] deepened the society's divisions, increased polarization, relied solely on his constituency, neglected to use those with expertise and experience here in Egypt, ignored requests to amend the constitution and change the government and the attorney general, issued the Pharaoh-esque constitutional declaration in November 2012, and refused to acknowledge the legitimacy of the Tamarod [Rebel] campaign and the June 30 revolution."

Helbawy quit the Brotherhood last year, saying the group broke its promise not to run a candidate for president and was trying to monopolize power in Egypt. It's fine for the Brotherhood to protest, he said in the interview, but criticized the violent rhetoric including chants of "Fight to the death," and "Victory or martyrdom." That message, and resulting violence, will further hurt the Islamist cause around the world, he said.

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