Bat Ye’or and her ground breaking ‘Eurabia’

By Ted Belman

I just spent a couple of days with the diminutive, courageous, historian, Bat Ye’or, author of Eurabia and Islam and Dhimmitude among others. She was in Toronto as the featured speaker at a conference hosted by The Fraser Institute titled Immigration Policy, Border Controls, and the Terrorist Threat in Canada and the U.S. More about that later.

While in town she found time to be interviewed on the Michael Coren Show. Michael Coren wrote about her in his National Post article Eurabia’s author comes to Canada which I urge you to read.

The conference was a very big success due to the top notch speakers the Fraser Institute attracted. As good as they were, Bat Ye’or stole the show. The audience was well aware of her pioneering work though they may have been short on details. They were in attendance in recognition of the importance of the subject matter but mainly to hear her address.

No one, with the exception of Stewart Bell, spoke a politically correct word. Stewart turned me off when he referred to Islam as “a great religion for those who follow it”, said the radicals are attacking us because of “who we are” rather than who they are or what they believe and finally that their violence is to achieve “change now” rather than dominance now.

Mass immigration, it appears, is fueled by politicians of all parties seeking votes and people who make money from immigration including the lawyers and social workers and agencies who’s income depends on it. It is so massive that the bureaucrats who have to follow all the rules in vetting applicants are overwhelmed by the numbers and effectively give a rubber stamp to most applicants. The surest way to gain access to Canada is to claim refugee status. You will be allowed into the country and allowed to work while your status is debated ad infinitum. Canadian immigration is out of control, literally, and the US is very concerned. Border controls loom large in their thinking and trade is greatly hampered. Thus there are ongoing talks to agree upon an external envelope of immigration control and no internal border control, just like in the EU.

US speakers acknowledged that the people were very much against amnesty for illegal immigrants but the “elites”, their word, were in favour. Clearly the business community wanted cheap labour but the people wanted the law upheld. The defeat of the Amnesty Bill was a victory for the people and for democracy.

Canada so far has been unwilling to change immigration policies due to security concerns. What security concerns. In this regard I spoke with many security investigators who told me how massive, organized crime is and how the police turn their backs on it because it is too overwhelming. In other words, if they recognize it and go public with it, the public will demand that they do something about it. The government is unprepared to fund a great escalation in security enforcement so prefers to sweep it under the rug. Organized crime focuses on human trafficking, prostitution, drugs and protection. Mexico it appears is a failed state. Everyone is on the take. Gangs are so powerful in Mexico and parts of the US that the police are unwilling to take them on. It gives new meaning to “Don’t ask, don’t tell”. The stories these guys could tell..

Bat Ye’or delivered her very important address in which she kept referring to the intimidation factor. Everyone in Europe is afraid to speak up because of the consequences which are sure to follow. Therein lies the path to dhimmitude. It is in this milleau that Bat Ye’or has laboured over the decades to document the reality of Islam and its oppression of Christians and Jews. Before 9/11, she struggled in vain and obscurity to get her message out and no one was interested in listening. Now they are listening.

Bat Ye’or confided in me that she was amazed at how forthright the speakers were. “This kind of conference would never have happened in Europe” she advised. As we drove around by taxi, I would engage the taxi drivers in conversation because they usually came from the Islamic world. She was clearly nervous. In one case, I announced to her in hearing of the taxi driver that Palestine would never come into existence. She asked why I wasn’t in fear for my safety. “In Europe you could be killed for saying something like that.” She was quite surprised and encouraged to hear that we don’t have a Muslim problem. While certainly we have homegrown terrorists and we have the trouble-making CAIR Canada, the Muslim community doesn’t present a social problem in Canada as it does in many countries in Europe.

At the end of her remarks she advised that when she was reviewing all the documentation of the arrangements made between Europe and the Arabs, Canada was mentioned many times. I was shocked to hear this. We have Trudeau to thank.

Bottom line is, we are lucky to live in a free society. Let’s make sure we keep it that way.