Arabophobia

by Craig Segal

Some local Muslim and Arab groups are angry at the Canadian Institute for Jewish Research for inviting American journalist Steven Emerson to speak at the Tifereth Beth David Jerusalem synogogue in Cote St-Luc last Thursday. Emerson claimed that "80 per cent of terrorist acts in the U.S. were caused by Islamic terrorist groups"--a number which Rubin Friedman of the Canadian Jewish Congress said "would surprise me."

"These kinds of hot button statements [from Emerson] create hysteria in the minds of the people," said Yahya Abdul Rahman of the Islamic Association for Palestine, one of 20 Arabs and Muslims in attendance.

Emerson has been cited by the American media watchdog group Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting (FAIR) for misuse of statistics, and his 1986 book The American House of Saud was slagged in a review in The Economist for scapegoating Arabs.

Shortly after the speech, police pulled over two carloads of Arab students who had been at the event, fining both drivers for having invalid driver's documents. "Checking out licence plates on our computers at an event like this is standard security procedure," said MUC Police Commander André Durocher. "Obviously we weren't looking for an expired license, but if we find something like this we act on it." :

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