To mark International Women’s Day on Sunday, Kenney tweeted photographs of Muslim girls in chains with a message thanking Canadian Forces for “for joining the fight against #ISIL’s campaign to enslave women & girls.”
The picture he posted with the message, however, depicted a re-enactment that is part of the annual Ashura ceremony celebrated by Shia Muslims the world over.
The chained girls in the picture are meant to symbolize the sister of the prophet Mohammad’s grandson being taken to Damascus after he was beheaded.
The National Council of Canadian Muslims called Kenney’s Twitter message “another example of our elected leaders, at best, ignorantly conflating Islam and Muslims with extremism and terrorism, and at worst, deliberately attempting to score political points by stoking divisions among Canadians.”
In a written statement, NCCM executive director Ihsaan Gardee wrote that the message “is corrosive and casts a pall of suspicion over all Canadian Muslims or those perceived to be Muslim.
“Minister Kenney’s earlier positive comments about standing with Muslim communities are overshadowed by this inflammatory messaging. We urge the Minister and the government to refrain from such tactics and instead focus on bringing Canadians together.”
The NCCM is currently suing Prime Minister Stephen Harper and his former director of communication, Jason MacDonald, for defamation after MacDonald linked the organization to Hamas, a group Canada has deemed to be terrorists.
The image tweeted by Kenney was heavily circulated online last year, with an apocryphal caption that claims it shows girls being led away to forced marriages. Hundreds of online commenters have pointed out the image comes from Ashura ceremony, which can be likened to passion plays re-enacting the crucifixion.
The image first appeared online in 2010, in a news story about Ashura celebrations in the Lebanesse town of Nabatieh.
The use of the picture to highlight ISIS’s crimes is particularly wrongheaded, as Ashura is celebrated by Shia Muslims, whom ISIS followers consider to be apostates. ISIS has slaughtered hundreds of Shia in Iraq and Syria.
Two other pictures tweeted by Kenney at the same time are also misleading. One that depicts Muslim women in chains was actually a 2014 photograph of Kurdish demonstrators in London, U.K., protesting the sexual slavery over women by ISIS.
Another picture Kenney tweeted depicts a crying girl held by a bearded man with a microphone, with the ISIS flag in the background. The image circulated online last year claimed to depict the forced marriage of a child bride to an ISIS fighter.
In fact, according to reports debunking the claim, the image was taken from a video in which the girl fails to properly recite a religious verse and is comforted by her teacher.
Kenney’s office has refused to respond to questions about the pictures he tweeted. As of Tuesday afternoon, the pictures were still posted on Kenney’s Twitter account. He has not apologized or attempted to clarify the misleading use of the images.
Asked why he hadn’t, his press secretary, Lauren Armstrong, did not respond directly and instead emailed background information about the alleged sexual enslavement of women by ISIS.
In question period Tuesday, Liberal leader Justin Trudeau asked Prime Minister Stephen Harper if he had reprimanded Kenney for tweet, or for his tweet in October, when he announced the death of War Memorial sentry Cpl. Nathan Cirillo in the attack on Parliament Hill before Cirillo’s family had been told.
Harper replied that Kenney is “new to the portfolio” in Defence but said he had his full confidence in him.
Original Article
Source: ottawacitizen.com/
Author: Glen McGregor
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