January 7, 2024
A New Year Message from the Canadian Islamic Congress to the PM dated January 8, 2024
Dear Mr. Trudeau;
We urge your government to deeply consider and act upon the following:
1. Call for an immediate ceasefire in the Israeli army’s war against Palestinians in the occupied Gaza strip and to stop supplying Israel with Canadian military hardware;
2. Call for an immediate end to Israel’s illegal land, sea, and air siege of Gaza / Palestine.
3. Urge the federal government to match donations made to the Canadian Red Cross, or other registered Canadian relief organizations, for humanitarian aid to Gaza;
4. Restore Canada's traditional role as an international peace-maker and peace-keeper by advocating for a just and sustainable peace through the permanent dismantling of Israel’s Apartheid system against Palestinians;
5. Urge that Israeli government and military leaders directly responsible for initiating and sustaining the bombardment of Gaza be internationally tried and prosecuted for war crimes;
6. Join those who are demanding that Israeli settlers and military personnel responsible for attacks on Palestinians in the West Bank be tried and prosecuted;
7. Call for a rigorous investigation of the crimes of genocide, ethnic cleansing and forced deportations committed by the Zionist state of Israel against Palestinians since 1948;
8. Demand the investigation of human rights violations against thousands of Palestinians and others currently detained without trial in Israeli prisons.
If Canada and other democratic nations fail to act decisively to bring this horrific war to an end, we will become complicit in the genocide of Palestinians and in dooming them to another 75 years of merciless oppression, and both peoples—Israelis and Palestinians alike—to a future of endless death and suffering.
Please, let Canada’s voice be heard as a force for peace in 2024.
About the CIC
The Canadian Islamic Congress was founded in 1998 to empower Canadian Muslims to participate more fully in Canada’s political landscape by encouraging well-informed and proactive voting. The founding president was Dr. Mohamed Elmasry.
In addition to offering scholarships to secondary school students to study fields such as law, political science, and social work, we graded federal election candidates (A, B, C or Fail) on their track records relative to 20 key national issues.
Like many Canadian NGOs, the CIC suffered during the Covid-19 pandemic from lack of donations and had to curtail many of its activities.
About Mohamed Elmasry
Dr. Mohamed Elmasry, FRSC, FIEEE, FCAE, FEIC, is Emeritus Professor of Computer Engineering at the University of Waterloo (Ontario) and a renowned international expert and author in digital microchip design.
Born in Egypt, Dr. Elmasry has frequently travelled in the Middle East as speaker, researcher and educator. In 1995 he visited Israel and Palestine as an invited professor by the Israel Institute of Technology and was there on November 4 of that year when Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin was assassinated.
“I was an eye-witness to the overwhelming grief that filled the hearts of young Israelis and Palestinians alike, including the students to whom I lectured,” he recalls. “Rabin had given them hope for a peaceful future, and that hope was suddenly shattered . . . I grieved with them then, and still do.”
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Please email the CIC message to your MP and ask for a meeting to discuss.
Please write about your meeting with your MP a 500 - 700 word report.
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