Boreal

Enemy Combatants

On March 12, 2009, Mohammad Momin Khawaja was convicted of terrorist activity, almost five years after his arrest by Canadian authorities for plotting, with British Islamic extremists, to plant explosives in London nightclubs to shred her Majesty’s unwary subjects by the score for having too much fun (Operation Crevice).

In June 2011, the Supreme Court of Canada agreed to hear an appeal of his terrorism conviction. The appeal is expected to be heard in the fall. His lawyers will likely argue that he was not a terrorist but a legitimate enemy combatant, and that his ultimate goal was not to kill British citizens, but NATO forces operating in Afghanistan, which at the time included Canadian troops.

Khawaja's failing defence was that he was set on joining insurgents fighting NATO troops in Afghanistan to quench his rage for what he perceived to be a new Crusade against the Muslim world. Ottawa Citizen, June 30, 2011

If the Court decides that he was not a terrorist but an enemy combatant, his sentence of life in prison, which in Canada is ten years before you can apply for a get-out-of-jail card i.e. parole, can be expected to be reduced, even if he was planning to kill, not only foreigners, but Canadians serving abroad.

Mr. Khawaja can only be declared an enemy combatant if a state of war exists between Islam and Islam’s enemies which are, for all intents and purposes, anyone who refuses to submit to the Will of Allah i.e. become Muslims.

This should be relatively easy to do, starting with the more than thousand-year-old letter addressed to the governor of Egypt carefully preserved behind glass in the Holy Treasury within the third courtyard of the old Topkapi Palace in Istanbul. In this letter, which God's Messenger sent to all kingdoms and province bordering the Arab Peninsula after having eliminated most of the opposition to Allah's rule there, he demands that the recipient and his subject become Muslims or it's war.

The Prophet's declaration of war and the Koran's approval of that war until all of humanity is on its knees bowing before Allah should be sufficient to convince the Court that a state of war exists and has existed for more than 1,400 years between those who believe in Allah and His Messenger and fight those who don't.

Mohammad Momin Khawaja claims he is a soldier in that war and his claim should be accepted at face value for it is the truth as he sees it, as the Taliban see it, and as those who fight for Al-Qaeda see it.

If the Supreme Court rules that Mr. Mohammad Momin Khawaja is indeed a lawful combatant, and perhaps a traitor as well for wanting to murder Canadians sent to fight by Parliament in what it considered a just war, it could be the first formal acknowledgement that we are indeed, as a society still based on Judeo-Christian values, at war for our very survival.

July 7, 2011

On December 14, 2012 the Supreme Court of Canada dismissed Mohammad Momin Khawaja's appeal to be considered an enemy combatant and not a terrorist.

Bernard Payeur