Quebec woman charged with trying to export assault rifle parts to Lebanon
MONTREAL — Young and striking in her black hijab, Mouna Diab was once active in a Quebec youth group that fought discrimination against Muslims by challenging the stereotypes that too often associate them with violence and terror.
But the outspoken 26-year-old activist had little to say this week after appearing in a Montreal courtroom to face a charge alleging she had violated a United Nations Security Council arms embargo that prohibits the export of weapons to Lebanon.
“I really have no comment to make,” she said. At the bungalow where she lives in suburban Laval, friends and family likewise declined to talk about the case. “She’s finding the whole ordeal very difficult,” her lawyer, Richard Prihoda, said.
Police said Ms. Diab was arrested at Montreal’s Trudeau airport on May 19 as she was departing for Beirut. In her luggage, investigators allegedly found parts of AR-15 assault rifles. Other parts were allegedly shipped separately.
Police said the components could have been assembled into working firearms. “If you put all the pieces together you could build or make two weapons with it,” said Cpl. Luc Thibault, a spokesman at the RCMP’s “C” Division in Montreal.
She pleaded not guilty on Thursday and returns to court Nov. 10. She is the only person charged so far in relation to the alleged scheme, which comes as UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon is struggling to staunch the flow of illicit arms into an unstable Lebanon.
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1 comment:
I just can't count the number of times I've gone into my underwear drawer and found rifle parts scattered there amongst my panties, bras, and nightgowns!
Because this has happened to me quite a few times, I completely understand Ms. Diab's surprise and subsequent silence when Canada's Royal Canadian Mounted Police found AR-15 Semi-Automatic Rifle parts in her personal luggage.
Who knows how the gun parts found their way into Ms. Diab's luggage? Perhaps the jinns (Islamic spirits) were responsible for this dastardly act, or maybe even shaitan himself (the Muslim Satan) decided to play tricks on this "innocent" woman! Maybe it was done by fairies?
Wait I can't say "fairies", someone might accuse me of using homophobic speech!
Whatever the cause, we know for sure that Ms. Diab is not to blame, and we can rest secure in the knowledge that Islam is indeed the "Religion of Peace" and that Ms. Diab, being a member of that oh so very peaceful group, was in no way responsible for having those rifle parts in her personal luggage.
Just because Ms. Diab is Vice President of the Association of Young Lenanese Muslims, and her organization has on its website links to other websites that are violently opposed to the West and urge followers to make war against the infidel West, these facts should not be taken into consideration by the courts and in no way should we allow these facts to colour our perception of Ms. Diab as anything but a peace loving
Muslim woman who just wants all of us to get along.
Ms. Diab was part of a delegation that had traveled to the Quebec town of Hérouxville to try to counter "violent" (interesting choice of words) stereotypes of Muslims. The town had passed a code of conduct directed at immigrants that, among other things, banned stoning, female genital mutilation and head coverings.
Ms. Diab told newspapers at the time that she found the Hérouxville code "hurtful."
Not nearly as "hurtful" as being shot with an AR-15 Semi-Automatic Rifle, being stoned to death or having your genitals removed; but of course I am only being Islamaphobic!
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