Canadian police dismiss hate crime charges against Muslim group

VANCOUVER (JTA) – Police in Calgary dismissed accusations that a local Muslim group was guilty of anti-Semitic hate crimes.

B’nai Brith Canada said earlier this week that two anti-Semitic articles posted on the Muslim Council of Calgary’s website could cause violent hostility toward Jews and possibly amounted to a hate crime.

The charges were dismissed by Calgary police, the Canadian QMI news agency reported.

“The Jewish and Muslim communities in Calgary have a very good relationship,” Calgary police hate crimes coordinator Eric Levesque said. “I don’t know what B’nai Brith’s motivations are.”

Levesque said that while the material might be offensive, it did not reach a criminal level.

The articles in question accused Jews of “debauchery and immorality” and of “deviating from the Torah” when it came to Israel.

One of the articles quoted the anti-Semitic text The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, citing a Jewish plot to destroy religion. That post was removed earlier this week, according to QMI.

“This is anti-Jewish rhetoric,” B’nai Brith Canada’s Anita Bromberg told QMI. “In this case, it’s so blatant.”