Add ToI as a Preferred Source on GoogleTORONTO — Prominently perched on the coffee table in the Toronto condominium of Raheel Raza is “Israel 60,” a 336-page volume chronicling the country’s first six decades of history, culture, politics and aspirations for peace. For some of Raza’s fellow Pakistani Muslim family and friends who visit, seeing the book is shocking — and she makes sure to seize the moment.
“They’re always curious: ‘Why are you supporting Israel?’” says Raza, a Sunni Muslim who is a seasoned activist for peace, human rights and gender equality. “It provides an opportunity to discuss the rampant conspiracy theories distorting what Israel is — a conversation that is desperately needed.”
Sparking productive, fact-based dialogue about Israel and the extremist forces within Islam that demonize the country and Jews is central to Raza’s work with the Council of Muslims Against Antisemitism (CMAA), a nonprofit she founded in April of 2021 with her husband, Sohail Raza, and other progressive Muslims. Embracing a vision that “humanity is but one community,” Raza is determined to reclaim her religion from fanatics and combat Islamist antisemitism by building understanding and connection between members of both faiths.
“This is not a Jewish-Muslim conflict. Jews are our brothers and sisters in faith. We have more in common than we have differences. Our roots come from the same tree,” Raza says. “The monster is radical jihadist ideology, and we have to defang this monster, because it is a threat to the whole world.”
‘This is not a Jewish-Muslim conflict. Jews are our brothers and sisters in faith’
To expose the threat of Islamism and spark collective action, Raza writes widely for mainstream media publications and has authored four books on the subject, including “Their Jihad… Not My Jihad! A Muslim Canadian Woman Speaks Out,” and “The ABC’s of Islamism: Everything You Wanted to Know About Radical Islam, But Were Afraid to Ask.”
She also speaks about the hazards of extremism to diverse community groups and university students, and has presented to the United Nations and the governments of Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom and Sweden.
After moving to Canada with her husband and then two young sons in 1988 to avoid Islamism in Pakistan, Raza has been dismayed to observe the increasing presence in Canada of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps and the Muslim Brotherhood — which have been or are in the process of being designated as terror organizations by Canada and the United States, respectively — and the proliferation of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement against Israel.
These concerns have intensified in the wake of the bloody Hamas-led October 7, 2023, onslaught on Israel and the subsequent rise of anti-Israel sentiment globally, which she believes is an orchestrated power play of theocratic imperialism by the anti-West regimes of Iran and Qatar.
Canada, Raza says, has turned into a “battleground for antisemitic violence” that has manifested in physical assaults on Jewish individuals, vandalism of synagogues and Jewish-owned businesses, the marginalization of Jewish kids in public schools, and street marches that have featured the flags of Hamas and Hezbollah. Government data show Jews in Canada are consistently the biggest targets of hate crimes, with B’nai Brith Canada reporting a record-breaking 6,219 such incidents in its 2024 audit of antisemitic incidents. In August, Canada’s former special envoy for preserving Holocaust remembrance and combating antisemitism published a comprehensive report calling Jew-hate a “threat to the principles of equality, inclusion, and democracy that underpin Canadian society.”
Immediately following the massacre in Israel, the CMAA made a public statement strongly condemning Hamas’s “murderous attack,” and later took out a full-page ad in a major Canadian newspaper rejecting the “distortion and weaponization of our faith by Islamist extremists, and for their promotion of antisemitism, violence and terrorism.”
In a January 2024 article for Newsweek that she co-wrote with other Muslim women’s rights activists, Raza denounced the international community’s slow and scant response to the systemic sexual violence of October 7 because the female victims were “less worthy of attention and support due to their nationality and religion.” She has also advocated for defunding the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, which has been found to be compromised by Hamas and other terror groups.
Raza blames rising anti-Jewish hostilities largely on weak or wrong-headed responses by government leaders, including Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney’s recent decision to recognize a Palestinian state.
“The recognition of an entity that is run by a known terrorist organization at this time is not conducive to peace,” says Raza, who instead endorses the Abraham Accords as the best pathway to harmonious coexistence, an outcome she says depends on the release of the hostages, the surrender of Hamas, recognition of Israel and “ensuring Gaza’s educational curricula are not full of hate targeting Israel and the Jewish people’s very existence.”
From ‘Exodus’ to Israel
Raza says her personal awakening to antisemitism was partly influenced by her father, an army doctor who encouraged her to think independently. In her youth, she read Anne Frank’s “Diary of a Young Girl” and “Exodus” by Leon Uris, and says their accounts of historical Jewish persecution undermined the antisemitic narratives that were pervasive in Pakistan.
In 2008, Raza and her husband felt compelled to see Israel for themselves, despite warnings from their peers about its inherent dangers for Muslims. That first visit was revelatory, she says, debunking their misconceptions of the country and sparking a deep and lifelong appreciation for its cultural diversity, rich history, drive for innovation and joy for life. She has since traveled to the country 13 times.
“I instantly fell in love with Israel,” Raza says. “When I tell people I’m from Pakistan, they’re curious. They want to know more. This is what I love — the curiosity, the openness. How wonderful would it be if we could all be like that.”
‘I instantly fell in love with Israel. When I tell people I’m from Pakistan, they’re curious’
Raza’s activism eventually attracted the attention of the late Israeli politician Shimon Peres, who invited her to participate in Facing Tomorrow, the annual international conference on global challenges that he hosted in Jerusalem while serving as Israel’s president. Raza was so inspired by the experience that in 2012, she drew on the event’s name when she co-established Muslims Facing Tomorrow, a non-profit organization that works to advance human rights and free speech among Muslims. Raza is also part of the CLARITy Coalition, a global group of Muslim and ex-Muslim activists working for peace, democracy and secular governance.
Raza’s advocacy has made her the target of harsh criticisms from some Muslim peers. She has also had a suspicious package from an unknown sender delivered to her home, faced a lawsuit by a Muslim charity she called out for funding terrorism, and had a fatwa issued against her by a Saudi Arabian cleric.
But she says she is heartened by the growing number of Muslims in her community who support her work to reform Islam by amplifying its moderate voices and celebrating its fundamental values of compassion, equality and peace.
‘I am an eternal optimist… I’m trying to bring humanity back to some sense’
These efforts have included organizing panel discussions, solidarity rallies, and, in April of 2023, a joint commemoration for Israel’s Holocaust Remembrance Day and Eid al-Fitr — which marks the end of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan — that attracted 250 people. Raza’s CMAA collaborated with Israel’s Foreign Ministry to organize an awareness-raising trip to Israel for Canadians of diverse faith backgrounds that returned to Canada on December 3.
“I am an eternal optimist… I’m trying to bring humanity back to some sense,” says Raza, whose activism also focuses on gender-based violence, forced marriage and honor killings in Islam. Her extensive human rights work has been recognized with the Simon Wiesenthal Center’s Medal of Courage and the Senate of Canada 150th Anniversary Medal, among several others.
This past May, Raza and other CMAA members visited the Nova Exhibition in Toronto to observe the recreation of Hamas terrorists’ devastating brutality that cut short the lives of hundreds of festivalgoers on October 7.
During a subsequent panel discussion, Raza issued the assembled crowd a stark challenge: “The radicals have won the battle, but we can’t let them win the war.”
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