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Like their counterparts in 770 cities in 80 countries of the world, thousands of Torontonians took to the streets on the International Day of Al-Quds to denounce Zionism and express their complete solidarity with the brutally oppressed, indigenous population of Palestine. The rally in Toronto was led by Jewish rabbis, activists from Independent Jewish Voices and other Jews who want to reclaim the hijacked faith of Judaism from the Zionist extremists. The rally also featured representatives from 150 peace organizations, labor movements, churches, mosques and human rights groups.

The attendees, which comprised of men women and children of all ages and faiths, carried signs like \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\"We Love Jews, Not Zionists\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\", \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\"Yes to Islam, Christianity and Judaism, No to Zionism\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\", \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\"Yes to Torah, Bible and Quran, no to Zionism\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\", \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\"Yes to Moses, Jesus and Mohammad, No to Zionism\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\" and \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\"Criticism of Israel is Not Anti-Semitism\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\".

Various organizations representing the interests of Israel and settlers in Canada had lobbied hard to stop the rally and tried to intimidate people from attending it, however, their efforts failed miserably and the Toronto city witnessed one of the largest and most organized Al-Quds rallies ever held in the western hemisphere. Some extremists from the radical Zionist organization, JDL, and their Islamophobic hatemongering friends from the Sun News Network tried to harass the attendees but were not successful. The JDL has been designated the terrorist status by the FBI and represents the true face of Zionism and the settler mentality of arrogance, racism and bullying. An anchor of Sun News Network has advocated dropping a nuclear bomb on the civilian population of a Muslim country and their so-called journalists are always shamelessly trying to propagate the Zionist narrative about the indigenous Christians and Muslims of Palestine. However, initiatives like the Al-Quds day have taken the mask off the ugly face of Zionism and today Israel is more isolated in the world than ever before. At the recent UN vote, 174 nations voted against the Israeli position (http://muslimperspectives.com/?p=823, http://muslimperspectives.com/?p=685)

The Al-Quds rally organizers, speakers and participants vowed not to get intimidated by Zionist extremists and refused to allow them to turn Canada into one of the Israeli settlements. The Al-Quds rallies in Toronto and the world will continue to grow in future and peace and justice loving individuals will continue to give voice to the voiceless. The future of Israel will not be, and cannot be different from other oppressive regimes in history; whether it is the regime of the Pharaoh or Apartheid, those who commit heinous crimes against the innocent are bound to be defeated. It is high time that the larger Jewish community distances itself from this racist ideology and reclaim the beautiful faith of Judaism from these extremists.