| GREG-STRANGE.COM |
"If you haven't found something strange during the
day, it hasn't been much of a day." -- John A. Wheeler
day, it hasn't been much of a day." -- John A. Wheeler
PROVIDING SUBSTANTIVE COMMENTARY ON THE
PEOPLE, POLITICS, EVENTS AND ABSURDITIES OF
OUR TIME. SERVED UP WITH ACERBIC WIT, YOU
SHOULD FIND IT QUITE SATISFYING.
PEOPLE, POLITICS, EVENTS AND ABSURDITIES OF
OUR TIME. SERVED UP WITH ACERBIC WIT, YOU
SHOULD FIND IT QUITE SATISFYING.
Jihad Comes To Canada
There is serious trouble afoot in that sprawling country to
the north of the U.S. A massive terror plot has been uncovered
and foiled in the heart of the liberal, open-minded,
accommodating country of Canada.
It seems a mysterious group of people had acquired three
tons of ammonium nitrate, an agricultural fertilizer, but the
funny thing is, none of them were farmers. But then, neither
was Timothy McVeigh, who used the same stuff to blow up the
Murrah Federal building in Oklahoma City in 1995.
Suspects have been arrested and are alleged to have been
planning to blow up a few things themselves, including, for
instance, the Parliament of Canada. But why in the world
would anyone want to perpetrate such a dastardly deed in this
peaceful and inoffensive country?
As reported in the Toronto Star, the Royal Canadian
Mounted Police were initially quite puzzled about that.
Regarding the terror suspects, it said this: "They represent the
broad strata of our community. Some are students, some are
employed, some are unemployed." And, said the Star article,
"Aside from the fact that virtually all are young men, it's hard
to find a common denominator."
Yep, it’s a real puzzler alright, but let me see if I can make
some kind of breakthrough here. Hmmm . . . Now let me think
for just a moment . . . Okay, I'm going to look at the suspects'
names first and see if I can detect any sort of pattern.
Okay, I'm seeing names like Mohamed, and Ahmad, and,
let's see now-- Oh, there's another Mohammed (with a slightly
different spelling), and Abdul, and, well, what a coincidence,
another Ahmad.
Okay, I think I'm zeroing in on a clue here. Wait just a
minute . . .
Okay, I've got it. They're all Muslim! That's the common
denominator! Somebody alert the Canadian authorities
because this could really be significant!
Actually, since I began this column, besides the good news
of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi being killed, the fact that the alleged
Canadian plotters are Muslim has become such common
knowledge that even the most virulent set of politically correct
blinders can no longer deny it or its significance. And the plot
has thickened.
It is being said that the men whose initially perplexing
“common denominator” has finally come to light were plotting
one doozy of a coordinated attack, which included plans to
blow up the Toronto Stock Exchange, storm and/or blow up the
Parliament, take hostages and -- get this -- possibly behead the
prime minister and other leaders. Wow! Now there’s a brazen
plan hatched right in the heart of the true, free North and it is
textbook radical Islam.
But why would Muslims want to do any harm to the country
of Canada? It’s not like the United States (the Great Satan).
Canadians aren’t fighting in Iraq. They don't swagger around
the globe getting into everyone's business and dictating how
everyone should run their countries.
On the other hand, there is that one pesky little issue of
Canadian troops in Afghanistan . . .
Bingo! It turns out the purported terrorist plot was going to
involve the demand that Canada pull its troops out of
Afghanistan. Sure, Canada meant well in making its
contribution in trying to help bring Afghanistan back from the
Dark Ages. But they forgot to take into account the feelings of
certain aggrieved Canadian Muslims who were of the opinion
that Afghans never had it so good as they did under the
Taliban.
So maybe it’s best to just go ahead and bring the troops
home, eh? Perish the thought. Afghanistan is just an excuse.
There is absolutely no rational reason why Canadian citizens
who happen to be Muslim should be so bent out of shape over
Canada’s minimal involvement in the rehabilitation of
Afghanistan.
Anyway, if it wasn’t that, it could have just been something
else, like, say, an accusation that Canada’s condemnation of
the Danish Mohammad cartoons wasn’t stringent enough. Or,
Muslims being averse to pork, they were offended by the
glorification of Canadian bacon. Or any nonsensical thing the
radical mind could dream up. It’s all about sockin’ it to the
infidels, and since Canadians are indeed infidels, they don’t get
a free pass from jihad.
As was mentioned in the Toronto Star a few days after the
plot was uncovered, “one key question has surfaced
repeatedly: How could middle class, ordinary young men --
most of them born and raised here -- find themselves accused
of such a terrible crime?”
Obviously -- and despite the fact that the Canadian
authorities were initially so befuddled -- the common
denominator is Islam. But what is the appeal of radical Islam
for people who have had the advantage of growing up in a free,
liberal, prosperous society like Canada, far from the insanity of
the Muslim world?
Various psychologists and “experts” say that uncertainty
about self, coupled with teen angst, can be a volatile mixture,
particularly for youth who feel like they’re straddling both
Muslim and Western worlds.
Munir El-Kassem, president of the Islamic Institute for
Interfaith Dialogue in London, Ontario, diagnosed it this way:
“The global climate makes it easier for those who are searching
for an identity to relate to radical people. While these youths
live in the West, they often feel more connected to their Muslim
brothers and sisters around the world, and are conflicted by
Western notions that Muslims are not peaceful people.”
So the solution for such “conflicted” feelings is to blow up
buildings and behead people? As an explanation for the
radicalization of Canadian Muslims, it doesn’t exactly satisfy.
But trying to psychoanalyze jihadists is probably an exercise in
futility anyway.
The question is, how to marginalize Islamic radicalism in
places like Canada? In one sense, it’s actually quite simple. If
they’re not citizens and they’re preaching jihad, you ship them
out of the country so fast it makes their turbaned heads spin. If
they are citizens, then you watch them like a hawk and if they
so much as spit on the sidewalk, you come down on them like a
ton of bricks.
In other words, you adopt a no-tolerance kind of policy with
at least the same degree of zeal that is often used against
smokers, even though smoking is actually legal.
Of course, before any of that could ever happen, the dross of
extreme multiculturalism would have to be tossed out like
yesterday’s garbage. And unfortunately, in most advanced
Western societies the mental disorder of extreme
multiculturalism (the key word here being “extreme”) can be
every bit as virulent as the mental disorder of radical Islam.
Canadians might want to ask themselves: Do we want to
continue with a senselessly extreme form of hypersensitive
multiculturalism and risk tolerating the sort of people who
would take advantage of our good nature and behead our
leaders? Or do we want to cut the nonsense and become a
serious participant in the war on terror, not only for our own
sakes, but for the good of all civilization?
They got a good start with the latter by breaking up the
madcap Muslim plot in their midst. It would be less than
prudent not to build on that.
There is serious trouble afoot in that sprawling country to
the north of the U.S. A massive terror plot has been uncovered
and foiled in the heart of the liberal, open-minded,
accommodating country of Canada.
It seems a mysterious group of people had acquired three
tons of ammonium nitrate, an agricultural fertilizer, but the
funny thing is, none of them were farmers. But then, neither
was Timothy McVeigh, who used the same stuff to blow up the
Murrah Federal building in Oklahoma City in 1995.
Suspects have been arrested and are alleged to have been
planning to blow up a few things themselves, including, for
instance, the Parliament of Canada. But why in the world
would anyone want to perpetrate such a dastardly deed in this
peaceful and inoffensive country?
As reported in the Toronto Star, the Royal Canadian
Mounted Police were initially quite puzzled about that.
Regarding the terror suspects, it said this: "They represent the
broad strata of our community. Some are students, some are
employed, some are unemployed." And, said the Star article,
"Aside from the fact that virtually all are young men, it's hard
to find a common denominator."
Yep, it’s a real puzzler alright, but let me see if I can make
some kind of breakthrough here. Hmmm . . . Now let me think
for just a moment . . . Okay, I'm going to look at the suspects'
names first and see if I can detect any sort of pattern.
Okay, I'm seeing names like Mohamed, and Ahmad, and,
let's see now-- Oh, there's another Mohammed (with a slightly
different spelling), and Abdul, and, well, what a coincidence,
another Ahmad.
Okay, I think I'm zeroing in on a clue here. Wait just a
minute . . .
Okay, I've got it. They're all Muslim! That's the common
denominator! Somebody alert the Canadian authorities
because this could really be significant!
Actually, since I began this column, besides the good news
of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi being killed, the fact that the alleged
Canadian plotters are Muslim has become such common
knowledge that even the most virulent set of politically correct
blinders can no longer deny it or its significance. And the plot
has thickened.
It is being said that the men whose initially perplexing
“common denominator” has finally come to light were plotting
one doozy of a coordinated attack, which included plans to
blow up the Toronto Stock Exchange, storm and/or blow up the
Parliament, take hostages and -- get this -- possibly behead the
prime minister and other leaders. Wow! Now there’s a brazen
plan hatched right in the heart of the true, free North and it is
textbook radical Islam.
But why would Muslims want to do any harm to the country
of Canada? It’s not like the United States (the Great Satan).
Canadians aren’t fighting in Iraq. They don't swagger around
the globe getting into everyone's business and dictating how
everyone should run their countries.
On the other hand, there is that one pesky little issue of
Canadian troops in Afghanistan . . .
Bingo! It turns out the purported terrorist plot was going to
involve the demand that Canada pull its troops out of
Afghanistan. Sure, Canada meant well in making its
contribution in trying to help bring Afghanistan back from the
Dark Ages. But they forgot to take into account the feelings of
certain aggrieved Canadian Muslims who were of the opinion
that Afghans never had it so good as they did under the
Taliban.
So maybe it’s best to just go ahead and bring the troops
home, eh? Perish the thought. Afghanistan is just an excuse.
There is absolutely no rational reason why Canadian citizens
who happen to be Muslim should be so bent out of shape over
Canada’s minimal involvement in the rehabilitation of
Afghanistan.
Anyway, if it wasn’t that, it could have just been something
else, like, say, an accusation that Canada’s condemnation of
the Danish Mohammad cartoons wasn’t stringent enough. Or,
Muslims being averse to pork, they were offended by the
glorification of Canadian bacon. Or any nonsensical thing the
radical mind could dream up. It’s all about sockin’ it to the
infidels, and since Canadians are indeed infidels, they don’t get
a free pass from jihad.
As was mentioned in the Toronto Star a few days after the
plot was uncovered, “one key question has surfaced
repeatedly: How could middle class, ordinary young men --
most of them born and raised here -- find themselves accused
of such a terrible crime?”
Obviously -- and despite the fact that the Canadian
authorities were initially so befuddled -- the common
denominator is Islam. But what is the appeal of radical Islam
for people who have had the advantage of growing up in a free,
liberal, prosperous society like Canada, far from the insanity of
the Muslim world?
Various psychologists and “experts” say that uncertainty
about self, coupled with teen angst, can be a volatile mixture,
particularly for youth who feel like they’re straddling both
Muslim and Western worlds.
Munir El-Kassem, president of the Islamic Institute for
Interfaith Dialogue in London, Ontario, diagnosed it this way:
“The global climate makes it easier for those who are searching
for an identity to relate to radical people. While these youths
live in the West, they often feel more connected to their Muslim
brothers and sisters around the world, and are conflicted by
Western notions that Muslims are not peaceful people.”
So the solution for such “conflicted” feelings is to blow up
buildings and behead people? As an explanation for the
radicalization of Canadian Muslims, it doesn’t exactly satisfy.
But trying to psychoanalyze jihadists is probably an exercise in
futility anyway.
The question is, how to marginalize Islamic radicalism in
places like Canada? In one sense, it’s actually quite simple. If
they’re not citizens and they’re preaching jihad, you ship them
out of the country so fast it makes their turbaned heads spin. If
they are citizens, then you watch them like a hawk and if they
so much as spit on the sidewalk, you come down on them like a
ton of bricks.
In other words, you adopt a no-tolerance kind of policy with
at least the same degree of zeal that is often used against
smokers, even though smoking is actually legal.
Of course, before any of that could ever happen, the dross of
extreme multiculturalism would have to be tossed out like
yesterday’s garbage. And unfortunately, in most advanced
Western societies the mental disorder of extreme
multiculturalism (the key word here being “extreme”) can be
every bit as virulent as the mental disorder of radical Islam.
Canadians might want to ask themselves: Do we want to
continue with a senselessly extreme form of hypersensitive
multiculturalism and risk tolerating the sort of people who
would take advantage of our good nature and behead our
leaders? Or do we want to cut the nonsense and become a
serious participant in the war on terror, not only for our own
sakes, but for the good of all civilization?
They got a good start with the latter by breaking up the
madcap Muslim plot in their midst. It would be less than
prudent not to build on that.