Ours…I think not
Thanks to some brilliant intelligence and police work downtown Toronto does not have an Oklahoma City x 3 sized hole in its middle. Several hundred, perhaps several thousand, Canadians are not dead.
We have dodged a huge bullet.
The security service has suggested that there are dozens if not hundreds of homegrown terrorists who they are tracking. They have suggested that CSIS simply does not have the resources necessary to track all of these people.
Meanwhile,
Anser Farooq, a lawyer who represents five of the accused, pointed at snipers on the roof of the courthouse and said: “This is ridiculous. They’ve got soldiers here with guns. This is going to completely change the atmosphere.As the accuseds’ lawyer you would expect him to say that.“I think (the police) cast their net far too wide,” he said, adding his clients are considering suing law enforcement agencies.”
the star
Less expected was this quote:
Around the same time, Karl Nickner of the Canadian Council on American-Islamic Relations issued a statement that he is confident “the justice system will accord these individuals transparency, due process and the presumption of innocence.”“We stand behind our security forces and the Canadian government in their desire to protect Canada,” said the executive director. “As Canadian Muslims, we unequivocally condemn terrorism in all of its forms.”
the star
Now the question becomes how to deal with the rest of the potential terrorists in our midst.
A beginning to that is to recognize that this is not “homegrown” terrorism. Rather it is a Canadian offshot of a worldwide radical Islamist ideology which sees nothing at all wrong with the murder of innocents. Do all Muslims subscribe to that ideology. Of course not. But some do and that is where we must begin.
For the Toronto terrorists to have met, trained, planned and very nearly executed this thwarted attack implies a strength to the jihadi enterprise which will come as something of a surprise to Canadians deep in denial.
As a society it is time to take measured, but effective steps to reduce the threat.
The first of these is to look seriously at our immigrant screening procedures. the head of CSIS indicated taht they were unable to screen more than 10% of the immigrants from place like Pakistan known to harbour jihadis. OK, let’s work with that number. From Monday forrward do not let in anyone from any nation which habours jihadis until they have been throughly screened. If that reduces the number of immigrants from those countries, tough. Immigration to Canada is a priviledge not a right.
The second is to look seriously at the landed immigrants already here. Again, the status of landed immigrants is essentially probationary. While such immigrants are certainly entitled to transparency and due process of law, it behooves the government to fast track the examination of the status of potential terrorists.
And, yes, many innocent people will be called in for questioning, have their phones tapped, their internet usage watched. While I would hope this was done as gently as possible getting results before the amonia nitrate goes off is of greater importance than a touching concern for the civil rights of individuals in Canada on sufferance.
Third, it may be time to say good bye to the Muslim world as a source of immigrants for a few years.
Fourth, it is well past time to investigate the parallel schools and mosque linked organizations which may be sources of incitement in the Islamic community. Particular attention should be paid to the assorted, almost always immigrant, imams who act as leaders in the Canadian Muslim community.
Fifth, we should explicitly make incitement of terror a crime.
Finally, we need to ensure the co-operation of the vast, non-Islamist, non-terrorist Canadian Muslim community in the efforts to identify and target the jihadis. Everything from outreach to snitch lines to cash rewards should be offered for information leading to the arrest of the tiny minority of Muslims whose ideology permits the murder of innocents. The Muslim community knows which of its members are potential jihadis. It is time for them to cleanse their community and to protect themselves and all Canadians with hard, clear, factual information.
We have been very lucky. And our luck can hold if our fellow Canadians who have information are willing to share it.
The apprehension of this potential catastrophe is likely to be Canada’s last warning. This time there is every chance that there will not be a huge backlash against the hundreds of thousands of peaceful people who practice Islam. but that is because the bomb did not go off.
next time, especially if the bomb does go off, a harsh, unfair and possibly brutal backlash is more or less inevidable. Only the Muslim community itself has the means to prevent this. I only hope they rise to the real challenge of being Canadian.
June 4th, 2006 at 4:07 pm
You lost me completely on this:
The Muslim community knows which of its members are potential jihadis.
How could they or any group know that? Or have you seen some evidence that this is true?
I presume most people of any faith, if they stumbled across websites where violent rhetoric was being spouted, would go to the authorities. Hell, even if I knew a relative was proposing violence against my country, I’d say sanity is thicker than blood.
June 4th, 2006 at 10:52 pm
“Finally, we need to ensure the co-operation of the vast, non-Islamist, non-terrorist Canadian Muslim community in the efforts to identify and target the jihadis.”
Good luck with that. Where do you think the $$$ to buy three tonnes of fertilizer comes from?
June 5th, 2006 at 12:28 am
“As Canadian Muslims, we unequivocally condemn terrorism in all of its forms.”
There’s the catch. CAIR Canada is the same group as CAIR. What they mean by terrorism in all its forms is Israel.
Sorry, but CAIR is a terrorist orgainisation in Canada as much as in America.
June 5th, 2006 at 5:50 am
Actually, the fertilizer was provided by the RCMP as part of their sting operation.
June 5th, 2006 at 9:51 am
James – I imagine (although none of us know at this point) that the Mounties realized that just giving away three tonnes of fertilizer wouldn’t look right to their ‘customer’ – hence, the would-be bombers still needed money or a demonstration of creditworthiness.
June 5th, 2006 at 10:22 am
“Actually, the fertilizer was provided by the RCMP as part of their sting operation.”
Sounds like a Thomas Harris novel!
June 5th, 2006 at 10:29 am
Canada is less a terrorist hangout today than last week. Consider that, before you call for our freedoms to be lost like they have been in the USA.
June 5th, 2006 at 10:52 am
Saskboy, from the New York Times,
“Islamic community leaders in the Toronto area were surprised by the arrests and raised concerns that some of the younger men picked up in the sweep may have been led to participate in a suspected plot by older, more radical Muslims, like Mr. Jamal.
“I do not think of him as an imam,” Tareeq Fatah, the communications director of the Muslim Canadian Congress, said. “People like him are freelancers. I don’t fear imams. I fear freelancers who are creating a Islamacist, supremacist cult.”
The Al-Rahman Islamic Center for Islamic Education that Mr. Jamal frequented was locked and quiet this morning. A class on the Koran that was scheduled for midday today was canceled. Located in a small strip mall between the Hasty Market and the Café de Kahn, the mosque is one of several Islamic centers that have sprung up in Mississauga in recent years.
Neighbors said the Islamic Center had grown very popular in the last few years. One neighbor said that on Friday nights there are so many pairs of shoes lined up outside the entrance that it is difficult to walk on the sidewalk to get into the stores in the strip mall. ” nyt
Les of a terrorist hangout…yup. But one cannot help but wonder who is wearing those other shoes.
June 5th, 2006 at 11:18 am
I guess we’ll just have to start tapping shoes, eh?
You go to far to suggest that terrorism can be stopped by tapping innocent people’s phones and harrassing them too.
“And, yes, many innocent people will be called in for questioning, have their phones tapped, their internet usage watched. While I would hope this was done as gently as possible getting results before the amonia nitrate goes off is of greater importance than a touching concern for the civil rights of individuals in Canada on sufferance.”
That’s rubbish, and not something Canadians should have to live with. There will always be nuts looking to blow people up, but Canada’s done just fine for a long time with our current laws and organizations to fight crime. We don’t need to give up our freedoms of privacy to fight the rare instances of terrorism that crop up. When someone can buy a nuke at the supermarket, or ram their lightspeed car into the earth, get back to me. Until then giving up and turning into a police state just doesn’t wash.
June 7th, 2006 at 2:23 pm
“And, yes, many innocent people will be called in for questioning, have their phones tapped, their internet usage watched.”
Poor Jay Currie. The terrorists have won! Now, what in the world was he going on about a couple of years, regarding mistreatment by a police officer?
I mean.. you know, it was Justified! Even if Currie was innocent, who knows? Maybe he was guilty! Gentle indeed.
June 11th, 2006 at 3:45 am
If we institute the steps you’ve suggested, we would basically be setting aside all of the values Canadians hold dear – values like freedom of expression, multiculturalism and the rule of law.