The ultimate proof that terrorism is not caused by Western imperialism

Let’s see. Canada is one of the most politically correct countries on earth. It is one of the most multicultural countries on earth. In recent years, Canada has been openly hostile to the United States over America’s Mideast policy. Unlike Britain, Canada’s government opposed the Iraq war. Canada is not particularly supportive of Israel, but is extremely accommodating to domestic and foreign Muslims, and was in the forefront of nations offering to fund the Hamas-led Palestinian Authority. Canada has disdained America’s relatively stricter stand toward possible domestic terrorists. When several thousand illegal alien Muslim men left the U.S. a couple of years ago under pressure from the U.S. authorities, many of them went to Canada instead of to their home countries.

Yet despite all this, Canada has a burgeoning domestic jihadist element among apparently assimilated Canadian Muslim young men, culminating in the foiled plot to use three tons of explosive in terrorist attacks. The existence of homegrown jihadist terrorists in Canada is an even more decisive refutation of the “Muslim terrorism is a response to Western interference in the Mideast” argument than the London bombings last year.

Yet the invalidation of the previous politically correct explanations of terrorism (I call them PC because they leave Islam out of the equation) has not prevented perhaps even sillier explanations from being advanced, even by people who generally know better. According to security analyst John Thompson, president of the Mackenzie Institute, a well-known Toronto think tank, the Canadian-bred terrorists “are kids at a transition, between Islamic society and Western society. A lot of people will get militarized if they’re unsure of their own identity…. They’re just young and stupid. If you’re 17, bored, restless, you want to meet girls—hey, be a radical.”

Thus a new theory is born to explain why Muslim citizens of Western democracies seek to mass murder their fellow citizens: they’re Rebels without a Cause! They’re just little Marlon Brandos and James Deans looking for kicks.

However, to be fair, John Thompson informs me that this was just one passing remark among many explanations of jihadism that he gave in the course of a 30 minute interview, and does not accurately represent his overall views of Islam. For example, he has recommended to the Canadian Parliament that all Wahhabi and Salafist clerics be removed from Canada, for which he has been called a racist and reactionary.

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The “explanations” for the planned attack offered in this amusing comment at Lucianne.com are intended satirically, yet are no less plausible than the notion that they were looking to impress girls:

Reply 9—Posted by: dodger32, 6/6/2006 6:46:59 AM

Actually, I’m not convinced that the concept of radical Islam played ANY role in the planned terrorists attacks against our neighbors to the north. I mean, this is a country that embraces the world standard of multiculturalism as its national policy. Frankly, I think these were just a few discontents who were upset over Canada’s diminishing quality of health care, the Expos move to D.C. and a recent shortage of Gordon Lightfoot records.

Your thoughts?

Ken Hechtman, a leftist in Canada, disagrees with my statement that Canada has not been pro-Israel. He also thinks the case against the suspects will be weakened by the fact that the explosives were supplied or offered by undercover agents.

Mr. Hechtman writes:

Canada has become more supportive of Israel in recent years, starting even before Stephen Harper was elected. You can think this is good or bad, but the trend is there and it’s something Canadian Muslims have been talking about. Canada used to abstain in UN “condemn-Israel” votes. About 3 or 4 years ago, we started voting with Israel, the US and Micronesia. Just before that, we banned the charity arms of Hezbollah and Hamas. Just after, we banned cable companies from carrying Hezbollah’s TV station and put so many technical and legal constraints on carrying Al Jazeera that no cable operator can afford to do it. We still officially recognize Israel’s 1967 borders, but as a practical matter, we now allow Israel to export “729” products (made in the occupied territories) to Canada.

And the charge that Canada offered to fund the Hamas government—it never happened. It’s an out and out lie. Canada was the first country to cut them off, even before the U.S.:

OTTAWA—Canada last week became the first donor country to cut funding and diplomatic ties to the Palestinian Authority (PA) just as the new Hamas-led government was being sworn in.

Following through on a pre-election promise to review aid to the PA—and a statement to the same effect made even before Canada’s Conservative-led minority government was sworn into office—federal officials cut aid over the new Hamas government’s refusal to renounce the use of terror and recognize Israel.

However, the Tories say they will still channel humanitarian aid to Palestinians through the United Nations, as well as other agencies and non-governmental organizations.

“Not a red cent to Hamas,” Foreign Affairs Minister Peter MacKay said on CBC’s Inside Politics program last Wednesday.

“This is a terrorist organization. They have to change.” he said. “We cannot send any direct aid to an organization that refuses to renounce terrorist activity, refuses to renounce violence.’’

His certitude was repeated following a meeting with the Conservative caucus: “There will be no contact and no funds, period.”

But the big sore spot isn’t Israel. It’s Afghanistan:

Nice, normal guy’ accused of leading plot

Ringleader said to be angry about Canada’s Afghan mission, mistreatment of Muslims

Published: Monday, June 05, 2006

OTTAWA—The 43-year-old man at the head of an alleged terror plot accused Canadian soldiers in Afghanistan of raping women in his introduction for a Liberal MP at a storefront Toronto mosque last summer, sparking fears that the hardline talk was evidence of more sinister intentions.

Concerns about Qayyum Abdul Jamal that were expressed by members of the local Muslim community led directly to a massive national security investigation and the arrests of a dozen men and five youths last weekend, Liberal MP Wajjid Khan told CanWest News Service in an interview.

When the Liberal MP takes credit for the tip leading to the arrests, I don’t quite buy it. I understand Jamal and his group had already been under surveillance for a year when Khan met him.

How I suspect this is going to play out is as an entrapment case. We know the explosives were supplied directly by the police. We also know that the group was being watched for two years before an arrest was made. Both of those suggest that the police were taking that time to have their undercover build the group up into something worth a high-profile arrest. We’ve seen the pattern a million times—the FBI does it to the left, the ATF does it to the right.

I think that’s going to be their defense, that the police foiled a plot they’d created themselves, that on their own they had done nothing but go on the net and express opinions on foreign policy shared by half of Parliament, but there wasn’t a danger until the police created one.

Posted by Lawrence Auster at June 06, 2006 09:21 AM | Send