| |
 Print
Stop Fighting Terrorism with Terrorism!
5-19-2015
It is time we print out stickers and door signs to all Tory Members of Parliament - Quiet Please – Tories are Sleeping!
On March 30th, 2015 Prime Minister Stephen Harper used his Commons majority to extend Canada’s combat mission by 12 months and expand air strikes to Syria. Two days later, on April Fools day Canadians Defence Minister, Mr. Jason Kenney, shocked the nation with the estimated ballooning cost, 528 Million Dollars, to support Canadian Mission in Iraq to fight ISIS until march 2016. It clearly demonstrates that the current government simply lacks vision, and are so shallow that they cannot see beyond the next election. It is their short-sightedness could lead to increased cases of homegrown terrorism and more and more Canadian youths drawn to outfits such as ISIS, and other terrorist groups.
It makes many Canadians wonder whether this government even knows what it is doing. Does the cabinet even discuss these matters before presenting it to the House of Commons and public? How many Conservative Members of Parliament are even aware of what they are voting for? Or, simply they have no choice, no say, simply rubber stamp everything few selected ministers decide and herding all other Conservative MP’s to the floor to say Yay!
It seems as if the last choice is the only choice available to the Conservative MP. Because if any logical, sensible individual was given a free choice to express their views and making sensible decisions to spend tax payers dollars would raise a question asking the government, Excuse Me, what preventive measures have we taken to prevent ISIS from recruiting Canadians, especially our youth? What measures are being taken, and how much tax payer funds are allocated to combat home grown terrorism? To list a few. The answer is None, None, and None!
On issues of such importance, please don’t make noise, the Harper government is sleeping!
It seems as if the current government has one only plan to fight terrorism. Bury their heads in the sand and wait for the terrorists to strike somewhere. At which point, issue a highly politicize statement against Islam and Muslims, but carefully packaged to not offend Canadian Muslims, yet, indirectly implant a seed of distrust and suspicion about Canada’s Muslims, Mosques, Associations, raising doubts in people’s mind. This entire exercise which Canadians have been witnessing for the past few years, to curry up support from their base voters and gain few on the way.
Alberta’s Somali community, where ISIS may have been successful in recruiting, for years have been seeking help from the government to prevent their children, Vulnerable Canadian Youths from falling victims to terrorist groups recruitment, but the no help in sight.
In September 2014, few months before the Canadian mission begin, we read headlines on all major media outlets, “Edmonton Somali Groups wants Harper to help prevent ISIS Recruitment,” and “Alberta Somali Groups warns Harper about ISIS.”
Did the government take these warnings or plea for help seriously? NO!
Therefore, if the government is unwilling to take the concerns of its citizens seriously, opting to treat their concerns as second class citizens, then it has absolutely no right to blame a community when things do go wrong, especially, if the motive is not really to solve the problem, rather to score brownie points from base voter base.
Thankfully, Canada among all the western nations since Bush’s declaration of “War on Terror” was initialized some decade and a half ago have experienced a large number of youth radicalization, and increased in homegrown terrorism, Canada has been pretty much immune from it.
The credit does go to previous governments who did not treat the Canadian-Muslims as second class citizens, and were careful when commenting or issuing statements, recognizing the Canadian Muslims contributions, and differentiating Canadian Muslims from the terrorists and their terrorist’s activities.
The credit also goes to Muslim associations, organizations, mosques administrations, imams, community leaders, etc enveloping the community, especially the youths ensuring that the plague of terrorism which envelopes the world now from being affected. Things were indeed different. There was a government that all Canadians can be proud of, and did not misuse or abuse their majority to advance personal agendas, and certainly did not act based on personal beliefs.
However, the current government, there is a clear sense among majority of Canadians, Muslim and Non-Muslims alike, that the current government clearly has a personal agenda, and thrives on demonizing Islam and Muslims, at every opportunity and isolating Canadian Muslims from the rest of the society.
Some of the examples stare us in the face. Such as, on the day of Boston Marathon Bombing Mr. Justine Trudeau suggestions on CBC, about searching out “Root Cause” behind the attack.
The very next day, Mr. Harper, while attending Ms. Margaret Thatcher’s funeral in London stated: ““When you see this type of violent act, you do not sit around trying to rationalize it or make excuses for it or figure out its root causes,” …“You condemn it categorically, and to the extent you can deal with the perpetrators, you deal with them as harshly as possible.”
Then we have all heard Mr. Jason Kenny’s remark, “Ultimately, what we need to do is wage a Jihad against Jihadism.” It seems as if both Mr. Harper and his defence Minister, previously Multicultural Minister are reading from the same script.
Earlier in February 2015, Mr. Harper once again managed to outrage Canadian Muslims when he stated, when discussing Bill C-51, "It doesn't matter what the age of the person is, or whether they're in a basement, or whether they're in a mosque or somewhere else,"
Clearly when the government leaders, Prime Ministers and Minister make such off the cuff remarks unnecessarily picking on a minority group, demonizing them, belittling them, does nothing, except causing resentment among people. This ultimately leads to people feeling being treated as second class citizen which eventually can lead to retaliation or enforcement of their rights reclaiming their true status in the society. At that point which route is taken is not of any importance.
It is time now, the current government take their responsibility seriously, act maturely, and start spending Canadian taxpayer’s money honestly and sincerely in building bridges, treating everyone equally and fairly by allocating funds to search the “Root Cause” of terrorism, and stop fighting terrorism with terrorism.
Footnotes:
|