Okay, not really. The Middle East crisis is a pretty big crisis and I can’t solve it. But — We’ve been avenging ourselves on Middle Eastern countries for 911 and fighting a “war on terror” now for 14 years. Did we win yet? Has terror stopped? Does anyone feel safer? I’ve given […] […]
Continue readingTag: ISIS
Akaash Maharaj - Practical Idealism: National Post: NATO and the Judgement of Paris
The lessons of Afghanistan were purchased at a bitter cost: the war claimed more lives, more years, and more money than any other campaign in NATO’s history. Unless the alliance takes those lessons to heart, a war in Syria and Iraq to extinguish D…
Continue readingPutin’s Christian crusader
After 9/11, the Americans declared war on terrorism. Now Russia has gone them one better. According to the Very Reverend Archpriest Vsevolod Chaplin, prominent spokesman for the Russian Orthodox Church, “The fight with terrorism is a holy battle, a…
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: Putting Things Into Perspective
The bigoted backlash against Muslims in light of the recent ISIS attacks is given short shrift by This Hour Has 22 Minutes:Should the time come when we no longer have a sense of humour, we will know that the terrorists have won.Recommend this Post
Continue readingCowichan Conversations: When Is War, War?
Don Maroc One thing we can feel secure about, a lot of out neighbours seem to know a great deal about what’s happening in Paris, France and Syria, Iraq, Kurdistan, and all the other Read more…
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: On Keeping Perspective
With the cacophony of voices calling for Canada to continue to “Bomb, Baby, Bomb.” and Canadian miscreants retaliating against Muslims by setting fires to mosques, it is crucial for voices of reason to be heard above the din of destructive rhetoric and behaviour that is emerging in the wake of
Continue readingBush, Cheney, Rumsfeld and their progeny
Neil Macdonald had an interesting article on the CBC website Monday morning about the options for dealing with ISIS. One of the comments—by “western island”—had a suggestion that in my opinion was much better than the options presented by Mr. Macdonald. Western island suggested: “Maybe we could offer to hand
Continue readingParis—the blowback of imperialism
U.S. President Barack Obama has referred to the atrocities in Paris as attacks “on all of humanity.” He is wrong, of course. The attacks were specifically directed at France, an ex-imperialist European nation that has a long history of colonizing, oppressing and exploiting the Muslim peoples of North Africa and
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: Collective Amnesia
In the wake of the Paris terrorist attacks, it seems that the world is about to embark on even greater military intervention in the Middle East, intervention that will undoubtedly be aided and abetted by a fog of amnesia about recent history. While I do not consider myself particularly well-versed
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: Could Syria Become the 21st Century Sarajevo?
There were plenty of proxy wars during the Cold War only back then the principals had enough sense to avoid direct clashes. That was then, this is Syria where today we find the rival superpowers circling each other inside the same phone booth. You could search the world over and
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: As Clear as Mud
In under 2-minutes, the BBC explains who is fighting whom in Syria. It’s as clear as mud.
Continue readingA. Picazo: No Scrutiny Please, They’re Saudi.
This op-ed appeared in The Ottawa Citizen on October 1, 2015. In 2014, on the shores of Lake Geneva and next to the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, a lavish ceremony was held to honour the recipient of the Moral Courage Award — an annual honour bestowed by UN Watch,
Continue readingWritings of J. Todd Ring: ISIS and Terrorism – A Reality Check
“The responsibility of intellectuals is to speak the truth and expose lies.” – Noam Chomsky “In times of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act.” – George Orwell According to a February 2015 Gallup poll, Americans consider the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant — abbreviated as
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: Robert Fisk
Last evening my wife and I attended a talk given by Robert Fisk, the renowned British journalist who has lived in and covered the Middle East for almost 40 years. The talk was quite dense, given the complexity of the issues and dynamics of that region, and I realized how
Continue readingA. Picazo: Need To Know: On Syria And The Migrant/Refugee Crisis
This was initially meant to be a lengthy Facebook post for those who look to me for information on complex matters (which I do happily, by request). However, it received such appreciation and requests to make it open to all (which I eventually did) that I thought I’d post it here, too, but
Continue readingPushed to the Left and Loving It: Why Stephen Harper and Thomas Mulcair Have Got it so Wrong on ISIS
Recently the Toronto Star posted a piece on Thomas Mulcair and the fight against ISIS: Mulcair Would Pull Canada From U.S. Led Mission in Mid-East if Elected.
This is a big mistake, not only politically, but from a humanitarian angle. There is no argument that George Bush’s ill-conceived war in Iraq, or in fact the decades of invasions in the region, gave rise to ISIS; but abandonment is not the answer.
As part of his reasoning, Mulcair claims that this is neither a NATO nor a UN mission, but he is wrong. Nato is involved and were involved in most, if not all, engagements in the Middle East. The United Nations has resolved to stop the flow of money and arms going to ISIS, but many of the arms they are using, are those left by the Americans
And the NATO missions that Mulcair is promoting, have destabilized regions, making them ripe for terrorist takeover. You can be a pacifist and oppose war, but if you support any war, you are no longer a pacifist. His stand is a bit confusing.
As to stopping the flow of money going to ISIS that too will be difficult. The west has been bombing oil refineries, one source of revenue, and some nations are refusing to pay ransoms, and yet the organization is still able to pay their bills, as well as provide money to run, according to the Economist, “services across the areas it controls, paying schoolteachers and providing for the poor and widowed.”
We run the risk of further alienating the occupied, if ISIS can blame the west for not being able to take care of the people. We need to stop bombing, but we can’t just leave. Humanitarian aid and training is still necessary.
Radicalization and NDP Naivete
When Stephen Harper announced that he would stop Canadians from travelling to countries engaged in “terrorist” activities, Mulcair said he would support the initiative, but questioned whether it would help in the fight against “terrorism”. He went on to say that C-51 did not do enough to combat the “radicalization of youth”.
This was actually a topic for debate in the Commons, as the NDP tried to push through an amendment to C-51, reading in part, that the Bill “…does not include the type of concrete, effective measures that have been proven to work, such as providing support to communities that are struggling to counter radicalization.
What communities do they mean?
I rarely agree with anything Peter Van Loan says, but he did raise the issue that it was “ill defined”. Do they mean Muslim communities? Peter Julian had this to say:
The mosque that is in my riding in Burnaby—New Westminster was the mosque the man who murdered Cpl. Nathan Cirillo attended. I travelled to that mosque within a couple of days of what happened on October 22 here on the Hill. What the mosque members told me was quite stark. They said that they knew he had profound mental illness. They knew that he had a drug addiction. They tried to seek help, and there was nothing available. This is something we have heard from communities right across the country.
It sounds like the issue is more about mental illness and drug addiction, issues that are discussed in many places, and not confined to Mosques. It would appear that the NDP believe, like the Conservatives, that terrorism is associated with Islam. This is not only Xenophobic but incorrect. While the Islamic State is using the religious angle, their motives are not religious, but political.
According to Huffington Post, Yusuf Sarwar and Mohammed Ahmed, the two Brits who went to Syria to join the rebels, first purchased off Amazon, two books: Islam for Dummies and The Koran for Dummies They were not devout Muslims. Nor were the 9/11 hijackers who reportedly used cocaine, drank alcohol, slept with prostitutes and attended strip clubs, but never belonged to a mosque.
A 2008 report published in the Guardian, dispelled the stereotypes of those who become involved in terrorism: “ They are mostly British nationals, not illegal immigrants and, far from being Islamist fundamentalists, most are religious novices. Nor, the analysis says, are they “mad and bad”. and “Far from being religious zealots, a large number of those involved in terrorism do not practise their faith regularly.”
Didier François, a French journalist who was held by Isis in Syria for ten months before being released in April 2014, has provided some insight into the life of those fighting for ISIS, in a CNN interview.
“There was never really discussion about texts. It was not a religious discussion. It was a political discussion. It was more hammering what they were believing than teaching us about the Quran. Because it has nothing to do with the Quran. We didn’t even have the Quran. They didn’t want even to give us a Quran.”
This is a political movement, not a Jihad one. President Obama has been trying to stress that, but his words are falling on deaf ears. I often learn a lot by reading the comments section of media reports, and in one, there is a debate between two readers. One was trying to stress that all terrorists are Muslim but their opponent fired back by saying: “Christians are also terrorists. They just call it ‘shock and awe'”.
It is not religion that is fuelling this war, it’s war itself.
The Radicalization of Youth Has Little to do With Communities
Al Jazeera also published the results of a study, defining the risk factors for violent radicalization: Youth, wealth and academia appear to predispose individuals to sympathizing with acts of terrorism.
Perhaps surprisingly, religious practice, mental health, social inequality and political engagement were not significant factors.
“We’re offering a new paradigm for sympathies as an early phase of radicalization that can be measured,” Kamaldeep Bhui, the study’s lead author and a cultural psychology professor at the university, told Al Jazeera.
While just 2.4 percent of people expressed some sympathy for violence overall, researchers found that those under the age 20, those in full-time education rather than employment, and those with annual incomes above $125,000 were more prone to express sympathy for violent protests and “terrorism.”
The attack on Parliament Hill was perpetrated by a mentally ill, homeless man, but mental illness is a separate issue, just as drug addiction and homelessness are.
“One explanation for homegrown terrorism in high-income countries is that it’s about inequality-related grievances,” Bhui said in a phone interview. “We were surprised that [the] inequality paradigm seems not to be supported. The study essentially seemed to show that those born in the U.K. consistent with the radicalization paradigm are actually more affluent or well off.”
Two other findings stood in conflict with prevailing stereotypes about so-called homegrown terrorism in the West: Immigrants and those who speak a non-English language at home, as well as those who reported suffering from anxiety or depression, were less likely to express sympathy for terrorist acts.
If we really want to “stop the flow”, we need to stop invading countries, and taking part in “regime changes”, simply because they are not willing to conduct business on our terms. Many of the sympathizers are well educated, and intelligent enough to know that there have been grave injustices committed, while society at large blames the victims. Who are the “terrorists”?
I agree with supporting “at risk” communities, dealing with poverty and youth unemployment, but that will not stop terrorists. As studies have found, they are not poor, uneducated or unemployed and rarely religious. In fact, the stereotypical description of radicalized youth, are often the ones who believe that all terrorists are Muslims.
That’s where we have to “stop the flow”. Misinformation.
Continue readingPushed to the Left and Loving It: Why Stephen Harper and Thomas Mulcair Have Got it so Wrong on ISIS
Recently the Toronto Star posted a piece on Thomas Mulcair and the fight against ISIS: Mulcair Would Pull Canada From U.S. Led Mission in Mid-East if Elected. This is a big mistake, not only politically, but from a humanitarian angle. There is no argument that George Bush’s ill-conceived war in
Continue readingPushed to the Left and Loving It: Why Stephen Harper and Thomas Mulcair Have Got it so Wrong on ISIS
Recently the Toronto Star posted a piece on Thomas Mulcair and the fight against ISIS: Mulcair Would Pull Canada From U.S. Led Mission in Mid-East if Elected. This is a big mistake, not only politically, but from a humanitarian angle. There is no argument that George Bush’s ill-conceived war in
Continue readingkirbycairo: The Tragedy that Will Return Harper to Office. . . .
We are eager to write off Harper and his government as dead in the water. We were especially eager to write them off after their reaction to the tragedy of the refugee crisis in Europe. Harper’s effort to change the channel on the terrible hardships of the refugees fleeing the
Continue readingSusan on the Soapbox: A Poll Assesses Harper’s Response to the Syrian Refugee Crisis
Nelilfu Demir’s photograph of the body of three year old Alan Kurdi washed up on a Turkish beach has taken its place among other iconic photographs that, in the words of Ryerson prof Paul Roth, have the power to concentrate the mind. Canadians are concentrating their minds on one question:
Continue reading