THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA
An Online Journal of Political Commentary & Analysis
Volume X, Issue # 318, December 4, 2008
Dr. Almon Leroy Way, Jr., Editor
Government Committed to & Acting in Accord with Conservative Principles
Ensures a Nation's Strength, Progress, & Prosperity
CANADA VERSUS RADICAL ISLAM
By Kathy Shaidle
CANADA'S FIGHT AGAINST DOMESTIC ISLAMISM: CREEPING SHARI'A, DOMESTIC RADICALISM, & ISLAMIST
LAWFARE TACTICS IN CANADA -- DEMANDS OF RADICAL MUSLIMS FOR THE MOST EXCESSIVE OF ACCOMODATIONS,
ACCOMODATIONS THAT TEND TO REINFORCE ANY ISLAMIC SELF-ISOLATING, ANTI-INTEGRATIONIST INCLINATIONS --
CREATING POTENTIALLY DANGEROUS PARALLEL SOCIETIES WITHIN CANADA -- THE TWIN THREATS OF UNCONTROLLED
IMMIGRATION & ISLAMIST INFILTRATION
FULL STORY:
On October 14, 2008, Canadian voters handed Conservative Prime Minister Stephen Harper his second minority government,
one even stronger than his first. Harper vows to maintain the nation's military commitment in Afghanistan through 2011, but
his dedication to fighting radical Islam at home remains unclear.
Ezra Levant was one of those trying to keep those issues on the table while working the Conservative Party's "war room"
during the campaign. Levant famously reprinted the Danish cartoons of Muhammad in his magazine, the Western
Standard, back in 2006, an act that got him hauled before the Alberta Human Rights Commission for "Islamophobia."
That was Canada's first real taste of Islamist "lawfare" tactics, and its most notorious next to similar charges brought against
Maclean's magazine and its columnist Mark Steyn.
Levant is optimistic about the Prime Minister's commitment to fighting radical Islam on the domestic front.
"You might recall," Levant told Islamist Watch right after the election, "that the 18 young Muslims arrested for
plotting to blow up the CBC and CN Tower and behead the Prime Minister happened right after Harper was first elected. His
response was not the typical politically correct response of having a photo-op with a radical imam."
Rather, the Harper government refused to meet with, and thereby legitimize, radical groups like the Canadian Islamic
Congress. Instead, the Conservatives pointedly visited Ahmaddiya and Ismaili Muslim communities, which tend to be more
"educated, professional, charitable, liberal."
According to one expert, however, the Harper government still has work to do on the anti-Islamist front.
David B. Harris directs the International and Terrorist Intelligence Program for INSIGNIS Strategic Research. He outlined the
challenges facing the new government in the months ahead.
First, says Harris, the government must challenge "Islamist claims of real and substantial anti-Muslim behavior" — claims
that simply don't withstand scrutiny.
When radical Muslims succeed in "mainstreaming the victimization narrative," this makes "the mainstream, including courts,
vulnerable to demands for the most excessive of accommodations, accommodations that tend to reinforce any self-isolating,
anti-integrationist inclinations — and the creation and existence of potentially dangerous parallel societies."
Harris also calls on the Conservative government to ensure that radical Muslim groups "are never engaged in ‘outreach'
activity by police and security organizations."
The hot-button issue of immigration is, next to socialized medicine, the most "untouchable" in Canada. Citizens imbibe the
civic religion of "multiculturalism, tolerance, and diversity" beginning in elementary school. In spite of that, Harris is blunt.
"Immigration must be brought under immediate control," he told Islamist Watch, "and no longer be viewed as a mere
vote-importing mechanism" — the strategy the Liberal Party employed for generations to become, until recently, "the
natural ruling party."
Harris adds, "Bringing over a quarter of a million people a year into Canada is unconscionable in this threat environment, and
it should be no surprise that our few thousand security officials are overworked."
Whether or not Stephen Harper really has the mandate, let alone the fortitude, to address creeping Sharia, domestic radicalism,
and Islamiist lawfare remains to be seen. Like all politicians, Harper is interested primarily in getting reelected and eventually
winning a majority government for his Conservative Party. This means not alienating Muslim voters or moderate Liberals.
Harper's personal style, which is low key in the extreme, is intended to convey steadiness, but often comes across as
indifference. This, in turn, frustrates Canadians concerned about Islamist lawfare and creeping Sharia. (Ironically, the
Canadians most vocal about those concerns tend to be Quebeckers — who historically vote Liberal and, once again, rejected
Harper's attempts to court them during this election.)
Muslims currently make up approximately two percent of the Canadian population, and the number who could be described
as "radical" is far less. However, the radical few are able to generate considerable media attention. While their attempts to
effectively "hijack" two magazines through the Canadian Human Rights Commissions ultimately proved unsuccessful, those
cases had a chilling effect on journalists and moderate Muslims.
Not all moderate Muslims, however. Three of them recently met at a Quebec conference to discuss radical Islam and its
infiltration of Canadian political parties, particularly the country's number three party, the socialist New Democrats (NDP).
Author Tarek Fatah declared that he'd switched party affiliation from NDP to Liberal because, "in the last NDP leadership
campaign, I was witness to an attempt by a group of wealthy Islamists to back one member of Parliament for the leadership,
with the stated objective of controlling the Party."
While the New Democratic Party could never conceivably form a minority government, let alone a majority one, it is a
highly vocal part of the official opposition, represents many of the nation's most multicultural, urban ridings, and can make
or break any anti-Islamist efforts the Conservatives may table in Parliament.
Add to that recent hints by the Canadian Radio-Television and Telecommunications Commission (the country's version of
the FCC in the U.S.A.) that it hopes to start regulating the Internet — the key medium for fighting Islamist ideas — and the
future looks less encouraging all the time.
Ultimately, Canada's fight against domestic Islamism is in the hands of dedicated, informed individuals, regardless of who
happens to currently reside at 24 Sussex Drive.
LINKS TO RELATED TOPICS:
Canada: America's Northern Neighbor & Ally
Lawfare -- The Use of Law as a Weapon in War & Politics:
Islamist Lawfare & the "Legal" Jihad Against America & the West
Islamism & Jihadism -- The Threat of Radical Islam
Page Three
Page Two
Page One
Middle East -- Arabs, Arab States,
& Their Middle Eastern Neighbors
American Foreign Policy -- The Middle East
International Politics & World Disorder:
War, Peace, & Geopolitics in the Real World:
Foreign Affairs & U.S. National Security
Page Two
Page One
Islamist Terrorist Attacks on the U.S.A.
Osama bin Laden & the Islamist Declaration of War
Against the U.S.A. & Western Civilization
Islamist International Terrorism &
U.S. Intelligence Agencies
Counterterrorism & U.S. National Security
U.S. National Security Strategy
Residing in Toronto, Canada, Kathy Shaidle is an award-winning author, blogger, editor, and writer. Shaidle's new book is
The Tyranny of Nice: How Canada Crushes Freedom in the Name of Human Rights — and Why It Matters to
Americans.
The foregoing article by Kathy Shaidle was originally published in Pajamas Media, December 1, 2008, and
can be found on the Internet website maintained by the Middle East Forum, a foreign policy think tank which seeks to
define and promote American interests in the Middle East, defining U.S. interests to include fighting radical Islam,
working for Palestinian Arab acceptance of the State of Israel, improving the management of U.S. efforts to promote
constitutional democracy in the Middle East, reducing America's energy dependence on the Middle East, more robustly
asserting U.S. interests vis-à-vis Saudi Arabia, and countering the Iranian threat.
(Article URL: http://www.meforum.org/article/2019)
Republished with Permission of the Middle East Forum
Reprinted from the Middle East Forum News
mefnews@meforum.org (MEF NEWS)
December 4, 2008
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THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA
An Online Journal of Political Commentary & Analysis
Dr. Almon Leroy Way, Jr., Editor
Conservative & Free-Market Analysis of Government, Politics & Public Policy, Covering Political, Legal, Constitutional, Economic,
Cultural, Military, International, Strategic, & Geopolitical Issues
Conservative Government Ensures a Nation's Strength, Progress, & Prosperity