Sunday, July 24, 2005

Finding a Cure

I was watching The Question Period on CTV as Jane Taber interviewed Dr. Mohamed Elmasry the Chair & National President of Canadian Islamic Congress, Riad Saloojee the Executive Director of CAIR-CAN, the Council on American-Islamic Relations Canada and Irfan Syed President of the Canadian Muslim Lawyers' Association.

The question that everyone asks is whether we face the same danger as UK citizens. Elmasry says no. “Muslims in Canada are generally educated and do not live in the ghetto. Half of Canadian Muslims were born in this country, vote in elections and have representatives in parliaments”. Mr. Syed added that Canadian Charter of Rights is what protects us against hatred and terror.

Mr. Shaloojee said that CAIR-CAN is taking steps in training Imams and other community leaders to spot extremism and uproot terrorisms. Mr. Syed believes that Canada should be more educated about Islam, learn what is preached in Mosques and understand that we are all in this together.

What Dr. Elmasry pointed out near the end, caught my attention. CIC is holding educational seminars for immigrants to teach them about Canadian political structure, legal system and their rights. CIC is also encouraging the youth to take more effective roles in the society and show their presence in political, legal and governance arena. This initiative will certainly result in better integration of immigrants in Canada. This is what NIAC has recently tried to do in United Stated.

If CIC is really committed to deliver such task, they are potentially taking the most effective anti-terrorism measure.

What I would like to add is that we need to know the minorities and their needs in more depth. The first generation of immigrants generally recognizes unemployment as its biggest problem. If high rate of unemployment results in poverty, the immigrant community will become a safe haven for manifestation of crime and hatred.

Policing is curing the symptoms. Let’s find the real cause and vaccinate Canada against this terrorism. Canada is our country and we are all in this together.

1 Comments:

At 4:12 p.m., Blogger Jackal said...

Spot on!
Totally agree with your comments. That is the best possible policy to stop initiation of home grown extremist cells.

Suppose Canada manages to overcome threats from within the country, what about overseas terror havens? don't you think something should be done to help 'em integrate into the global community?

 

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