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Broad Strata of Society!?

Are we so far into denial that it’s impossible to understand the obvious?

The Toronto Star ran the following piece of brilliance in their paper after the jihadis in Toronto were arrested.

It’s hard to find a common denominator.

Let me repeat that.

The muslim jihadis plotting to blow up the Canadian Stock Exchange showed It’s hard to find a common denominator. I understand that it’s blow me away obvious, but the RCMP thinks the only common denominator is that they’re young men?

Not all muslims are terrorists. Every single one of these guys were. Just like every single 9/11 hijacker was. Just like the guys who bombed the Cole. Just like the Pakistani who was recently convicted for plotting to blow up the New York City Subway. Just like Sami Al-Arian. Just like Mike Hawash. Yes. Not every muslim is a terrorist. Every one of these terrorists were.

To blatantly say that the only common denominator you can find in those 17 people were their age, is idiotic.

The article does come close to saying the taboo thing, though:

In investigators’ offices, an intricate graph plotting the links between the 17 men and teens charged with being members of a homegrown terrorist cell covers at least one wall. And still, says a source, it is difficult to find a common denominator.

Some of the students, who cannot be named because they are not yet 18 and their identities are protected by Canadian law, attended the same high school.

The suspects are mainly teens and men in their young 20s, with the exception of 43-year-old Qayyum Abdul Jamal, a bus driver and recognized figure at a Mississauga Islamic centre.

Ahmad Mustafa Ghany, a 21-year-old health sciences graduate from McMaster University, was born in Canada, the son of a doctor who emigrated from Trinidad and Tobago in 1955. He and Zakaria Amara, 20, are married to sisters, and were wed by the same Scarborough imam.

Yasin Abdi Mohamed, 24, and 22-year-old Mohammed Dirie were arrested bringing weapons from the United States to Canada in a car allegedly rented by Fahim Ahmad, 21. Ahmad was never charged in that incident but the two others pleaded guilty last October. Both are serving two-year sentences in a Kingston-area penitentiary.

Some may have met through the Internet where, sources told the Star, the investigation began in 2004 with concern over the views expressed. But that group eventually moved away from cyberspace to allegedly meet, plot and recruit.

RCMP Assistant Commissioner Mike McDonell said yesterday the suspects are all Canadian residents and the majority are citizens. “They represent the broad strata of our community. Some are students, some are employed, some are unemployed,” he said.

“Some are actually recruited. Going out and looking for marginalized youth, if we can call it that, and other ones it’s common association within a community.” As police briefed the media, families, friends and neighbours told stories of the men they believe are wrongly accused.

Common association within a community. Way to go, mounties!

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June 13th, 2006 | Category: Strange
  • Rusty Shakleford
    Although I despise the RCMP and the Toronto Star for not "calling a spade a spade", it shows just how far the Mainstream Media, Western society in general, and probably Canadian society in particular, has become strangled by Political Correctness.

    Even the comment ignoring the 800 pound gorilla in the room, a minority of Muslims immediatly started playing the "religion card" and complaining how it isn't a "muslim problem".

    If YOUR children want to BOMB my city and KILL INNOCENT PEOPLE, THAT IS A MUSLIM PROBLEM and now it is EVERYONE elses problem. Pardon us if we don't cry with compassion over your plight.

    Deal with it.

    Of course, "dealing with it" is their big problem - how does any community self-censure a small faction that holds a world-view that's over 1,000 years old? Poorly, so far.
  • It isn't a stereotype, though. They were all muslim. That's the problem. It isn't like someone said, "We haven't found the people who lived there, but they're probably all muslim."

    There's a difference between not blanketing people with offensive assumptions (all terrorists are muslim) and looking at a picture of 17 muslim men and saying there was absolutely nothing that connects them.

    Stating the obvious is not offensive. They were all men. Why is that not offensive to men? Should men rise up and bitch about how not all terrorists are men? Or maybe they're all young. Should all young people be upset because young people were called terrorists?

    You could take this to the extreme in any number of directions, but the fact remains. Every single one of them was a young muslim male. To say there's nothing that connects them is ludicrous and ignoring the obvious.

    Not all muslims are terrorists.

    All these terrorists were muslims.

    No stereotyping, just stating a fact.
  • I was shocked when I heard that my former home of Toronto was almost attacked by terrorists, even if they weren't even close to acting on their plans, they were still planning it.

    I've seen the kind of trouble caused by saying something taboo on TV or in a newspaper, and it was probably a good thing that the author of the article avoided saying that the only thing common between the perpetrators is that they are muslim. There are a lot of muslims in Toronto and it would not be wise to apply a stereotype to any of them, or anybody for that matter.
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