There are 1m Muslim Canadians, how many do you think are radicals, or followers of political islam?
Islam is a
combined religion and political system. There is no separation between the two.
Individual Muslims, like others, may or may not adhere to the whole package. We are/have been fortunate here, so far at least.
But, just in Kingston, there have been two cases of note. In one, three teenage girls and a former wife were murdered by their father/former husband and at least one brother for family "honour". I lived in the motel (on IR) wherein they were killed for three years, albeit some time afterwards, and learned quite a few details that were not published directly from the manager.
There was a Muslim youth arrested and charged with terrorism here a few years ago. No details have been released. As this case has only seen sporadic mention in the media of late, I cannot remember if he has gone to court, been convicted, or been sentenced. The case was considered serious enough to hold him without bail.
I have also watched a lot of footage of recent pro-Hamas rallies in Toronto and elsewhere lately, and Quds Day marches in Toronto over the last couple of years. There are those who support violence, even if only in word so far.
I have a few Muslim neighbours. The two Syrian families who lived on both sides of me moved out into larger houses, much to my regret. I have never had better neighbours, and I have mentioned them several times in the past.
I've also had interesting conversations with Iraqi Christians who were forced to leave and come here. When once they got along quite well with their Muslim neighbours, the situation deteriorated over time to the point where they were concerned for their lives. They had little charitable to say about their former neighbours.
I can separate Muslims and Islam in my mind quite easily. Islam represents a potential threat here, eventually, and a very real and current one elsewhere. This threat should not be underestimated. The onset of problems seems to occur at about the ten-percent-of-population point. We have yet to reach that. Immigration has also been much slower here than in Europe, Britain, and Scandinavia, which were suddenly overrun en masse. A large proportion of the "refugees"/"migrants" who flooded into Europe, Britain, and Scandinavia were military-age young men rather than family groups as we have received here and they have very much ben a problem. Both time and the nature of the Muslims that have come here have enabled better integration, and I hope that that persists.
I can still view Islam as a potential threat, or not like much of its teachings, and welcome Muslims.
I can also respect Mohammed as a great and accomplished warlord. Whether he was God's ultimate prophet, to whom God directly dictated the Qu'ran, or a cunning opportunist who grafted a political philosophy onto the two pre-existing Abrahamic religions purely to unite Arabs and lead/inspire them to conquer the middle east and much of southern Europe, I cannot say. I can neither prove nor disprove either theory, and have no interest in attempting either one.
Christianity was once spread largely largely by the sword, but more latterly by persuasion. Islam is still spread by the sword in many places.
But all of that aside, I despise every form of unjustifiable and immoral violence to anybody, for any excuse.
And the victims of this vile attack were
good people, and much better people than their attacker.
We all lost.
