Mea Culpa: White and Colour-Guilty. Minimizing Islamist Terrorism

"Neo-Nazis, white supremacists, incels, nativists, and radical anti-globalists who resort to violent acts are a threat to the stability of my country and countries around the world. [Those attacks] need to be at the top of our agenda when we talk about confronting terrorism."
"[White supremacism is] one of the most serious terrorist threats of the current age. [The online spread of hate is] an international problem, and we need to act collectively to address it."
"[Hatred is] increasingly spread through the internet, [in online forums and on social media]. We must be aware of this, and work to stop it. Our work cannot be undertaken in isolation. Each of our countries will of course address this issue in different ways, but we need to recognise that this is ultimately an international problem, and we need to act collectively to address it."
"In the wake of acts of terrorism carried out by Muslim extremists, Western countries often call upon Muslim countries and Muslim leaders to condemn those attacks in the name of their people and their faith. It should follow that, as the foreign minister of a majority white and majority Christian country, I feel a specific and personal responsibility to denounce white supremacist attacks in the same way."
"Each of our countries will, of course, address this issue in different ways, but we need to recognize that this is ultimately an international problem, and we need to act collectively to address it."
"The Internet and social media know no borders and so we must work together to find ways to address online radicalization."
Chrystia Freeland, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Canada

Canada's Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland addresses the United Nations Security Council debate on terrorism on March 28, 2019 in New York City. (Global Affairs Canada/Facebook)

"What our research [shows] is that there is a diversity of threats out there related to violent extremism, and there are many different ideologies that can create this problem."
"There are a number of ideologies where Alberta is disproportionately represented, in terms of the numbers that we're producing."
"The individuals that we're seeing are really on the margins of extremist movements."
John McCoy, executive director, Organization for the Prevention of Violence (OPV)

"[Alberta is home to] both intimate and established networks [tied to al-Qaeda and affiliated groups, and] highly isolated cases that are connected with AQAS networks wholly online."
"Today, the trend is very much towards the latter. As seen in the OPV’s research on hate, there was near unanimity in the belief that things are getting worse, not better, due in part to this global political climate where expression of discrimination, hate and broader ‘us versus them’ narratives are taking hold."

"Respondents were dismayed to see this occurring in Canada, a nation whose identity is in large part constructed on the basis of immigration and multiculturalism."

Extremism and Hate Motivated Violence in Alberta Report, Organization for the Prevention of Violence

The report, titled Extremism and Hate Motivated Violence in Alberta -- one hundred pages listing extremist groups in the province, estimates of membership, and views of violent or potentially violent ideological movements and whether the groups are growing or shrinking in membership and prominence provides a fairly wide view of threat activities with the potential to destabilize the province and perpetrate violence on a wide scale. OPV points out that al-Qaeda, its affiliates and splinter groups — referred to as AQAS in the report — continue to present as a direct threat in Canada despite international counterterrorism efforts.

The report was built painstakingly around interviews with over 170 law enforcement members representing the RCMP, as well as each municipal police service in the province of Alberta. What was established in the report is that Alberta represents the province with a disproportionate share of extremist movements; far-right groups and those travelling abroad to join armed groups such as Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant. An intervention program hoping to guide people away from extremist movements was developed as well by the organization.

Researchers interviewed roughly 120 people from communities where hate and extremism directly affected them. Some fifty service providers specializing in violence and at-risk youth, and 212 "formers"; people previously associated with extremist movements, or their family members, were also extensively interviewed. Mr. McCoy -- the OPV executive director, is also a professor at University of Alberta whose specialty is terrorism studies -- spoke of a major conclusion, that individuals on the edges of extremist groups, those who have been most frequently radicalized through social media, represent the biggest threat to society. 

A video was recently released of Toronto's Mohammed Abdullah Mohammed, after he was captured by Kurdish forces battling ISIS in Syria. (CBC)

According to the report, from the late 1990s to the mid-2000s, fundraising, money laundering and promotion and propaganda took place in the province in support of foreign fighters in the Middle East, North Africa and Bosnia. The report estimated that between 30 and 40 people from Alberta travelled abroad to fight for armed groups in the Middle East, North Africa and Bosnia, disproportionate in number to Alberta's population as compared to the rest of Canada and the numbers of jihadis who chose to leave to ally themselves with Islamist terrorist groups overseas.

 From Calgary alone, roughly twenty jihadis travelled to Syria and Iraq; ten of that number sharing an identified connection with a now-shuttered mosque located in downtown Calgary. Shuttered not only due to its reputation as a breeding ground inspiring resentment against the West, but to its purposeful incitement to bring the faithful as recruits to the Islamic sacred duty of jihad, inspiring to the young and the restless, searching to fulfill meaning in their lives as required by their faith.

Given the situation in the Middle East, with the Islamic State Caliphate no longer a physical reality and the understanding that the searing ideology of hatred and martyrdom cannot be extirpated from the minds of dedicated believers as readily as geography can be wrenched from warring usurpers, the concern has turned inward in the realization and acknowledgement that ISIL has groomed its followers to attack anywhere, at any time, using any methods available to make their statement of jihad's resilience.

A Canadian man allegedly fighting for Islamic State was captured in Syria, according to Syrian Democratic Forces. In a video released Sunday he says his name is Mohammad Abdullah Mohammad.Screen grab

As to other worrisome groups of anti-social extremists which the report listed, the estimate is that approximately 150 to 250 Freemen on the Land in Alberta remain active in their perception that government is illegitimate and therefore no taxes need be extracted from them voluntarily to government coffers. The majority are recognized as non-violent though the report points out that ten to 15 Alberta Freemen have "demonstrated a behavioural propensity for violence". Left-wing extremists identified in the report are not seen to have been involved in major violent incidents, nor are they viewed as a "significant threat to public safety".

Moving on to patriot and militia groups motivated "primarily by xenophobia and anti-government views", many members share anti-Islamic sentiments with some engaging in survivalist activities such as "prepping" and firearms training as well as "street patrols", which "primarily target visible minority, newcomer and refugee communities -- Muslims in particular". Yet there is no evidence that groups such as the Three Percenters, Sons/Soldiers of Odin, the Canadian Infidels/Clann, True North Patriots and Northern Guard are violence prone or "would represent a significant threat to public safety or national security".


Which leaves White Supremacy/Associated Ideologies with the report pointing out that the Ku Klux Klan which once had 50 chapters in Alberta 90 years ago has been reduced to a few small, largely rural groups. And that organized white supremacist groups, largely dormant until the late 1980s with a membership of 100 has bloomed since with a number of skinhead, neo-Nazi and "Aryan" groups active latterly in the province; violent years falling between 2008 and 2012 with ten "noteworthy" incidents of assaults on immigrants and visible minorities.

None of these identified groups in the terrorism range or as threats to society have brought bloodshed in any sphere of society remotely comparable to the virulent threat that Islamism's jihad-aligned terrorism has. Yet the government of Canada chooses to wax eloquent and determined to eradicate the unsavoury (to be sure) presence of white supremacists, equating their hateful ideology with that of the murderous mass-death-delivering psychosis of religious divine edicts to the faithful in Islam to go out and slaughter the infidels.

Labels: Canada, Islamism, Societal Threats, Terrorism, White