Politics may be hindering Canadian Muslim effort to combat radicalization
Daily Brew – 15 hours ago
Ever since the 9/11 terror attacks there’s been a steady demand for Canadian Muslims to speak out against radical Islam.
But it appears an effort to do just that may have been partly derailed by politics.
The RCMP suddenly pulled out of a news conference Monday to launch United Against Terror [PDF], a pamphlet produced by two Muslim organizations with the help of the Mounties, who contributed a chapter to it.
Members of the Muslim community, surprised by the move, worry it could undermine efforts to build trust between law enforcement agencies and young Muslims who they hope to keep from becoming radicalized.
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Since 9/11, some Muslims have complained about being harassed by CSIS agents and Mounties over their associations and attitudes, making segments of Canada’s million-member Muslim community leery of helping the authorities.
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Besides the ISSA and the RCMP, the other main partner in the project was the National Council of Canadian Muslims (NCCM), whose involvement may provide a clue to what happened.
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The council, formerly known as the Canadian Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-CAN), launched a defamation lawsuit last May against Prime Minister Stephen Harper and Jason MacDonald, his director of communications, for comments linking the council to Hamas, which governs Palestine’s Gaza Strip and is listed as a terrorist organization in Canada.
The NCCM had demanded an apology after MacDonald lashed back against the council’s criticism of inclusion of a Toronto rabbi as part of Harper’s party during his state visit to Israel last year. Critics have claimed CAIR-CAN’s U.S. parent organization was a longtime Hamas front group.
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