One of the reasons I keep blogging is that the comments section here tends to breed meaningful discussion rather than the “no you’re Hitler” type of debate you see on most mainstream news sites. And as pointed out here, I found this comment by regular hosertohoosier quite thought provoking:
Paul O:
Or was the Justin quote trying to attract those Canadians who say that nobody would blow anyone up if we all sang Kum-Ba-Yah a couple more times?
hosertohoosier
Kumbaya is actually a great counter-terrorism strategy, and Canada is living proof. The best evidence suggests that terrorists do not join terrorist organizations to serve the cause. Indeed, terrorism rarely succeeds, terrorist groups often have shifting motives (how many times has al Qaeda’s mission changed), and terrorists rarely express a strong understanding of the larger organization’s goals.
Rather, they tend to join in search of community. The best predictor is that they have a friend or relative in an organization. This is why diaspora communities may be particularly likely to produce terrorists.
Canadian multiculturalism is our greatest weapon in the fight against terror. It has given us the most satisfied immigrant communities in the world (based on survey data). Not only does that combat alienation, it also means that even among the circles from which terrorists are likely to spring, Canada has friends (and can infiltrate those networks easily).
What was the key to catching the 6/6/6 terrorists? Tips to the RCMP from members of the community.
I’ll admit to not thinking a lot about counter-terrorism except when Homeland is on or when horrible things happen in the world. So this was a comment that got me thinking.
And, wouldn’t you know it? Just a day or two later, we find out that the terrorists hoping to derail a Via train were apprehended, largely thanks to tips from the community and a local imam.
Score one for Kumbaya Counter-Terrorism.
8 responses to “Kumbaya Counter-Terrorism”
So if Canada’s kumbaya attitude keeps people from becoming terrorists what’s the root cause of homegrown terrorism, then? I mean, you can’t have it both ways and say that our society’s exclusion and racism create the terrorists and then say that our inclusiveness and tolerance prevent it.
Who’s saying that “our society’s exclusion and racism create the terrorists”? I don’t see that being said anywhere.
Nor is anyone saying that tolerance and inclusion are a guarantee against people becoming homegrown terrorists.
What IS being said, and demonstrated with evidence, is that the Kumbaya approach seems to make it much more likely that WHEN people turn to extremism and terrorism, members of their own communities report them before they can do any harm.
I could quote Liberal leader Justin Trudeau. He seemed quite sure it was from exclusion, a nice way of saying racism, but then you’d probaly just say the quote was out of context. We have home grown terrorist, scads of them, and Trudeau knows why. It incredibly funny to then have his minions claim multi-culturalism and tolerant society means they get turned in by their own.
“Minions”? Seriously? O_o
It’s true, JT, did more or less imply that with his unfortunate quotes. That isn’t what CalgaryGrit, Paul O, or hosertohoosier are saying, though.
Trudeau said that the root cause of terrorism is exclusion.
Now you’re trying to say that he was wrong, that Canada has plenty of its own home-grown terrorists who were not excluded.
After we learned that the Boston terrorists were not excluded either, but were as well-integrated into society as just about anyone could be.
Will you openly admit that Justin was 100% wrong in declaring that the root cause of terrorism was exclusion?
It’s clear as can be that another hug would not have prevented the extremisation which is being charged with leading these terrorists to terrorism.
Yet Justin declared that if only we had included them more – if only we had given them one more hug – we would not have seen them turn to terrorism.
Where have all the Liberals gone who would defend Justin?
Why has nobody stepped up to declare that we simply failed to hug these terrorists enough before they left their bombs in the street to kill innocent civilians?
Will nobody support their Dear Leader? He won with such a resounding majority? Surely there is somebody who agrees with him!
Why is nobody singing just one more chorus of Kum By Yah?
Yeah, I really dug H2H’s comment… it really made me think.
BTW this thread is about reactions to H2H’s comment, not Justin Trudeau or any of his comments.
And FWIW I think that H2H may be onto something.