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Originally Posted by scandium
Abraham, where do I excuse the perpetrators? As far as I know the leader of the Canadian Islamic Congress wasn't one of the perpetrators and his remark was the only thing I agreed with. That is another problem with your "us" and "them" mentality, that the "them" has a tendency to expand to include those whose only crime is that they are of the same ethnic group as the perpetrators, or in my case, happen to agree with something that was said by a Muslim.
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I am not saying that you excuse the perpetrators. What irritated me and made me react, perhaps overreact, is the fact that in the face of an attempted act of terror you reacted to the words of the Canadian P.M. by attacking him for talking about "us" and "them" and started to make nuances.
If you see this kind of terrorism in the face, religiously motivated, totalitarian (no limits to political objectives or human targets) and only capable of destruction than you have to take a principle stand: this can't be condoned. As soon as you do that, you are in an "us versus them" situation whether you like it or not. And that line is very clear. No need for nuances here!
Now the leader of the Canadian Islamic Congress - a racist and would be terrorist himself if we should believe his statements about Israeli civilians as legitimate targets - tried to nuance that line and make this into a Canadian non-Muslims and Canadian Muslims issue. His reasons seem obvious, he probably adheres the same ideology as the would-be terrorists. His tactics are also clear; attack the clear statement of his own P.M.; scare the Muslims into a minority and victimized role and try to divide the country along religious lines.
Skybird rightly complained about that standard approach of many (not all!) Muslim communities. A total lack of soul searching what brings their sons and brothers to come to free nations, built by succesfull people, get adopted into new societies and then start their destructive work. That's what the rest of the world expects the Muslim communities to do.
Terrorism is a black crime for me and I think I am smart enough to make a distinction between black and all the other colors of the spectre. In situations like this what's wrong with "us" and "them" as The Avon Lady said. I felt manipulated by your remarks into a group of people who are dangerously stupid to include every Canadian Muslim into the "them" group. I am not doing that. The issue at hand is whether the Canadian Muslims are doing that themselves. Seen in that light the remarks of the jeader of the Canadian Islamic Congres don't forebode much optimism.