This post has been updated:
Many American pundits (and politicians) have said a lot of stupid things about Canada over the past few years, but NRO editor-at-large Jonah Goldberg, another one of those pale-faced Mama's boys, took the cake with this -- ''The Price of Nice" -- last week:
The presence of a profoundly evil, homegrown terror cell in Canada has understandably provoked a lot of soul-searching to our north.
''Profoundly evil''? Profoundly stupid perhaps. So moronic they used chat rooms -- which are monitored for everything from terrorism to pedophilia -- to make their ''profoundly evil" plans. Besides, in Canada, they are INNOCENT until proven guilty. (Although Lord knows ''security certificates'' can and must be challenged.)
But Goldberg blathers on:
Many Canadians (and Americans and Europeans) cling to a deep-seated belief that more multiculturalism, more interfaith dialogue, more “understanding,” more Western apologies, more acceptance of Sharia, more “niceness” will fix the problem.
First of all, Sharia law has not been accepted here. What's more, when Ontario rejected it, Jewish and Christian groups protested.
Second of all, less understanding has never solved a thing. It sure beats invading countries, bombing them to smithereens and then acting all surprised when they strike back with terrorist tactics.
More from Goldberg:
In Canada, the retreat into denial was instantaneous. At the news conference announcing the arrests, officials said the alleged plotters came from “a variety of backgrounds” and the “broad strata” of Canadian society because “some are students, some are employed, some are unemployed.” They might as well have said the accused plotters were diverse because they all liked different ice cream. The relevant fact was that they were all Muslim and nearly all attended a single radical mosque. But it would be rude to mention that.
No, the relevant fact was that they were all caught supposedly planning some ''profoundly evil'' terrorist plot.
In a meeting with Muslim leaders the day after the news conference, Toronto’s chief of police reportedly boasted that the government never mentioned the alleged terrorists’ religion. Well, isn’t that sweet. I’m sure the next time Islamists set out to chop off lawmakers’ heads or murder the staff of the Canadian Broadcasting Co., they’ll keep in mind how nice you were about all this.
Equate the Islam religion with Islamism? Nice. Real nice.
More from Galloping Beaver here and here.
H/t to Scott Tribe.
UPPITY DATE: Regular reader Julie B. reminds me that Muslim women -- as well as men -- also protested the introduction of Sharia law.
Leading the charge against Sharia law here is a group of mainly Iranian women who fled from the theocracy of Ayatollah Khomeini a quarter of a century ago.
In a peaceful Toronto park, as the rain began to fall, several of these women told me why they are so viscerally opposed to the idea of Muslim religious law being used in Canada.
"I came here to escape Sharia," one woman told me. "Under it, a woman is worth half a man. He can divorce her and she has no rights."
Another woman who was tortured in Iran told me the very word Sharia made her shiver. To her it is synonymous with a brutal form of authoritarianism, which discriminates against women.
DATE WITH THE RIGHT: OMG! Conservative blogger Adam Daifallah and I agree! Here's his piece defending Canada in the National Review Online!
All the Canada-bashing has neglected to focus on the most important aspect of this story: that the would-be terrorists were stopped. Canadian law enforcement showed they are doing their job. Indeed, they revealed they had been watching this particular terror cell for two years before the raid.
I have seen no evidence to show that Canada has an “abundance of terrorists” or a “large al Qaeda presence.” In fact, I have seen no evidence to demonstrate that Canada has more would-be terrorists inside its borders than does America. Islamism is a worldwide phenomenon whose adherents have no regard for national boundaries. They have shown they will recruit, organize, and plot anywhere they like.
Is Canada perfect? No. Of course we could be doing better. Canada must take an especially hard look at its immigration and refugee policies. I have criticized our country for its not being vigilant enough and its lack of sense of urgency. And yes, the belief is (or at least was) held by some Canadians that Canada would not be targeted because we sat out the Iraq war. But that doesn’t mean Canada isn’t pulling its weight.
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