The roots of homegrown terrorism

Searching for answers in the wake of last week’s terror arrests

The arrest last week of four Canadians believed to have been plotting bombing campaigns here and in Afghanistan seem to confirm a disturbing trend. Increasingly, suspects in terror plots in the western countries are not foreign nationals but citizens of the very country they wish to attack. The question many Canadians are asking is why would people who enjoy the many benefits of citizenship in our country want to blow it up?

The sources of homegrown extremism are “immigration and refugee influxes,” according to the Ottawa Citizen’s David Harris. Harris says that while liberal politicians win votes by setting high immigration and refugee quotas, Canada’s immigration “levels are too great to allow for reliable vetting in a world where war and ideological struggles rage, and we are a target” and must be lowered to prevent further threats to our security.

The National Post makes the argument that “it is not the call to religion so much as the call to action that attracts the homegrown terrorist.” Most homegrown terrorists appear to have only a superficial knowledge Islam, and an editorial in Saturday’s Post says that “the most effective method to combat homegrown terrorism is to send the message that jihad is not the path to glory.” Last week’s arrests, accompanied by the less-than-dignifying video of one of the suspects being rejected by Canadian Idol, sends a strong message to would-be terrorists that jihad isn’t the glorified pursuit it’s cracked up to be.

The Montreal Gazette’s Anthony Seaboyer speculates that while terrorists are coming from within our borders, the root causes “lay in the social injustices that we are witnessing in the world today.” If we wish to avoid attacks in Canada, we “have to intensify our efforts to improve conditions in developing countries.”

Joe Belanger in the London Free Press says Canadians should have great respect for Canadian Muslims, who are “a tolerant, hard-working, community and family-oriented people.” The problem is that there are a few religious leaders who preach radicalism. “Someone is teaching the children and adults this hate-based, murderous ideology,” he says, and they must be stopped.