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http://www.cbc.ca/news/viewpoint/vp_velk/20050805.html
I agree that countries should not allow hate-mongering and other illegal activities from any people but to point the finger at every immigrant and belittle Islam while ignoring other forms of terrorism and the true causes is irresponsible and anti-Islamic in nature.
Throughout the world, whether it be the news or on-line forums, people are quick to blame Islam and say Islamic terrorism must be stopped which is true. I also suspect among some people it is a cover for racism and anti-Islamism based on extremely hateful and false comments I am exposed to each day. As a muslim I am against all acts of injustice and terrorism, and I condemn the acts of those in London. However, I condemn all acts of injustice and terrorism which exist with many different people and religions, yet people don't feel the need for terrorism outside of Islam to stop, and ironically it is a well-known fact that terrorism is being fuelled by the policies of the UK and US in particular.
The only religion mentioned in a negative light in Tom's article was Islam, yet he doesn't mention the movement and overwhelming majority of muslims who are against terror and have no links to it. It seems blatantly obvious what the motive in his article was, he boasted the tolerance his family has for Jews but never made a mention of Muslims or Ramadan, but was sure to make a mockery of Islam's values and traditions. By the way, a husband does not have to say "I divorce you 3 times" in Islam.
It should be considered that our nation is fundamentally Christian in law and nature in every aspect, such as the nation wide celebration of Christmas in schools and swearing on the bible in the court room. He is ok with Christianity and Judaism in Canada but clearly not Islam which he could only describe as radical and oppressive to women which is quite the opposite. And for the record, there are already Jewish courts in Canada, but he feels only Islam should not have its own religious laws applied. Canada is a tolerant nation which was founded on democracy and giving everyone the freedom to practice their religion and culture but Tom Velk seems to think it should be taken away from Muslims in particular.
Would it be fair to think that all Christians are pedophiles because of all the priests who have abused children or the fact the Jewish Rabbi's in Israel praised Goldstein for killing muslims?
The fact is anyone who is familiar with the three religions knows these acts are not a part of them, and to imply the religion is the problem is wrong and unjustly vilifies more innocent and law-abiding citizens.
The idea of Canada's multiculturalism and democracy is to allow people to keep their culture and values. Do you believe every immigrant and every muslim is a terrorist in disguise? If we act on this premise then we lose our democracy and encroach on our democracy by creating laws that take away our freedoms, privacy and rights such as the Home Land Security and Patriot Act in the United States.
Statements from these terrorists have said time and time again that the reason for the attacks are the policies of killing, oppression and stealing of resources by the US and UK. It is not that it is a war against the west or other religions, it is a war against the injustice being done, albeit it is a wrong response to the terrorism from the west. It is also important to question why countries like Sweden aren't attacked where Osama Bin Laden (who was funded by the CIA and we have no way of knowing if and when it stopped) has said they left Sweden alone because they aren't part of the policy of oppression and killing that the US and UK participate in. If we want to be safe, we should all be better global citizens and also denounce the terrorism and wars that the US and UK created themselves. The UN even attributes much of the problems in the Islamic world to foreign influence and occupation, look at Jim Reed's article right here on view point for a concrete example.
Shouldn't all immigrants who are Canadian be given the same rights and opportunities so long as they obey the law or is our democracy only going to apply to selected people and religions? Why should everyone change their culture in a democratic country just to please others so long as they abide by the law?
Tony Blair's solution to combat a renewed threat was to have police officers shoot an innocent man who had no connection to any attacks against the UK. I can't help but think immigration and his skin color was on the mind of the police when they chased him. This is not the answer in my opinion and to do what Tony Blair does is to do what George Bush did and allow anyone for any reason (without evidence) to be subjected to imprisonment or deportation to a country where you could be tortured such as in Guantanamo Bay and Abu Ghraib to name a few of the human rights violations (UN, Amnesty International cited) the war on terror is responsible for.
The fact is that in the UK more people have been killed by terrorists who have nothing to do with Islam such as the IRA who has killed far more people.
Shouldn't we also look into the fact that even MI5 drew the link between the London Bombs and the illegal and unjust Iraqi war which is killing innocent civilians?
I am against terrorism and it is completely forbidden in the religion of Islam so why should 100% of Muslims suffer for the actions of less than 1% of the more than 1.2 billion?
It appears this article is solely aimed at saying the issue is with Islam especially yet within countries such as Canada and especially the US and UK white-supremacist (Christian) groups have operated for generations with impunity and continue to terrorize minorities to this day, something Tony Blair and Tom Velk have overlooked. Shouldn't that also be on Tony Blair's watch-list?
If you follow the news you will see muslims are being attacked and persecuted far more than ever in the UK following Tony Blair's speech. He has also just added fuel to the KKK like groups operating and killing minorities for decades.
There is a lot of hype and hysteria about Islam but the truth is, many more Muslims are killed by Christians and Jews to be precise. Shouldn't we say that Christian and Jewish terrorism needs to be stopped as well?
We should not allow fear-mongering politicians to deceive us from the reality and take away our rights because their policies are what is creating terrorism and the more they kill innocent people, the more fuel there will be for the few radicals who try to take advantage of the youth.
CSIS has been known to overstep their boundaries and also harass and imprison innocent people, remember how the UN criticized for allowing a man to be deported and tortured in Syria?
If anyone watched CBC's Hamburg cell which detailed the recruitment of the 9/11 hijackers you will see part of the motivation was the torture of muslims in Srebenica and the bombing of Lebanon which killed thousands of women and children which the US was partly responsible for.
I think our immigration laws are fair but our government does have a duty to ensure only law-abiding citizens are allowed into the country who do not have a history of crime or violence. I don't believe denying people seeking asylum from persecution based on their race or religion is the answer and it is contrary to our democracy.
I don't agree our politicians are bigots or that our fellow citizens are either. The reason people here are upset with the US is because of their hostile and hypocritical policies which endanger us all. It is a proven fact from CSIS that their war on terror is only fuelling and increasing it.
How can we support a policy of lying to the world to invade Iraq which has no weapons of mass destruction which the UN concluded before? How can we ignore the deaths of over 125,000 innocent civilians in Iraq?
I think it is nothing but contempt to condone the US and UK policies which are reckless and self-serving which put profits before people. How is it bigotry to speak out against injustice of Iraq, Abu Ghraib and the many Guantanamo Bay's throughout the world?
If we want to keep our nation free and safe, we need to combat the root of the problem and demand that the US and UK stop occupying, stealing and killing people in other countries. Once we take away the motivation for terrorism and the conditions of oppression, the world can be safe from retaliatory terrorism. They were the ones to attack Iraq and other countries, not the other way around. The world needs to adopt an investigative tone instead of killing and torturing innocent people to preserve our way of life and we should not allow fear to allow us to commit injustices and ferment racism that is already rampant in the UK.
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