The Tenth Anniversary of 9/11: Celebrating Islamophobia in Canada
CBC News (Canada’s Public Broadcaster) posted part of an interview with Canadian Prime Minister, Stephen Harper. In the interview, Harper suggests that in regards to Canadian security
“the major threat is still Islamicism.”
Harper told the CBC that he intends to reinstate legislation that allows police to arrest terrorist suspects without a warrant and detain them for three days without charges. However, at no point has Canada suffered an islamic fundamentalist terrorist attack. Despite this fact, the Prime Minister, as well as a large proportion of Canadians, continue to believe that Islam is the biggest security threat to the country.
Harper pointed out that other threats can “come out of the blue”, such as the recent Norway attacks, where a lone gunman who hated Muslims killed 77 people. This suggests that the Prime Minister views attacks from islam as inevitable, while maintaining that attacks on islam are unusual and sporadic. It has been nearly 10 years since 9/11 and Canada has never been the target of an islamic fundamentalist terrorist attack. However, over that time, fears toward Islam and terrorism have been steadily growing in Canada leading to what some call ‘Islamophobia’, however I prefer to call it ‘blatant prejudice and blind hatred hiding behind a veil of fear, misconception, ignorance, and politics’.
To see what this so called ‘Islamophobia’ looks like, check out the CBC article and recent video interview with Canadian Prime Minister, Stephen Harper here.
