'Nice' people finish last

Sunday, June 18, 2006

'Nice' people finish last

By Hartley Steward




So, have you dropped the idea of sewing a cute little Canadian flag onto your backpack to endear yourself to strangers when you holiday this year? There goes another precious Canadian conceit.

It seems that even the unbearable niceness of being Canadian won't keep you safe in this dreadful new world of ours. The smug Canuck smile has surely been wiped off your face by the gory details of the alleged Muslim terrorists' plans uncovered in Toronto.

Two weeks out, it is apparent from police and security services reports that this may be just the beginning. There are still wannabe terrorists out there, determined to explode a few bombs, kill a few Canadians, maybe behead a politician or two.

It's difficult to find anyone involved in security who won't guarantee a deadly attack of some sort or other. Any day now.

All that hatred, all those evil vibes, unleashed here in little old Canada, where we wouldn't say Shiite if they were coming through the windows with knives clenched in their teeth.

Canada is the inoffensive international nice guy, kicking in with foreign aid by the millions and an enlightened immigration policy.

We've been had, folks.

All that time we've been employing euphemisms and politically-correct speak so as not to antagonize the Muslim world, the radical Islamist leaders have been recruiting every malcontent and schizoid they can find to kill us and our children. Like a pack of crazed salesmen for jihad, they have been searching for weak minds and strong backs to do their dirty work.

It is clear that to extremist Muslims, we are no more or less than Americans with more snow and a trusting nature. We are white, rich, soft and decadent. We are infidels.

But don't be fooled. Their rage is not really born of religious principles or even extreme Islamic visions. It's not the result of American intervention in some Muslim nations.

That these extremists have apparently set up operations on such a broad scale here in Canada shows them for what they really are -- thugs, enraged by our standard of living, jealous of our freedom and our good life. Thugs, drawn to the zealotry like flies to excrement, fascinated by gruesome tales of mass killings and twisted promises of virgins at the end of it all.

They may have been fed propaganda by the truck load, they may have been taught that America is the great Satan, responsible for their every ill, they may have been filled to overflowing with the notion that Islam is the one true religion. But they are, nonetheless, still just thugs.

We flatter them

To impugn to them motives any more noble is to flatter them. To muse about the root causes of their discontent is to waste time while they gather even more recruits and strength. To think a little understanding and a few more foreign aid dollars will help is downright foolish. Thugs will be thugs.

The time has come for the international Muslim community to take some responsibility. It's time to squeal their heads off to security forces everywhere when they know something. Time to drop the dime on friends, neighbours, associates -- to show some courage and old-fashioned fortitude. Time to stop whining about a possible backlash against ordinary, law-abiding Muslims and begin to participate in the solution.

We don't need another lecture on our insensitivity to the Muslim world. We need help.

Muslims have got to root out the thugs hiding in their midst, as several of their leaders in Canada have stated. Unless this happens, we will really see a backlash -- or worse.

Canadians may be nice, but we're not stupid.

hsteward@canoemail.com