The victims of last week's London bombings have not all been identified, or even located, yet some Muslim intellectuals in Canada have already begun jostling for a spot on victimhood's centre stage. This is not only bad form; it's plain wrong on the facts, and a shamefully equivocal reply to terrorism.
"If there is one segment of Canadian society that has lived with the constant fear of terrorist attacks," wrote Sheema Khan, who is head of the Council on American Islamic Relations (Canada) and has a regular op-ed column in The Globe and Mail, "it is Canadian Muslims and Arabs. They know they will bear the brunt of the fallout." She went on to wonder what would happen if Islamist terrorists were to strike at Canada. "Is internment in the works? Mass deportation of non-citizens? Limits placed on individual rights and freedom of movement?" The Canadian government, she says, has been "conspicuously silent on its contingency plans."
Separately, Mohamed Elmasry of the Canadian Islamic Congress issued a news release on the day of the bombings denouncing terrorism and saying in the next breath that Canadian Muslims pray they will not be found guilty by association.
These exemplify the "yes, but" responses to terrorism. Yes, but we are victims, too. Yes, we abhor terror, but what about Israeli settlements, what about the U.S. invasion of Iraq, what about all those bad things the West does to Muslims? This is a tilling of the very soil from which terrorism springs -- not poverty or disaffected youth in and of themselves (they are nearly universal), but victimology, a sense of grievance so profound it justifies virtually anything done in its name.
Compare the "yes, but" response to what Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian leader, said this week after a suicidebomber killed two Israelis in Netanya, near Tel Aviv, at the very time Israel is withdrawing from Gaza. "This is a crime against the Palestinian people." That is an unequivocal message. It says the terrorists are harming the very people whose interests they claim to defend. It is much more than a pro forma denunciation of terrorism. It's an attempt to expose the terrorists in their own communities, and change the culture that sustains them.
Or compare the "yes, but" approach to the clear public statements yesterday by the four Muslim MPs in Britain's Parliament. They said the Muslim community must do more than condemn terror; it must confront it. "The message is that we cannot tolerate these people in our midst and, if we have in the past, we have to be stronger," said Mohammed Sarwar, a Labour MP.
Much is made by Ms. Khan and Dr. Elmasry of the potential backlash in Canada, but this country's record suggests little reason for worry. After the terrorist attacks in New York and Washington on Sept. 11, 2001, prime minister Jean Chrétien went to religious services at a Muslim mosque to promote tolerance. Conspicuous? Yes. Silent? No.
And Statistics Canada reports that the number-one target of hate crimes in 2001 and 2002, after the worst act of terrorism ever against the West (3,000 dead, including 24 Canadians), was not Muslims but Jews. Twenty-five per cent of 1,000 hate crimes reported by 12 big-city police forces were committed against Jews. Blacks made up 17 per cent. That was no backlash; it was just the regular lash of daily life. By comparison, Muslims (11 per cent) were targeted in roughly the same numbers as South Asians (10 per cent) and gays and lesbians (9 per cent).
Internment camps? Mass deportations? Orders restricting free movement? Canada has used its anti-terrorism legislation, passed shortly after 9/11, all of once. It also called a national inquiry into the tragedy of deportation (from the United States) and torture (in Syria) that befell one Muslim citizen of Canada, Maher Arar. This country is quite willing to lash itself over its failings. And so it should be.
These are dangerous times for Muslims and non-Muslims, in Canada and around the world. The immediate danger is to life and limb; the broader danger is to the economy and, beyond that, to the trust and mutual acceptance that are the glue of democracy. All people share in the struggle to maintain a safe, open society. But because extremists have issued a clarion call to Muslims worldwide, and because that call is a powerful one that has drawn in four British-born Muslims believed to have perpetrated the bombings, Muslims everywhere must confront the threat within.