CONDEMN TERRORISM, NOT MEDIA FOR REPORTING ON IT
by George Jonas, CanWest News Service
Pembroke Observer (Ontario)
June 20, 2006 Tuesday
Editorial
The question of homegrown terrorism is acute, but it isn’t new. Last
week, some news sources reported the arrest of 17 Muslim Canadians
alleged to have plotted terrorist acts in this country as if it were a
historic first. It isn’t a first, not by a long chalk – which doesn’t
make it less pernicious.
When I was asked to comment on this aspect of multicultural
Canada some 20 years ago, terrorist suspects came from the ranks
of militant Armenians and Sikhs. The issues were similar, though,
and so were my views. It seemed to me that expecting immigrants to
stop concerning themselves with the affairs of their former homelands
would be unreasonable. Not only immigrants, but in many instances
even their children and grandchildren maintain some emotional ties
to their ancestral countries. This is as natural as it is wholesome,
to use an old-fashioned word. Nothing should be done to discourage
it. Probably nothing could be done. Roots go deep; that’s their point.
However, Canadians of whatever background, be they naturalized,
native-born, or third generation, owe their first allegiance to the
country of their citizenship. This requirement is both reasonable and
practical. It puts no stress on human rights or human nature. It’s
simply Canada’s due.
The majority of individual immigrants from all ethnic groups have
always recognized this. They or their ancestors came to Canada for the
very purpose of becoming Canadians. Far from disputing the need for
such loyalty, immigrants have been among its most ardent supporters.
On the whole, this is probably as true today as it has ever been.
Still, there have been disturbing signs in recent years indicating
an unwelcome change. Individuals from various ethnic or religious
communities have committed violent acts in Canada, or used Canada
as a staging area for committing violent acts elsewhere, to protest
or avenge grievances in their ancestral lands. As a result, Canadian
lives have been lost or endangered.
When immigrants or their descendants use Canada’s territory for
the commission or preparation of political violence, they commit
(in addition to every other objection one might raise to terrorism)
a specific act of treachery. They abuse the country that took them in.
Such acts usually involve only a handful of people. The rest of their
community keeps a meticulous distance from them. Even when they share
the terrorists’ political views or sense of grievance, most Canadian
Sikhs, Armenians, Muslims, Tamils, etc., wouldn’t dream of plotting
to blow up Toronto subway stations or behead Canadian prime ministers.
Periodically, representatives from these groups, sensing – accurately
– the loathing and horror that terrorist violence engenders in this
country, and sensing – again accurately – that such acts lower the
esteem in which their community is held by other Canadians, set about
to repair their image. However, instead of starting by dissociating
themselves from the terrorists and unequivocally condemning their acts,
many of these (usually self- appointed) community representatives
have gone on the offensive.
For at least 20 years now, journalists and politicians have been
receiving newsletters explaining and justifying the aims, causes and
grievances that have served as a basis for terrorist acts. Community
spokes people have been giving statements to the press or appearing
on television with similar messages. Complaints have been lodged
with editors, broadcast executives, press councils and human rights
commissions about the identification of a given ethnic or religious
community with terrorism. Lawyers have been consulted to see if the
press could be persuaded – or maybe even forced – not to identify a
suspected or convicted perpetrator of political violence as a member
of a given group – a Sikh, say, or a Muslim.
These statements, pamphlets or requests have condemned terrorism only
fleetingly, if at all. Their authors’ chief concern appears to be
explaining their causes (riding, as it were, on the coattails of the
terrorists) while voicing their indignation about their communities’
poor image that causes their children to be taunted in school.
True, no child should be taunted in school because someone of his
religion put a bomb on a plane. For Canada’s Muslims or Sikhs, the
best way to achieve this is to dissuade their co-religionists from
putting bombs on planes – and to disavow those they can’t dissuade.
For any community, the answer lies in not raising terrorist sons and
daughters, NOT in trying to tell the media how to report. Maybe,
just maybe, some Muslim spokes people in Canada are beginning to
learn this lesson.