"Unreasonable Convictions"
Well, depends on perspective. Doesn't everything?
If you're a dedicated fanatic given to daydreams of violence against society and doing your utmost to make it happen, you take umbrage at civil proceedings under the law that declare you a threat to society. That the activities and plans of a violent group committed to mass murder and the disruption of society in an effort to advance an agenda of violent Islamist jihad did not succeed because they were apprehended, does not make the crime any less.
In fact, were the courts to treat them as they would ordinary criminals rather than the demented religion-obsessed fundamentalists serving their warped version of Islam that they are - clearly terrorists in the fullest sense of the word - our legal system would be failing the country.
A man who is a citizen of the country and enjoying all the many benefits of citizenship who engages in quiet subversion through a sense of tribal-religious aggrievement represents clear and present danger. There is no provision under the Charter of Rights and Freedoms to enable jihadists to freely express their violent contempt for society. Mohammad Momin Khawaja's freedoms and rights were surrendered by himself through his dedication to terrorism.
That this man, the first in Canada to be charged under the country's Anti-Terrorism Act was found guilty of terror-related crimes and faces a sentence of life in prison, yet proclaims himself to have been misunderstood and hard done by, claiming that he deserves a new trial because it is his feeling that convictions on five of the seven charges laid against him were unreasonable is breathtaking in its audacity and sense of entitlement.
Obviously, he just doesn't get it. Of course his position is enabled and encouraged by his team of lawyers. Themselves unrepentantly repugnant in their attitude that irrespective of what their client has been charged with and convicted of, the game of court-one-upsmanship is what justice is all about. Accruing a reputation for tilting at windmills of the justice system, as it were. Unprincipled and without conscience, spelled: Lawrence Greenspon.
Mohammad Momin Khawaja, formerly of Orleans, in Ottawa, now residing in Canada's prison system where he has been incarcerated for the last 6 years, believes he should be sentenced to "time served" for that six years in custody. Where he has spent his time well, studiously searching the law books and the holy Koran and doing his very best to be a good Muslim by bringing others, within the prison, into the fold.
Mr. Khawaja, still tenderly-aged at 31, was convicted of financing and facilitating terrorism. His comradely jihad-in-arms relationship with a convicted terror clique based in Britain was detected at a still-early stage by law-enforcement agencies in Britain alerting and working with their colleagues in Canada. Working together to apprehend aspiring mass slaughterers.
"He lived the archetypal life of a modern Western Jihadist. He held an innocuous job by day, built detonators and bantered about the destruction of Israel and the West by night", according to the Crown. This is the argument that will be placed forward at a three-day hearing at the Ontario Court of Appeal.
Whereas his lawyers' appeal to the court will be along the lines of not punishing their client based on the successful atrocities inflicted by the September 11 hijackers. "Their sins ought not to be visited upon Mr. Khawaja in the form of a crushing sentence", is their line of argument.
Well, clearly, it is Mr. Khawaja's own sins of enthusiastic commission and even more enthusiastic intent that are on show here.
A computer software operator, working on contract for the Department of Foreign Affairs. How perfectly innocuous, how comfortably ensconced, living with his family in a quiet neighbourhood of a suburb of the national capital.
Subversion of society's trust in its citizens, treason, dedication to the concept of vicious mass murder. Clear as the sound of a muezzin's call.
If you're a dedicated fanatic given to daydreams of violence against society and doing your utmost to make it happen, you take umbrage at civil proceedings under the law that declare you a threat to society. That the activities and plans of a violent group committed to mass murder and the disruption of society in an effort to advance an agenda of violent Islamist jihad did not succeed because they were apprehended, does not make the crime any less.
In fact, were the courts to treat them as they would ordinary criminals rather than the demented religion-obsessed fundamentalists serving their warped version of Islam that they are - clearly terrorists in the fullest sense of the word - our legal system would be failing the country.
A man who is a citizen of the country and enjoying all the many benefits of citizenship who engages in quiet subversion through a sense of tribal-religious aggrievement represents clear and present danger. There is no provision under the Charter of Rights and Freedoms to enable jihadists to freely express their violent contempt for society. Mohammad Momin Khawaja's freedoms and rights were surrendered by himself through his dedication to terrorism.
That this man, the first in Canada to be charged under the country's Anti-Terrorism Act was found guilty of terror-related crimes and faces a sentence of life in prison, yet proclaims himself to have been misunderstood and hard done by, claiming that he deserves a new trial because it is his feeling that convictions on five of the seven charges laid against him were unreasonable is breathtaking in its audacity and sense of entitlement.
Obviously, he just doesn't get it. Of course his position is enabled and encouraged by his team of lawyers. Themselves unrepentantly repugnant in their attitude that irrespective of what their client has been charged with and convicted of, the game of court-one-upsmanship is what justice is all about. Accruing a reputation for tilting at windmills of the justice system, as it were. Unprincipled and without conscience, spelled: Lawrence Greenspon.
Mohammad Momin Khawaja, formerly of Orleans, in Ottawa, now residing in Canada's prison system where he has been incarcerated for the last 6 years, believes he should be sentenced to "time served" for that six years in custody. Where he has spent his time well, studiously searching the law books and the holy Koran and doing his very best to be a good Muslim by bringing others, within the prison, into the fold.
Mr. Khawaja, still tenderly-aged at 31, was convicted of financing and facilitating terrorism. His comradely jihad-in-arms relationship with a convicted terror clique based in Britain was detected at a still-early stage by law-enforcement agencies in Britain alerting and working with their colleagues in Canada. Working together to apprehend aspiring mass slaughterers.
"He lived the archetypal life of a modern Western Jihadist. He held an innocuous job by day, built detonators and bantered about the destruction of Israel and the West by night", according to the Crown. This is the argument that will be placed forward at a three-day hearing at the Ontario Court of Appeal.
Whereas his lawyers' appeal to the court will be along the lines of not punishing their client based on the successful atrocities inflicted by the September 11 hijackers. "Their sins ought not to be visited upon Mr. Khawaja in the form of a crushing sentence", is their line of argument.
Well, clearly, it is Mr. Khawaja's own sins of enthusiastic commission and even more enthusiastic intent that are on show here.
A computer software operator, working on contract for the Department of Foreign Affairs. How perfectly innocuous, how comfortably ensconced, living with his family in a quiet neighbourhood of a suburb of the national capital.
Subversion of society's trust in its citizens, treason, dedication to the concept of vicious mass murder. Clear as the sound of a muezzin's call.
Labels: Canada, Crisis Politics, Terrorism
posted by Pieface | 7:25 PM
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