The Gradualism of Infiltration

Raed Jaser, who lived for two decades in Canada, simply was incapable of appreciating Canadian values, of finding comfort and a future within the country. He made a deliberate choice of free will instead to illustrate in a shocking manner his disregard for the country, its laws and security, its government and its people, by making common cause with international jihad, in concert with another individual for whom jihad represented honour.

His father, although born in what was then Palestine and is now Israel, to Sunni Muslim parents and his mother, a Palestinian born in Saudi Arabia, moved with their son to the Gaza Strip. They moved to the United Arab Emirates on a Jordanian passport, until such time as they no longer felt welcome there. When they moved to Germany they felt unwelcome there, as well. And then they turned to Canada which permitted them entry and haven.

The fact that they had found a place in the world that allowed them to live in peace, as equals among others, their rights protected under the laws of the land simply did not stop Raed Jaser from finding violent Islamism a more attractive option than settling down as a Canadian of Arab descent, as countless others had before him, and continue to do. He became fodder for the radical elements who recruit for jihad, instead.

And Tunisian-born Chiheb Esseghaier, in Canada on a student visa originally and given post-graduate permanent status in Canada, as a brilliant nanotechnology engineering researcher made his very conscious decision to credentialize himself as a jihadist, and to act accordingly within a degenerate society that had given him the freedom to pursue his academic and professional career. Under surveillance for over a year, the duo plotted to strike a blow for the fascist ideology of fundamentalist political Islam.

They are now charged with terrorism under Canadian law:

1. Chiheb Esseghaier and Raed Jaser, between April 1st, 2012 and September 25th, 2012, in the City of Toronto, in the Province of Ontario, and in the City of Montreal, in the Province of Quebec, and elsewhere, did conspire, the one with the other, to interfere with transportation facilities contrary to section 248 of the Criminal Code of Canada, for the benefit of, at the direction of, or in association with a terrorist group, thereby committing an offence contrary to section 83.2 of the Criminal Code of Canada.
2. Chiheb Esseghaier and Raed Jaser, between April 1st, 2012 and September 25th, 2012, in the City of Toronto, in the Province of Ontario and in the City of Montreal, in the Province of Quebec and elsewhere, did conspire, the one with the other, to murder persons unknown contrary to section 235(1) of the Criminal Code of Canada, for the benefit of, at the direction of, or in association with a terrorist group, thereby committing an offence contrary to section 83.2 of the Criminal Code of Canada.

And they join other would-be jihadists in the gathering annals of Canadian security and intelligence, apprehension and the meting out of justice. So why is it that we are so loathe to admit to ourselves that we are treading so lightly on the cusp of our share of what has turned out to be a global threat from 'militant' Islam? We have no wish to cause distress to the countless numbers of Muslims who live in peace with their neighbours, and so we tread lightly, as civilized societies are wont to do.

Before she stepped down as secretary of state of the United States of America, Hillary Clinton finally spoke those sentiments that her administration had been carefully avoiding: "We now face a spreading jihadist threat. We have to recognize this is a global movement."  Which makes treading that fine line between separating the threat from the belief, and the sensitivities of the masses all that more difficult.

It is, however, a problem of immense scope, as a 'global threat', for it surfaces everywhere. Everywhere, that is, that Muslims themselves present themselves. As immigrants and refugees, spread out over the globe. Where first-, second- and even third-generation young men of Muslim descent may find themselves disgruntled and dissatisfied, offended and irate, ready to be persuaded that their alienated destiny is to act as the faithful hand of god, delivering death to the kuffar.

The brothers Tsarnaev who enlisted themselves as willing mujahadeen in the jihadist battle against the infidels and whose commitment was finally demonstrated by home-made bombs set off at the Boston Marathon when Tamerlan Tsarnaev and his little brother Dzhokhar casually strolled around among the thousands celebrating a spring day and sunshine, then walked on as people died and were maimed, represented yet another symptom of the Islamist pathology.

The threats become far more virally menacing with the reality that a rogue Islamist state with ambitions to rule both the Middle East and by extension the world community, to hasten a global Caliphate as bidden by Islamic scripture, hovers in the background. Iran, and its strident determination to achieve its goal of nuclear weaponry, cannot be discounted as a source of nuclear weapons to be handed to its acolyte terrorist groups.

As the world's leading contender for primacy in sponsoring global terrorism, a country that doesn't hesitate to brutalize its own -- so why would it care if countless human sacrifices ensue from that global battle, the better to hasten the appearance of the Hidden Imam and the Apocalypse -- why would it not share weapons of mass destruction with Hezbollah and Hamas and Islamic Jihad and any other irregular militias, including al-Qaeda?

Al-Qaeda and its affiliates use modern technology to influence followers, to guide them in the construction and planning of terrorist attacks and the devices that aid their atrocities. From the small, relatively innocuous, albeit shockingly destructive plots that injure mere handfuls, kill slight numbers, to the overall grand plan of a massive turning of the tide in favour of Islamist conquest, the action is set in motion.

By dribs and drabs we see events unfold that horrify and forewarn. But hope springs eternal in the normal human mind, not beset by the pathology of religion-inspired moral lunacy, and we simply cannot believe the depths to which human nature can descend in its downward spiral. And, in fact, we scarcely know how we should react, how we must erect defences to stem that dreadful tide prepared to overwhelm and triumph.