Trying To Parse The Problem

"When I look into the so-called Muslim world, nothing is there. Countries that claim to serve Allah as a rule lack honesty, decency, integrity, good management. But in Canada a Muslim is free to live his faith fully, not as some crooked sheikh believes his distant ancestors did, but as the modern Muslim knows he should."
"Happiness is a decision. I think we can make the right decision in Canada. You are living in the world’s best country [speaking to young Muslims]. Millions would like to be here. People talk about how things were back home. I tell them, ‘there is no ‘back home.’ This is home."
"[Islam is Canadian, and Canada is Muslim (?!)...] One only complements the other. There is no contradiction."
"When I came to Canada 20 years ago], I realized that I lived in a different world as far as my comprehension of Islam is concerned. I was shocked with the universality of Islam and Muslims. I was thinking when I was coming from Bosnia that my understanding of Islam is the only way, and all of a sudden I realized there are many expressions of Islam that are a little bit different than mine, so I had to juggle and adapt and basically accept some of the other expressions, and create quite a different expression of Islam that is not Bosnian, not Saudi, not Egyptian, but rather that is a combination of many, a Canadian expression of Islam. More and more people are realizing that is the way out for the community."
"Anybody who tries to destroy this creativity [intellectual engagement], who tries to block it, who tries to demean it, definitely does not understand what God Almighty was asking with the first word that was revealed in the Qu'ran, and that is 'iqra' [read]. The first word that was ever revealed to the Prophet, peace be upon him, was not 'pray', or 'believe'. It was 'read'. And 'read' came as a command. Why? Because if we don't read, we will not learn. and if we do not learn, we will not know. And if we do not know, we will not understand. And if we do not understand, we will not be able to apply. Make sense? Knowledge that does not actualize itself in positive action or ethical action is knowledge without base."
"We need to re-read our historical texts in the context of modern times, modern societies, modern demands. I don't want to take opinions of scholars from the 14th Century that do not talk to my needs, my aspirations, even though I do respect them and their work for the time in which they lived. But their ideas do not apply to my time."
Imam Zijad Delic, past head of the Canadian Islamic Congress

Tyler Anderson/National Post   Muslim men pray at a mosque in Mississauga, Ontario.

The question is what is meant by Mr. Delic's message of Muslim togetherness as a "way out for the community"? That Muslims should consider their presence in Canada strengthened by firm association with each segment of the Muslim community no matter where they have originated from internationally, no matter which strain of Islam they worship? Sounds like common sense. Since there is strength in numbers and in fact the number of Muslims now living in Canada is impressive indeed.

And when Imam Delic speaks of not hearking back to the 14Century for inspiration on Islamic matters, he glosses over the more modern era of Islamism with the birth of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt 80 years ago and its influence around the world, let alone Saudi Arabia's Wahhabism and its installation of madrasses around the world to teach young Muslims about a rigid, authoritarian Islam whose need for jihad is ongoing. Let alone the advent of Sayyid Qutb, the modern-day progenitor of Islamist jihad.

As an outsider glancing in, the lethal interaction between Sunni and Shiite Muslims appears to represent the antithesis of the togetherness that Imam Delic speaks of. He is, of course, addressing the issue of Muslims living within Canada, Muslim-Canadians and his concern is that they see themselves in harmony. But if world affairs are anything to judge by, the majority of Muslims who are Sunni view the next largest group of Muslims, the Shias, as little better than apostates.

And the contempt in which each treats the other manifests itself in deadly violence, with attacks by one upon the other community resulting in bloodthirsty atrocities. The Muslim world is erupting into one volcanic expression of hatred and contempt after another, destroying mosques belonging to the 'wrong' sect, and slaughtering its worshippers. Is that not a concern for Imam Delic? The Muslim community in Canada through its various associations have not demonstrated an even temperament and brotherhood toward other elements of Canadian society.

And it would seem sensible, if Imam Delic along with those who profess to denounce violent jihad which remains a major thrust of Islamic prosetylization, which Muslims are exhorted to respect as a paramount requirement of Islamic duty, would take a page out of the cultural, ideological and political imperatives that appear to be practised wholeheartedly by the strains of Islam among the Ahmaddiya and Ismaili Muslims who favour peace with one another and among non-Muslims, much might be gained.

There is furthermore, no denying a general failure of integration into Canadian culture and its legal system; with the move not that many years ago to have Sharia legally brought into Ontario, for example, a construct that would place Islamic law eventually above the province's secular-based laws. Cultural, religion-based misogyny is another issue of grave importance. In short, there are impressive failures to fully integrate socially, culturally, value-wise with the indigenous society.

That should be the message, first and foremost for all who emigrate from abroad to find haven and opportunity in an open society such as Canada's. And then there is the ugly, threatening issue of violent extremism expressed by Islamist jihadis internationally, with their siren call via the Internet and local recruiters who bring young Muslim men to the excitement and adventure of jihad, exhorting them to travel to Syria and Iraq and Libya and Somalia and the prospect of their eventual return to wreak havoc in Canada presents a livid danger to society.

The ancient Christian and Judaic legacy of the Middle East is continually under threat, and now more than ever, with terrorized Christians being forced to flee for their lives, finding haven among Kurds, and within Israel, itself threatened with extinction by venomous Arab and Muslim countries and their satellite militias. This is how Islam is distinguishing itself increasingly upon the world order, as a threatening, destabilizing, dangerous syndrome of inhumanity, not a religion of peace.

Calgary-based Imam Syed Soharwardy, founder of the Islamic Supreme Council of Canada, called for intensifying the fight against radical Islamism in Canada, an appeal reflected as well by Imam Dr. Mohammad Iqbal Nadvi of the Canadian Council of Imams. "This is getting very serious," Imam Soharwardy told CBC News. "In my opinion the government has to put up more resources to monitor the activities of those who are recruiting, those who are getting recruited and those who are coming back. My biggest nightmare is those who are coming back."

Sources told CBC News the Gordon brothers disappeared in late 2012, around the same time that two other Canadians who died fighting for ISIS earlier this year are believed to have travelled to Syria. (Twitter)

Amen, that concern is reflected by Canadian security agencies and the Canadian public as well. Yet it is interesting that these influential imams place the responsibility for apprehending the direction that young Muslim men are taking in involving themselves with violent Islamist jihad by becoming romanticized mujahadeen, on Canadian authorities, not themselves or their communities. While Imam Delic states to the contrary: "Nobody can help these people deradicalize except our own community."



It begins within the Muslim community; does the Muslim community not have a fundamental responsibility to end it?