All In The Family

"[Although airstrikes would not themselves stop ISIS, they had at the very least] stopped the spread of Daish in Iraq, and we will never know how many lives it has saved."
"[Canada's] discreet [military operations resulting] within the limits of our capacity [means] we are leading the world in many ways in responding in a balanced way."
"And he said [Mosul Christian leader] that Daish came into the hospitals and threatened those people in their hospital beds with conversion or death. And he broke down and could not tell me the rest of the story."
"So as we talk about how do we combat this phenomenon, let's not forget the nature of this violence and let's call it what it is. It is a form of evil."
Multiculturalism Minister Jason Kenney, Ottawa

"But [police and intelligence agents] can't police ideology, that's the job of the Canadian Muslim community."
"Ultimately what we need to do is wage a jihad against jihadism. It's our way or the highway. How do we reach out to them? That is our challenge."
Kamran Bokhari, Middle East analyst

"This is a grossly misguided understanding of Islam."
"Aggressive jihad has no place in Islam. This erroneous belief system is responsible for the radicalization of youth."
Jama'at Khan Malik, national president, Ahmadiya Muslim Jama'at Canada

Facebook   A photo of members of the Progressive Muslims Institute Canada at a 2013 demonstration against Terrorism that was posted to the Facebook page for The Coalition of Progressive Canadian Muslim Organizations.

The gross misunderstanding of Islam, as far as the national president of the Ahmidiya Muslims is concerned, represents the result of misinterpretation by Muslim scholars of the concept of jihad. Not meant as license to kill non-believers but a nudge on the conscience of all Muslims to make themselves better individuals, to follow the divine teachings to be found in the Koran, as a religion of peace and tolerance.

The trouble seems to be that while some Islamic clerics are of the same frame of mind and preach tolerance and peace, many others do not; they prefer to incite to hatred and violence, and their followers seem to prefer that version of Islam. So, given Islam's history of violent conquest and active and ongoing proselytization as being incumbent on all pious Muslims where influencing non-Muslims to surrender to Islam does not preclude violent force, it is misguided to claim that jihad of the violent variety does not reflect Islam.

But in Canada, though there are widely conflicting attitudes toward the obligation to convert non-believers, recent events relating to violent jihad have brought together those within the larger religious community who are dedicated to living peacefully together in our famously pluralist society, to discuss the possibility of a 'jihad against jihadism'. As jingoism goes, it's as useful as any title, with that special extra fillip.

Jason Kenney uttered his reassurances at an event taking place in Toronto organized by the Coalition of Progressive Canadian Muslim Organizations. Present were leaders of Canadian Yazidi, Christian, Shia, Ahmadiya, Jewish, Sunni, Kurdish and other groups in the discussion ranging around possible strategies to combat ISIS. The Mideast analyst present noted that none of the more extreme groups among Canadian Muslims bothered to show up. How surprising.

But, said Kamran Bokhari, while police and intelligence agencies focus on lawbreakers and crime, a Muslim mainstream must emerge to express their influence on the extremists within society, to emulate them, the moderates, and in so doing, turn them away from violence. Usually the Muslim mainstream bend over in apoplectic denial about violence having anything to do with Islam, so perhaps this reflects a real change in admissions of responsibility.

Mr. Kenney recounted his experience in visiting the Kurdish stronghold of Irbil in Iraq, when he met with a Christian leader from Mosul, which had been violently overrun by ISIS (Daesh) and heard from him the trauma suffered when they were threatened they must either convert to Islam or leave Mosul. The result was that the Christian community which had lived in Mosul for a thousand years and more, left their city to save their lives.

Left behind were the infirm, the elderly and the disabled Christians, unable to flee. That same ultimatum was delivered to them by the Islamic State jihadis. Of course, when jihadists succeed in persuading non-Muslims to convert to Islam, this does not give any illusion or guarantee that their lives will be safeguarded. Example the beheadings of American journalists and air workers who converted to Islam.