He was a homeless, mentally ill drug addict. He had a single gun, an old hunting rifle that held seven bullets. He had four bullets left when he entered Parliament. The RCMP has said that Michael Zehaf-Bibeau had no connections to terrorist organizations.
Still, our prime minister made a speech that referred to Zehaf-Bibeau's actions as ISIS-inspired terrorism. The media in Canada and around the world has piled on with the terrorist rhetoric.
The truth that is emerging is very different. Far from inspiring violence, it seems that conversion to Islam was a search for goodness and an attempt to cure himself. It seems he wanted to go to Saudi Arabia not to join a jihadist group but to find religious guidance to help conquer his demons. In fact, over the last several years Zehaf-Bibeau has made several attempts to get help for his drug addictions, including robbing a restaurant with a pointy stick and then asking the judge to incarcerate him so he could get help.
So what do I know. Zehaf-Bibeau's trigger looks to have been our government's decision to participate in the bombing of Iraq, but I can't see this as Islamic terrorism, and I suspect that the only reason it's being called terrorism is that half of the guy's name is Arabic. Even that is from his adoptive father. Until he was 13 his name was Mike Hall.
3 comments:
Harper knows a Reichstag Fire when he sees one and he'll never pass up such a golden opportunity to ramp up the surveillance state. He wants new powers to monitor extremists and radicals, terms he more commonly uses in the context of First Nations and environmentalists.
Hi MoS - Great to hear from you.
Harper's political opportunism might come back to bite us. Fox News has apparently been saying that Canada has out- of-control homegrown jihadism and "forget Mexico - America's most dangerous border is the northern one" (or something to that effect).
The next election will be Harper increasing fear. IIIS, Ebola, Muslims, anti-Semites!! Boo! He has abandoned his economic pitch because he failed at that.
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