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Question 6: Security

Should Canada do more to address conditions giving rise to conflict and insecurity beyond our borders? If so, where?

 

 
 
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Contributor:Canada_IsraelCommittee
Date: 2003-05-01 19:37:38
Answer:
Clearly, rumours of Islamic extremism's demise are vastly exaggerated. Though seemingly on the wane in the 1990s, the tragic events of September 11, 2001, along with more recent terrorist atrocities in Bali, Kenya, Tunisia and elsewhere, targeting Israelis and Western nationals, indicate that the threat posed by Islamic extremism remains significant and is in fact growing exponentially. Groups loosely affiliated with Osama bin-Laden's Al-Qaeda terrorist network, as well as Islamic extremist groups sponsored by Iran and other rogue regimes, constitute a real and immediate threat to regional and global stability. Moreover, there is some suggestion that Islamic ‘extremism’ is even going mainstream - becoming the de facto standard orientation within the Moslem world. It is naive for Canadians to believe that they are somehow immune from the scourge of Islamic-inspired terrorism. It is imperative that Canada continue to work with other like-minded countries and with international institutions to isolate and cut-off this international menace at its source, including the funding provided for Islamic terror organizations by Iran, Sudan and elements of the Saudi elite. Canada must also avoid the tendency to "rationalize" or "explain" Islamic terrorism, by suggesting that the countries of the "North" should understand the "root causes" of "Southern" discontent with their lot in life. Canada must make unambiguously clear, through substantive actions, that terrorism - the deliberate taking of civilian life for political purposes - can never be justified, not on religious, nor on political grounds.

Recommendations


A. Canada must continue to work with other like-minded countries and with international institutions to isolate and cut-off this international menace at its source, including the funding provided for Islamic terror organizations by Iran, Sudan and elements of the Saudi elite.

B. Canada must also avoid the tendency to "rationalize" or "explain" Islamic terrorism, by suggesting that the countries of the "North" should understand the "root causes" of "southern" discontent with their lot in life. Canada must make unambiguously clear, through substantive actions, that terrorism - the deliberate taking of civilian life for political purposes - can never be justified, especially on religious grounds.
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