Author: Phil Gurski

We seem to have this love-hate relationship with religion in the West.  Wait, let me rephrase that, since saying “the West” is too vague.  In some countries (France, Spain, Canada I would argue) we have reached a kind of post-religious society where all religions are tolerated but play very little role in the public sphere. […]

It had to happen eventually. With all the attention on Islamic State – the attacks in Paris and California, the airstrikes, the recruitment of Westerners – it was just a matter of time before this came out: “93 secret ISIS cells in US” Was this an exclusive of the New York Times?  Washington Post?  Wall […]

I have just returned from spending three wonderful days in New York City.  Broadway.  Central Park.  American Museum of Natural History.  Bryant Park.  The city that never sleeps.  And the city that is never far from the attention and aspiration of terrorists. When I used to work in security intelligence it always struck me that […]

I have often said – and written – that there is a lot of misinformation on terrorism out there.  As the field of scholars has expanded – and this is generally a good thing – and the number of attacks has spawned more and more media stories, some of what we read and hear is […]

It seems that whenever a serious act of violence happens in the West the debate on whether such act is terrorism begins.  The Colorado Springs shootings at a Planned Parenthood clinic – terrorism or just a mentally disturbed recluse acting violently?  The San Bernardino attack – terrorism or workplace violence?  The problem with these events […]

And so the outrage begins.  A Transport Canada report that states that terrorists could use legitimate, Charter-protected protest activity as a cover to carry out violence (see story here) has caused a kerfuffle.  A director with the Canadian Civil Liberties Association has expressed concern that the report and its authors paints “(lawful) activism as a […]

President Obama addressed the US people last night in prime time.  A nation shaken by the attack in San Bernardino needed to hear from its leader, wanted to know that he was going to do something, and craved assurances that they were safe. It was obvious before the President began his speech that many would […]

I’ve been noticing a lot more coverage of terrorism and radicalisation in the pages of New Scientist lately.  On the one hand I find this curious since the magazine, which I have enjoyed reading since the early 1980s, usually includes articles on the harder sciences: physics, astronomy and biology.  True it does treat the somewhat […]

Although there is much still to learn about the attack in California in which a husband and his wife opened fire on a group of his co-workers, killing 14 and wounding many more before dying in a shootout with police, there is some information available that casts interesting light on what we know, and what […]

As we continually seek to understand terrorism and what makes a terrorist, we hear many reasons brought forward and defended as THE answer or cause.  I have already, on several occasions, discussed and dismissed the perennial disenfranchisement/alienation/poverty…. myth and will not return to it here. Now another “soupe du jour” has arisen, probably not coincidentally […]