Search: “Islamic State”

I would imagine that many people would reject state involvement in religion as a matter of principle Isn’t there, after all, a belief that the two are responsible for different functions? The state is supposed to look after everything that has to do with, well, running a state, and religion is concerned about things like […]

This piece appeared in The Hill Times on March 18, 2019. One of the many beauties of living in a liberal, secular democratic society is the freedom to disagree and debate. There are always many sides to an issue and we have the liberty to express our opinions without the fear of being arrested. Many […]

Staying with the Lewis Carroll theme for a bit, in 1876 the English writer penned the poem ‘The Hunting of the Snark’. The ‘Snark’ was described as follows: Some have feathers and bite, and some have whiskers and scratch. It also sleeps late into the day. While the snark is very ambitious, and has very […]

One of the harshest criticisms over a lot of stuff that is written about terrorism is the distinct lack of reliable and primary sources.  Papers and books are written in an academic style with little use of actual data, although as my friend Bart Schuurman in the Netherlands has stated things are looking up as […]

I have a confession to make.  I do not like Geert Wilders.  The platinum blond Dutch politician is, in my humble opinion, a self-focussed, attention-seeking, grandstanding man.  In other words, I think he is a jerk.  He is not the only jerk out there of course and it is important to stress that there is […]

If there is one country that is garnering the headlines for all the good reasons these days (as opposed to Trump’s US for all the – well you know what I mean) it is Saudi Arabia.  The cradle of Islam has best been known for confirming the maxim “there is no FUN in FUNdamentalism” as […]

When I was at Public Saftey Canada I had the opportunity to work in outreach with some outstanding civil servants.  They would organise sessions across the country with a variety of communities to engage on a wide range of topics all related in some way to public safety.  I was invited on some of them […]

To say that we in the West live in a sex-craved society is putting things mildly.  From TV shows where sexual humour is pervasive (for what it is worth, I think The Big Bang Theory would be a lot funnier without so many sex jokes and no, I am not a prude!) to advertising it […]

When I was in high school the movie Midnight Express came out (yes, I am THAT old).  This was a film adaptation of the true story of Billy Hayes, an American arrested and jailed in the early 1970s for trying to smuggle hashish out of Turkey.  The movie portrayed Mr. Hayes as the poor American […]

This week I was very fortunate to be on a panel this week sponsored by the National Capital (Ottawa) branch of the Canadian International Council (CIC) with Ben Rowswell and Dr. Stephanie Carvin of Carleton University entitled ‘From Blogs to Books to Software’.  Mr. Rowswell gave an outstanding talk on how social media is changing […]