Search: “Terrorists”

In the struggle to come up with strategies to deal with violent extremism (notice I didn’t say “War on Terror”?) a number of policies, strategies and measures are continually being proposed by governments, academics, experts and thinktanks around the world.  There is even some attempt at coordinating positions and coming to some agreement on what […]

A couple of years ago, I remember reading an article in the Wall Street Journal in which the phenomenon of “lawfare” was featured.  Lawfare occurs when a person misuses the legal system to intimidate others from criticising him/her and threatens to bring personal liability action.  The term was applied to a number of scenarios: when […]

I’m no fan of spaghetti westerns and the 1966 film starring Clint Eastwood among others has nothing to do with terrorism.  It’s just that I can think of no better phrase to describe the interim report issued by the Standing Senate Committee on National Security and Defence on countering the terrorist threat in Canada (see the […]

I see that a Canadian arrested a few months ago and awaiting trial on terrorism charges has been beaten up in an Ottawa detention centre.  This individual, Carlos Larmond, was allegedly attacked by inmates who were tired of his attempts to recruit “soldiers of Islam” and for threatening non-Muslim prisoners (see story here).  It is […]

Further to my earlier post on when Egypt would learn from its historic mistakes in dealing with terrorism and violence, I now turn my attention to Turkey.  According to news sources, the Turkish government may invade along a 70-mile stretch of its border with Syria to establish a 20-mile buffer zone (see article here) Given […]

Tackling terrorism is not easy.  There are a lot of tools, some soft and some hard and some in between.  Relying on any one in particular is unlikely to work. For the record, I am not soft on terrorism or terrorists.  When our government agencies identify individuals who subscribe to a violent ideology and who […]

In some ways Canada is a post-religious nation.  This is not to say that religion is not important or that it is not present, but it is certainly not as front and centre as it used to be.  The Canadian landscape has also shifted as believers of other faiths (Islam, Hinduism, Sikhism, etc.) multiply. As […]

It must appear to most people in Canada that terrorism is a daily scourge.  If you take a global snapshot that is undeniably true.  Over the last few weeks we have seen attacks in France, Tunisia, Kuwait, Yemen and the inevitable – and sadly too frequent – violence in Syria, Iraq, Pakistan and Afghanistan. And […]

Remember the good old days when terrorism was a rare thing?  Yes, sometimes people got hurt or even killed, but the more frequent incident was an airplane hijacking or a nuisance bomb.  And then the inevitable claim of responsibility would come from the PLO or the ALF or the FLQ in the form of a […]

This has been a very, very disturbing day. An attack – including a decapitation – in France.   Tourists slaughtered in Tunisia.  Shia Muslims killed by a suicide bomber at their mosque.  After prayers.  This evokes the senselessness of the massacre last week in Charleston, South Carolina. I’ve always advocated keeping things in perspective and […]