Search: “islamic state”

It has been a little more than a week and a half since Canada suffered its latest, and thankfully still rare, terrorist attack.  A 30-year old Somali refugee named Abdulahi Sharif hit and stabbed an Edmonton police officer before leading authorities on a race through the city’s streets where he struck four pedestrians before he […]

If there is one shining light in the aftermath of the Arab Spring it is Tunisia.  Not that the competition is very tough.  Egypt went from an elected Muslim Brotherhood (MB) government to a military one under General Sisi.  Bahrain’s short-lived revolution is no more.  And as for Syria, well I really don’t think I […]

Terrorism is very simple and very complicated at the same time.  Its simplicity comes from the set of axioms that underlie every terrorist and every terrorist group.  We can summarise terrorism in three compact phrases: My people are suffering. I/we know who is responsible for the suffering. I/we need to use violence to stop the […]

In the immediate aftermath of the incident in Edmonton Saturday evening I quickly found myself caught up in a battle of words on social media (Twitter, FaceBook, LinkedIn) over my use of the word ‘terrorism’ to discuss what had happened.  The truth be told I was in one way merely following the lead of Edmonton […]

It has now been almost 24 hours since a man in a Chevy Malibu drove up to an Edmonton police officer doing traffic duty outside a CFL game, struck him at some speed, knocking him in the air, and proceeded to stab him several times before fleeing.  The suspect later was stopped in what appeared […]

If you were to ask most people around the world about my country I am pretty sure that few would respond “Canada?  Oh it is a hotbed of terrorism!”  This is not to say that there have not been any terrorist acts over the years – in fact many forget that the single largest act […]

Three cheers for Saudi Arabia!  The conservative Kingdom has ruled that women can now drive and no longer need to be accompanied by a mahram (essentially a male guardian) when they are in a car.  Many are celebrating this decision although some conservative killjoys have accused the government of ‘bending the rules of Sharia’.  Some […]

In the wake of the recent storms that ravaged the eastern Caribbean and Florida a lot of Canadians were stranded in resorts and hotels and undoubtedly were suffering under horrible conditions, life-threatening ones even.  Many savaged the Canadian government and Canadian airlines for not acting more quickly to get them home and out of harm’s […]

Remember the ‘refugee crisis’ of  a few summers ago?  We all were riveted by the pictures of hundreds of thousands of desperate Syrians, Iraqis and many others, risking their lives in overland journeys or even more perilous sea voyages, fleeing danger and violence in their homelands to start a new life in Europe.  Some countries […]