Canadian Arrests

I have closely been following the story and here are some quotes and links on the issue which I found relevant and interesting. (I'll write my own post later )

Ali has been is at his best these days and his comments on his own blog and Junaid's blog were very thought provoking:

Mainstream Islamic religious groups and organizations have for too long skirted issues and topics that are on young Muslims' minds. Questions like what Jihad is and isn't, what is the Islamic way of dealing with situations in Iraq, Afghanistan, Palestine etc., how does a Muslim in Canada respond to what he sees as aggression against Islam and Muslims elsewhere - such questions are hardly addressed in our mosques and religious gatherings. As a result, the often zealous and emotional young Muslims are left free to find whatever material they can on their own and interpret it how they will. Moreover, it is easy for such people to fall prey to hardline propaganda (easily available on the Internet) that convinces them that our mainstream leaders, by ignoring issues like Jihad, are "sell-outs" who ignore the plight of Muslims around the world and are in bed with "evil, infidel" governments that send troops to invade and occupy Muslim lands. This further serves to alienate them from seeking religious guidance within their community, and pushes them towards irrational and extreme views and actions. ( click here to read full post)

Society at large, both Muslims and non-Muslims, needs to appreciate this phenomenon and look for ways to address it. Playing the blame game, as is very often the case on the part of both Muslims and non-Muslims, and we are seeing it again now, removes the attention and focus from any effort to solve the problem. We need to get out of the dejà vu of simply blaming the government, security organizations, the media, Islam, whatever, every time something like this happens. ( click here to read full post)

When I asked the religious leaders present at the conference what their mosques and organizations had been doing or planned to do to try to ensure tha the views and ideology that may have motivated the alleged plotters, it was only Sheikh Hussein Patel that answered my question correctly. The speaker after him took it upon himself to explain to me how nothing was proven and how he saw the timing of the arrests as suspicious etc. etc. I don't care if the timing is suspicious or if indeed the accused are all innocent - that wasn't my question. What I asked was what if anything our religious leaders and organizations are doing to curb the spread of the kind of views that may lead young Muslims to think about or plan to commit acts of terrorism. ( click here to read full comment)

Dawud comment's on Safiyyah'blocog:

Lastly, the doctrine of the true meaning of jihad must be dealt with, and there must be answers to the muslim community of where we stand, first of all for ourselves, and secondly where that places us in relationship to the communities and states we live in. ( click here to read full comment )

and Safiyyah comments herself:

In part, this sort of response reflects the kind of education Muslims receive. Rarely do Muslims study history in an in-depth manner. We adopt glorified notions of a caliphate that never really existed, and this leads us to imagine that if Muslims only had power, all of the problems of the world would come to nothing. ( read full post)