Canada's War on Terror

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By: Dareen El-Sayed

After the murder of three young Muslims in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, one begins to wonder why anti-Muslim sentiments have reached the extent they have today in the United States.

Extreme Islamophobic sentiments have not always existed in the United States. It all started with George Bush’s infamous “War on Terror” that began in 2001. The rise of this so-called “war” did much more than physical damage in the Middle East. It also radicalized the perception of Muslims in West.

Suddenly, a religion with 1.6 billion followers was being framed by the actions of a few. The start of the War on Terror was when anti-Muslim sentiments began seeping into legislation in the United States.  It allowed for a grand generalization that clumped Muslims together as a group to fear.

It meant that the police could be more suspicious of a man with a beard, and that airport security checks would be double the hassle if you had Mohamed as your last name, or worse, if you happened to wear a headscarf. Slowly, it became okay to publicly use terms such as “Islamists” which denotes that those whom commit terrorist attacks are those who follow this dangerous religion of Islam.

It became normal for media outlets to make instant associations between Islam and terrorism. It became normal to announce that the religion of Islam was one to be feared. With media outlets like Fox News and leaders like George Bush, it was not hard to antagonize Muslims in the United States. Hate crimes increased, racism and discrimination were sparked, and intolerances were developed. What used to be a country for everyone was slowly showing that those who choose to follow a certain religion were not as welcome as others.

The perception has been that this problem does not exist in Canada, as a country that is a beautiful mosaic of cultures and backgrounds.

But this has all changed and will continue to change if Harper’s anti-terror bill, Bill C-51, is made into law. This bill is our government’s very own War on Terror.

Bill C-51 is a vague bill that should worry every Canadian for multiple reasons. Firstly, it allows the government to employ a system of mass surveillance to monitor and collect our personal information. Secondly, it would make it more dangerous to protest or plan protests against Canadian policies since such actions could be criminalized. This would stifle the work of environmental, indigenous and other social justice groups. Thirdly, this bill presented by Harper’s government would make it easier to obtain arrest warrants, allow for Canadians to be held in custody for up to seven days without charges, and makes use of the principle of “preventative detention” which is the ability to jail any individual deemed suspicious even if no criminal activity has taken place.

Although the bill would be enforced on all Canadians, it targets a specific group of people that Harper’s government is keen on associating with terrorism. As NDP leader Thomas Mulcair said, “the Prime Minister singles out Canada’s Muslim community.” Our government is antagonizing Muslims in the same way the Bush administration did.

Harper denounced terrorism in a speech earlier this month, saying that “it doesn't matter what the age of the person is, or whether they're in a basement, or whether they're in a mosque or somewhere else.” The Prime Minister of our country blatantly labeled mosques as a source of terrorism, and he seems to think there is nothing wrong with such an intolerant and troubling claim. This bill will instill the fear of terrorism deep into Canadian society, just like America’s War on Terror did.

On this same mission to incite fear, Bush said, “you’re either with us, or you’re with the terrorists,” and today Harper does the same as he forces Canadians to either choose between the Harper government and the terrorists. But choosing the Harper government would also mean choosing to protect oil companies and their interests.

The anti-Muslim sentiment in the United States could not have reached the level it has today without the War on Terror, the Bush Administration, and biased media. However, what was once an American problem is now seeping into our Canadian soil, and the Islamophobic hate crimes we see happening in America today might be in our own news tomorrow.

This bill annihilates the peace and tolerance this country has and replaces it with fear and antagonism.  For these reasons we simply cannot follow through with this Canadian War on Terror. As a country that celebrates diverse backgrounds and embraces freedom and liberty, where Crosby’s winning goal in an Olympic hockey game unites us from coast to coast, the Great White North will not give in to manufactured antagonism incited by a government that further proves it does not represent us.

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