Hryðjuverkamenn í Toronto - dagur fjögur.

Eins og gefur að skilja hefur ekkert lát verið á umfjöllun um meinta hryðuverkamenn í fjölmiðlum hér.  Meira að segja tap Edmonton gegn Carolina er varla fréttamatur og ekkert pláss er hér í fjölmiðlum til að segja frá því að Halldór Ásgrímsson, hafi sagt af sér.

Fréttasíður eru uppfullar af svipuðum fréttum, en það er oft ekki síður áhugavert að lesa hina ýmsu pistla og skoðanir sem koma þar fram.  Þar eru eins og gefur að skilja skiptar skoðanir.

Irshad Manji, höfundur bókarinnar "The Trouble with Islam Today: A Wake-Up Call For Honesty and Change.", skrifar t.d. mjög áhugaverðan pistil í Globe and Mail í dag.  Þar segir  m.a.:

"The twenty-something prayer leader, was speaking into a microphone. His topic: holy war, and not just in Iraq.

"The jihad does not start there, brothers," he assured the faithful. "It starts here. But if you cannot contribute with yourselves and your sons, then contribute with your money.""

"What I found most telling is that the imam incited his followers transparently in a public building at a busy time of day. No need for secret societies or code-talk. He and his sympathizers figured they could get away with shamelessness. Shamefully, they were right.

With the bust of a suspected terror plot in Toronto, amateur jihadists should expect more questions. For example, if they're so outraged by images of Muslim corpses in the dusty streets of Baghdad, where's their fury over black Muslims dying at the feet of Arab militias in Darfur? Or democracy activists being clubbed by Mubarak's riot police in Cairo?

In the past 50 years, more Muslims have been raped, imprisoned, tortured and murdered by other Muslims than by any foreign imperial power. Does that matter to the would-be jihadists? If not, aren't they doing exactly what they claim the West does -- demeaning Muslim victims of oppression?"

"Above all, non-Muslims in Canada should ask themselves a basic question: What makes so many of us afraid to ask about what's happening in the Muslim community? The easy answer is multiculturalism, according to which all cultures and religions are equal and off-limits to scrutiny.

Greinina í heild má finna hér (en hún er ekki á "opnum vef" heldur þarf að borga fyrir hana).

But multiculturalism, like any belief system, becomes a stale orthodoxy if taken literally. By definition, orthodoxies anesthetize our brains, deny our consciences, suppress our voices and compel us to abandon the critical spirit that keeps any open society open. This past weekend, Canadians received a wake-up call. Let us all re-discover our spines -- and our minds."

Á vef Globe and Mail má líka finna spurningar og svör þegar lesendum bauðst að spyrja tvo þekkta borgara úr múslimasamfélaginu hér, spurninga, sjá hér.  Þar má t.d. lesa eftirfarandi:

"Hussein Hamdani: The mood among Canadian Muslims is a combination of fear, anger, apprehension, gratitude and disappointment.

Fear — of potential backlash against the community, that there may be some out there who will wrongfully blame the whole community for the alleged actions of a tiny few. The mosques that I attend in Burlington and St. Catharines were fire-bombed after 9/11 and I pray that the vandalism seen in Toronto does not spread to other cities."

"Kate Steele, Moose Jaw, Sask.: How do both or either of you respond to the suggestions by a few Muslim leaders that the timing of these arrests seems suspicious and may have been timed to coincide with Supreme Court hearings that could give Canadian authorities the power to detain any suspect without charge?

Aly Hindy: I say it is very suspicious — especially when there was no imminent attack and when the evidence [revealed so far] seems not complete enough to support a good case.

Salman Haq, Toronto: I am a young Muslim, born and raised in Canada. I only went to mosques on special holidays when I was younger. When I grew older, I wanted to be more spiritual, but was completely turned off by the language and the invectives that I heard by imams at mosques. There are very, very few mosques that actually speak out about tolerance, diversity, and yes, practising your faith in a secular society. I often heard things like "stand up for your brothers and sisters oppressed in Palestine, Russia, etc." Why didn't I ever hear "stand up for people who are oppressed EVERYWHERE in the world?" That's the true message of Islam, and nobody at a mosque will say it. And that is the problem. Moderate Muslims like myself do not have a place in mosques because they are largely controlled by conservatives.

Hussein Hamdani: Salman, I agree with you 100% that many talks at the mosque need to be more spiritually inclined and give a better, holistic understanding of Islam. I, too, get upset at what I hear at the mosques."

En það er ljóst að mikið vatn á eftir að renna til sjávar áður en þetta mál verður að fullu upplýst, og það er erfitt að segja á þessari stundu hver áhrif þess verða til lengri tíma litið. 

Sagður hafa lagt á ráðin um að hálshöggva forsætisráðherra Kanada