Award-winning Afghan-Canadian director, actress, journalist and author Nelofer Pazira believes Canada is at fault for Wednesday's terrorist attack on the Canadian Parliament. Writing in the U.K. Independent, Pazira, who grew up in Soviet-occupied Afghanistan before escaping to Pakistan and eventually Canada, says, "Conservative Prime Minister Stephen Harper pushed Canada into joining the US-led war in the Middle East," which incited the terrorist shooting.
The journalist believes that by fighting terrorism, a once-tolerant country has become intolerant:
A multicultural society which prided itself on tolerance became divided when the Conservative government put a number of Muslims on a “watch list” in addition to announcing three weeks ago that it would send 600 special forces members along with fighter jets to support the US effort in their fight against Isis in Iraq. Two Canadian soldiers were hit by a car on Monday near Montreal – one of them died later. The attacker was shot dead and identified as a Muslim convert influenced by “radical Islamists”.
Canada has a large Muslim population – more than 2 per cent are Canadian citizens – but the word “radicalised” only came into use recently when the Harper government revealed it believed that about 30 young Canadians had gone to support Isis.
She also claims that Canadian citizens were tricked into joining the Afghan war.
Canada refused to join the UK-US war in Iraq in 2003. As a bargain, then Canadian Liberal Prime Minister Jean Chrétien offered to send troops to Afghanistan. Initially, Canadians were not told their soldiers were on a combat mission. Only when their bodies began to return home did it become clear that Canada was at war in a Muslim country. Canadians eventually forced Harper to withdraw their soldiers from Afghanistan.
But now he is sending them back to the Middle East. Canadians have been against joining wars on the basis that, historically, their country only sent peacekeepers abroad. However, Harper’s pro-American policies appear to have turned Canada – and indeed the seat of political power in the capital Ottawa – into a target. Now Canadians will not only be worried about traveling to Europe, America or the Middle East – but wondering if they’re even safe inside their own homes.
Nelofer Pazira is wrong about Canada's military history. The 2003 Iraq War is one of the few wars in which the nation didn't participate. Since the beginning of the 20th Century Canadian troops or Air Force have been involved in World War I (1914–1918), Armenian–Azerbaijani War (1918–1920), Russian Civil War (1918–1920), World War II (1939–1945), Korean War (1950–1953), Persian Gulf War (1990–1991), Bosnian War (1992–1995), Kosovo War (1998–1999), Afghanistan War (2001–present), and Libyan Civil War (2011).
She says "Canadians will not only be worried about traveling to Europe, America or the Middle East – but wondering if they’re even safe inside their own homes." But since the stated goal of terrorist groups such as ISIS is to create a Muslim caliphate initially in Iraq and the Levant (greater Syria) and eventually the world, what makes Ms. Pazira believe that Canadians of any religion will be excluded from their terrorist goals?
So what happens next? Will Canada’s Muslim community – which has existed for more than 100 years – now have to “re-prove” it is loyal to a country which is fighting in the Muslim world? There have been plenty of “plots” uncovered in the past – in one of which Muslim extremists were apparently threatening to kill MPs. Since 9/11, many Muslims in the country have offered to work in government security in order to prevent incidents like those this week. How long this co-operation will continue now that Canada is in action in Iraq is another question.
As Nelofer Pazira stated early in her essay, Canada is a multicultural society; prejudice will happen (as it does against many cultures) and will be ultimately stamped out.
