The Candice Malcolm Show - The politicization of terrorism

00:00:00.000 Hi, I'm Candice Malcolm and this is the Candice Malcolm Show.

00:00:07.800 Today, on today's episode, I want to talk about the politicization of terrorism that

00:00:13.020 happens in this country.

00:00:14.400 I'm talking, of course, about this absolutely horrific attack that took place on Sunday

00:00:19.920 evening in London, Ontario, where a driver drove his truck into a family, killing four

00:00:26.320 people, including a 15-year-old girl, and leaving a nine-year-old boy in hospital in

00:00:31.580 critical condition while his entire family is dead.

00:00:35.780 It is absolutely gruesome.

00:00:37.640 London police have said this attack was premeditated and deliberate, and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau

00:00:43.280 has said that this is an act of terrorism, as the family was Muslim and they were dressed

00:00:48.840 in Islamic clothing.

00:00:51.380 Now, this is absolutely a horrible story. 0.94

00:00:54.240 There is nothing worse in my mind, absolutely nothing worse than the killing of children,

00:00:59.200 especially in Canada, especially Canadian children.

00:01:01.700 And look, I'm generally opposed to the death penalty.

00:01:04.280 I don't think that the government should have that kind of power.

00:01:06.620 But in cases like this, I think it was just absolutely despicable when it comes to killing

00:01:11.240 kids.

00:01:12.200 I think that we should just throw the book at this despicable man, that we should lock 0.98

00:01:15.820 him up and throw away the key. 0.94

00:01:18.140 I don't care about any of the other circumstances.

00:01:20.780 It's just absolutely appalling.

00:01:22.400 And what we're seeing in response is just an absolute outpouring of support for this

00:01:28.160 community, of love, of compassion, of solidarity.

00:01:32.120 Canadians are rightly upset and angry that this would happen in our country.

00:01:37.760 We want to make sure that newcomers and that all Canadians feel safe in our communities and

00:01:42.460 feel welcome.

00:01:42.980 We especially want new Canadians and newcomers to know that one deranged young man who committed

00:01:50.320 an evil act does not represent the broader Canadian community.

00:01:55.040 In fact, the broader Canadian community loathes this man and is completely against him.

00:02:00.980 Whatever his motivation, it doesn't matter.

00:02:03.080 His act was evil.

00:02:04.280 It was abhorrent.

00:02:05.380 And it was despicable.

00:02:06.500 For example, Canadians universally condemn murder and we universally condemn crimes that seem

00:02:12.220 to be motivated by anti-religious bigotry.

00:02:15.640 Full stop.

00:02:16.900 But that is not what I want to talk about on the program today.

00:02:19.820 What I want to talk about is the reaction.

00:02:22.080 What we're seeing in the media and by politicians specifically on the left and how they are reacting

00:02:27.740 to this despicable attack.

00:02:29.160 So almost immediately after the news came out and the details were learned, the left-wing

00:02:34.320 media pounced and they started declaring that conservative politicians and conservative

00:02:39.440 media were to blame.

00:02:42.020 Now, what many in the media and many politicians started pointing to was something called M103,

00:02:47.680 which was a 2017 liberal motion which sought to condemn Islamophobia and conservatives

00:02:54.720 by and large voted against it.

00:02:56.220 There was just one conservative who voted for it and that was Michael Chong.

00:02:59.880 Now, this is what the Toronto Star wrote in their story about this attack.

00:03:04.360 As politicians across Canada express their sadness over this weekend's fatal attack on

00:03:09.320 a Muslim family in London, Ontario, community leaders are asking some of them to explain why

00:03:14.920 they opposed a federal non-binding motion condemning Islamophobia in 2017 and to explain their

00:03:22.800 apparent change in position.

00:03:24.760 Okay, there's a lot wrong with this statement.

00:03:27.580 And so since everyone's talking about M103, I think it's worthwhile to go through what

00:03:32.400 the actual issue was when it came to that motion, why conservatives were against it.

00:03:36.980 And to the Toronto Star, there hasn't been an apparent change in position.

00:03:40.420 You can show sympathy for a Muslim family that was killed and you can condemn it and you can 1.00

00:03:44.680 find it abhorrent without wanting to get into the political debate about the term Islamophobia.

00:03:50.140 And that was what it was.

00:03:51.460 It was a politicized debate about that one word, that one word Islamophobia.

00:03:56.800 And it's also worth noting that the liberals at the time were deliberately creating a wedge

00:04:01.020 issue and the media being the media completely misrepresented what the issue actually was and

00:04:06.480 why conservatives didn't vote in favor of it.

00:04:08.640 So at the time, many conservative MPs, as well as conservative commentators, myself included,

00:04:14.380 opposed the language in the motion that term Islamophobia was never defined.

00:04:19.420 And that was a problem.

00:04:20.400 And it was intentional.

00:04:21.340 They intentionally did not define that word.

00:04:23.980 The word itself is obviously very controversial.

00:04:26.500 It was very politicized.

00:04:28.100 And to many, the word doesn't mean bigotry or hate or an irrational fear of Muslims.

00:04:34.700 It means criticizing Islam. 0.99

00:04:37.160 It means that the religion and the political doctrine are sort of out of bounds in terms

00:04:42.440 of criticism, which is the case in most Muslim countries in the world.

00:04:46.040 So Raheel Raza, who is a Canadian activist and the founder of the moderate Muslim group Muslims

00:04:51.400 Facing Tomorrow, she said this about the term.

00:04:53.940 She said, the term Islamophobia was coined after 9-11, you don't have to take my word 1.00

00:04:58.900 on it, it's all electronically available, by an operative of the Muslim Brotherhood, who

00:05:03.840 actually said, and is quoted to having said, that they would throw this term out there so

00:05:08.360 that there is no questioning, criticism, or any kind of discussion about Islam and Muslims.

00:05:14.940 So Raheel Raza was just one of countless Canadian Muslims who opposed M-103.

00:05:20.440 Tarek Fatah, another one, he's my colleague over at the Toronto Sun.

00:05:23.460 He says, quote, I hope to make the MPs realize that if they include the word denouncing Islamophobia

00:05:28.360 in their proposals, they will infringe on the inalienable right of Muslim Canadians to

00:05:33.700 critique their own religion, as has been the rich tradition that has been stifled by mullahs, 0.97

00:05:39.020 kings, and caliphs by murdering us. 0.98

00:05:41.780 Fatah was one of the organizers of a group called Muslims Against M-103. 0.92

00:05:46.680 They hosted an event that was attended by several high-profile Muslim activists.

00:05:51.580 Raheel Raza, who is also there, said this,

00:05:54.480 We are entrapped by the use of the term Islamophobia, which is not clearly defined.

00:05:59.260 As I read and reread the text of the motion M-103, I can agree with the overall intent,

00:06:04.540 but without the use of the term, because Islamophobia can and has been used to confuse the masses

00:06:10.480 and stifle free speech.

00:06:12.960 So conservative MPs were taking their lead from these Muslim activists, and they therefore 0.99

00:06:17.380 opposed the term Islamophobia, but not necessarily the intent behind the motion, and that was

00:06:23.080 why conservative MP Scott Reid simply asked the liberals to remove the controversial term

00:06:28.520 Islamophobia, and instead replace it with the more concise term, anti-Muslim bigotry.

00:06:34.800 And if they would have done that, the conservatives would have been happy to support the motion,

00:06:38.480 but they didn't because they were trying to create a wedge issue.

00:06:41.280 This was all politicized.

00:06:42.480 They kept in that controversial word, knowing that conservatives would be against it, and

00:06:46.980 knowing that they could use that to repeat the lie that conservatives are bigots, and 0.97

00:06:51.120 of course the media, being the media, are all too happy to play along, play dumb, and repeat 0.96

00:06:56.140 that idea that conservatives didn't condemn Islamophobia because they're just bigots, 0.97

00:07:00.780 and that's that.

00:07:02.060 That's that, and that's what the media decided to run with, and then, again, we're seeing

00:07:05.700 it this week in the aftermath of this attack, repeating the same lie that the conservatives

00:07:10.300 didn't support that one motion because they are bigots.

00:07:14.100 And now it really doesn't help, by the way, when conservative politicians are suddenly

00:07:17.760 more than happy now to use this politicized term Islamophobia, which we've seen this week

00:07:22.360 from conservative leader Aaron O'Toole.

00:07:24.340 What they're really doing is validating the left-wing narrative that they have had a change

00:07:28.500 of heart, or that the conservative position somehow in the past was wrong, that it was rooted

00:07:33.760 in bigotry.

00:07:34.640 That really doesn't help anything to go back and say, hey, efforts like the niqab ban, efforts 0.97

00:07:40.640 like creating a hotline to help abuse children who are the victims of cultural violence, like

00:07:46.180 honor killings, that creating resources to help them really just stems from dog whistle

00:07:51.980 politics or anti-Islamic bigotry.

00:07:55.280 The reality is that those efforts are taken to do community outreach.

00:07:58.860 Most of them came from requests from within the Muslim community, and that was why they had 1.00

00:08:03.620 those kind of efforts, not because there was some kind of hatred.

00:08:07.260 So when the conservatives concede and say that, yes, we were bigoted in the past, all

00:08:12.140 they're doing is seeking strange new respect from the media, and they end up validating

00:08:16.700 the unfair characterizations pushed by the left-wing media and also throw fellow conservatives

00:08:21.480 under the bus.

00:08:22.740 And speaking of throwing fellow conservatives under the bus, there's another narrative coming

00:08:26.540 out of this attack, which we've seen so much in recent weeks.

00:08:29.680 Anytime there's any kind of a big news story, we fall back on this same narrative that Canadians 0.99

00:08:35.280 by and large are horrible, racist people. 0.96

00:08:38.260 We've seen it left, right and center in the past few months and years, this idea that all 0.99

00:08:42.760 Canadians are somehow racist.

00:08:44.380 So we had a conservative out in London validating that. 0.88

00:08:48.500 Jeff Bennett, who is a 2014 candidate for the Ontario PC Party in London West, he unleashed

00:08:54.660 a tirade on Facebook condemning the city of London, Ontario as racist.

00:08:59.700 This is what he said.

00:09:01.260 Now, I see people expressing shock that a racist terrorist would drive his truck into the pathway

00:09:05.740 of a Muslim family going for a walk.

00:09:07.920 London is better than this, they say.

00:09:09.700 I can't believe this happened here.

00:09:11.580 Bull S. 0.65

00:09:12.500 He says, I won't say the word, but bull S.

00:09:14.840 I knocked on thousands of doors in the very neighborhood this atrocity occurred.

00:09:19.140 The terrorist may have been alone in that truck on that day, but he was not acting alone.

00:09:24.620 He was raised in a racist city that pretends it isn't.

00:09:28.720 Now, of course, the left-wing media is applauding this individual as brave and courageous for

00:09:33.340 turning on conservatives and saying the same thing that the left says about the country,

00:09:37.480 which is that we're all horrible racists.

00:09:39.500 You know, it's a really funny thing.

00:09:41.040 If you're a conservative and you suddenly want the respect of the media, all you have to

00:09:44.940 do is throw your side under the bus and repeat the very worst accusations about conservatives

00:09:50.020 and about all Canadians.

00:09:51.900 And then all of a sudden, suddenly you're a star in the media.

00:09:54.780 So I hate seeing that.

00:09:56.800 Obviously, there are racist people out there. 0.96

00:09:59.040 I'm not saying there aren't, but the classification that this was all done, but the idea that all

00:10:04.580 Canadians are racist is just nonsense.

00:10:06.200 You can see that now by the outpouring of love and support for Muslims in the aftermath. 1.00

00:10:10.580 If Canadians were truly these awful racist people, you wouldn't see that. 0.65

00:10:14.020 You would see people, you know, being indifferent or celebrating, which really you're not seeing 0.93

00:10:18.580 that other than maybe in the darkest quarters of the internet.

00:10:21.380 It's just not happening.

00:10:22.620 By and large, Canadians are good people, good-hearted, and they're not racist.

00:10:26.960 Now, it's really unfortunate that this PC candidate was trying to blame the broader community

00:10:32.040 in London, saying that this stemmed from a group of people that wasn't just one individual

00:10:36.240 in the car.

00:10:37.060 It was everybody.

00:10:38.360 You know, that's basically the opposite of what we're usually told.

00:10:41.460 When it came to the Danforth shooter who unleashed his deadly rampage in Toronto, he killed

00:10:47.780 a small child and a teenage girl.

00:10:49.660 We literally heard the opposite.

00:10:51.020 Even after ISIS took responsibility, even after we learned that this individual attended

00:10:55.440 a radical Muslim mosque, and even after it came out that his parents had told two different

00:11:00.820 stories.

00:11:01.280 His mom and his dad said opposite things when it came to his mental health background, as

00:11:06.660 well as the stories about where he had traveled to and whether he had gone to terrorist hotspots.

00:11:12.060 We were different stories.

00:11:13.200 None of that mattered.

00:11:14.300 What the media said was, A, don't blame the broader community.

00:11:17.980 This was an individual act.

00:11:19.740 Two, he was acting out of mental illness.

00:11:22.420 Don't look at his background or his ideology.

00:11:25.640 Those had nothing to do with the attack.

00:11:27.260 It was only mental illness, nothing to do with his ideology.

00:11:30.460 The media told us not to call it terrorism.

00:11:33.440 They said that that would be playing into what ISIS wants.

00:11:36.840 And finally, the police initially refused to name the perpetrator, and the media were

00:11:41.560 not showing pictures.

00:11:42.960 They refused to show pictures of this individual.

00:11:45.340 Well, this is kind of the opposite of what we are seeing now.

00:11:48.600 We're seeing blame the entire community.

00:11:50.920 We instantly call it terrorism.

00:11:52.780 The police named the individual right away and said it was deliberate.

00:11:55.800 Media were posting pictures of this guy, not just now as a 20-year-old, but finding pictures

00:12:01.140 of him when he was a teenager.

00:12:02.980 There was one image of him when he was like 15 years old, and no one's talking about whether

00:12:08.500 or not he was mentally ill, and everyone's saying that he must be a right-wing extremist

00:12:12.980 and that he must have been influenced by conservative media and conservative politicians.

00:12:17.520 And who can forget, in the instance of that Danforth killer, the media actually urged Canadians

00:12:23.240 to embrace the killer's family and to reach out and support them.

00:12:28.120 Of course, none of that's happening with the media right now.

00:12:30.020 The left-wing media is more than happy to politicize this tragedy.

00:12:33.540 They're more than happy to use it as a club to beat conservatives.

00:12:36.640 Look, this country is heading in a very dangerous direction, and the liberal government is more

00:12:40.860 than happy to take advantage of a gruesome attack to push their own radical agenda.

00:12:46.260 They did this exact same thing last year after the massacre in Nova Scotia.

00:12:50.300 They used the emotion and the fear of that attack to push through sweeping legislation

00:12:55.120 to ban legal firearms, and I'm sure they'll do it again if we let them.

00:13:00.300 Thank you so much for tuning in.

00:13:01.500 I'm Candace Malcolm, and this has been The Candace Malcolm Show.

The Candice Malcolm Show - June 09, 2021

The politicization of terrorism

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