The recent killings in Toronto by a deranged Muslim murderer who shot up restaurants in that city, continues to elicit comment from writers and activists who are troubled not just by the attack, but also by the response of government and media to it. One such commentator who is concerned about the way that a dishonest narrative about ‘mental illness’ has been used to divert attention away from Jihad is Tarek Fatah, who is a Canadian Islam reformer. He has called out those who have used the alleged mental illness of the murderer Faisal Hussain, to paint the killer as some sort of victim of ‘the system’.
When this double murder occurred and the family of the killer quickly came out with a statement concerning their late relatives ongoing mental health problems, I along with many others who are cautious about ascribing Islamic motive when there may be none, gave this explanation somewhat of the benefit of the doubt. The swiftness of the statement’s release did suggest that a sick person going rogue was a possibility. Unfortunately there are people with catastrophic mental illnesses who kill because their delusions tell them to do this terrible thing. Having had contact in the past with those whose mental state was fragile I understood that it was quite possible that this could have been one of these occasions when an individual’s mental health tragedy causes tragedy for others as well.
But, as is happening rather too often to be normal, the ‘mental health’ line started to unravel as soon as Faisal Hussain’s background and social media was checked. Support for Islamic terror groups was alleged and mosques and Islamic groups in areas that Hussain frequented, started to come under scrutiny by some media and by commentators familiar with Islamic extremism. It’s fair to say that the sort of Islamic groups that Hussain could have come into contact with are not exactly models of Quaker-type pacifism and are what a reasonable person may decide were extremist.
Tarek Fatah writing in the Toronto Sun, looks at some of the sorts of prayers and supplications used by Islamic groups that operate in the Toronto area which Hussain could have been exposed to. He also looks at the sort of spin that was employed by government and mainstream media to downgrade the idea that this attack was jihad.
This piece by Mr Fatah, linked below, is of his usual high quality and passion. It most certainly hits the spot when it comes to diagnosing the lethal blind spot that Western societies have regarding Islam and Jihad.
“down-play the idea” rather than “down-grade” – if you’ll excuse my pointing it out ?