When last we met, this letter had appeared in the Hamilton
Spectator.
“ You better worry, because that wave of truth and anger
will come, and you, other so called progressives, and your immigrant neighbours
will be the first to be washed away.”
- F. Stevens, Hamilton
Several
days ago, some deranged maniac walked into a Quebec
mosque and shot six people.
Do I really
need to spell this out?
Those who
care don’t need to be told, and those who don’t, never will, so it might be a
superfluous effort. But I’m going to try anyway. I live next to a Mosque, you
see, where many of my neighbours worship, play basket ball, and hold used
clothing bazaars. I also live near a gun store, which advertises Bushmasters (rifle
of choice for Adam Lanza) in its front window. I know there is at least one individual in
this town who wants to “wash away” immigrants and progressives. So excuse me
for being a little tense.
The White
House has already tried to cash in on the blood, citing it as justification for
Trump’s immigration bans:
I suppose the logic here being that if those immigrants had
stayed home, a white man might not have shot them.
Even those
disingenuous enough to see no connection at all with Fearless Leader’s purges down
south might want to note the irony: six Muslims dead at the hands of a local,
even as the President insists Muslims are dangerous and need to be kept out of
the country. What are we to make of the home-grown terrorist? What, no
hysteria? No nervous hand-wringing over the sick ideologies that poisoned his
mind? No collective punishment for his community?
Are we
expected to believe he acted in isolation?
I suppose
we are, and to some extent we must: the many cannot be held responsible for the
one. Those predisposed toward violence will inflict it under any pretense, be
it religion or politics. But we don’t have to provide these weeds with such
fertile soil. I for one am not keen to
let religion or politics off the hook, finding in both as many calls to quash
the moral impulse as to listen to it. I think we should pay attention to the
ideologies in which such twisted individuals found inspiration. What reality
did they choose to reside in? What truth – which alternative facts – did they
choose to believe? What words gave shape to their thoughts and what thoughts
gave way to actions?
It seems
trite to look for lessons, but there are reminders and warnings aplenty: of
what can happen when a majority turns on a minority, when the powerful target the vulnerable, when certain segments of society are singled out for a greater share of the blame. When we are divided and further subdivided into ever more rigidly defined Uses and Thems, blood and tears
always follow.
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| L-R: Azzedine Soufiane, Mamadou Tanou Barry, Khaled Belkacemi, Aboubaker Thabti, Thabti Ibrahima Barry, Abdelkrim Hassane (CBC) |
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