Yes, they are Muslim terrorists

The impulse of denial in response to the arrest of 17 Canadian Muslims on charges of terrorism continues. One is tempted to respond derisively, as I did in this blog yesterday and as Jeff Jarvis does on his blog, The Buzz Machine:

"When a big story breaks — like, say, a major arrest foiling a frightening terrorist plot in peaceful Canada — the first question anyone wants to know is 'who?' Who did it? That is, after all, the first of journalism's five Ws: who, what, when, where, why (and how).

"But the New York Times on my doorstep this morning didn't bother answering the who question in its story today until a spare mention of 'Islamic' in the 22nd paragraph and 'Muslim' in the 31st and even those were not terribly informative. In the fifth paragraph, the suspects were merely 'mainly of South Asian descent.' India? Burma? Thailand? Indian? Southeast? Southwest? French-speaking terrorists from Vietnam coming to join their Quebecois confrères, perhaps? Who's to know?"

Old Grouch, one of Jarvis's commenters goes further:

"Islamofascistmurderingnutjobs"

No Jeff, you racist pig insensitive person, that sort of characterization implies judgement (and who are we to judge?) that such Islamic terrorists adherents to the Islamic faith (who, by coincidence and through no fault of their own, happened to be caught preparing to kill people trapped by possibly illegal government action and subsequently accused of "suspicious behavior") are, in fact,(1) Islamic, (2) facisistic, (3) murderers, and (but only from our secular, western perspective) (4) nutjobs persons having a nonwestern mental and social orientation which, while it may be termed "irrational" by bigoted westerners reflects the reality of their traditions and culture, and the continuing efforts by white male westerners to suppress both.

But there is a need for a more serious response, and it comes from Caroline Glick in the Jerusalem Post. She points out that Canadian Muslims who reject jihadism have been shunned at Canadian mosques and ignored by Canadian authorities who seek to interact with more radical Muslims. Here's another excellent point:

As author Bruce Bower [Bawer] exhaustively demonstrates in his book While Europe Slept: How Radical Islam Is Destroying the West From Within, there exists a unity of purpose between Islamic extremists and western elites in Europe and throughout the world. Both sides wish to hide the fact that Islamists seek to dominate the western world while painting the U.S. and Israel as the greatest threats to international security.

And she quotes the clueless statement of a Canadian law enforcement official.

Luc Portelance, the CSIS assistant director of operations, told his countrymen, "It is important to know that this operation in no way reflects negatively on any specific community or ethno-cultural group in Canada."

Like hell it doesn't. Canadian officials deserve great credit for breaking up this terrorist ring. But they and all of us need to state plainly what we are up against. "Islamofascistmurderingnutjobs" is not elegant, but it has the advantage of accuracy.