Hey, Osgoode 4 – Read the National Post Today?

Today the National Post covers the story of an RCMP probe into internet writings of one Bangladeshi-Canadian named Salman Hossain who supported the killing of Canadian troops and even wished for the death of Peter McKay on a trip to Afghanistan.

The Post story quotes a Canadian ‘security expert’, Professor Wesley Wark:

"So what we are in the presence of is a ranter, informed by the usual conspiratorial views that are unfortunately part and parcel of extremist Islamist thought — especially the core anti-Semitic notion of a giant Jewish conspiracy,"

The Post also publishes excerpts from Hossain’s own anti-Canadian posts:

"Canadian soldiers in Canadian soil who are training to go to Afghanistan or Iraq are legitimate targets to be killed. ? Now it is POSSIBLE AND LEGITIMATE!! … believe me, if we could have enough of our soldiers killed, then we’d be forced to withdrawn from Afghanistan."

and

"I enjoy watching the blood flow from the western troops"

Lovely.  I think deportation to Bangladesh is what this laddie needs.

The main point I want to make today is that the National Post has published a story that identifies a radical Islamist as a bloodthirsty wannabe terrorist and potential threat to Canadians.  That he is likely an imbecile attention grabber who needs (but can’t get) a girlfriend is beside the point.  From the Post article it is (just barely) possible for regular Muslims who follow Islam to be ‘offended’ by the paper’s identification of this nutjob as a follower of their religion as such identification may lead to acts of hate or feelings of victimization.

I expect the Osgoode 4 to be consistent in their (ahem) ‘thinking’ and demand a 5 page rebuttal to this story explaining to us why Hossain is not a cover girl for Islam, plus cover art and a few bucks for kicks.  I also expect them to take their grievance before at least 3 HRC’s when the Post kicks them out of the office.  The Osgoode 4 and their CIC chums should have the integrity to be defending their right to be offended against all possible injuries, and this Post story seems like just the ticket.  Of course, they should be dealing with the Osgoode Hall in-house paper first, since I was nice enough to point that out to them last week.

Final thought; we’re still waiting on that new blog we were promised over at Law is Cool.  It’s been over two weeks boys, and it takes about 20 minutes and $10 to get a blog going.  Got anything you want to share with the class?