How Dumb Is the RCMP? So Dumb That It Employes the Services of a "De-Radicalicalization Counsellor" Who Seems Awfully Cozy With the Taliban

Tarek Fatah, who appeared before the Senate Standing Committee on National Security and Defence the other day, recounts the sorry story of how the RCMP is being duped:

I suggested to the senators that some Islamic clerics are taking us for a ride. For example, a Canadian cleric, a white convert to Islam who is touted as a ‘de-radicalization counsellor’ by the RCMP, was last week in the Gulf Emirate of Qatar, holding meetings with the leadership of the Taliban. 

On his Facebook page, this RCMP de-radicalization counsellor wrote: 

“I am meeting with the head of the Taliban Embassy in Doha, Qatar and we are working on a treaty that would state clearly that the Taliban (Mujahideen) don’t condone vigilante violence, criminal acts or terrorism in non-Muslim countries.” 

De-radicalization, I told the senators, was just an empty meaningless word. The real challenge was to prevent radicalization and this required confronting the rhetoric of political Islam rather than appeasing those who fanned religiosity and made Muslims believe their first loyalty was to Islam, not their community of fellow Canadians and Canada. 

“To ask ‘former radicals’ to de-radicalize radical Islamists is like asking Marxists to convert Communists into liberal democrats,” I told the committee.

FYI, here's the "de-radicalizer's" Facebook entry.

Also, I would suggest that the real real challenge is to come to terms with the fact that "political Islam" and Islam are one and the same, something, alas, which Mr. Fatah seems loath to do.