Where's the Moolah?

The GTA Muslim community, which is non-homogenous and really quite incredibly "diverse," plans to get around to doing something to prevent its young-uns from succumbing to jihad's siren call (in the manner, say, of the Toronto 18 would-be prime minister decapitators or the lads reportedly running back to Somalia)--no foolin'. But, well, they want to do it the Canadian way--by getting the feds to pony up the cash for a "deradicalization" program. At least, that's what reps told Ceeb producer Nazim Bakhsh, who recounted his interviews on Matt Galloway's morning radio show. Robert Fulford comments (balefully):

On Wednesday morning, Nazim Baksh, a CBC producer who has been following the story for four years, outlined for Toronto local radio listeners what he's heard from Muslims trying to deal with this issue.

As Baksh described it, "The discussion was raised about -- do we get government funding to do deradicalization programs in Toronto? Which model do we follow?"

That was the first point Baksh made about the conversations, and almost the last one. Muslims wanted to create "an internal program" in the community but, as Baksh explained, the Canadian government has been reluctant to support this kind of initiative. For that reason or some other, no program has taken shape.

Baksh's Muslim acquaintances are obviously adapting themselves to the Canadian way. Their automatic response is to turn for help to the government. Their plan seems to me a spectacular case of state-dependency, worse even than the issue of funding for Toronto's Pride parade, discussed in a Post editorial earlier this week.

Surely, those who spoke to Baksh couldn't have given that idea much thought. It's obvious that anyone who might conceivably become a violent Islamist would stay as far away as possible from anything supported by the Canadian government. Running that kind of a program on a government grant perfectly defines the term "counterproductive." Sounds like madness to me. But neither Baksh nor his interviewer on the program, Matt Galloway, raised this point.

"Madness"--oh, pooh. Madness is our middle name. In fact our national slogan is "ad mari usque ad madness." And, hey, if the government can provide the wankers over at Palestine House with the financial wherewithal to play with their zippers and toss pennies at 'Zionists', surely it can cough up the coin for a "deradicalization" effort. It could fall under the rubric of "multiculturalism," the community being so non-homogenous and super-"diverse" and all.

Did I mention that it's "diverse"?