As Canadians, and especially as someone living in Toronto, one of the most multicultural cities in the world, we can get a bit smug about how civilized and fair our society is.
Recently, a muslim kid in the states got handcuffed and fingerprinted for bringing a clock to school… because to those well versed in looney tunes, it looked like a bomb. Even though, they knew it wasn’t, and the kid insisted it was a clock, clearly this was an attempt to… terror something something.
Then of course, there is the old ‘ muslim president‘ thing, wink wink, B.H. Obama…
Of course, we’re not totally immune.
And, of course, once the rhetoric gets flowing, the stupid usually follows.
Can’t we all get along?
From the video, it seems there’s plenty of stupidity and violence on both sides. What is most notable is that Canadian police do seem capable of holding back a rather large group of agitated people without using violence or the threat of deadly force. I’d like to see that more often, except that in this case, they permitted the crowd to win and shut down the event. I wondered why you didn’t have any description of the events of the video, because it’s difficult to see who is who, and it seems that a group (Rise Canada and “PEGIDA”) was authorized to hold what seems a small event against radical Islam, and the angry mob who shut them down was the PC crowd, and they succeeded in “no-platforming” them. This is the kind of behaviour we criticize religionists for, because religious ideas cannot withstand scrutiny, so they turn to censorship. Are Canadians so weak that we need to shut down opposing ideas? I haven’t looked (like at ALL) into Rise Canada or PEGIDA, but if someone is calling for Islam to reform its radical elements, I sort of support that. (I’d prefer people leave Islam altogether as the more rational course).
“a muslim kid in the states got handcuffed and fingerprinted for bringing a clock to school” just like any other kid would have, had they brought the same “clock” and behaved the same. He removed the innards of an old Radio Shack clock, and transplanted them into a pencil box that looks like a suitcase (exposing a shock hazard, by the way). His own statements in interview show that he knew it would look suspicious (I guess he’s one of those “well versed in looney tunes”) because he decided to tie it shut instead of locking it. He then claimed to have built the clock himself (lie) and then disobeyed his engineering teacher’s instructions not to bring it to other classes. Then he kept it powered so that it disrupted the class. Even if he’s the angel you seem to think he is, if someone brings something to school that looks like a bomb, it has to be investigated. Columbine was planned for over a year, and included bombs (which failed). It’s not unreasonable to suppose that when you’re planning an attack on a school, you’d perform some tests, or get your victims used to seeing the weapon as a peaceful object.
In my previous comment I said “just like any other kid”, but I was over-broad. I should have said “just like any other boy”. Girls don’t seem to attack schools nearly as much.
I didn’t record the video, just saw it on live leak.
You are right about girls though, the profile… when attacking schools… is middle class white boys.
Of course, no one claims the brown kid did this, the worst he is accused of is a hoax. Clever of him to claim it was a clock…. Repeatedly. Terrorists are masters of reverse psychology.
Or… Maybe it’s just that it’s Texas, during the anti-Muslim holy month of September…
Amusingly, as a child, I also took apart lots of things, but I never got accused of making anything, they just accused me of breaking shit…