Toronto police chief: Faith had nothing to do with it

It ain’t just a river in Egypt:

“It appears that a number of these young men were motivated by an ideology based on politics, hatred and terrorism, and not on faith,” said Chief Bill Blair after meeting with local Muslim leaders to discuss their fears of repercussions.

“I am not aware of any mosques that these individuals were influenced by,” he said.

Super. Here’s an article published today by the New York Times about the mosque attended by several of the suspects, the eldest of whom served on its board and led prayers. “Neighbors said the Islamic Center had grown very popular in the last few years.” Nice to know Toronto PD is on the ball.

Portrait of a September 10th society:

Martin Rudner, a national security professor and director of the Canadian Centre of Intelligence and Security Studies at Carleton University in Ottawa, says most Canadians believe they belong to a just, “highly decent” society. Therefore, they simply don’t understand why someone would want to attack them.

“I think most Canadians are going to be in a state of denial,” Rudner says. “I think there is a very profound feeling among Canadians of, : ‘why would anyone want to do us harm?’”

The Toronto Star has new details about the plot. It turns out the ammonium nitrate was purchased as part of a sting: indeed, it was the RCMP that delivered the substance to the suspects, a fact which I’m sure terror apologists will have great fun with over the next few days.

Meanwhile, the president of the Islamic Supreme Council of Canada says he expects a torrent of hatred to reign down upon Muslims in the aftermath of the pinch. And in fact, someone did smash 30 windows at a mosque in Toronto overnight. Members of the RCMP, Toronto police, and CSIS met with community leaders a few hours earlier to assure them that they won’t stand idly by if crazed Canadians descend upon their neighborhoods with torches and pitchforks. But one local woman wondered whether special meetings between cops and Muslims might not send the wrong message:

[B]usinesswoman Salma Siddiqui … said security is a Canadian, not a Muslim, issue.

“None of these gatherings are going to do us any good,” she said. “Appeasement doesn’t do us any good.

“Well, we’re going to have a photo-op. The imams are going to do this, the imams are going to do that.

“The most important thing is buying into real Canadian citizenship. Be good citizens … it’s a Canadian citizens’ responsibility — and I talk as a Canadian citizen — that we do whatever is right for our country.”

The suspects are due back in court on Tuesday. Considering how yesterday’s hearings went, it should be a real chucklefest:

[Defense lawyer Rocco] Galati … said the whole operation was conveniently staged in advance of upcoming Supreme Court discussions on how security and terror is investigated, also sparred with [Judge] Farnum over his client having his prescription glasses removed.

“Please direct the officers to return them,” he instructed the JP, who in turn said. “I can’t order them to do anything.”

Security and what could be “harmful to their safety,” the JP said, is their call.

Galati sarcastically responded, “I would like them to be provided with a copy of the Koran — if that is not too harmful to their safety.”

An angry Farnum shot back, “don’t toy with me — I don’t like it.”

Galati also complained about “armed OPP” being in the court. “I don’t feel safe with an automatic weapon pointed in my direction.”

But the rest of us don’t feel safe with people running around with explosives and fertilizer and plans to hurt innocent Canadians.

Galati brought a friend with him to court, too: Aly Hindy, an imam from Toronto who happens to be pals with … the Khadr family.

Reaction? The Islamic Supreme Council of Canada condemns the alleged terrorist plot, but the Canadian Islamic Congress is a bit more nuanced. Toronto Star columnist Haroon Siddiqui, who had a quite a lot to say recently about Ayaan Hirsi Ali, doesn’t have much to offer for this story. But Rosie DiManno, his colleague at the Star, does:

If the accusations prove true, this isn’t just slumming with jihad. For the benighted who claim that the war on terrorism is terrorism: Here is your war.

Finally, from the blowback files, Winnipeg Sun columnist Eric Margolis and Taliban douchebag Mullah Dadullah agree: it’s time for Canada to get out of Afghanistan.

The break-up of the alleged terror cell also raises questions about the Canadian military role in Afghanistan, which was recently extended until 2009, and whether it might have inspired the rage of those arrested Friday night.

A recent interview given by Mullah Dadullah, a Taliban commander, to al-Jazeera television, warns that the military presence in Kandahar makes Canadians a target.

But the prime minister defended the mission, insisting that Canada is “helping to take back the countryside from drug lords and from terrorists.”

“It is a dangerous world and we cannot turn a blind eye to it,” Harper said in his speech.

As for Margolis, Goldstein does the honors. Jeff told me recently he’s thinking of quitting his blog, but I told him no way: lefty bloggers without Goldstein would be like an Evil Dead movie without Bruce Campbell.

Update: ABC News finally figures out that two plus two equals four. And Theodore Dalrymple despairs.

• Obama administration sources explain Benghazi: “It’s actually closer to us being idiots”
• Woodward: Don’t dismiss Benghazi as a scandal
• Great news: US has misplaced two former Witness Protection Program participants “known or suspected as terrorists”; Update: Failed to update no-fly lists?

Blowback