Mounties apologize to Canadian Muslims for arresting terrorists during Ramadan

[Boogie]

Muslims' response:  "You guys are idiots."

Background:  So, last August, the RCMP busted a homegrown terrorist ring, arrests three people, go us!

Now, however, news comes out that our paranoid, pandering, Cultural Sensitivity Squad held meetings with Muslim groups following the arrests to apologize for.....arresting terrorists during Ramadan.

http://www.calgarysun.com/news/canada/2011/01/05/16768431.html

As RCMP investigators searched through homes, computers and the seized equipment of three terror suspects arrested at the end of August, the RCMP's community outreach office in Ottawa was calling an emergency meeting of the cultural diversity consultative committee to apologize to local Muslims.

“To show support to our Muslim brothers and sisters during RAMADAN, there will be no food or drink during this most important meeting. This meeting is for one hour only, in order to observe prayer time and the breaking of the fast during RAMADAN,” wrote Cpl. Wayne Russett.

The committee, especially Cpl. Russett, went into high gear after the arrest of Hiva Mohammad Alizadeh and Misbahuddin Ahmed in Ottawa's west end on Aug. 25. The two men, along with Khurram Syed Sher, were charged with several terrorism-related offences in a plot the Mounties say was aimed at launching a terrorist attack in Canada and supporting terrorism abroad.

At the Aug. 26 meeting, one day after the terror bust, RCMP and Ottawa police officials apologized that arrests had taken place during Ramadan.

In the days after the arrests, Cpl. Russett held more than a dozen meetings with Muslim groups in Ottawa including visits to mosques, community centres and several meals to break the Ramadan fast.

“We have been actively engaging the local Muslim Communities and will continue to do so in an attempt to neutralize and elevate any issues of concern,” Russett wrote in an e-mail to Francois Bidal, the commanding officer of the RCMP's A Division, which covers the National Capital Region.

The outreach to Muslims following the arrests is being criticized by some Muslim Canadians as blind pandering.

“This e-mail is an indication of how within the RCMP there are officers in authority who do not see the threat Islamism poses to our nation, but unwittingly perform the role of useful idiots,” said Tarek Fatah of the Muslim Canadian Congress.

“Why would they apologize to Muslims for arrests during Ramadan?” one of the meeting participants asked. The person, who did not want to be named, highly doubted police would call a meeting of Christian leaders to apologize for arresting someone on Christmas Day.

The cultural diversity consultative committee was established to “advance and promote positive relations between the RCMP the diverse cultural groups” of the National Capital Region.

 

[Diunx]

 

[Tauntaun]

 :usavich

[Joe Molotov]

This won't happen in Sarah Palin's America.

[Mandark]

This sure sounds dumb.  What kind of media outlet is the Calgary Sun?  The other Sun papers I know (NY, London) are less than completely reliable.

[drew]

you guys should change the name of your national anthem to "Oh, Canada"

[Boogie]

This sure sounds dumb.  What kind of media outlet is the Calgary Sun?  The other Sun papers I know (NY, London) are less than completely reliable.

Original story was from Ottawa Sun.  The Sun chain in Canada is certainly a lower-tier paper, but not completely disreputable.  And, if anything, they tend to be more "pro-police" than the more major papers.  FWIW, I would find it to be a very believable story given what I know of the internal workings of my organization.  On the other hand, the brass put out a letter to the editor today denying any "apology" for the arrests.

Followup article: http://www.torontosun.com/news/canada/2011/01/07/16798531.html

The "letter to the editor" by the brass also got sent Force-wide on our e-mail system.  Strikes me as damage-control, to me.  We're great on the operational side, but our PR sucks in the past five years. 

[Boogie]

you guys should change the name of your national anthem to "Oh, Canada"

[drew]

uh

ok

[Dickie Dee]

This sure sounds dumb.  What kind of media outlet is the Calgary Sun?  The other Sun papers I know (NY, London) are less than completely reliable.

Original story was from Ottawa Sun.  The Sun chain in Canada is certainly a lower-tier paper, but not completely disreputable.

:tbslol

[Mandark]

Hm.  At this point, I'm gonna say the Sun story is probably a pretty gross distortion.

It's based on a single anonymous source, with no elaboration on the nature or context of the "apology".  Plus their only expert quote is from a fringe Muslim Canadian group that apparently opposes the community center Ground Zero Terror Victory Mosque, a group to which their anonymous source probably also belongs (cause I'd bet ten bucks right now that the Siddiqui person in the Toronto Sun story was the original source).

The most likely thing is that the community outreach people had a bunch of meetings with local Muslim groups, which would be natural since it was the end of Ramadan and they had just made a high-profile terror arrest.  At one of the meetings an official said they regretted that it had to happen during the holy month, and someone at the meeting with an ax to grind took a hyped-up version of events to a sympathetic newspaper with somewhat tabloidy ethical standards.

I'm totally prepared to believe that community outreach offices of the RCMP are as ham-handed as they are in all their other incarnations, but to me this looks like 20% grain of truth, and 80% chain email fodder.

[Boogie]

sheeeeeit, bested on my own turf by your research skills.  (ya, maybe I'm just lazy these days.)

didn't know about the Ground Zero position, or the previous Fatah article.

Guess this situation pitted my own cynicism about my own leadership against my distrust of the media, and I allowed the media to win for a spell.