I would suggest to you that it is one of the major mistakes made by the current administration in authorizing what is called “de-radicalization” which, in fact, is radicalization. We have an incident where someone working very closely with the RCMP took it upon himself to go to Qatar, meet with the leadership of the Taliban and then come back over here and pose with the single-finger salute, on camera, including the mother of the dead jihadi who converted to Islam and died in Syria.
Unless and until this very racist and stereotypical image of what is a Muslim is changed, you will never be able to meet Muslim architects, Muslim comedians, Muslim engineers, maybe even Muslim strippers. You will not even know what 90% of Muslims look like. The only people all political parties reach out to are those who “look like” Muslims, who dress up that way, who have an obsession with facial hair or the covering of hair, and who dress up as if they are living in Saudi Arabia. People like Salim or myself are just not ugly enough to be considered authentic Muslims. So we are never approached. In 14 years, the RCMP has never talked to any one of us, despite the fact I've been writing a column. He's an author, I'm an author. No, the only Muslims the RCMP and CSIS talk to are those who lie to their face, feed them 30 nights in Ramadan, and then win them over. We are being fooled.