Homeless Terror

There is nothing in Canada that gets the right wing quite so excited as terror. They seem almost giddy for any opportunity to spot it - or in lieu of that, fabricate some terror plot and then spot that. One of the more egregious examples might be here on the blog of RightGirl. It seems that she is convinced that terrorists might disguise bombs as the possessions of homeless people. Then there is a rant that demonstrates a poor understanding of the causes of and solutions to homelessness. This is concluded with the coup de grace, a quote that really displays the author's feelings:

"And heartless is a crazy Muslim with a shaggy beard who could easily pass for homeless blowing himself up in front of City Hall where all the tour buses (often full of kids) park."

Elsewhere in this post RightGirl seems to relate anecdotes involving downtown Toronto, which really shows the mind-blowing ignorance of such a statement. First of all, not being able to tell a homeless man from a devout Muslim is an indication of someone that has not interacted with anyone from either group - way to ignore the city you live in. Second, since the tendency of bombers in London and Madrid was to blow themselves up, the risk of an unattended package is low. These extremists want martyrdom, they are not the IRA. So how this issue relates to either unattended packages or bearded men is incohorent. Thirdly, check out Mohamed Atta, or any of the other 9/11 guys, he's clean shaven and none of the rest really have "shaggy" beards. Surprise! The terrorists may know what the cops stereotype as the look of an extremist. They want to look clean, secular, and middle class, just like Atta on that Tuesday morning flight.

In conclusion, homelessness and terror not any more related than say, distracted business men and terror (Heavens! What if they left a brief case in Starbucks? Didn't bin Laden once have a brief case?)
Tags: Terrorism, Homeless, Ignorance