Islamism — defined most benignly as “the belief that Islam should influence political systems”— is, according to Joe Adam George, the Macdonald-Laurier Institute’s National Security Analyst, the “biggest existential threat to Canada within its borders.” Yet, in the English-language leaders’ election debate, when Bloc Québécois leader François Blanchet dangled the word “Islamism” for discussion, nobody took the bait.
Writing on the subject in these pages last year, George observed that, unlike China and Russia, “what makes Islamists such a formidable force to reckon with is their ability to weaponize Islam to silence, punish and deter” their critics. One Islamist group, the politically influential National Council of Canadian Muslims ( NCCM ), is particularly active on this front.
