Compare and Contrast

I'm puzzled. On Sunday last week, the RCMP arrested 17 people for planning terrorist acts. In the United States, we have another man arrested for plotting to bomb an abortion clinic.

The Toronto bunch is accused of plotting to create several fertilizer bombs to blow up a variety of targets, including the Peace Tower on Parliament Hill; taking politicians hostage and beheading the Prime Minister. Okay, fine, we have seventeen nutcases who appear to be "religiously inspired" to commit a series of violent, nasty crimes against Canadians. Arguably, their motives are driven by a combination of politics and religion.

Allegedly, they used a farm north of Toronto to "train" themselves - creeping about the woods with paintball guns and occasionally doing target practice with "real" guns. By all accounts I have seen so far, this sounds fairly typical of the schemes that young men in their early 20s can come up with - grandiose, overblown and generally stupid. These plans seldom come to anything of consequence - or if they do, the culprits are readily apprehended.

On the other side of the border, we have a man building a pipe bomb with the intent of blowing up an abortion clinic. Although the symbolism of blowing up an abortion clinic is different, the result is the same - a lot of innocent civilians are going to be hurt by this act. Further, this clown is accused of stealing a handgun for the purpose of shooting the doctors "that provide abortions".

Again, it seems likely that this person's motives were driven by a combination of political and religious drivers. Although he is likely to be "Christian", and the other clowns were "Muslim", there seems to be little difference.

So, how is there any moral difference between what the "gang of 17" were plotting and the "gang of 1"'s plot to blow up an abortion clinic? There isn't. If the label of "terrorist" applies to one, then it applies to both. It seems to me that the term "terrorist" is being used almost exclusively with respect to people of the Muslim faith when they plot crimes of this nature.

Any social or political group will have its share of whackjobs. Fundamentalist Islam has an amazing amount of nutcases who have decided that violence is a way to move their agenda forward; Fundamentalist Christianity is no better - with people running around plotting to bomb medical clinics because of a procedure they disagree with, or demanding the revival of the death penalty for homosexuals.