Gen J'ers

Today, Stewart Bell, writing in the National Post, discusses the gathering menance of radicalized Muslims, who are Canadian citizens. These "homegrown" terrorists are generally young, often well educated, and disenfranchised.

Bell discusses a declassified report, by Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS), which analyzes this ever increasing and alarming threat. As Bell writes: "Western jihadist youth counterculture is the next phase in the evolution of global terrorism." Bell calls these adherents: Generation Jihad. (I'll coin the term: Gen J'ers!)

Gen J'ers have not been formally commissioned by al-Qaeda, but they show up to the party, in their panel truck full of ammonium nitrate fertilizer and diesel fuel, with hardwired cell phone detonaters, and a laptop wired for WiFi. For them, Canada is just "another battlefield."

Bell tells us, the report points to two causes: (1) a "sense of anger" for what they see as "oppression of Muslims"; and (2) parental influence, "Fathers with extreme Islamic beliefs are raising their children to be extreme believers."

Gen J'ers are difficult to unearth and thwart, for they move easily among their neighbors; and once they are caught, you cannot simply deport them, for they are citizens of the country they want to destroy. (Perhaps, a quick trip to the scaffold of destiny might suffice!)

The mobility of Gen J'ers in Western society makes them highly prized by their international comrades-in-arms.

Bell quotes Canada's Integrated Threat Assessment Center: "radical Islam will continue to appeal to the disenfranchised and those struggling with a personal or spiritual crises."