Orlando demands stricter controls

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theQuestion: In the aftermath of Orlando, should Canada revisit its refugee policy?*

When bullies etched “Brent Stafford is a faggot” into the door of our high school biology class and later spray painted the same across my car, there were no sexual orientation councillors one could turn to. In 1986, there were only bewildered teachers, heckling classmates and enough hate to fill a football team. It was only three years after AIDS was discovered and widespread fear unleashed an onslaught of abuse upon men — those gay and suspected of — which haunts my worldview to this day.

Petr is right, in the past violence towards gays was often fuelled by religious bigotry. But he’s sadly off the mark implying an equivalency between the last gasps of Christian extremism and the horrific act of violence committed by Omar Mateen. It was the worst slaughter of gays in U.S. history and it was carried out in the name of Islamic jihad.

Liberals have lost their minds repudiating the facts. Gun control would not have prevented the massacre. France has some of the strictest gun laws in the west, which failed to prevent the slaughter of 130 by Islamic State fighters in Paris. The attack was not caused by a political environment cultivated by Christian conservatives. And, Mateen did not act alone as his second wife is now under FBI investigation.

I take the terrorist at his word. On Facebook and over three calls to police during the attack he pledged his allegiance to ISIS. Moreover, his devotion to jihad likely predates this recent terror group. In 2001, Mateen was suspended from high school for celebrating the 9/11 terrorist attacks. A school administrator says Mateen “didn’t show any remorse … he was pretty happy it happened.” Upon being told, his parents, who are Afghan immigrants, were unconcerned by the incident. This is troubling.

Canada needs to revisit its refugee policy in regards to immigrants seeking entry from Muslim countries. I don’t advocate a ban, only common sense. With 10 countries where homosexuality may be punished by death — the majority being Muslim — it would be wise to enquire about the nature of one’s position in regards to gay people, if that position may indeed promote hatred and violence here at home.

Islam should not be exempt from the same scrutiny or reason we apply to all other religions in western society.

*First published in 24hrs Vancouver ‘theDuel’

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