Islamic Terrorism in the West ( Mega thread)

[brihard]

From the FBI: "... a Mint Hill, North Carolina man that allegedly planned to use knives and hammers to execute a deadly New Year’s Eve attack at a grocery store and a fast food restaurant in support of the Islamic State in Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS) has been arrested and charged with attempting to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organization ..."
A bit more here:

US authorities arrest 18-year-old accused of plotting ISIL-inspired attack

Officials announced the suspect has been charged with attempting to provide 'material support' for 'terrorism'.

www.aljazeera.com

FBI disrupts alleged ISIS-inspired New Year’s Eve attack plot targeting NC grocery store, fast food restaurant

Prosecutors say Christian Sturdivant, 18, of Mint Hill, N.C., allegedly plotted an attack on New Year's Eve in support of the Islamic State terrorist group.

www.foxnews.com

FBI says it foiled 18-year-old’s ISIS-inspired New Year’s Eve ‘terror attack’ in North Carolina

An 18-year-old Burger King worker from North Carolina was “prepared for death” as he plotted a New Year’s Eve terrorist attack on a local grocery store and fast food joint, offici…

nypost.com

FBI says it disrupted a potential New Year's Eve attack inspired by Islamic State group

The FBI said Friday it disrupted a New Year’s Eve attack plot targeting a grocery store and fast-food restaurant in North Carolina, arresting an 18-year-old man who authorities say pledged loyalty to the Islamic State group.

www.pbs.org

So they literally stopped Hammer Time.

 

[OldSolduer]

So they literally stopped Hammer Time.

There was a guy in Bosnia in an asylum. Iirc he was Pablo the Hammer Killer. I think his count was seven

 

[CBH99]

I would dearly love for Ontario to eliminate its parochial school system and public support for other schools, but it is political Kryptonite because there are no votes in it for any party.

Maybe there could be, though?

If worded/presented the right way, and if the benefits are well articulated, perhaps the elimination of such support could be used to attract some additional votes?



(I'm incredibly ignorant of Ontario's internal political scene, and have no idea of the 'substance' of the issue. But chances are if you're thinking about it, others are too.)

 

[lenaitch]

Maybe there could be, though?

If worded/presented the right way, and if the benefits are well articulated, perhaps the elimination of such support could be used to attract some additional votes?



(I'm incredibly ignorant of Ontario's internal political scene, and have no idea of the 'substance' of the issue. But chances are if you're thinking about it, others are too.)

I honestly don't know the public view on the topic. It really hasn't been platform issue in years. Unless they see a strong public support, no political party is going to touch this third rail, no matter how well articulated the position is.

Two things drive political platforms: ideology and vote calculations.

Which politician was it who said an election is no time to discuss complex issues?

 

[The Bread Guy]

I honestly don't know the public view on the topic. It really hasn't been platform issue in years. Unless they see a strong public support, no political party is going to touch this third rail, no matter how well articulated the position is.

Yup. If Team Blue, a party usually more unafraid of taking broadly unpopular stances to save money than Team Red, didn't do it in Ontario, nor Team Orange (admittedly short tenure) based in those days on a bit of an anti-organized-religion vibe, it ain't ever going to be done.

 

[YZT580]

What is there about the public school system that is so wonderful? There is no discipline and the achievement levels are sub-par. They are dominated by Dewey concepts and controlled by the unions which have a very left wing agenda with which they have been successfully indoctrinating students for decades now although they are less successful in teaching maths and english. The evidence is in the riots and protests at various universities along with the results on standardized testing. Percentage wise private and catholic schools place more students in universities so why do you want to abolish funding for the better system? Genuinely curious.

 

[Kirkhill]

What is there about the public school system that is so wonderful? There is no discipline and the achievement levels are sub-par. They are dominated by Dewey concepts and controlled by the unions which have a very left wing agenda with which they have been successfully indoctrinating students for decades now although they are less successful in teaching maths and english. The evidence is in the riots and protests at various universities along with the results on standardized testing. Percentage wise private and catholic schools place more students in universities so why do you want to abolish funding for the better system? Genuinely curious.

Public schools and public librairies went hand in hand. They were the embodiment of the Reformation. Everybody had access to information and was free to draw their own conclusions. And people were free to voice their opinions.

The Catholic school system in protestant countries was established to protect the flock and control access to ideas. It was justified on the basis of family having the right to raise their children according to their own beliefs.

For protestant parents this largely meant a tendency towards individualism. For Catholic parents this largely meant conforming to their community's beliefs.

The system worked well as long as schools were controlled by the communities they served. The system failed when the local schools were "nationalized" by the provinces on the grounds of equality of opportunity demanding equal funding and then the teachers' guilds took over.

The Catholic schools still serve their community,
The public schools serve the teachers' guilds.

 

[Halifax Tar]

Well done Europe.

https://twitter.com/x/status/2009503316846497974

 

[Quirky]

Well done Europe.

Seems relevant.

 

[IKnowNothing]

so why do you want to abolish funding for the better system? Genuinely curious.

This author articulates it pretty well.

It’s time to end public funding for Catholic schools in Ontario

End public funding for Catholic schools. Having a vast separate system for Catholics makes no sense in 21st-century Canada. We don’t fund Jewish, Hindu or Muslim schools. Why Catholic ones?

The system is a holdover from the days when Ontario was overwhelmingly white and Protestant. Protection for separate schools was enshrined in the Constitution as a gesture to the Catholic minority (and the Protestant minority in Quebec). All that is just a passage in the history books now. Special status for Catholic schools is a dusty anachronism.

An expensive one, to boot. Two separate systems means two separate bureaucracies. Many neighbourhoods have one Catholic school, one public, each overseen by its own principal and board. Sometimes they exist side by side, teaching more or less the same thing in different buildings a few steps away from each other.

The dual system looks more out of date with every passing year. Ontario is absorbing throngs of immigrants from around the world. The schools help turn their kids into Canadians. They are indispensable engines of integration. Having separate, publicly funded schools for different faiths puts sand in the gears. Dividing kids by religion is the last thing a diverse society like ours should be doing.

Ontarians acknowledged as much when they effectively rejected the idea of extending funding to all religious schools. John Tory proposed it during the 2007 election campaign, when he was the head of the Progressive Conservative party. He argued that if Catholic schools get funding, it was only fair to fund schools of other faiths. To many voters, that seemed like subsidizing division, a deeply un-Canadian concept. Mr. Tory lost the election and, eventually, the party leadership.

But the separate-school system lives on, a classic example of the tyranny of the status quo. The only reason it exists is that it has always existed. With millions of students and parents involved in Catholic schools, no political leader dares to touch them.

 

[YZT580]

This author articulates it pretty well.

It’s time to end public funding for Catholic schools in Ontario

It is better to have a choice. I have had children and grandchildren enrolled in all 3 systems: catholic, faith-based and public and I can guarantee that the quality of teacher and of product is far better in the first two than in the last. In Trenton, if you want french immersion, it is the catholic that provides it although their standards have gone downhill in the last decade. It is worth a little duplication if it provides parents with the ability to chose rather than be forced into accepting a sub-standard system. And Islamic prayer rooms in public schools are proof that we have already divided kids by religion: just possibly not the division we wanted