Wednesday, December 19, 2018

Some individuals in Canada continue to support Sikh (Khalistani) extremist ideologies and movements. This political movement aims to create an independent homeland for Sikhs called Khalistan, in India. Violent activities in support of an independent Sikh homeland have fallen since their height during the 1982-1993 period when individuals and groups conducted numerous terrorist attacks. The 1985 Air India bombing by Khalistani terrorists, which killed 331 people, remains the deadliest terrorist plot ever launched in Canada. While attacks around the world in support of this movement have declined, support for the extreme ideologies of such groups remains. For example, in Canada, two key Sikh organizations, Babbar Khalsa International and the International Sikh Youth Federation, have been identified as being associated with terrorism and remain listed terrorist entities under the Criminal Code.

there are no factual errors in this report, that i can see. some people might not like these facts, but that's just too bad.

sikhism, like any other religion, is intrinsically subject to the whims of an extremist fringe of "true believers". it consequently doesn't matter what passage of time exists between attacks - the threat of violence is perpetual, and of infinite length. and, there's not anything that sikhs, as a community, can do to completely eradicate the threat, other than to practice a form of harm reduction and/or denounce their belief system, altogether.

it doesn't matter how well you tame your pet lion, it's still a lion - so long as you have a pet lion, you are under constant threat of being mauled.

as an aside, this idea that sikhs aren't muslims is disingenuous. i understand that most people don't know a lot about sikhism, and i mostly don't, either. frankly, i'm not sure it really even qualifies as a religion - it seems to be more of an ethnic nationalism and doesn't seem to have a very developed sense of theology. but, insofar as sikhism is a religion, it is in fact largely a branch of islam. and, i'm sure you'd actually get a diversity of opinions about that, like you get a diversity of opinions about whether mormons are christians or not.

but, whether it's really a religion, or really a branch of islam, it is certainly an ideology, and all ideologies are inherently dangerous at the fringes, and there's nothing that can be done about that besides abolishing it.

https://www.publicsafety.gc.ca/cnt/rsrcs/pblctns/pblc-rprt-trrrsm-thrt-cnd-2018/index-en.aspx#s113