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The relevant facts

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  • The relevant facts

    Ottawa Citizen, Canada
    April 1 2004

    The relevant facts


    The arrest this week of Ottawa resident Mohammad Momin Khawaja on
    charges of aiding a terrorist group and facilitating a terrorist
    activity brought the war on terror a little closer to Canada. It also
    prompted considerable debate about whether it was right for the
    media, including the Citizen, to identify Mr. Khawaja as a Muslim. We
    believe it was.

    Mr. Khawaja, 24, who lives in Orleans, is a Canadian by birth, a
    software developer by profession and a Muslim by faith. All of those
    facts were reported by the Citizen, but only the reference to his
    religion has caused controversy. Of particular concern was the
    Citizen's front-page headline Tuesday: "Ottawa Muslims held in global
    terror sweep," which prompted several complaints to the paper and a
    letter to the editor from Ed Broadbent and Warren Allmand, two former
    presidents of the International Centre for Human Rights and
    Democratic Development, calling the reference "the most offensive we
    can recall."

    In normal circumstances, identifiers such as a person's race,
    religion, nationality, marital status or sexual orientation would not
    be included in a news article unless it was, or could be, relevant to
    the story. When diplomats from Turkey were attacked in Canada, the
    nationality of their attackers was relevant, given a series of
    similar attacks by groups seeking to avenge the mass killing of
    Armenians in 1916. When terrorists blew up an Air India jet over the
    Atlantic Ocean in 1985, the fact that the principal suspects were
    Sikh was also relevant.

    Today, in an era of Islamist terrorism that has killed thousands of
    people in such diverse places as New York, Washington, Istanbul, Bali
    and Madrid, it is legitimate for a news story on a police raid linked
    to the global war on terror to indicate the religion of the person or
    persons detained. Spaniards know this only too well after the March
    11 attacks on three Madrid trains: Initially, suspicion fell on
    Basque terrorists, but it quickly became clear that Osama bin Laden's
    al-Qaeda network was to blame.

    Identifying a terrorism suspect's religion is not to brand every
    adherent of that religion a potential terrorist. Just as the majority
    of Roman Catholics opposed the murderous ways of the Irish Republican
    Army, so too the majority of the world's Muslims reject and condemn
    the violent intolerance preached in the name of Islam by such people
    as Mr. bin Laden.

    When a terrorist suspect is arrested, whether in Ottawa or elsewhere
    in Canada, our readers have a right to know all of the relevant facts
    to help them understand what has happened. In this case, Mr.
    Khawaja's background, where he worked, lived and travelled, and, yes,
    his religious affiliation, are important elements of the story that
    we have a duty to report.

    As an editorial on this page explained yesterday, we understand and
    empathize with the sensitivity and feelings of vulnerability
    experienced by some members of Ottawa's Muslim community. These
    concerns are real and must be taken into account, not only by the
    news media in reporting this story, but also by police and
    prosecutors as the case moves through the justice system.
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