My latest: the enemy within

In the video, the man is wearing an orange jumpsuit. It is the favoured uniform that ISIS uses for their prisoners. The man is dangling from a pole in a desert somewhere.

Lots of people were killed by ISIS, the Islamic State, in front of high-definition cameras, wearing those orange jumpsuits. In many of the ISIS snuff films – like the ones showing the beheading of American freelance journalist James Foley, Time magazine writer Steven Sotloff and British aid worker Alan Henning – there would be some reference to a news event, to establish its date.  The location would often be somewhere in the desert.

The victims, kneeling and wearing the Guantanamo-style coveralls, would read a statement given to them by ISIS.  Masked ISIS terrorists would be standing behind the men. One of the terrorists would typically make some statement, too, railing against Israel and America and the West.  Then, the terrorists would grab the victim, holding him down, while another terrorist would behead him, using a long-bladed knife. All on camera.

In the June 2015 ISIS video obtained by the authorities and shared this week by great reporters at Global News, Ahmed Fouad Mostafa Eldidi, 62, is allegedly seen holding a sword – which he then uses to hack away at the limbs of the man. We don’t know if the man is dead, but it seems likely.

The victim’s assailant is in a black robe and a head covering bearing the ISIS logo, and his face is briefly visible. The ISIS video was titled “Deterring Spies.” Eldidi has been charged by Canadian police with an aggravated assault outside Canada, but it’s unclear whether it relates to the atrocity shown in the video.

What is clear, however, is that Eldidi and his 26-year-old son Mostafa were this week charged in Toronto with multiple terrorism-related offences, allegedly because they were planning a mass-casualty attack using machetes and axes.

Also clear: the two Eldidis weren’t born here. Nobody is saying exactly when, but they moved to Canada at some point. Perhaps after the elder Eldidi allegedly was filmed lopping off someone’s body parts, perhaps before. But it all raises an important question, doesn’t it?

Why were alleged ISIS terrorists allowed into Canada? And, now that we’re on the subject, why are not quite a few others – the ones possibly shooting up Jewish schools, firebombing synagogues, blocking major highways near Jewish neighborhoods, and issuing death threats, more less in publicly, to Jews – still here? Why don’t we, you know, kick out those who are a risk to national security, and who are convicted of breaking laws? Why not deport them?

When Ben Mulroney and I asked that question on an AM640 radio show back in the Fall, there was a great hue and cry. It was racist, some said. It was fascist, they said. It is something that should never be the law in Canada, addled progressives thundered.

Except, well, it already is.

[To read more, subscribe here.]