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Mubin Shaikh was a supporter of jihad before becoming an informant on the ?Toronto 18,? helping to thwart a large-scale terrorist plot in 2006.
Photograph by: Peter J. Thompson , Postmedia News files
The title of the film is Facing Extremism, but the makers of this chilling documentary do far more than face extremism. They get into the heads of white supremacists, radical Islamists and violent anti-abortionists, among others, to learn what has propelled them into a cycle of hate. And with the assistance of mental-health professionals and other experts, they are able to deconstruct the hatred.
Even more intriguing is that some of the subjects in the doc have renounced their pasts and are trying to make amends. Also fascinating is the testimony of close friends and relatives of the victims of hate crimes who choose not to give into a life of fear and are willing to forgive.
Facing Extremism, which airs Monday at 9 p.m. on VisionTV, is part of a series of documentaries on the network that seeks to explore and expose ?the dark corners of religion- and ethnicity-based intolerance, hatred and violence.? The series runs until the end of June.
This doc begins with the aftermath of last year?s massacre at a Sikh temple in Wisconsin, where white supremacist Wade Michael Page shot and killed six people and wounded four others before committing suicide.
Some believe the deranged U.S. Army vet had mistaken the Sikhs for Muslims. Regardless, while there is still trauma among relatives of the victims, they maintain that succumbing to a lifetime of anger would be ?a waste of time.?
The documentary then shifts to a riveting interview with Arno Michaels, a former white supremacist, skinhead rocker and author of the book My Life After Hate. With flashbacks of him in concert, stirring up skinheads, Michaels ? his hair grown ? is contrite: ?I feel responsible for creating the environment that created (Page).?
An abused son of alcoholics, Michaels spent 20 years practising the tenets of ?hate and violence.? He talks of ?us versus them? and an ongoing war mentality, how hate is learned and passed down, and about how convenient it is to blame other groups for one?s misery.
So what turned Michaels? Random acts of kindness from those he wished to target. Like his African-American co-worker who would give him half his lunch, because the hungry Michaels would spend all his money on booze. Like the person on the street who smiled at Michaels when the skinhead glared menacingly at him.
The scene then shifts to Toronto, and an interview with Mubin Shaikh, a one-time supporter of jihad. He concedes that he never felt discriminated against, growing up in Toronto, but yet he cheered the 9/11 attacks. He became radicalized at 19, perhaps over guilt of having led a hedonistic lifestyle. He went off to Afghanistan and Pakistan and was further indoctrinated into the jihad cause.
But Shaikh had a change of heart, ultimately becoming an informant on the ?Toronto 18? and helping to thwart a 2006 terrorist attack that called for large-scale destruction in Toronto and even the beheading of Stephen Harper in Ottawa. Shaikh has not had any regrets about doing so.
Latif Hyderi also feels he did the right thing by testifying against his niece Tooba Yahya and her husband, Mohammad Shafia, in the trial arising from the drowning deaths of their three daughters and Shafia?s first wife, Rona Amir Mohammad, in Kingston four years ago. He told authorities that Shafia wanted to kill his eldest daughter, Zainab ? who, along with the rest of the family, lived in Montreal ? because she was a ?whore.?
Shafia, Yahya and their son Hamed were found guilty on four counts of first-degree murder. Regardless, Hyderi was shunned by members of the Afghan community, some of whom believed Shafia was entitled to carry out this ?honour killing? and felt that Hyderi should not have testified. But in Hyderi?s view of Islam, ?one innocent person being murdered is the same as killing all of mankind.?
In another of the doc?s more stunning interviews, New York freelance journalist Amanda Robb explains how obsessed she was to understand the mindset of James Charles Kopp. He was convicted in 2003 for the 1998 murder of Barnett Slepian. The victim was Robb?s uncle, a respected physician who performed abortions. Kopp was affiliated with a radical Catholic anti-abortion group known as the Lambs of Christ.
?I just wanted to understand why he had done this,? Robb states. ?There are not-well people out there, and it?s too easy for them to get guns.?
Robb ? who is pro-choice but tolerant of law-abiding anti-abortionists ? eventually met Kopp, and almost felt pity for a ?man so pathetic and tangled.? It helped her establish some closure for the senseless murder of her beloved uncle.
Ron Lillie ? creator of Facing Extremism, along with director Patricia Bush ? is a glass-half-full kind of fellow. He feels the documentary offers hope, even as it plunges into the roots of hate.
?I believe Arno (Michaels) is a really important and central character,? Lillie says in a phone interview from his Toronto office. ?There?s a guy who lived as a violent white supremacist for 20 years, and he acknowledged the fact that the Sikh temple killer went through the same process as he did ? except that he took it that one step further.
?There was a lot of interview material with him that, because of time constraints, we just couldn?t put in the film,? Lillie notes. ?The guy that Arno worked for was Jewish. He tolerated Arno even though Arno would come to work with swastika tattoos all over him. People, like his black co-worker who would give him half his sandwich, showed him kindness. Eventually, all those little acts of kindness brought him to the point where he just could no longer sustain hatred.?
Michaels also concluded that he had a basic insecurity toward those he loathed ? that they would do unto him if he did not do unto them first. He justified those feelings by associating with others who harboured the same notions and who got their kicks from harassing and beating up minorities.
Lillie also found Robb?s views revealing. ?In her research, she realized that a lot of those who expressed such hatred for Jews had never actually met a Jew. When they met Robb, who is Jewish, they were surprised to discover she was no different than anyone else. It is such simple, elementary stuff, and yet too often the connection just doesn?t get made.?
Lillie and Bush are planning a followup to Facing Extremism. ?We are in the gestation stage. The plan is to go and confront various hate groups, but to do it with people like Arno and those who have been there ? in a way that people who haven?t been there can?t.
?But the one common factor that seems to bond all these groups is fear. Fear of others turns into simple loathing, and loathing turns into hardcore hate.?
And we all know too well where that can lead.
Facing Extremism airs Monday at 9 p.m. on VisionTV.
bbrownstein@montrealgazette.com
Twitter: billbrownstein
? Copyright (c) The Montreal Gazette
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