Hyphenated Canadians

"This case represents such a tragedy for yourself, Mohamed Zalal and your family. You came to Canada, but failed to recognize the opportunities our country offers and instead you chose to embrace a life of drugs, violence and guns. Your cowardly execution of Mr. Zalal was an example of that. Most people in our society find it impossible to understand why anyone would make such a choice.
"Whatever your reasons for taking Mr. Zalal's life, you will have the rest of your life to contemplate how horrifically wrong it was." Ontario Superior Court Justice Roydon Kealey

Yet another group of young men distinguishing themselves by their abysmal life choices. One wonders why the disproportionate number of names identifying criminals reflect an origin in the Middle East, immigrants whose religion is purported to be one of credible life-values, of dedication to peace, yet whose choices, values and actions bespeak violence and an utterly degraded life-style.

These young people with names like Nawaf Al-Enzi, Mohamed Zalal, Mahmoud Kayem and Ali Abdul-Hussein, have distinguished themselves by their murderously bloody brutality in a society that takes such atrocities seriously indeed. Seriously enough to convict Mr. Al-Enzi of murder and to sentence him to life in prison without parole for at least 25 years. Names like these turn up all too frequently on the criminal court rosters.

Respect for life and for the laws of the country which welcomed them as immigrants?

"You violated my rights. You call yourself a judge. You're not a judge of law. You didn't give me a fair trial. My life is nothing to you. You're just another Crown against me. It's my right to have a lawyer. You were wrong. I was forced to represent myself. I am definitely unhappy." Nawaf Al-Enzi.

And respect for the law of the land, in the realization that one of their own cold-bloodedly extinguished the life of a fellow criminal with whom he had a disagreement, an event witnessed and attested to by two accomplices? Another upstanding Canadian citizen, brother of the convicted murderer who disrupted the courtroom by screaming "It's f---ing bullshit. F---ing faggots. F--ing goofs."

These are representative of individuals who have emigrated from their countries of origin in the Middle East where their tribal affiliations and religious interpretations of their sacred texts inform them that the laws and customs of any country willing to absorb them and offer them the opportunity to transform their futures into aspirational opportunities to become better people they despise and reject and scorn.