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Anyone who has given even a passing interest to the news in recent years will know that the rise of violent extremism, particularly that directed against minority groups, has become an alarming problem for western democracies.

While the genesis of such violence is complex, and no one political ideology is immune to it, there is no question of a growing link between such attacks and the online spread of far-right conservative viewpoints.

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In Canada, we like to think we are largely insusceptible to such radicalism, or to believe that it is somehow random and unpredictable, but ample evidence exists to show this is a naïve and dangerous misconception.

That was one of the key points Faisal Khan Suri, president of the Alberta Muslim Public Affairs Council, was trying to make in testimony to Parliament’s justice committee in Ottawa last week when he was subjected to an embarrassing tirade from a fellow Albertan — Michael Cooper, the Conservative MP from St. Albert-Edmonton.