Several times this week I’ve been warned by supporters of M-103, the anti-Islamophobia motion being debated in Parliament, that if the motion fails even more Muslim youth will become radicalized. They will feel discriminated against in Canada and more likely to fall victim to the hateful propaganda of ISIS or other radical Muslims.

Frankly, if the failure of a House of Commons motion is enough to push someone over to the jihadis’ side, they were headed in that direction anyway.

But radicalization cuts both ways.

Elitist sneering at concerns about radical Islam or about mass refugee intakes leads Donald Trump and Brexit and politicians such as France’s Marine Le Pen.

If you don’t want anti-immigration walls and travel bans, stop pretending there are no problems at all with refugee crime and stop denying that claims of widespread Islamophobia have been used elsewhere (like at the UN) to limit free speech.

Stop pretending there isn’t a problem with radical Islamic terrorism – a problem that is much worse at the moment than any other form of ideologically driven terrorism.

And stop scolding (or even persecuting) those who question Islam’s peacefulness, while simultaneously attempting to cover up the violent messages of some radical imams and other Muslim leaders.

When ordinary citizens see an obvious gap between what elites claim isn’t happening and what citizens suspect to be the truth, the citizens start looking around for any politician who is prepared to respect their concerns.

That’s where anti-immigration politicians such as Trump and Le Pen come in. That’s one of the reasons the British voted for Brexit – the plan for Britain to pull out of the European Union.

Plenty of average Brits worried that Europe’s open-door policy towards millions of Middle Eastern refugees would mean hundreds or even thousands of radicals would be let in along with the truly needy.

That is a legitimate concern. Yet every time it is raised, those raising it are scoffed at by politicians, academics, activists and journalists. British voters got sick and tired of having their concerns mocked, so they voted to get out of the EU.

Is the threat of radical Muslim immigration to the U.S. so great that it warrants Donald Trump’s sledgehammer-to-kill-a-fly travel ban? No.

But a threat does exist. So after eight years of having real concerns ignored by the Obama admin, American voters felt they had no option but to vote in a man who exaggerates the crisis.

Mainstream politicians in at least France, Germany and the Netherlands are facing electoral defeat because after years and years of denying there is any problem at all with radical Islam, populist demagogue’s have sprung up to challenge the establishment.

Last week in Toronto, imams at a downtown mosque were filmed calling for the annihilation of “filthy Jews.” A couple days after the videos got out, a small, quiet protest took place outside the Masjid mosque with demonstrators carrying signs that said ‘Stop Islam” and “Say No to Islam.”

Sensing a chance to demonstrate just how liberal they are, Ontario politicians quickly pounced on the quiet protest, denouncing it as Islamophobic. Only many days later did officialdom condemn the genocidal sermons.

It is that disconnect between what is acceptable and what is really happening that drives fed-up voters into the arms of demagoguing politicians.

Earlier this month, a Syrian refugee, Soleiman Hajj Soleiman, 39, was arrested and charged with six counts of sexual assault for allegedly groping teenage girls at West Edmonton Mall’s indoor beach. Many PC politicians and advocates for multiculturalism urged media outlets to withhold Soleiman’s refugee status from the public.

It’s that diversity-and-inclusion-trump-personal-safety thinking that has created the backlash against political correctness.