SRW welcome’s Canada’s decision to remove specific religion affiliation from its threat reports.
The Canadian government revised its terror threat report that was published in December 2018, to remove all mentions of “Sunni” and “Shia” extremism from its terror report.
As Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale stated, he wants the terrorist threat report to use language that “did not impugn or condemn an entire religion.”
We, at Shia Rights Watch, have long asked governments to disassociated specific religion and nationality from terror groups. Such associations can harm more than they can help. In the case of Shia Muslims, false association with the Iranian government has lead to the undermining of violence against the group.
Others can adopt this initiative of the Canadian government. SRW encourages all other governments and human rights entities to adopt bias-free and depoliticized reporting in which the act of terror is condemned, but no specific religion, nationality, gender, ethnicity are affected.
This NGO also calls on media outlets, human rights entities, research centers, and publishers to revise their wordings, as words matter.
