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Ahead of the 25th anniversary of 9/11, an internal CBC News memo reminded staff of a decades-old policy which instructed journalists to avoid using the words "terrorist" or "terrorism" on their own because the terms are politically and emotionally charged. Staff were told to describe the events factually (e.g., "hijackings" or "crashes") instead of applying the label directly.

Due to major backlash across North America, CBC updated its language rules in August 2026 to allow staff to call the September 11 attacks "terrorism" directly without needing to attribute the term to an outside source.

However, for modern conflicts and other breaking news, the public broadcaster's standard policy remains unchanged. Reporters must still attribute the words "terrorist" or "terrorism" to official sources, governments, or experts rather than using the label in their own voice.

As a Canadian Muslim, I AM going to use my own voice and insist on labelling attacks on innocent civilians as ‘terrorist attacks’. There is no other word to describe what happened on 9/11 and the many terrorist attacks that followed from London to Bali to Europe. 

What else would I call the horrific attack on innocent Israeli civilians on Oct 7, 2023? Terror of course and I don’t need special accreditation to say so. 

You see, this is personal. For over three decades I, along with like-minded Muslims, have been fighting a hard battle against radical Islamist ideology which is rooted in violence and terror. 

This started before 9/11 and became intense following that terror attack. On August 10, 2010, I went to New York as a guest of Maureen Basnicki, a Canadian widow whose husband was killed on 9/11, to attend a meeting hosted by the ASMA Society and attended by first responders.

The architect Sharif El Gamal talked about building a Mosque at the site of 9/11. I wanted to hear directly from the organizers, ask questions about the project and its financing, and express my opposition to locating it so close to Ground Zero. 

Eventually the project fell through. However, the Egyptian architect later called and threatened me over the phone, a call that was recorded and reported to Sun News who did a story on it.

Point is to say, that when a major broadcaster like CBC waffles over the use of words that describe exact actions of extremists, they want to confuse the public and discourage them from examining deeper, where the violence and attacks are stemming from – certainly not from MARS yet. But from within our own communities right here where we live. 

Unfortunately, due to political correctness, the woke culture and a desperate need to deflect from the truth, our leaders and especially law enforcement do little to prove that we have ‘terrorism’ in our midst. Our police force would rather chase a Rebel media truck with accurate messaging, based on ludicrous and made-up violations, than arrest those who are perpetuating violence on our streets.

The world needs to know what terrorism is and who are the terrorists are so that we can protect our countries and future generations.