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On 24 February, a 17-year-old boy stabbed a young woman to death at the Crown Spa massage parlour in North York, Canada, and left two other people with serious injuries. The alleged perpetrator (who cannot be named because he is a minor) was charged with first-degree murder and attempted murder. While the details of his motivation remain murky, he reportedly told police officers that his goal was to kill as many women as possible.
On 19 May, the Toronto Police Service and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police jointly announced that they would also be laying terrorism charges against the suspect, saying that investigators had found that he ‘was inspired by the Ideologically Motivated Violent Extremist (IMVE) movement commonly known as INCEL (involuntary celibate). As a result, federal and provincial Attorney Generals’ [sic] have consented to commence terrorism proceedings.’
This is believed to be the first time a terrorism charge has ever been laid in connection to incel ideology, despite the multitude of previous violent and mass-casualty attacks linked to the movement.
Earlier this year I wrote about the need to take violent misogyny seriously as a form of violent extremism and the formation of online communities united by their antagonism to women. Some might object to considering misogynist ideologies as a form of extremism, or misogynistic attacks as a form of terrorism, on the basis that...