This is an interesting article about Islamophobia.
http://www.islamonline.com/cgi-bin/n...ervice_id=2803
Canadians “least biased” against Muslims
This is an interesting article about Islamophobia.
http://www.islamonline.com/cgi-bin/n...ervice_id=2803
I wouldn't have thought so after reading that article about a Canadian town someone posted on this forum last week.Originally Posted by ammaad
Maybe Canadians are fickle people or they more prejudiced where the French speaking part is.
Well, many Québecers (people from the province of Québec, where the majority is Francophone) don't consider themselves Canadians. They're more in tow with the French from France.
They used terrorist tactics in the 70s where a government minister was killed by the separatist group called FLQ (Front de Liberation de Quebec or something). They think they're being disenfranchised, but that is certainly not the case. All other provinces are forced to cut back just so the federal government can cater to these whiners. For example, the tuition costs in Ontario (my province) are about $5000 for a full time student taking the recommended course load, whereas the federal government subsidises costs in Québec to about $2000! Québec gets what it wants nearly all the time whereas all the other provinces get jack squat.
The maritime provinces (Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, New Brunswick, Newfoundland) have one of the highest unemployment rates in Canada. They have much more to complain about than Québec, but there have been little talk about separation from the dominion in any of those provinces. Their culture is also unique, different from the rest of Canada, but they don't complain about there being too much of a cultural difference to legitimize separation as separatist Québecers do.
Not all Québecers are like this, though; the leader of the opposition party (the Liberals) is a Québecer and he's a federalist (Stéphane Dion). The PM at the time of the FLQ terror acts was also a Québecer (Pierre Trudeau). Most of the ruckus comes from rural areas.
May the peace, blessings and mercy of Allah be upon you
I can attest to this fact, mashallah in Canada, where the Charter of Canadian Rights and Freedoms
" Whereas Canada is founded upon principles that recognize the supremacy of God and the rule of law: "
So let me hear some fanatical astray preacher tell me i live in a kuffaracrocy (which imbecile invented this word)
We Muslims are strong, and by the mercy of Allah, we are treated equally with no problems for those whom Allah has not yet guided.
It is a democracy with numerous MP's that are Muslim (both an Arab and Pakistani).
Also it is very multicultural especially in Toronto, so there is lots of people from everywhere, and mashallah we live harmoniously.
I go to the University of Western Ontario, the MSA there has a prayer room, where we can go pray all the prayers in congregation and we even have a private bathroom for doing wudu' (since the Janitor was tired of cleaning up all the water that falls around when we make Wudhu lol..)
Peace Be With You
The best of a bad bunch?
On my visit to Canada last year i did notice how different it was from the UK in terms of integration and acceptance. Whereas the emphasis in the UK is on tolerance in Canada they emphasise genuine acceptance.
The problem is many Muslim countries are also bad places to live for practising Muslims, i.e. Egypt, Tunisia. You can't get a public sector job in Turkey if you wear the Hijab. You are followed by the secred police in Egypt or Tunisia if you are religious. I certainly wouldn't want to live in Saudi either where women can't drive and there is extreme segregation (as well as subsequently high homosexuality rates).
Maybe we Muslims should focus on the Islamaphobia in the Muslim world as opposed to the west. But i don't see much of that happening since it is easier to point to the west and shout 'racsist'. Introspection is much more difficult.
GMAN
I think that's true. It doesn't surprise me that Islamophobia is less in Canada. They actually celebrate different cultures and centuries of migration into Canada, and they make much more of an effort to help people fit in. They take the 'citizenship' thing very seriously. They are much better at welcoming and integrating immigrants than Britain has ever been (even though the word integration is contentious). I think it's in recognition that there's now such a diverse population that it's important to maintain a sense of national unity.
In the recent Unicef report on the quality of childhood in developed nations, Canada was among the top countries (especially in education), while Britain was the overall worst out of 21, closely followed by the USA. The First Nations people (indigenous Canadians) also have a far better deal than native Americans in the US or Aboriginal people in Australia.
I'm half Canadian and half British, and most of my relatives are Canadian. My ancestors emigrated from Britain to Canada in 1912, the same year as the Titanic. They were part of the early English-speaking minority in French-speaking Montreal in Quebec. I think initially there was probably some division between the French and English communities, with English-speaking 'ghettoes', but gradually people became more integrated and most people are now bilingual and have inter-married. The advantage of living in Quebec is you learn to be bilingual at a young age as most kids go to French-speaking schools, but you also need to be able to speak French to get a job there, and to integrate, although that is probably more true now than it was 100 years ago.
Most anglophones are obviously opposed to the separation of Quebec, but francophone separatists are still harking back to the fact that the original French migrants settled in that part of Canada before the British gained control. It all seems a bit outdated and colonial considering the ethnic diversity of Canada now, and considering the First Nations people don't make such a fuss about the land they lost to both the French and the British (although they probably should). Alot of French Canadians don't feel much affiliation or sentimentality towards France because most of their ancestors left France due to religious and political persecution.
Canada is in the main a very tolerant and inclusive country and politically progressive on alot of issues. Britain could learn alot from Canada about immigration and citizenship, amongst other things. There's also a strong culture of helping out your neighbour, which is sometimes lacking in the UK. Canadian society is alot less aggressive than American or British society (unless they're playing ice hockey), and alot more polite. They also don't have the drinking culture or drinking problems to the same extent that we have in Britain, and they're also not obsessed with guns like alot of Americans. It's also true that alot of people don't lock their front doors even in cities (which are 100% cleaner than British cities). And there is a cultural shame in Canada about being unemployed or claiming state benefits (which is hardly the same in the UK) so consequently people don't stay unemployed for too long if they can help it.
The Christian majority in Canada are alot more religious than the white majority in Britain, and I think those Christian values have a positive effect in creating respect for other religious people. There is no visible Christian far-right like there is in the US. Canada also never had slavery. Black American slaves used to escape to Canada for a life of freedom, so the racism that is deep in American culture was never the same in Canada. I like Canada alot but personally I wouldn't live there because for me it's too North American (no offense intended), but it's a nice country and I can see why people move there.
Canada is not as great as you make it out to be, although it is better for Muslims than the majority of Western countries, since government and its ministers don't target Muslims for anything major.
Although, the problem with Canada is that the minority progressives are given too much of a voice in the media and the government. The 'Muslim Canadian Congress', made of many 'Progressive Muslims' works actively to undermine the Muslim community here in Canada and they get a ton of media attention (the fought against Shari'ah for domestic issues, constantly promote a socialist/Communist/secularist ideology and label this as 'Islam', and much more). The Ahmadiyya community also gets a great share of the media.
For example, today on CBC News's 'The National' program (which is the main daily news show in Canada) featured a short about 'moderate Muslims' (mostly the MCC) and how they're persecuted. I'll give you an example of this 'persecution': when they slandered Dr. Masry of the Canadian Islamic Congress, which DOES speak for majority of Muslims here and he threatened to sue for libel, they sought the government's help in branding any such action as 'harassment' and inciting hate crimes; basically, they wanted immunity from getting sued while they were free to slander Dr. Masry. All of this when Dr. Masry called them out for being anti-Islamic.
This short even turned against the brother who worked with CSIS (Canadian intelligence) to expose the plot of the 17 who were arrested. Using soundbites and the excuse 'Mr.X was not available to comment' for anyone who could speak against the bleeding-heart 'moderates', the short basically portrayed these 'moderates' as being representative of a silent majority.
That's a real shame. Is there an organisation that speaks out to counter the 'progressives' in the media, a bit like MPAC? Are they supported by the Muslim community?
True. It's easy to criticise Western nations but often Islamophobia and racism are alot less here than in some Muslim countries. At least there is still a degree of freedom of speech in the West for religious Muslims to defend Islam.
Posting Permissions
Reply With Quote
Bookmarks