March 13, 2014Last Updated: May 18, 2014 Two weeks ago, the MacDonald-Laurier Institute held a public debate that asked, in effect, whether Muslim immigration constituted a cultural, demographic and political threat to Canada and other Western countries. Saunders argued it isn’t. Mansur said it is. What’s worth noting, however, is the attention the debate has attracted, both within Canada and elsewhere in the world. Reporters for an Israeli media outlet summarized the debate with a headline that read “Debate over Muslim immigration in Canada takes unique turn as Canadian non-Muslim columnist defends Islamization.” So far as I can tell, most of the commentary has favoured Mansur’s argument, although, of course, there are those who disagree. Indeed, some regard even asking the debate question as “Islamophobic” and “racist” – that all-inclusive, knee-jerk epithet intended to shut down debate o The latest commentator on topic closely related to that of the debate is another Muslim, the always controversial Irshad Manji, author of The Trouble with Islam Today. In a recent interview with the Globe & Mail she seemed to lend support to Mansur’s position with a critique of the multicultural ideology imposed on Canada by Pierre Trudeau and the Liberals in the 1970s, or, at least, the consequences of that imposition. Where the original idea of multiculturalism many have had noble aspirations it has become nowadays a variant of multiculturalism based on fear, the multiculturalism of victim culture, the multiculturalism of moral cowards. Those are my words, of course, but I think that is what Manji is pointing at when she says: “(Mr. Trudeau) basically said national unity must be founded in one’s own confidence in one’s individual identity and from that you can begin to engage with others about their assumptions and attitudes and aspirations. We don’t have that kind of multiculturalism today, in my view. What we have is more a fear of engaging based very much based on feeling intimidated that I’m going to say something wrong or that somebody is going to be offended.” Diversity, Manji goes to argue, is about more that religion, race or gender. It’s also about accepting differences of thought and opinion. This kind of multiculturalism, she suggests, accepts that “offence is the price of honest diversity.” “Canadians’ mistaken notion that all cultures are equal has disarmed this nation in the confrontation with the illiberal demands of radical Islam,” he said, pointing out that he, as a Muslim, possessed “inside knowledge of and lived experience in the cultures of both liberal democracy and Islam.” And he warned: “A liberal-democratic society based on individual rights, freedom, and the rule of law cannot indefinitely accommodate non-liberal or illiberal demands from immigrant groups without subverting its own culture.”) ottawacitizen/opinion/muslim-immigration-and-multiculturalism-the-debate-spreads
Posted on: Thu, 26 Jun 2014 04:22:14 +0000