MUSLIMS STANDING TALL FOR MULTICULTURALISM CANADA

By Dr. Mohamed Elmasry*

Canadian Islamic Congress

Published June 14, 2006, The National Post

After the Air India terrorist tragedy in 1985, the contributions of Sikh Canadians to the well-being of this great country of ours were almost forgotten.

Canadian Muslims are facing an even worse situation today.

The Muslim men arrested in Toronto on the weekend of June 2, 2006 are innocent until proven guilty. But if and when any of them is convicted in a court of law, then they should be termed criminals.

There is no Muslim terrorist; there are terrorists who willfully misuse and misinterpret Islam to justify committing terrorist acts.

If all 17 men now in detention and awaiting trial are convicted of plotting the heinous crimes they are alleged to have intended against Canadians and Canadian institutions, then they would represent only 2 out of every 100,000 Canadian Muslims — a vanishingly small percentage of the total Canadian Muslim population of some 750,000. So why are some analysts now politicizing this already tragic situation to the hilt and blocking off any rational analysis?

There are those who insist on calling this incident a symptom of the discredited but persistent “clash of civilizations” theory. Others are calling it a failure of Canada’s multiculturalism policy, to the extent of suggesting a moratorium on further immigration. Still others have connected the Toronto terrorist plot to our mission in Afghanistan.

And there are others who are quick to blame Islam, the Qur’an, Wahabism, foreign Imams, radical mosques, and the emergence of a new militant “Islamist” generation that seeks to impose its views on the world by force.

But to cap it all off, our own Prime Minister Stephen Harper — sounding like a verbatim disciple of U.S. President George W. Bush — described the mass arrests as part of a battle between “us” and “them,” because “they” hate “our” freedom and democracy.

If the majority of Canadians were to believe even some of these opinions, it would be difficult not to assume that Canadian Muslims are all guilty by association. And now, even some Canadian Muslims have bought into that group guilt.

As presented in the current media, the truth is far from clear.

Canadian Muslims are proud Canadians. Among them are senators, MPs, mayors, business leaders, academics, and top professionals in virtually any and every skilled field one could name. Some are also accomplished and respected members of the military, the RCMP, CSIS, and provincial or local police forces. Their born-in-Canada children are high achievers and among the most dynamic youth in the country.

But we are living in a post 9/11 era and Muslims are being seen through a dark and clouded lens.

Realizing this impediment to peace and progress, the Canadian Islamic Congress called on the federal government three years ago to fund Canadian university researchers to study the psycho-social impact on the self identity of Canadian Muslim youth of a long list of factors starting with the 9/11 terrorist attacks. These included: the Bin Laden tapes; the impact of ongoing cycles of violence in Iraq, Afghanistan, Palestine and Darfur; the human rights violations at the Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo prisons; (now add the Haditha Massacre to the list); and last but not least, the unrelenting media smearing of Islam and the negative stereotyping of Muslims.

Despite the severity of each and every factor enumerated here, we were turned down. Today, our Canadian government spends zero dollars on well documented university research concerning these and related issues.

Two years ago, after waiting in vain for the government to fund such research, the CIC launched its proactive “smart integration” project, using its own limited resources. The message was this: we are living in a liberal democracy, and as a significant religious and cultural minority Canadian Muslims must be active participants in this society.

Minorities are often excluded (consciously or unconsciously) from full participation in the life of any country. As a result, they become highly self-conscious social units whose sense of group belonging is colored by the feeling of being distinct from society’s dominant majority.

Although the smart integration model could well prove beneficial for all of Canada’s ethnic and religious communities, it is a must for Canadian Muslims, who now stand at some 750,000 making them the nation’s largest non-Christian religious community.

Here is an example of smart integration in action. When the Canadian Islamic Congress carried out research for its 2004 Election Report, it included a position paper on 20 issues — 10 national and 10 international categories. National issues included some being addressed for the first time by this community, such as health care, taxation, and defense spending, while international issues also included non-traditional ones for Canadian Muslims, such as reforming the United Nations.

The report specifically tried to promote “informed, committed, multi-issue voting,” urging Canadian Muslims to vote by reminding them that it is both one’s civic and religious duty to do so. Muslims are taught that bearing witness for (i.e. supporting) the best candidate will be divinely rewarded. The report also graded the performance of the MPs against CIC position on the 20 issues.

As a result, for the first time in more than 50 years, the percentage of eligible Canadian Muslims who voted in the 2004 federal election was higher than the national average of 61%. This was a practical and successful exercise in smart integration. By becoming informed, committed, multi-issue voters, Canadian Muslims proved on Election Day
2004 that they could be simultaneously good Muslims and good Canadians.
The CIC repeated the same research project for the 2006 election.

But post 9/11 Canada nevertheless has created an extremely challenging environment for Muslims and increased the urgency of accelerating the smart integration movement. Imported extremist religious and political ideologies from their (or their parents’) countries of origin are still dominant in some Canadian communities and are hindering smart integration; the result in some cases has been division, fragmentation, increased isolation, and in a few instances, destructive fanaticism.

In response to these challenges, many post-9/11 Canadian Muslims are trying to break away from such ideologies, because they are simply not an appropriate or constructive fit for the time and place in which we live.

Because the civil liberties of Canadian Muslims are eroding, they feel they cannot afford to follow the road of either assimilation or isolation.

The Canadian Islamic Congress has worked to link associated current events with smart integration, such as when it called for the community to embrace “smart integration beyond condemnation” in response to recent terrorist acts in the U.S., Spain and London.

Over the 2005 Labour Day weekend, the CIC hosted an intensive two-day short course for Muslims — Imams, teachers, leaders, men and women, youth and seniors — covering such subjects as Canadian history, law, political system, the media, family counseling and Islamic Law. The course - a first in Canada - was well received, with women comprising fully one-third of the participants.

As a guest Imam, I annually present sermons and talks on our smart integration model at some 50 mosques across the country; and positive feedback is by far the majority response.

The smart integration model allows a minority to be considered an asset, thereby leading to positive feedback that benefits society at large. In the case of Canadian Muslims, smartly integrated individuals and communities are a must.

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*Dr. Mohamed Elmasry is national president of the Canadian Islamic Congress. He can be reached at np@canadianislamiccongress.com