Muslims in Canada |
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nico
Senior Member Joined: 23 July 2005 Status: Offline Points: 163 |
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Posted: 03 August 2005 at 2:04pm |
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I am not a Muslim, nor from the region so as an outsider I think I can add imputs that Muslims cannot see. Muslims are not nessecarily unique in Canada that their skills are underappreciated, many Hindu's, Sikh's, for instance are cabbies but I feel many of them as well have at least college education. For Muslims pacticularly Canada is a the best place to live in the world, unlike Europe or even the US which have strong, entrenched notions of their nationality, and purpose for instance to be French you must be French first and x second, in the US you define yourself as American and nothing else. Although Canadians would all like for everyone to be Canadian first they don't force it upon others and in Canada (as I can attest being an immigrant myself to the country) you can maintain your culture, and religion relatively freely with little to no opposition. But this isn't to say that isn't prejudice, I was arguing with a Zionist friend of mine (no I am not a Zionist myself) about Canada's healthcare system which I believe should be totally within the sphere of the public sector as it is too important to be left to the markets. He talked about the lack of doctors in Canada, I said basically that many taxi drivers and other service sector people have the education to be doctors but aren't be accepted because they don't meet Canadian standards of education, so I suggested that the gov't along with medical associations should provide loans or grant to these highly skilled immigrants to become doctors and force them to sign in return to work in Canadian hospitals for a certain period of time, as they would pay back their loan by working for the healthcare system. My friend said to me "what do you want a Paki doctor touching you?" I said "I don't see why a Paki doctor is worse then a Jewish one, if anything my cultural history tells me to avoid people Jews so really you complain about non-existent anti-semitism when you exert the same levels of prejudice against others?" Most Canadians do not think like my friend here, but there are within all cultures those that do that's a inescapable reality. Also like the article said Muslim is not a monolithic religion, culture is also a big factor in the way ppl behave and act, as shown Pakistani's in Canada are much more religious then Iranians. I suspect that there are many reasons for this, one being that most Iranians in Canada are probably refugee's from the Islamic revolution so already they didn't like the notion of super-Islamic practice, Iranians have also a indegenious and strong Persian culture which predates Arabic/Islamic culture and is highly developed culture at that much more then those in Arabia or the Sub-continent, I believe Persians are generally more liberal then their Islamic neighbours and because of Shi'a Islam are more wiling to adapt to their enviroment like Shi'a have had to accross the Islamic world to avoid conflict with Sunni's. Iranians are from what I have been able to tell are the most highly educated Muslims out there as the Iranian gov't since the revolution has made education a top priority and practical education like technical trades not like in Saudi Arabia where most of the college grads have useless Islamic majors (that's a major reason so many Arabs are unemployed within their own countries). Another article I read about Muslims in Canada in the magazine "the Walrus" with the articles title being Under The Sheltering Crescent Moon talks about divides within Muslim communities in Canada but a common thread of growing respect for not only Canada but liberalism. According to the magazine:
I believe that Muslims in general long for reforms in their religion for a more tolerant way of life for all members of the community, and more and more are turning to liberalism not Wahhabist puritanical dictates for that, and Canada is a major reason for that. Canada has shown the good side of liberalism, tolerance, acceptance, and mobility. What angers me as a liberal is when I hear Muslims denounce liberalism by the actions of the US as if the US is the only liberal state in the world, also Muslims forget that libearlism could not have happened without massive Islamic influences in European culture, so to hate libearlism is to hate large parts of Islamic tradition. I denounce American liberalism myself as a danger to liberalism in general, American liberalism is our equilivent to Wahhabi Islam, both are simplistic, dumbed down version of ideologies which in their actual form are quite different in practice. As a Mohamad Khatib in the article said:
To Osama, and Wahhabi-Qutbist followers of political Islam would find Canada not only a abhorrent place to live, but they should see it as a threat. I am not Muslim but I am aware of the ideological imperatives behind Wahhabi-Qutbist mistrust of Canadian society as Qutb points out:
If you didn't notice he was talking about liberal societies like Canada, now as not being a Muslim if this is the way most modern Muslims think we have a problem (although I don't think most do). What I fear is that some Muslims (not all) want this Shari'a to be imposed in Canada and there is serious talk about allowing Shari'a into the family courts. Now I personally don't object per se as long as the two parties accept to be ruled under these laws. But to allow that to occur but there are fundamental problems with Shari'a and Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms:
What I found interesting about this case is that Muslims that were born in Canada seem to be much more idealistic about their faith then those who just immigrated from their home nations. As stated in the article:
Also more objections to Shari'a in Canada from Muslims themselves:
Thus two things I see, Islamic fundamentalist ideology is primarily a male movement within the community (not exclusively of course) as Islam although at the time of its conception was very liberal towards women by today's standards is not. Now according to Qutb, the reaction of those Muslims who say that they do not want Shari'a imposed on them are infected with Jahili, which means that one accepts the soverignty of man instead of the soverignty of God, and to live in a state of ignorance generally associated with societies before they accept Islam and Shari'a. But as immigrant Muslim women have shown they lived in states which Shari'a was practiced and reject it as they fled those countries for that same reason. I feel (you may feel free to correct me if you wish) that Muslims who have lived in Canada, and have not experienced the life in their homelands where Shari'a is practiced have a much more idealistic way of looking at Islam, instead of a practical reality, same with communists who lived in the West (Eurocommunists). Everything in theory sounds goods, in practice is another story. My most critical position is that Islam is declining, what some would suggest is its strengths I suggest are its weaknesses. What does Canada have to with it, well it has to a lot with it. Islam is going down the path of Christanity, and Judaism becoming a much more personal then communal expression of faith. Islam has always defined itself as a community (ummah) based idea, as Qutb has suggested:
Very idealistic I agree, but not practical in today's modern world as Muslims themselves are showing. As shown in the article the opposite of what Qutb is suggesting is happening:
In fact there is rebellion throughout the Islamic world against the "traditional" or Taqleed(I put them in quotations because I am talking much more about the Wahhabi version of Islam then real Islam) Islamic ways and a greater emphasis on Ijtihad. I believe that Political Islam like Soviet Communism have failed to bring the "moral" results needed to legitmize its rule as people are naturally Jahili. Modern Liberal societies whether one likes it or not have taken the worst aspects of human character like greed, and jealousy and co-opted them for good, to ignore or to suppress these natural human emotions like religions generally do leads to sick societies eventually. I haven't seen a society more sick then Saudi Arabian society, or North Korean society both of which have failed because theory is not reality. As it says in the article:
I do not believe that they can either, the reality is that liberal capitalistic ways of living are the most attractive, and facilitating out there. I think what libearlism does is it lets people see what usually happened behind closed doors, the reality is that the world is not today more "evil" then it was during the time of Muhammed, or Jesus, or Moses just that we see more of it not that there is actually more of it happening. The reason why it seems the world is denegrading is because of the way that we are all now so interconnected, so aware, so open to reality and not that fantasy land we called those "golden days" which never existed we think we are worse then our parents, or grandparents. Let me reassure you that we are not, just we admit what they used to keep quiet. |
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