Amidst the hectic rustle and bustle of tweets, Facebook conversations, blog posts and cafe debates on all things provincial politics, there is one topic that I almost forgot about.
It’s the topic of multiculturalism and racism in Canada. I was reminded of it in an e-mail I received a couple of weeks ago from a U.S. based NGO, called My Fellow American. They asked me to promote the topic of bigotry against Muslims a little bit and perhaps remind Canadians to ask the same question about their country: Is there a rising sentiment of discrimination and hatred against Muslims here in Canada?
But before you continue reading, check out the good work My Fellow American does here, at http://myfellowamerican.us/
Now on the question of Muslim discrimination in the U.S., I only assume it’s as bad as my sources and statistics say it is: Religious, political and public figures vulgarly railing against Islam and Muslims, some blatantly claiming that, “If you’re a Muslim you’re already a terrorist. If not, then you will eventually become one because of your hateful and primitive religion.”
I’m not too fond of religion; however, things like bigotry and discrimination make me sick, especially when people despise each other just because of what they believe. Faith discrimination is not even physical, that one despises another because of the way one looks or behaves, so it only exists in the minds of people.
The U.S. may be bad with plenty of Muslim-bashing hysterical rhetoric, almost 99% of which comes from other religious individuals, in particular Christians, but is Canada as bad, perhaps worse, or is there still hope for our fair country?
According to a poll commissioned by the CBC back in March, 2010, Canadians think that Aboriginal Peoples and Muslims are still the most discriminated against minorities in the country. Also, a lot of online chatter is mostly negative of Muslims and Islam in general.
For example, a Google search for “Islam will dominate the world” brings up about 891,000 results, writings from various “experts” and extremists of all religious stripes. Most of it is blogging in reply. As in someone posts an article, usually a ridiculous statement like, “Islam will dominate the world” and others reply hastily by commenting or counter posting on their own blogs.
The replies are usually directed towards Muslims as whole, as in the entire population of Muslims in the world, often attributing what some nameless, bigoted and foolish blogger said to be the opinion and belief of all Muslims.
Regardless though, Canada is still more advanced and more tolerant of cultural differences, it does this without compromising its constitutional values, than the United States.
Thus Canadians can be said to be not as bigoted as some of their American counterparts. Similarly, a search on Google for “Islam will dominate Canada” only doled out 150,000 results, mostly from non-Canadian sources.
This may not be a reliable method, a search in Google, to gauge how much bigotry against Muslims is pushed online by Canadians, but the lack of hateful rhetoric is a good sign.
I would like to keep Canada as understanding and accepting as possible without compromising its people’s core fundamental beliefs, so I would like to see a similar project, like My Fellow American, developed and publicized here in my country.
Last but not least then, here’s a promotional video from the NGO’s website:
