On top of a clear trend in increased discrimination against Muslims in
the country over the past ten years, Canadians now also think that Islam
and western values are irreconcilable.
According to a recent
survey by Leger Marketing, commissioned by the Association for Canadian
Studies in Montreal, 56% of the 1,500 Canadians that participated
believe that Western and Muslim societies are waging an ideological
battle that has no room for moderation. A contest between two systems of
morals and values that are completely the opposite of each other.
Unfortunately,
I know very little about Islam, with the exception of what heard from
my Muslim friends and co-workers, all of whom are decent, hard-working
and educated individuals. As far as I can see there is no difference
between say my Albanian co-worker and myself.
All of my Muslim
acquaintances are in fact law abiding, almost indistinguishable from any
other Canadian, citizens. They wake up, recite their prayers, go to
work, take care of their families and dine and sleep at the end of the
day just like the rest of us.In fact, if they wouldn’t have told me they
were Muslims, I wouldn’t have noticed.
So why then is it that
most Canadians think that Islam and western values are irreconcilable?
Could it be because most Canadians take their advice about Islam from
the mass media, which is American media here in Canada, or from so
called experts like Christopher Hitchens, Geert Wilders and Mark Steyn?
Regardless
of the source of information from which Canadians derive an
understanding of Islam and Muslims, whether this understanding is
negative or positive, sufficient or insufficient, Canadians need to
re-focus by viewing their Muslim neighbors as human beings and Canadians
first, rather than some religious group. Very often we tend to see the
extremes of both Islam and the Christian right here in Canada and the
U.S., first, before we realize that they have nothing in common with the
average Muslim or Christian citizen.
The extremes are prescient
of course in both western and middle-eastern societies and they are
violent, this is precisely why they get so much coverage.They also tend
to overshadow the Islam that is a part of our communities, families and
neighborhoods, the mosques that are at the corner of an intersection,
the women wearing head-scarves and the prayer rooms in our schools.
The
truth is that average Muslims would like to practice their religion
without fear of discrimination and an overwhelming majority would like
to practice it in the most moderate way possible. It is flatly untrue
that Muslims take the Qur’anic edicts word for word, or the injunctions
in the Hadith as uninterpretable in more than one way. There is such a
thing as debate among Muslims as well, over the best interpretation of
these edicts.
Just like Christianity, the most unintelligible
elements in the teachings of Islam have been shelved. They are no longer
relevant. And also, just like the Christian Bible, the Qur’an has not
lost it’s universal appeal as a book of timeless wisdom.
Therefore,
I personally have always gotten along well with my Muslim friends and
neighbors and I would never judge them by the actions of the most
extreme groups and individuals that call themselves Islamic.
For
more information about Muslim discrimination in the U.S., where it’s
relatively pervasive, check out the My Fellow American project found at http://myfellowamerican.us/, great people doing great work to combat the issue.
