A Tale of Two Cities

The subject of reasonable accommodation between Canadians and immigrants has been in the news in Canada for the past month or so, with the stories of two separate communities. The small working-class town of Herouxville, Quebec, population 1,338, made international headlines when it came up with a controversial and provocative code of standards for immigrants.

The code stipulated the following: That women should be able to show their faces in public and should also be permitted to drive and write cheques. That it is “completely outside norms to [...] kill women by stoning them in public, burning them alive, burning them with acid, circumcising them etc.” The resolution had no legal weight but nonetheless, roused passionate debate.

The code seemed to indicate a conviction that any immigrant who chose Herouxville as home would necessarily be backward at best, a terrorist or a thug at worst, determined to take advantage of Canada’s reputation for a tolerance that can border on the foolish. Needless to say, Herouxville – ironically, a more or less immigrant-free zone – found itself criticized, reprimanded and even mocked by the rest of Canada and the French leftist media. As a result, earlier this month, Herouxville’s town council changed some of the wording in its code of conduct, including the removal of the phrase “stoning of women.”

The problem is, these issues do need to be discussed, if in a less heavy-handed, and more sane and relevant way. And in Canada, these discussions are tough to tackle, without accusations of racism flying. What boggled about Herouxville was that it seemed to be anticipating something apocalyptic – with no foundation for that fear. It isn’t as though a swarm of Islamists had announced their intentions to move there. But another community is facing a real concern, with suitable bases for anxiety – one that, outside or even inside Canada, is not getting near the attention that Herouxville’s paranoia has garnered.

Construction of a proposed mosque in the town of Newmarket – a suburb of Toronto – has sparked heated debate. The mosque itself is not the source of worry for the community. Most people who live in and around Toronto – Canada’s largest city – are accustomed to living and worshipping side by side with people of different cultures. What worries people in Newmarket is the mosque’s connections to Zafar Bangash. Bangash will not be the imam at the proposed mosque, but he is the president of the Islamic Society of York Region, of which the new mosque forms part, and he advocated on behalf of the mosque, initially.

Bangash is not exactly a charmer. Among other things, he has said that there “will be no room for a Jewish Israel. Zionist thugs will have to vacate every inch of Palestine if there is to be justice, and therefore peace, in that tortured land.” He has said, “For the state of Israel, peace would mean when all the Palestinians have been put into the graveyard.” Bangash has also called for violent revolution, praised Iran’s theocrats, and praised Hezbollah. As well, Bangash was editor, for 20 years, of a newspaper called Crescent International, in which he called Canada, his adopted country, a member of the “Anglo-Saxon mafia,” and in which he claimed Canada was in part behind most of the world’s mass murders and genocides. And so on and so on.

Since the controversy erupted, members of Newmarket’s Muslim community have tried to dissociate themselves from Bangash, saying the mosque is not aligned in any direct way with him. But he retains his position as president of the Islamic Society of York region. And, when Newmarket residents requested a public meeting regarding their concerns about Bangash, it was denied, as the town council said it would have been “inconsistent with how the town processes similar applications.” And therein lies the problem. These kinds of issues are new for Canada, new for the West. Or rather, “new,” in the sense that for many of us, we have only become aware of certain dangers, possibilities and concerns since 9-11. Only last year, 17 homegrown terror suspects were arrested in Toronto, and several of them had attended a mosque in which violence against the West was preached. In general, churches and synagogues in Canada have not been aligned with vocal advocates of violence and genocide. Admitting that perhaps the old methods aren’t fit to deal with the new reality seems the logical step. But so far, it is not a step which has been taken.

@Vinny

The "root causes" you refer to are largely a ginned up, fraudulent shakedown of gullible, insecure Westerners who think it's more important to be well-liked than to do the right thing, people who can no longer tell when they're being snookered.

How is it that sophisticated 'global citizens' -- especially those running the West's political institutions and the unelected clerics of our media and intellectual classes -- can be so obviously, thoroughly, routinely and repeatedly conned by gangsters posing as statesmen and charlatans masquerading as champions of the people?

Vinny: "How is it that by any reasonable standard of measurement -- wealth creation, literacy, life expectancy, etc. -- the human race is better off than at any time in history, yet only now is the time for slaughtering innocents out of 'desperation' day in and day out..."

 

?

 

Vinny: "How is it that the Islamic world, having largely squandered the largest transfer of wealth in human history, itself the result of geologic/geographic serendipity, can get away with playing the victim, like a ne'er-do-well relative unable to confront the mess he's made of his life?"

 

The Arabo-Berber peoples were dominated not by Islamic clerics but by tribal elites and alternatively were under the colonial rule of either Great Britain or France. The vast majority of those benefits accrued from Middle Eastern natural resources continue to be centralised in the hands of tribal elites, the only exception being Iran. It is understandable that the average Muslim feels that his rulers have betrayed Islam and are Western "puppets."

 

Vinny: "Sorry, I don't buy it. I've spent a lot of time in the more Hobbesian neighborhoods of this planet..."

 

Such as...?

 

Vinny: "We're being 'taken for a ride' -- as if Yalta and Munich had never happened..."

 

?

 

Vinny: "As for any "painful steps" that need to be taken, I expect that any "pain" be borne by the psychopaths who believe mass murder of innocents is the appropriate response to real or perceived grievances."

 

Are you referring to Muslims? Do you advocate the cleansing of Muslims from Western soil?

North America vs. Europe

In spite of the American experience with "terrorism" (or unconventional warfare) on September 11th, 2001, the subsequent invasions and occupations of Afghanistan and Iraq, Washington's new emphasis on "homeland security," and the centralisation and co-operation of American intelligence agencies, many European states have been dealing with terrorism for decades, including:

  • Germany (West German Red Army)
  • Spain (ETA and now Muslim groups)
  • Great Britain (IRA, UVF, and now Muslim groups)
  • Greece (assorted socialist groups)
  • Italy (assorted socialist groups)
  • Russia (Chechen separatists)
  • France (OAS, Algerian separatists and now Muslims)
  • Serbia & Montenegro (KLA)
  • Macedonia (Albanians)

Although the European response to "homegrown" Islamic terrorism has not addressed the root causes any more than Canadians or Americans have, there can be no question that North Americans are less "used" to terrorism. Until the necessary but politically painful steps are taken to tackle these problems, North Americans will have to get used to bombs going off and Europeans will have to tolerate it; perhaps only intolerance will cause governments to rethink their policies.

root cause humbug

Kapitein:

The "root causes" you refer to are largely a ginned up, fraudulent shakedown of gullible, insecure Westerners who think it's more important to be well-liked than to do the right thing, people who can no longer tell when they're being snookered.

How is it that sophisticated 'global citizens' -- especially those running the West's political institutions and the unelected clerics of our media and intellectual classes -- can be so obviously, thoroughly, routinely and repeatedly conned by gangsters posing as statesmen and charlatans masquerading as champions of the people?

How is it that by any reasonable standard of measurement -- wealth creation, literacy, life expectancy, etc. -- the human race is better off than at any time in history, yet only now is the time for slaughtering innocents out of 'desperation' day in and day out, all over the world? (Bonus points for explaining things like Thailand's 'root cause' culpability.)

How is it that the Islamic world, having largely squandered the largest transfer of wealth in human history, itself the result of geologic/geographic serendipity, can get away with playing the victim, like a ne'er-do-well relative unable to confront the mess he's made of his life?

Sorry, I don't buy it. I've spent a lot of time in the more Hobbesian neighborhoods of this planet, places where 'getting by' often means 'getting over' on others and where admirable concepts like compromise, concilliation, concession -- even kindness -- are considered weaknesses to be exploited or invitations to aggression.

We're being 'taken for a ride' -- as if Yalta and Munich had never happened -- and this time around our confidence in the West has been so thoroughly hollowed out and confused by decades in a Gramscian hall of mirrors that we're going along willingly.

As for any "painful steps" that need to be taken, I expect that any "pain" be borne by the psychopaths who believe mass murder of innocents is the appropriate response to real or perceived grievances.

including the removal of the phrase “stoning of women.”

'As a result, earlier this month, Herouxville’s town council changed some of the wording in its code of conduct, including the removal of the phrase “stoning of women.”' 

So assumably someone felt discriminated against by the declaration that the stoning of women was completely outside  the norms?
Just wondering if this removal might have been a request from those muslims who, "are accustomed to living and worshipping side by side with people of different cultures."?

I also wonder why the Canadians don't seem to mind that by taking out that phrase it looks like they'd actually consider it to be perfectly within the norm.

Some years ago I might have still been shocked by something like that. Yet in times of global appeasement of islamists obviously nothing seems impossible.