Don’t forget your shovel.

G&M | Hateful Chatter Behind the Veil

Today the G&M has published a story quoting liberally from a web forum used by Muslims in Mississauga. 4 of the wives of the 17 recently arrested men are members of this site. The URL is not given for the site, and of course the G&M was selective in what they chose to write about. Nevertheless, it’s pretty inflamatory and anti-Canadian stuff. Reading this kind of thing makes it difficult to want to reach out and understand what makes people hate this much.

Yesterday I wrote this post. I’d just like to add that today I saw photos of the arrested men’s family members — namely their women — in the paper. Uh, at least some of them hail from *very* conservative Muslim families. Women who are “liberal” Muslims would not be covering every inch of themselves except for the eyes. Although what I said in my post may still ring true in many ways — especially the marginalisation of young men in Canada — I was clearly wrong about my comments that these young men may come from liberal Muslim families. Admitedly, some of them may have had a liberal background, but it’s clearly not true for all of them.

One still has to question the role of the family in the marginalisation and radicalisation of these young men. Many of their families are clearly conservative Muslims. So, no doubt, growing up their socialisation was all focused on life at the Mosque, within their religious community, etc. As the boys’ schooling, TV, etc. Canadianised/Westernised them, I wonder how their families took this? No doubt they would have been happy to find that someone at the mosque was creating a space specifically to socialise them away from Western “non-Muslim” life. If you tell your parents that you are going up north with the youth group from your mosque (which your parents sanction), what parent of a rebelious teen wouldn’t be relieved? There is much to think about in this situation — particularly in terms of learning, socialisation, and the role of family and community in raising children. It takes a village to raise a child, the adage goes. Yet, in the news, I hear very little being said about all this.

There was an interesting article in the Globe & Mail today which pointed out that the way the Freedom of Religion is practiced in Canada means that conservative, fundamentalist (if you will), Muslims practice their religion in Canada is because in many Muslim countries to do so would result in persecution/arrest. So that’s an interesting thought… freedom of religion for all means tolerance of right wing fundamentalists of all faiths. That’s fine, I guess, as long as the members of these religions aren’t going around profilgating and engaging in violence against those who believe differently. Freedom of religion has be respected by all religions, if it is to work. And that’s a very “Western Liberal Democratic” idea.

So today the unanswered question is: Can we all co-exist in Canada? And how?

Yahoo News | Canadian terrorism Arrests

A few months ago, I was talking to a Canadian of the Muslim religion who is in his late 40s. We spoke about the Muslim community here in southern ON and there was much conjecture. One of the interesting things he said to me was that he didn’t quite understand where his community was going wrong. Most of his generation and older had emigrated from their homelands to avoid the rise in conservatism and fundamentalism in the Muddle East and the Muslim world. HOwever, he told me, the next generation — especially boys in their teens and 20s (i.e. their sons)– who had grown up fully in Canada, were turning out to be very conservative Muslims.

And today (points to link) we have our proof, perhaps? During that conversation, and since then, I’ve been thinking of potential causes for the youth’s conservatism. Obviously it is a good way to rebel against their parents’ liberalism and against the mainstream Canadian society which they may feel isolated from socially and economically. Moreover, due to canada’s multicultural policies, many of these kids have actually been encouraged by these same “liberal” parents by sending them to the mosque, encouraging arranged marriages, encouraging them to maintain friendships within their own ethnic and religious group, and sending them “home” to spend their holidays with their relatives in increasingly conservative muslim cultures before returning to permissive teen life in Canada. How could our Muslim (male) youth not wind up a bit confused? A bit resentful?

Of course, there are undoubtedly many Muslim youths in the Canadian community to whom this does not apply. But given today’s arrests… it is this group which is at the forefront of my mind.