{"id":397,"date":"2016-03-19T04:15:10","date_gmt":"2016-03-19T04:15:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/canadafirst.nfshost.com\/?p=397"},"modified":"2016-03-19T04:15:10","modified_gmt":"2016-03-19T04:15:10","slug":"time-to-change-tune-on-official-multiculturalism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadafirst.nfshost.com\/?p=397","title":{"rendered":"Time to Change Tune on Official Multiculturalism"},"content":{"rendered":"

Time to Change Tune on Official Multiculturalism<\/strong><\/h1>\n
by Licia Corbella,<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n

About one dozen families who recently immigrated to Canada are
\ndemanding that the Louis Riel School Division in Winnipeg excuse their
\nchildren from music and co-ed physical education programs for religious
\nreasons. The families believe music is un-Islamic ~ just like the
\nTaliban believe and then imposed on the entire population of
\nAfghanistan and that physical education classes should be segregated
\nby gender even in the elementary years.<\/p>\n

The school division is facing the music in a typically Canadian way –
\nthat is, bending itself into a trombone to try to accommodate these
\ndemands, even though in Manitoba, and indeed the rest of the country,
\nmusic and phys-ed are compulsory parts of the curriculum. Officials
\nsay they may try to have the Muslim children do a writing project on
\nmusic to satisfy the curriculum’s requirements. The school officials
\nhave apparently consulted the Manitoba Human Rights Commission, and
\nthey have also spoken to a member of the Islamic community suggested
\nby those very same Muslim parents. In any event, the school district
\nis trying to find a way to adapt the curriculum to fit the wishes of
\nthese families, rather than these families adapting to fit into the school
\nand Canadian culture.<\/p>\n

Mahfooz Kanwar, a member of the Muslim Canadian Congress, says he has
\na better idea. “I’d tell them, this is Canada, and in Canada, we teach
\nmusic and physical education in our schools. If you don’t like it,
\nleave. If you want to live under sharia law, go back to the hellhole
\ncountry you came from or go to another hellhole country that lives
\nunder sharia law,” said Kanwar, who is a professor emeritus of
\nsociology at Mount Royal University in Calgary.<\/p>\n

That might be putting things a little more forcefully than most of us
\nwould be comfortable with, but Kanwar says he is tired of hearing
\nabout such out-of-tune demands from newcomers to our country.
\n“Immigrants to Canada should adjust to Canada, not the other way
\naround,” he argues. If they did not like these things in Canada, why
\ndid they not go somewhere else? If they want Canada to be like their
\nhomeland why don’t they go home?<\/p>\n

Kanwar, who immigrated to Canada from Pakistan via England and then
\nthe United States in 1966, says he used to buy into the “mosaic,
\nofficial multiculturalism” (nonsense). He makes it clear that, like
\nmost Canadians, he is pleased and enjoys that Canada has citizens
\nliterally from every country and corner in the world, as it has
\nenriched this country immensely. But it’s official multiculturalism –
\nthe state policy “that entrenches the lie” that all cultures and
\nbeliefs are of equal value and of equal validity in Canada that he objects
\nto.<\/p>\n

“The fact is, Canada has an enviable culture based on Judeo-Christian
\nvalues – not Muslim values – with British and French rule of law and
\ntraditions and that’s why it’s better than all of the other places in
\nthe world. We are heading down a dangerous path if we allow the idea
\nof sharia law a place in Canada. It does not. It is completely
\nincompatible with the idea and reality of Canada,” says Kanwar, who in
\nthe 1970s was the founder and president of the Pakistan-Canada
\nAssociation and a big fan of official multiculturalism.<\/p>\n

Kanwar says his views changed when he started listening to the people
\nwho joined his group. They badmouthed Canada, weren’t interested in
\nknowing Canadians or even in learning one of our official languages.
\nThey created cultural ghettos and the Canadian government even helped fund
\nit.<\/p>\n

“One day it dawned on me that the reason all of us wanted to move here
\nwas going to disappear if we didn’t start defending Canada and its
\nfundamental values.” That’s when Kanwar started speaking out against
\nthe dangers of official multiculturalism. He has been doing so for
\ndecades. So, it’s no surprise that Kanwar is delighted with the recent
\nspeech British Prime Minister David Cameron delivered to the 47th
\nMunich Security Conference on\u00a0Feb. 5.<\/p>\n

“Under the doctrine of state multiculturalism,” said Cameron, “we
\nhave failed to provide a vision of society to which they feel they want to
\nbelong. We have even tolerated these segregated communities behaving
\nin ways that run counter to our values. So when a white person holds
\nobjectionable views – racism, for example – we rightly condemn them.
\nBut when equally unacceptable views or practices have come from
\nsomeone who isn’t white, we’ve been too cautious, frankly even
\nfearful, to stand up to them.<\/p>\n

This hands-off tolerance,” said Cameron, “has only served to
\nreinforce the sense that not enough is shared. All this leaves some
\nyoung Muslims feeling rootless and … can lead them to this
\nextremist ideology.”<\/p>\n

Kanwar actually credits German Chancellor Angela Merkel for being
\namong the first of the world’s democratic leaders to take the
\ncourageous step in October to say that official multiculturalism had
\n“failed totally..” It appears leaders are getting bolder. During an
\ninterview with TFI channel on\u00a0Feb. 10, French President Nicolas
\nSarkozy declared: “We have been too concerned about the identity of
\nthe person who was arriving and not enough about the identity of the
\ncountry that was receiving him.” Cameron ended his speech by saying: “At
\nstake are not just lives, it’s our way of life.That’s why this is a
\nchallenge we cannot avoid – and one we must meet.”<\/p>\n

That democratically elected leaders are at long last starting to sing
\na different tune on official multiculturalism is sweet music to Kanwar.
\nHere’s hoping those poor kids in Winnipeg will get to hear some of it.<\/p>\n

Licia Corbella is\u00a0The Herald’s Editorial Page Editor<\/span><\/b>
\n<\/span><\/b><\/i><\/p>\n

lcorBella@calgaryherald.com [February 12, 2011<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Time to Change Tune on Official Multiculturalism by Licia Corbella, About one dozen families who recently immigrated to Canada are demanding that the Louis Riel School Division in Winnipeg excuse their children from music and co-ed physical education programs for religious reasons. The families believe music is un-Islamic ~ just like the Taliban believe and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[260,262,261,23],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadafirst.nfshost.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/397"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadafirst.nfshost.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadafirst.nfshost.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadafirst.nfshost.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadafirst.nfshost.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=397"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/canadafirst.nfshost.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/397\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":398,"href":"https:\/\/canadafirst.nfshost.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/397\/revisions\/398"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadafirst.nfshost.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=397"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadafirst.nfshost.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=397"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadafirst.nfshost.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=397"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}