The prefered assumption of liberals and the left is that all new Canadians want to embrace multiculturalism and only aging, racist white men are standing in the way of utopian harmony. I've always been suspicious of this assumption, mostly because I've met racists all over the world, from Pakistan to Romania, from Japan to St. Petersberg, so I find it hard to believe that everyone who immigrates to Canada is ready to embrace everyone else's culture with tolerance and respect.
But this article in the Toronto Sun about Muslims protesting on Remebrance Day raised even my eyebrows. I have no argument with them protesting the war in Afghanistan, although I'd like to remind them of who helped them during the decade the Soviets occupied the country, and while burning a poppy is culturally insensitive and shows they have no knowledge of Canadian history or where that symbol came from, that kind of drama is the stock and trade of protests, an art perfected by the left.
What struck me dumb was their chant: "Islam will dominate!" and "Our dead are in paradise. Your dead are in hell."
Now I traveled briefy with the mujahideen in Afghanistan in 1988, just as the Soviets were getting ready to make their escape from that disasterous war, so it doesn't surprise me that they believe we're going to hell or that Islam (and by extension the protesters) will "dominate" in the end. What amazed me was that they were utterly shameles and open about it.
White males who chant similar intolerant rubbish publicly usually belong to neo-Nazi skinhead clubs, and the thought-police of human rights tribunals would be all over them in seconds for such an outburst. Stiffer hate crime legislation would be dusted off and enacted, and existing hate crime laws would be prosecuted with extreme prejudice.
With Muslims, of course, the human rights groups fear to tread. These Islamists are serious, and if you try and charge one of them with a hate crime then you'd better have the RCMP open your mail with a bomb squad robot, let alone brace yourself for a barrage of bad press from the MSM.
The Irish, the Chinese, the Italians, all the Europeans after WWII, the Vietnamese, the Hindu Indians--all these ethic groups and many others came to Canada and for the most part lived and let lived. They may have felt superior to established Canadians, and some may have even thought they had superior religions or morals, but they were relatively quiet about it. In the long run, they became Canadians.
But there is a branch of radical Islam that wants to conquer and convert Canada. They shout "Islam wil dominiate!" Dominate. Rule.
Jack Layton thinks he can win these people over to the NDP cause by sending them Ramadan greetings, but he'd better be ready to toss away the NDP stand on equal rights for women, homosexuals and anyone whose religion isn't Islam. There has already been a rise in anti-semetic attacks on everything from synagoges to grave yards, and no one is pointing the finger at skin heads anymore. Sadly, no one is brave enough to point a finger at all.
If multiculturalism dies in Canada, it won't be white males who killed it. Indeed, it was Pierre Trudeau and his cronies who pushed the idea in the first place. It just didn't occur to them that some people would come here and not agree with them that we should all live shoulder to shoulder and respect one another's culture.
It was a nice idea. So is banning war. Try that and see how long you last as a country when things go bad. These ideas fail because there are always some radical groups out there like fundamentalist Muslims who will see it as weakness and exploit it to the max.
Get ready Canada. The wolves are in the sheep pen.
Mike Downtown