What is Wrong with Bouchard-Taylor Report  by Ali Sina
The 3.7 m. dollar Bouchard-Taylor report that was commissioned to recommend "reasonable accommodations" of ethnic and religious minorities in Quebec is finally released. However, it raises more questions that it answers.
This intellectual duo*, who spent months preparing the 310 page report, wants to place more emphasis on integration and less on individuation that would eventually lead to segregation and alienation. That is a noble thought. The problem is that right after talking about the importance of integration they propose “dissemination of pluralism.”
Aren’t integration and pluralism two opposing concepts? In politics we need pluralism or we will have dictatorship. But in society, we need integration. Pluralism leads to isolationism, alienation and estrangement. What glues a nation together, are its shared values. Culture, tradition, beliefs and language are values that bind us together. If we have nothing in common, what will unite us?
Is cultural pluralism a good thing? Do all cultures have inherently something good to offer? Is, for example, a culture that advocates hatred of outsiders and gender apartheid, equal to a culture that promotes inclusiveness and equality?
One of the recommendations of the Bouchard-Taylor report is “intercultural harmonization.” How can we promote pluralism and harmonization at the same time? Aren’t these two concepts mutually exclusive?
Mr. Taylor, says, “Compromise and reciprocity are the two key words. You give a little bit, I give a little bit, and we all put some water in our wine.” This works only when the other side also believes in compromise and reciprocity, is willing to give in and put some water in his wine. If he is not willing to compromise, the only wine that will be watered down will be the wine of the Western culture.
Some cultures do not compromise. Take the example of Islam. Islam is now culture, now religion, now political system and now race. It can be anything, depending on the situation. However, Islam cannot change. You cannot water it down, reform it or modernize it. The Quran is emphatic that Islam is perfect (Q: 5:3). No Muslim will tolerate reforming his religion that was perfected by God. Consequently, the only culture that will have to give in to the point of extinction will be the Western culture.
It is this culture that gave birth to enlightenment, democracy and ushered mankind to modernity. It is this culture that brought the collective humanity out of the Dark Ages into the present world. It is to this culture that we owe our freedom. If any culture has to be protected it is the Western culture. Yet, it is this culture alone that today is facing extinction – because it is being watered down through immigration, multiculturalism and the suicidal disinterest of its members, who are willing to bend backwards to accommodate every inferior culture except protecting their own.
Other recommendations of the commission are to take “exceptional measures to combat Islamophobia and anti-Semitism.” They also recommend fighting against discrimination, with emphasis on hate crimes.
However, these recommendations are contradictory. There are some teachings of Islam that are anti-Semitic, misogynist, hateful and discriminatory. How then can we reconcile these two conflicting recommendations?
The Quran repeatedly calls the Jews apes and swine, and says they are despised and rejected (2:65, 5:60, 7:166). Every day, Muslims are required to recite the opening sura of the Quran that says Christians and Jews have gone astray and that the wrath of God will be on them. According to the Quran, women are inferior (4.32) and should their husband suspect disobedience, they can abuse them verbally and emotionally, and even beat them (4.34). The Quran says homosexuality is abomination (27:54) and the Sharia (Islamic law) prescribes death for homosexuals. According to the Sharia, apostates also should be killed. The Quran is insistent that the non-Muslims are unclean (9:28), that Muslims should not take them as friends (3:28), associate with them (9:23), or obey them as rulers (25:52).
There are many verses in the Quran that exhort the believers to be harsh with non-Muslims (9:73), fight them (2:193, 2:216, 4:84, 8:65, 9:5, 9:14, 9:73), cast terror into their hearts (3:151, 8:12), and even kill them (2:191, 9:5, 47:4).
Are we allowed to criticize these teachings? Not according to Bouchard and Taylor who want us to be charged with Islamophobia if we do. But if we don’t, we would be tolerating anti-Semitism, discrimination against women and hate against all non Muslims.
A fact that seems to escape everyone is that Islam is not a race but a belief system. Beliefs do not have to be protected by law. Christianity is not protected, Judaism is not protected, Hinduism, Buddhism, Sikhism, the Bahai Faith, Paganism, Shintoism… none of these faiths are protected. Anyone is free to criticize any religion. Then why Islam has to be protected by law? Why the government should spend the tax money of the very people Islam calls filthy, apes and pigs to protect it? The government’s responsibility is to protect people, their rights and their lives and not religious beliefs. It is the lives of the apostates of Islam that are in danger and need to be protected, not Islam that says kill the apostates.
How can we compare Islamophobia with anti-Semitism? Semites are a people; Islam is a belief. These are apples and oranges. People need protection; beliefs don’t. It’s human rights that have to be protected, not human faiths.
Then again, Islamophobia is a misnomer. Phobia is an unfounded and irrational fear. Since 9/11, 2001, there have been over 11,000 terrorist attacks throughout the world, all perpetrated by the followers of “the religion of peace.” On Feb. 13, 2007, the CBC published the results of an Environics poll, where fully 12% of Canadian Muslims said the aborted terrorist plot – that included kidnapping and beheading the Canadian prime minister and blowing up the Parliament and the CBC – was justified. 12% of 700,000 Muslims living in Canada means 84,000 Canadian Muslims support terrorism. They finance it; they take part in it.
Can we afford not to fear Islam? Is the fear of Islam, phobia? One must be foolhardy not to fear Islam. Read the Quran! Listen to the sermons in the mosques and pay attention to what Muslims do. Are these not enough reasons to fear Islam?
The truth is that Islam is incompatible with human rights, gender equality, democracy, integration, harmonization and everything that the Bouchard-Taylor commission intends to achieve. Muslims will never integrate, unless they give up Islam and consider themselves Canadians first. It is ironic that these two highly intellectual men undermine their own recommendations and include Islam as something to be protected. On one hand they want to promote secularism and recommend the religious symbols of the founders, and the majority of the Quebecois to be taken down from public buildings, and on the other hand they suggest that government should shield Islam from criticism and incriminate those who speak against its violent, discriminatory, and hatemongering teachings.
Two thousand years ago, a Jewish carpenter said, “truth will set you free.” This truism has never been truer than today. Let us stop this political correctness. Let us tell the truth about Islam. Let us give truth a chance.
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* Gérard Bouchard is a Historian and sociologist lecturer in the Département des sciences humaines at the Université du Québec à Chicoutimi.
Charles Taylor, author, philosopher, is Professor Emeritus of Political Science and Philosophy at McGill University.
About the Author
Dr. Ali Sina is an ex-Muslim and founder of http://www.faithfreedom.org where he writes articles mainly about the subject of Islam.
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Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, Volume 1: From Covenant to Community $12.98 Invoking a concept as simple as it is brilliant, F. E. Peters has taken the basic texts of the three related–and competitive–religious systems we call Judaism, Christianity, and Islam and has juxtaposed them in a topical and parallel arrangement according to the issues that most concerned all these “children of Abraham.” Through these extensive passages, and the author’s skillful connective comm… |
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