When I wrote my post yesterday I originally had the term "home grown terrorists" in quotation marks. I changed it but even when writing the title something seemed off to me. It took most of the day but I think I figured out why. The term is obviously inflammatory - it is used to evoke that Canada is not immune to this type of terrorism and perhaps it is a new reality in Canada. All of this is true, to a point, but there just isn't any home in this growing.
I listened to a speach by Newt Gingrich about what it means to be American. I think it applies equally to Canada so I will borrow liberally. There is no such as a Canadian race, being Canadian is a state of being. A loyalty to the country and the Constitution - providing each other the space to be ourselves as long as we don't harm each other.
A backyard garden tomato is home grown. A greenhouse tomato is not. The people
who tried to commit this terrorist act may have been on the same soil but they were "grown" in a hothouse of hatred and bigotry.
Update: And just so my point is not confused, check out this quote from the NYT.
...Tarek Fatah, the communications director of the Muslim Canadian Congress, a national group, said that Mr. Jamal, the oldest of the suspects, is a well-known and fiery figure in the Toronto area's South Asian community, and that he was the imam of the Ar-Rahman Quran Learning Center, a mosque in a rented industrial building in Mississauga. Immigration from South Asia greatly expanded in Canada beginning in the 1970's, and, like several Canadian cities, Toronto and its suburbs have long had a large and prominent South Asian community. "He took over an otherwise peaceful mosque and threw out the old management," Mr. Fatah said. "There were reports throughout the community of him making hate speeches." The mosque did not respond to phone messages. "This is the work of people who believe they are victimized when they are not," Mr. Fatah said. "Many Islamacists are preying on the Islamic community." "Law enforcement agencies have done a great service to the Muslim community by busting this terrorist cell," he added.
I could not have put it better myself.
Update: Further to nomdenet's comment below I guess it all depends on how you define "multi-culturism". I sense what you mean is silo-culterism as opposed to diversity. All moving into one neighbourhoods, not learning the language, building their own places of worship, bringing their birthplace hatreds here, etc. Here is the problem with that, it is the history of Canada. I live in the Kitchener-Waterloo, Cambridge tri-city area. Kitchener was originally Berlin due to German immigration. The Scottish populated much of early Cambridge (Galt especially). The Italians in Guelph. The Ukrainians in the Prairies. Chinatowns, I could come up with hundreds of examples, but you get the point. My own family is split between Irish Protestant and Catholic. I don't how much of this is Staples mythology but the story in my family is that my Irish Protestant forefathers got kicked out of Ireland for burning down Catholic Churches, immigrated to Lindsay, Ontario and burned down Catholic Churches there. In other words they were terrorists. Heck, when my Catholic Mother married my Protestant Father it was not looked kindly upon. What is going on now is not unique.
I read a column (again, can't remember where or by whom) which theorized that the main difference now is globalization. When my family left Ireland they left for good. The only line of communication between the old and new world was mail. All hatreds and old ways of life died off in a generation or two. Today we have instant messaging, global travel and satellite television. The old hatreds and ways of life are able to hold on today. So the problem is not new but maybe we need new ways of solving it.
Comments (10)
Well put Greg. A Canadian priority must be to encourage young Canadian Muslim males out of the hothouse into our backyard.
Let’s stop the multiculti propaganda of the left now. That has been a disastrous recruitment strategy of Liberals who were bankrupt of morality and ideas.
Diversity is healthy; multi-culti is a recipe for disaster as seen in the EU. Liberal Ministers of Multiculturalism have foolishly promoted the continuation of failed cultural practices and that confuses parents from the third world who are trying to Canadianize their kids.
We need to articulate clearly “being Canadian is a state of mind”. We need to do simple things, e.g. make the pledge of allegiance in schools every morning to include references as to how freedom in a democracy works. We need to state clearly it means that men and women are equal. That we believe in the separation of church/mosque and state.
If we won’t stand up and fight for Canada’s own state of mind, how can we expect to move the hothouse people into our backyard?
Posted by nomdenet | June 4, 2006 9:49 AM
Posted on June 4, 2006 09:49
You don’t have a clue what multiculturalism really is, do you, nomdenet? I can tell by the fact that you hold it responsible for problems even in countries that aren’t multicultural. I can tell by the fact that you can’t see that these same types of problems exist in both multicultural Canada and non-multicultural America.
I think what really needs to be stopped is the vapid anti-multicultural propaganda of the right.
Posted by Robert McClelland | June 4, 2006 12:05 PM
Posted on June 4, 2006 12:05
Non-multicultural America? Only in the right-wing fanatics’ dreams.
Posted by Idealistic Pragmatist | June 4, 2006 12:36 PM
Posted on June 4, 2006 12:36
Not everything has to be fought on a left-right divide.
Posted by Greg Staples | June 4, 2006 12:46 PM
Posted on June 4, 2006 12:46
Greg, I am not going to get into it with you over southern democrats, but let me say this. Let’s remember that the reason the democratic party was strong in the south until Nixon’s “Southern Strategy” was, in large part, because Abraham Lincoln was a Republican. You are right, to a degree, it goes beyond left/right and includes race and class issues as well.
As to the quote of Mr. Fatah. He speaks for the 99.99 percent of muslims who hate the extremists as much as we do.
Posted by Greg | June 4, 2006 1:05 PM
Posted on June 4, 2006 13:05
RM. Diversity makes sense, multi-culti doesn’t. Diversity is about tolerance of other cultures but not necessarily buying into the notion that they are equal. Diversity of cultures is fine as long as we hold onto the core of our own history and celebrate what got us this far. At the moment values that Canadians must not agree to being equal to our own culture are Sharia Law, which does not hold that men and women are equal, and the separation of mosque and state.
On the other hand diversity makes sense, particularly commercial sense. No business would try running a focus group without a lot of diversity at the table; male/female, Asian, ME etc.
But multi-culti is backed by political correctness that prevents us from saying things, such as: A tribal based religion like Islam needs to be reformed by its Moderates. That religion is also a culture that is based in a medieval time warp. Like Christianity before its reformation, the pure teachings of the Koran simply don’t make sense in an age of scientific reason. Neither did the teachings of the Catholic Church about usury, but we’ve evolved.
Posted by nomdeneto | June 4, 2006 1:19 PM
Posted on June 4, 2006 13:19
Greg,
Fine, you’re right—it exists in the left-wing bigots’ fantasies, too. My point had nothing to do with the left-right divide, though. It’s that saying the U.S. isn’t multicultural isn’t just wrong, it’s crazy.
Posted by Idealistic Pragmatist | June 4, 2006 1:44 PM
Posted on June 4, 2006 13:44
Agree Greg, the main difference now is globalization and terrorist funding from despots in failed states with oil-money. So the old ways, tribalism in this case, don’t simply die off, they are kept on life-support by oil riches and recruitment of young males churned up with a narrative promoted by Islamofascists.
Silo/Multi-culti is what happens in France with the car-b-q’s. Other cultures are not encouraged to assimilate in France because the native Frenchman thinks he is superior. Muslims from French colonies ended up being isolated in banlieues and deemed to be inferior and not encouraged to be integrated. Multi-culturalism is destroying the UK and Europe. I hope we don’t have to bail them out a third time.
Neither am I saying that we have to be a melting pot. I grew up in Quebec during the silent revolution as an English Protestant. There were indeed Two Solitudes and that was a problem. Now Quebecers are much more “maitre chez nous” and they live in a distinct “French” region with better self-confidence within Canada. Still not perfect yet, but the Harper/Charest relationship is a good example of the evolution and respect for diversity. Ditto the devolution of Scotland within the UK.
We must champion diversity of culture and thought and the encouragement of dissent; even the printing of Danish Cartoons should be permitted.
But let’s replace the Ministry of Multiculturalism with the Ministry of Assimilation. If the Staples family wants to carry on playing the bagpipes and eating haggis go to it, but don’t expect the Ministry of Assimilation to buy them for you. (sorry to be so long winded)
Posted by nomdenet | June 4, 2006 3:09 PM
Posted on June 4, 2006 15:09
Irish nomdenet. You’re getting your diversity confused ;)
Posted by Greg Staples | June 4, 2006 4:01 PM
Posted on June 4, 2006 16:01
Greg, I don’t have to accurate, I’m a journalist … :>)
I was actually expecting RMcC to slag me for typing “Silent” Revolution in Quebec instead of “Quiet” Revolution.
Posted by nomdenet | June 4, 2006 5:32 PM
Posted on June 4, 2006 17:32