ICYMI: Woman wearing burka denied service in Edmonton shop because of ‘no-mask policy’

2016/02/12 Leave a comment

Will be interesting to see whether a complaint is filed and if so, how will it be handled:

The owner of a north Edmonton shoe repair store says the reason he refused to serve a woman wearing a burka was motivated by safety, not religious or cultural reasons.

“We have a no-mask policy in the store and I certainly cannot discuss any race, religion, politics on the (sales) floor,” said Ryan Vale, owner of Edmonton Shoe Repair in Northgate Centre mall.

The response comes in the wake of accusations from 19-year-old Sarii Ghalab who claimed Vale told her he could not serve her because it goes against his ethical beliefs.

“He blatantly told her not to touch anything in his store and that he will not offer her any service,” Ghalab’s sister wrote in a Reddit post while searching for online advice.

A burka is a traditional dress worn by some Muslim women that covers everything except the eyes.

Ghalab later told CBC News that she tried to deliver flowers to Vale along with a letter explaining the reasons she wears the burka. But she said he simply ushered her out of the store.

Vale said that isn’t the case.

“I certainly did not bring up the issue of race,” said Vale, pointing out a hand-written sign on his counter saying “Please, for security reasons no facial coverings Thank you” as well as another printout saying “For security reasons NO MASKED CUSTOMERS ALLOWED” with a silhouette of a head wearing a balaclava.

“That’s the way it’s always been. I know lots of businesses adhere to that business — strictly a no-mask, veiled mask, policy in the store; for white people, black people, dogs, anything. Please show who you are for safety,” Vale said.

Ghalab said she isn’t looking for retribution (though her sister posted she would file a human rights complaint) and the incident details remain he-said-she-said.

Source: Woman wearing burka denied service in Edmonton shop because of ‘no-mask policy’

Filed under Multiculturalism, Religion Tagged with , , , ,

ICYMI: How Ann Coulter inspired Donald Trump

2016/02/11 Leave a comment

Interesting little nugget connected to Canadian politics, the reference in the last para to Peter Brimelow, a seminal influence on the Reform party and Stephen Harper, according to William Johnson and Paul Wells.

Helps explain some of the anti-Muslim rhetoric during the last campaign:

Being a pundit is a show business occupation, and Coulter, like many show business stars, seemed to have been supplanted by younger models. She had become famous in the cable TV world of the 1990s as a good-looking blond lawyer willing to say the most outrageous things about liberals, especially Bill Clinton. As this kind of put-down became more common, and channels like Fox News put conservative blond women all over television, her uniqueness seemed to fade and her sales with it: in 2011, the Washington Post reported weak sales for her book Demonic: How the Liberal Mob is Endangering America.

¡Adios, America! changed that, debuting at No. 2 on the New York Times non-fiction bestseller list and reinventing Coulter’s image. The younger pundits who were eclipsing her have been thrown for a loop by Trump’s rise—Glenn Beck contributed to National Review’s “Against Trump” issue last month—and left Coulter as the voice of pro-Trump punditry. When Trump walked out on a Fox News Republican debate, Coulter, writing in the Hollywood Reporter this week, trashed Fox as “trivial and self-important” and praised Trump as the only candidate who “takes principled stands.” Trump fans can count on her to defend their idol against mainstream conservatism.

If Trump is pulling Coulter back into the limelight, she might end up pulling a lot of other people in with her. The Southern Poverty Law Center pointed out that Coulter “routinely cites white nationalists” in ¡Adios, America! In an interview with Chronicles magazine, she stated that one of her key inspirations for writing the book was Alien Nation author Peter Brimelow, who recently called for the expulsion of Muslims from the U.S. and declared “whites are America.” A year ago, such associations seemed like a bad move for a mainstream conservative. But, thanks to Donald Trump, Ann Coulter might be the head of the new conservative mainstream.

Source: How Ann Coulter inspired Donald Trump

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How Beyonce and Bruno Mars Overshadowed Coldplay’s Bland Uplift at the Super Bowl Halftime Show – The Atlantic

2016/02/10 Leave a comment

One of the more interesting takes on the half-show:

Both Beyoncé and Bruno wore black. They dressed the same as the people they stood shoulder to shoulder with. And then, before being interrupted by a strange retrospective video about past halftimes, they offered a reminder that synchronized dancing can be the best kind of spectacle there is—better than Left Shark, better than a middle finger to the camera, better than a crotch slide from Springsteen. There was no racial subtext to this, just text. Mars’s crew was B-boying. Beyoncé’s was channeling black radical movements and Michael Jackson in 1993. These were displays of cultural power coming from specific places, with specific meanings. They were rooted in history, but obviously spoke to the present.

In the short time since it arrived online without warning the day before the Super Bowl, “Formation” has already generated a monograph’s worth of writings about Beyoncé’s choice to tie her famous swagger explicitly (and hilariously, and cleverly) to her race, gender, and cultural heritage—to “Jackson Five nostrils” and dates to Red Lobster. The video features her on stoops and in parking lots and in old-money New Orleans drawing rooms, looking fly. Everyone has the potential to appreciate her infectious attitude, the song’s strange squeaky beat, and the video’s instantly iconic visuals. But among the group of people she is directly addressing, many say “Formation” feels like something more than just a great pop song—it feels life-giving and maybe even revolutionary.

But forgoing the universal also involves risk, as Beyoncé surely knew. The aggregating of social-media users who find her totally humane imagery “anti-police,” or who hear a song about a person’s lived experience and reply with the inanity of “all lives matter,” has begun. So too has concern trolling about her acclaim from people who’ve never connected to her music. If you find “Formation” tuneless or offensive, fine. Just don’t go impugning the motives of all the people in the weeks to come walking down the street in a very specific rhythm, internally chanting “I slay.” Beyoncé no longer asks that everyone get in formation, and that’s why so many people probably will.

A lot of headlines today say that Beyoncé won the Super Bowl, and a lot of memesare fixing on the moment toward the end when she, Mars, and Martin all sang together. It was meant to be a beautiful sight, but it ended up feeling awkward; Martin seemed weak, pitiful, next to the two of them and what they’d just done. There are probably a lot of reasons for that perception. One might be that he had pretended to stand for everything, but actually stood for very little. Beyoncé did not make that mistake.

Source: How Beyonce and Bruno Mars Overshadowed Coldplay’s Bland Uplift at the Super Bowl Halftime Show – The Atlantic

Filed under Multiculturalism, Racism Tagged with , ,

At a time of stress, the moving music of Islam – The Washington Post

2016/02/09 Leave a comment

A reminder of the richness of Muslim culture:
The Al Firdaus Ensemble, from Granada, Spain, perform at the Diyanet Center of America in Lanham, Md., Saturday. From left are Abdessalam Naiti, Salma Vives, Ali Keeler, Omar Benlamlih and Muhammad Domínguez. (David Montgomery/The Washington Post)

At about the same time that Donald Trump was reminding everyone at the New Hampshire Republican presidential candidates’ debate Saturday evening that he had called for a ban on Muslims entering the country, a violin player and singer of Islamic religious songs named Ali Keeler was about to perform at a Turkish mosque in Lanham, Md., just outside the Capital Beltway.

Keeler, born in London and now based in Granada, Spain, is as surprised as anyone that his band of devout troubadours called the Al Firdaus Ensemble is filling concert halls in the United States. Given all the controversy over Islam in this country, “we didn’t know what to expect,” he said.

Keeler had wondered if there would be problems getting into the country. If there would be an American audience for a quintet of virtuosos playing songs in a style that is hundreds of years old. Then there was all the political rhetoric. Keeler was well aware that if the person in the White House a year from now is President Trump, a tour like this featuring Muslim artists from abroad might be impossible.

But Keeler has faith.

“I think, really, exactly what is going on in the end is going to be very positive for Muslims,” he said with the serene confidence of a man whose lyrics are rooted in mystical Islamic poetry and texts in which amazing marvels do come to pass, if you just believe. “I’m confident that the majority of Americans actually are in favor of a pluralistic, diverse society.”

Ali Keeler, founder of the Al Firdaus Ensemble, performs in a recent music video shot in Spain. (Courtesy Al Firdaus Ensemble and Amar Chebib)Ali Keeler, founder of the Al Firdaus Ensemble, performs in a recent music video shot in Spain. (Courtesy Al Firdaus Ensemble and Amar Chebib)

The remarkably timely tour of Al Firdaus has grown organically, as word spread among networks of young professional Muslims engaged in building vital social, educational and religious scenes in cities across America. The ensemble — which takes its name from the most elevated part of Paradise — played before several hundred people in the Princeton University Chapel on Friday night. Before that, the group performed in a chapel in Chicago. It is eventually headed to the San Francisco Bay area.

…Word of Al Firdaus spread over Facebook, and performances at the Turkish Diaynet Center of America on Saturday and the GALA Hispanic Theatre in Columbia Heights on Sunday quickly sold out, a total of nearly 450 seats.For those filling the halls, it was more than a night out.

“There’s been an assault on what Islam is and was,” Elashram said. “This is a way to reconnect to that heritage. . . . Islam is a way of life.”

While the musicians of Al Firdaus did not set out to influence the contentious discussions around Islam, they are aware that this tour, at this time, in some small way could have an impact. Their music is far from political. It’s all about beauty and faith and peace and devotion — which is a point in itself. Inherent in this musical tradition is the idea that truth is beauty and beauty is truth. Thus, for an artist to create or convey an Islamic thing of beauty is to tell a truth about Islam.

“When Islam has such bad press, we are ambassadors,” said Muhammad Domínguez, who plays the darbuka, a hand-held drum, in the ensemble. “I think there is no better moment for us as Muslims and believers and followers of the prophet Muhammad to bring these events to the whole world. Once falsehood appears, you should confront it with the truth. Al Firdaus is an open window to show the people the beauty of Islam.”

The Saturday and Sunday concerts were billed as “Sounds of the Alhambra,” referring to the ancient Moorish palace and fortress in Granada that still stands as a tranquil, if crowded, tourist attraction. Most of the people in the audience Saturday were connected to the Muslim community. They ranged in age from babies to seniors, and some dressed in traditional headscarves or robes.

With violin, cello, two darbukas, a harp-like qanun and sinuous vocals, the musicians of Al Firdaus held the audience silently spellbound at some moments and inspired them to ebullient poly-rhythmic clapping and singing at others. The melodies explored the common harmonic river fed by musical tributaries of Arabic, Moorish, Turkish, Celtic, flamenco and Andalusian sources. The words, mostly in Arabic, were composed epochs ago by holy men and mystical poets.

Source: At a time of stress, the moving music of Islam – The Washington Post

Filed under Multiculturalism

Douglas Todd: Canadian aboriginals joining Christian clergy despite residential-school legacy

2016/02/09 Leave a comment

Interesting piece by Douglas Todd on indigenous peoples and spirituality. When I was looking at religious affiliation in my book, Multiculturalism in Canada: Evidence and Anecdote, one of the bigger surprises was the low number following traditional Aboriginal spirituality:

The biggest group of Canadian aboriginals, 506,000, affiliate with Roman Catholicism. The National Household Survey found another 134,000 associate with the Anglican Church, 59,000 with the United Church and 36,000 are Pentecostal.

Almost one in five aboriginals say they have “no religion.” And 63,000 say they follow traditional aboriginal spirituality.

Dozens of aboriginal clergy in the Anglican, United Church, Lutheran and Presbyterian churches have trained through the Native Ministries Consortium at Vancouver School of Theology on the UBC campus. Every summer, 40 to 60 aboriginal theology students take programs at The Native Ministries Consortium, says director Ray Aldred, who is Cree.

The students are often from the West Coast — Salish, Haida, Tsimshian, etc. Other indigenous students hail from Ontario, the Arctic and the Prairies. That’s not to mention Lakota, Navajo or Nez Perce from the U.S.

Contrary to most media reports about Canada’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission, Aldred believes “aboriginal anger about white Christianity” and the legacy of residential schools abated more than a decade ago.

“I think in the 1950s the churches began realizing they had made a mistake with residential schools. But it took another 50 years to get out of them,” said Aldred, 56.

The churches closed almost all residential schools by the 1970s, but the federal government’s billion-dollar compensation and healing program is continuing.

“Now we can do Christian faith on our own terms,” said Aldred, who was baptized in the United Church but is now a minister in the Alliance Church. “That’s the cool thing about Canada. We seem to find ways to get along.”

Both Aldred and Nahanee feel they have integrated Christianity into their aboriginal traditions.

“I believe Christianity is everyone’s religion. It’s not just white man’s religion,” said Nahanee, 63, who also chairs the Canadian Catholic Aboriginal Council.

Nahanee often holds a talking stick or eagle feather when he’s in the pulpit at St. Paul’s Church, which is decorated with aboriginal designs and where he co-ministers with his Filipina wife, Emma, 53.

The Catholic Church allows deacons, unlike its priests, to be married. However, Nahanee and Emma joked about how the church would not permit him to remarry if she died.

Even though Nahanee would like to see Pope Francis repeat earlier Vatican apologies for Canada’s residential-school system, including one that operated a few hundred metres from St. Paul’s Church, he regrets how some good things that happened in the schools are being ignored.

“People are now afraid to say positive things about the schools,” said Nahanee. He noted, for instance, that in the late 1800s the Catholic priest for St. Paul’s Church and its related residential school stopped an attempt by the legendary Vancouver saloon owner, “Gassy Jack” Deighton, to seize Squamish Nation land.

Nahanee is convinced Christianity, at its best, adds to aboriginal culture. He knows it might not be for everyone, but he urges aboriginals and others who are angry about the past to find ways to transcend it.

“I think forgiveness is a way of healing and getting on with our lives. We’ve had so many problems because of anger and alcoholism. It has to end.”

Source: Douglas Todd: Canadian aboriginals joining Christian clergy despite residential-school legacy

Filed under Aboriginal, Religion Tagged with ,

If Cable Companies Lose Control Over the Cable Box, What Happens to Minority Programming? – The Atlantic

2016/02/08 Leave a comment

Interesting debate in the US:

So which is it? Is it good for minorities or bad?

It costs about $231 to rent that clunky box each year. That earns cable companies $19.5 billion per year. The proposal would open the cable-box market to companies like Apple, Tivo, Roku, and Google. Cable companies are obviously upset. They’d lose out on billions (they’ve raised cable box prices 185 percent in the past 20 years). And in much the way the Internet has disrupted the way we listen to music, watch movies, and consume the news, it could do the same for the way we watch cable. The proposal would also, cable companies say, upend the way they negotiate premium spots on their channel lists.

That’s partly why some black and Hispanic organization are upset. Right now, wealthy programmers––including those that appeal to minority audiences––pay for prime listing space. In return, people see your network and watch it. But if tech companies take over, who will decide the pecking order? The worry is that tech companies would turn their boxes into vast and depthless rooms––much like the Internet is––where minority programs will lose the slight edge they can buy in the current pay-for-queue-style listing.

Another issue is cost. The FCC wouldn’t require consumers to switch to a third-party box, but TiVo costs about $15 a month, and to outright buy an Apple TV box is $150. Cable companies charge around $7.50 a month—though that cost adds up quickly over time.

Cable boxes have long been a shackle of control. Opening the market to competition would likely lower prices. Not to mention that programming for minorities is already pretty abysmal. Telemundo and Univision are behemoths in media, but young Hispanics don’t watch TV in just Spanish. English networks with a Hispanic bias are pretty rare, and as Nogales told Motherboard, there’s really just the Fusion channel, “and that’s it.”

That was Johnson’s same argument for why the FCC should pass the plan. Back when he built BET, he had to first convince the gilded cable companies that enough black consumers wanted to watch his channel just so they’d try it out in their cable lineups. It was a success. But since Johnson started BET 35 years ago, only a handful of black-led channels have joined cable listing. The biggest reason why he supports the plan, Johnson wrote, is because it “would simply increase control by consumers.” No more corporate suits to convince. Each remote is its own vote.

Source: If Cable Companies Lose Control Over the Cable Box, What Happens to Minority Programming? – The Atlantic

Filed under Multiculturalism Tagged with , ,

Action Canada: Barriers to Belonging Report and Municipal Voting

2016/02/06 Leave a comment

Attended the presentation of the Action Canada report 5 Feb (I had been one of the people consulted in its preparation)Citizenship and Selection).

Well attended, including the Parliamentary Secretary for Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship, Arif Virani, who signalled the change and tone of the new government.

The one part of the report that I have a friendly disagreement with is the push for municipal voting.

The main arguments used – Permanent Residents use municipal services, pay taxes, live in the communities – apply also to provincial services (e.g., healthcare and education) and federal services (e.g., Service Canada and related employment programs). Comparisons with Europe are largely irrelevant given the barriers to or length to obtain citizenship in most European countries.

And I have never seen – readers to correct me – any convincing data or evidence on whether extending municipal voting to non-citizens will make a marked difference in voting participation or overall integration.

Recommendations as follows:

  1. Recognize and facilitate permanent immigration and citizenship acquisition as critical to nation building in selection, citizenship, settlement and integration policies. Avoid policies that risk leading to long-term residence without permanent status or citizenship.
  2. Factor the settlement and integration needs of immigrants into selection policy, alongside the long-term social and economic needs of the country.

Designing smarter services:

  1. Engage stakeholders to identify information gaps, design usable data formats, and create platforms for consolidating evidence on what works. Include, at a minimum, settlement service providers, and provincial and municipal governments.
  2. Create a $10M pay-for-success fund – about 1% of the total settlement and integration budget – focused on immigrant inclusion outcomes. This could be modeled on the UK DWP Innovation Fund.
  3. Expand eligibility criteria for settlement services.

Building Bridges to Employment

  1. Engage employers to develop demand-driven employment solutions.
  2. Work with small and medium-sized enterprise business support programs, accelerators, incubators and innovation hubs to create entrepreneurship training, mentorship, loan and venture capital programs targeted to recent immigrants.

Strengthening Political Engagement

TARGET AUDIENCE: PROVINCIAL AND TERRITORIAL GOVERNMENTS

  1. Amend provincial and territorial legislation to remove barriers to non-citizens voting in municipal elections, including school board elections.

TARGET AUDIENCE: PROVINCIAL, TERRITORIAL AND MUNICIPAL GOVERNMENTS

  1. Remove barriers to non-citizens becoming members of municipal governance bodies.
  2. Publish an annual report card on the extent to which municipal governance bodies reflect the diversity of the communities they serve. The Federation of Canadian Municipalities should spearhead this initiative, alongside leading municipalities.

View Report

 

Filed under Integration, Multiculturalism Tagged with , ,

Shunning hatred online won’t make it go away: Cole

2016/02/06 Leave a comment

Desmond Cole on the tendency of media outlets to eliminate online comment sections:

Few people are mourning the disappearance of online comment sections in major media outlets. CBC recently removed public feedback for all stories involving indigenous people; the Toronto Sun and the Star have done away with the feature altogether. Gone is the fear of scrolling down too far in an online story, and taking in the hateful filth of mostly anonymous provocateurs that had become so common. As a bonus, cash-strapped media outlets who kill comment forums no longer have to pay staff to police them. Everybody wins, right?

But beware: the “block” function doesn’t transpose so easily into our live, face-to-face encounters. It’s tempting to ignore the hatred and discrimination we hear at work, in transit, at the dinner table. But while it’s not always safe or advisable to confront such oppression head on, we need to find ways to challenge it. The instinct behind the closing of comments sections is perfectly understandable, but looking away from the worst in our culture is generally not a path to progress, and can leave vulnerable people at the mercy of the haters.

Ontario’s Liberal government, for instance, should be applauded for its work to establish a clear definition of sexual violence and harassment for the first time. The government’s provocative “It’s Never OK” ad campaign against sexual violence has earned lots of attention; a set of proposed legal changes also deserve public consideration. We know, for example, that employers in Ontario regularly encounter sexual harassment in the workplace, and often choose to ignore it.

….It’s dangerous to dismiss oppression anywhere, including the rampant misogyny, homophobia, transphobia and racism that can dominate internet forums. It may be pragmatic for media outlets to eliminate it from their pages, but it endures in the hearts of hateful people. As we move to limit the impact of oppression online, let’s not fool ourselves that we can shun it without consequence in the many places we find it.

Source: Shunning hatred online won’t make it go away: Cole | Toronto Star

Filed under Multiculturalism, Racism Tagged with ,

Is being a vegan a human right? Advocates claim protection under new Ontario policy, but that wasn’t the point

2016/02/06 Leave a comment

Interesting how different groups tend to stretch definitions:

It’s a question the Ontario Human Rights Tribunal may soon tackle after an update to the provincial definition of “creed”. Animal-rights and vegan advocates are calling the new policy, released in December, an important recognition of their right to express their beliefs. The 179-page policy, the first update from the provincial human rights commission since 1996, offers guidelines for what defines “creed,” historically treated as religious beliefs and practices, in the more secular 21st century. That opens the door for vegans, atheists and other groups to claim similar protections under the law.

“This is nothing new. For decades we’ve accommodated people who have beliefs about wearing leather or eating certain foods based on their religious beliefs,” said Camille Labchuk, executive director of Animal Justice. In a blog post last month, the charity said the new policy offers human rights protections to ethical vegans (people who don’t consume or wear any animal or fish byproducts for reasons of conscience). “This is a recognition that we are becoming an increasingly secular society and people have other reasons behind their beliefs now that aren’t necessarily religious in nature.”

What we were really trying to capture are things like atheism, belief systems that might not have a religious basis

But according to Ontario Human Rights Chief Commissioner Renu Mandhane, that was never the precise intent of the review of the definition of “creed.”

“We did hear from (vegan and animal rights groups) and I have a lot of respect for their advocacy… but in framing the definition, that is not the group that we were attempting to address. That’s not to say the tribunal might not find… in a certain instance for that to qualify as creed,” said Mandhane. “But that wasn’t where we were going.”

Instead, the aim was to provide an update that hedged against growing religious persecution in some areas, particularly against Muslims, and to make it more inclusive of, for example, atheists or those who practice an indigenous spirituality. “Creed” is now much broader than the more strictly religious interpretation intended when the Code was first drafted and is intended to capture more modern belief systems.

That doesn’t mean any belief system can qualify, however. The updated policy uses a five-pronged approach to determining whether a belief system qualifies as a legally protected creed:

  • Is it a sincerely, freely and deeply held belief?
  • Is tied to personal identity and spiritual fulfillment?
  • Is it “a comprehensive and overarching system of belief that governs one’s conduct and practices?
  • Does it address ultimate question of human existence, including ones about life, death and purpose?
  • Is there an organization or community that practices the same belief system?

“What we were really trying to capture are things like atheism, belief systems that might not have a religious basis but are sort of about that ultimate question of our existence and our identity,” Mandhane said, since “we’ve become a more secular society.”

Source: Is being a vegan a human right? Advocates claim protection under new Ontario policy, but that wasn’t the point

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RCMP’s portrayal of Islam in B.C. terror sting ‘dubious,’ expert says

2016/02/06 Leave a comment

The defence appears to have a point:

Police officers posing as spiritual guides in an undercover terrorism sting offered “dubious” and “eyebrow-raising” interpretations of Islam to a British Columbia man with extremist Muslim views, an Islamic expert says.

Omid Safi, head of Islamic studies at Duke University in North Carolina, told a B.C. Supreme Court on Thursday that the RCMP should have helped John Nuttall overcome his radical ideas, instead of preventing him from reaching out to mainstream, moderate religious leaders.

Mr. Nuttall and his common-law partner, Amanda Korody, were found guilty last summer of plotting to blow up the B.C. Legislature on Canada Day in 2013. Their convictions are on hold while lawyers argue the pair were entrapped by the RCMP.

“I have questions about particular aspects of the ways in which the police seem to have presented themselves as a model of spiritual guides, offering highly dubious interpretations of Islam, putting themselves in a position of authority,” Prof. Safi told the court.

“Those are all things that, to a scholar of Islam, certainly seem to be eyebrow-raising.”

Defence lawyers have depicted Mr. Nuttall and Ms. Korody as impoverished former heroine addicts, living on welfare, who spent most of their time playing video games in their basement suite in Surrey, B.C.

Prof. Safi described Mr. Nuttall’s understanding of Islam as shallow and superficial, informed by rambling and incoherent political grievances.

Transcripts from undercover surveillance recordings reveal Mr. Nuttall was searching for spiritual guidance and that he identified the main undercover RCMP officer as a religious authority and his one true Muslim brother, Prof. Safi said.

“I think that deradicalization – religious guidance from an authentic, certifiable imam with command over issues of Islamic law – would be the proper course of action,” Prof. Safi said when asked what the appropriate police response would be when dealing with a person who harboured extremist views.

In her cross-examination, Crown lawyer Sharon Steele pressed him, asking whether his perspective would differ if this person were in the midst of organizing a violent plot.

“It would only add to the urgency of putting that person in touch with a qualified, scholarly source,” he replied.

Ms. Steele presented Prof. Safi with instances in which Mr. Nuttall called into question the authority of mainstream religious leaders and railed against their views of Islam. She questioned whether this behaviour was an precursor to violence.

“I wish I could tell you that that’s a sign of a jihadist. It’s not. It’s a sign of hotheadedness,” Prof. Safi said, adding that he’s encountered that exact situation dozens of times over his 24 years as a university professor.

“[It’s] hotheaded 18-year-old kids who think that they know everything about the faith getting up and telling a professor of Islamic studies, who has a PhD, you’re preaching a soft, watered-down, Westernized Islam for the infidels.

“What you’re seeing here of course is rude, it’s disrespectful. It’s also absolutely a part of the landscape of modern Islam.”

Source: RCMP’s portrayal of Islam in B.C. terror sting ‘dubious,’ expert says – The Globe and Mail

Filed under Radicalization Tagged with , ,

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