Working site on citizenship and multiculturalism issues.
2015/03/07 Leave a comment
Finally getting around to post the standard deck I have been using to talk about my book, and summarize some of the key messages.
10 Inconvenient Truths: Policy Arrogance or Innocent Bias Deck
2015/03/06 Leave a comment
Not the Senate’s finest hour, particularly on the Government side:
[Liberal Senator] Mitchell accused [Marc] Lebuis for making “very, very sweeping allegations, based on anecdotal evidence,” without “any intellectual, academic, empirical evidence.”
But the Conservative senators thought otherwise.
Senator Beyak: “Thank you, Mr. Lebuis, for an excellent, well-informed and documented presentation.” Senator Stewart Olsen: “Thank you, Mr. Lebuis. What you are suggesting is that vigilance is necessary for the preservation of democracy and that our ancestors were extremely vigilant.”
Another witness was Shahina Siddiqui (no relation), head of the Islamic Social Services Association, Winnipeg: “Please do not treat Muslim Canadians as if they are the enemy because we are not … Don’t give in to fear and propaganda, otherwise, we will tear each other apart.”
Senator Beyak told her, thrice, to stop being “thin-skinned.” Canadians are “tired of hearing excuses. If 21 Christians were beheaded by Jews, they would be called ‘radical extremist Jews.’ And if pilots were burned in cages by a Christian, they would be called ‘radical violent Christians’ … What would you answer to people who are legitimately concerned” (emphasis mine).
So, this Muslim from Manitoba must answer for the atrocities committed by the Islamic State in Syria and Iraq.
But she remained remarkably calm: “Canadians are as concerned about the loss of innocent life, whether it is done by ISIL, Al Qaeda or by all other terrorist groups. The number one target of these groups are Muslims.
“It’s not about Muslim versus Canadians or Canadians versus Muslims; it is humanity versus terrorism.”
Liberal Senator Joseph Day told her:
“I have a grave, grave concern that we’re going to see more retaliation. We’re going to see more bullet holes in mosques and mosques burned …
“As soon as your community starts seeing this activity, which has been triggered by something happening way off somewhere else, more and more young people are going to join up to go fight for the jihad. It’s going to be more and more difficult for your community … We’ve got to stop it now or it’s going to get out of control.”
Siddiqui: “We have to stop it now because we have the experience of Japanese internment. We did that to Japanese-Canadians out of fear. I hope this is not going to go there.”
She told me later that the committee hearing felt like the “Tea Party was in action. It was a very charged atmosphere — more like an inquisition from her (Senator Beyak).”
Harper senators hold McCarthyesque hearings: Siddiqui | Toronto Star.
2015/03/06 Leave a comment
Good profile on some of the divides in France, and some of the commonalities:
The bustling Gare du Nord train station marks the frontier between central Paris and the banlieues, says Andrew Hussey, a British historian who has written about the tensions between France and its black and Arab minorities.
It’s the place where the suburbs of northern Paris — which consist of mainly immigrant, minority populations, who are often very poor — come into contact with the relative affluence and comfort of the city center.
“The thing about the Gare du Nord is that that’s where you feel — the kids from the banlieue feel excluded,” he says, “They come here, and like it’s a frontier zone between Paris over there — which is very well-heeled and very rich and very beautiful, and over there [the suburbs] — where they’re sort of, you know, cast out into this world that’s not quite connected to the center of France.”
Ismael Medjdoub is one of these “kids from the banlieue” who straddles these two worlds. Medjdoub, 21, a third-generation Frenchman of Algerian descent, spends a lot of time on the subway getting to and from work and school — up to four hours every day, including Sunday.
Ismael Medjdoub grew up in one of Paris’ banlieues. He spends up to two hours a day commuting from his home in Tremblay en France to work and to school at the prestigious Sorbonne in Paris.
Medjdoub is a student at the Sorbonne in Paris, and would like to get an apartment in the city, but he says his district number — it’s like an American ZIP code — is hurting his chances.
In France, Young Muslims Often Straddle Two Worlds : Parallels : NPR.
2015/03/06 Leave a comment
Not surprising that these movements are migrating to Canada although unlikely to have the same success as in Europe. But CSIS doing its job in monitoring:
Mais sous la rubrique «Extrémisme intérieur», le SCRS évoque l’envers de la médaille de ces menaces islamistes: l’apparition récente sur internet, au Canada, d’un mouvement anti-musulmans semblable à ceux qui existent déjà en Europe.
Les «Patriotes européens contre l’islamisation de l’Occident» (Pegida) attirent par exemple depuis quelques mois des foules impressionnantes sur les grandes places de villes d’Allemagne et du Royaume-Uni.
Le SCRS estime que ce mouvement représente un risque réel, surtout parce que ses sympathisants ont tendance à préconiser la violence dans leurs actions.
La note au ministre Blaney est datée du 18 septembre 2014, soit un peu moins d’un mois avant les attentats meurtriers de Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu et d’Ottawa, les 20 et 22 octobre. Deux militaires ont perdu la vie dans ces attentats commis par des jeunes qui, selon les autorités, se réclamaient de l’islam radical.
Peu après ces événements, des gestes de vandalisme contre des mosquées ont été signalés à Ottawa, et à Cold Lake, en Alberta, des menaces ont été proférées contre l’Association des musulmans de la Colombe-Britannique, et on a fait état d’une augmentation générale dans les signalements d’intimidation et d’harcèlement public de musulmans.
Néanmoins, le SCRS est probablement plus intéressé par le sentiment anti-immigrant et anti-Islam qui a pris racine dans certaines régions du nord de l’Europe, même parmi la classe moyenne, a fait valoir Lorne Dawson, enseignant de sociologie à l’Université de Waterloo et codirecteur du Réseau canadien pour la recherche sur le terrorisme, la sécurité et la société (TSAS).
M. Dawson soupçonne que le SCRS ait été surtout ébranlé par le massacre horrible en juillet 2011 de 77 personnes en Norvège par Anders Behring Breivik, qui avait laissé un manifeste détaillant son idéologie d’extrême-droite, incluant une perspective radicale anti-musulmans.
«En Europe, cela a tendance à attirer les individus violents. Alors s’il y a la moindre chance d’une emprise au Canada, on peut comprendre pourquoi ils sont inquiets, a-t-il évoqué. Je soupçonne qu’il s’agit simplement de diligence raisonnable pour être préparé le plus rapidement possible à la lumière (des gestes) de Breivik.»
Un mouvement anti-musulmans menaçant sur le web | National.
But under the heading Domestic Extremism, the spy service also underscored what might be the flip side of that coin — the recent development “of a Canadian online anti-Islam movement, similar to ones in Europe.”
CSIS characterized it as an “ongoing risk, particularly as its proponents advocate violence.”
The Sept. 18 briefing for Blaney’s office came a little more than a month before soldiers were killed in Canadian attacks just two days apart — murders committed by young men that authorities say were motivated by Islamic extremism.
Shortly after the killings, there was vandalism of mosques in Ottawa and Cold Lake, Alta., threats against the B.C. Muslim Association, and a general increase in reports of public bullying and harassment of Muslims.
However, CSIS is likely more interested in the kind of anti-immigrant, anti-Islam sentiment that has taken root in some parts of northern Europe, even among the middle class, said Lorne Dawson, a University of Waterloo sociology professor and co-director of the Canadian Network for Research on Terrorism, Security and Society.
“They’re just not used to dealing with immigrants at all, let alone immigrants that are quite different,” Dawson said of Europe. “We have a much longer track record of immigration in general — waves and waves of immigrants that have come for decades.”
Dawson suspects CSIS is motivated by the horrific July 2011 slaughter of 77 people in Norway by Anders Behring Breivik, who penned a manifesto outlining his far-right ideology, including an extreme anti-Muslim outlook.
“In Europe, it tends to attract violent individuals. So if (there’s) any chance it’s starting to take wings in Canada, then you can see why they’re concerned,” he said. “I suspect they’re just seeking due diligence to be on top of this at the earliest possible moment in light of Breivik.”
2015/03/05 Leave a comment
The Saudi approach to de-radicalization:
“If you lose these inmates when they are in prison, they will come out of prison more radical,” Turki said, adding that supporting their families also helps make sure they, too, don’t “fall into the hands of the terrorists.”
Turki said that about 20 percent of those who have gone through the rehabilitation program have returned to terrorism-related activities. Many rights activists think the failure rate is higher than Saudi officials admit.
Critics often argue that Saudi Arabia, or at least many rich Saudis, supports violent Islamist radicals, and that the government’s emphasis on rehabilitation reflects a certain sympathy with terrorists.
But Saudi officials argue that no country, except for Syria and Iraq, is more directly threatened by Isis. They say their approach to convicted terrorists is more pragmatic and effective than simply throwing thousands of them in prison for decades and hoping that their friends and family don’t become radicalized.
“I don’t think we should be reflexively opposed to these programs,” said Bruce Hoffman, director of the Center for Security Studies at Georgetown University. “The hard-core, wild-eyed fanatics we are never going to rehabilitate, but a solution that says they are all the same and we should lock them away forever isn’t effective, either.”
Hoffman said a 20 percent recidivism rate is far better than the 70 to 75 percent recidivism rate for violent criminals in the United States. He said prisons without rehabilitation programs can become “terrorist universities” that turn minor offenders into hardened militants. He also said that inmates who are coaxed away from radical thinking can also provide valuable intelligence about terror groups.
“Programs like this can be enormously effective,” he said.
2015/03/05 Leave a comment
On the latest nihilism of ISIS and denial of the richness of civilization, Islamic and otherwise:
The enemies of modernity and tolerance and civility and liberty, and all the other values that classical liberals hold dear, believe that destroying the products of the arts and humanities will further their goals. They think the statues they are smashing to splinters and the words they are burning are important and influential enough to warrant their destruction.
This is not, it is worth noting, a radical innovation by ISIS. There is a long history of fundamentalist Islamic groups destroying cultural treasures. The Buddhas of Bamiyan. The “end of the world” gate in the ancient city of Timbuktu. Over 95 percent of ancient Mecca. Countless thousands of ancient manuscripts. Groups from ISIS to the Taliban to Wahabist Saudi clerics have made it clear: Everything must be obliterated.
They claim, of course, that these things must be destroyed because they are idolatrous in themselves or might inspire idolatrous thinking in others. But I think it is far more likely that ISIS wants them destroyed because these objects prove the falseness of their version of history.
From the 8th to the 14th centuries, the flourishing, trading, creative, scientific, philosophic, artistic and intellectual marvel that was the Islamic Golden Age produced a ringing argument against the ISIS narrative that their way—the way of extremism and the sword—is the only path to success.
Golden Age science, mathematics and medicine were the envy of the world. The tolerance and intellectual curiosity modeled by thinkers like Al-Kindi, Al-Farabi and Ibn Rushd created a civilization where, more than anywhere else, Muslims, Jews and Christians were able to study, trade and live in unprecedented peace and productivity.
And this Golden Age died when people who would have been very much at home in ISIS began to gain power.
For ISIS to continue to spread their evil, they must destroy the history that gives evidence against them—by destroying the museums and libraries that protect it—just as they must destroy the living humans who fight them.
Are the arts and humanities important? Do they accomplish anything we should care about?
Look at those who want to destroy them. Consider what their ends are. Then tell me.
ISIS Vandals Destroy Works of Art That Challenge Their Take on Islam.
2015/03/04 Leave a comment
Sigh ….
Conservative Senator Daniel Lang told a crowd of students at the University of Ottawa’s Public Policy Conference on Saturday that “we need to recognize that radicalized thoughts lead to radicalized actions.” But just last week Lorne Dawson, co-director of the Canadian Network for Research on Terrorism, Security and Society, told the committee that research on radicalization consistently demonstrates that very few individuals who hold radical ideas ever actually graduate to committing violence and that generalizations about radicalization don’t help the fight to counter extremism in Canada.
“Research literature is overwhelmingly clear there is a very poor correlation between espousing ideas and engaging in action,” Dawson told iPolitics on Monday. “Obviously some people on the committee heard what we were saying and some didn’t.”
Dawson’s co-director, Daniel Hiebert, also said he disagreed with Lang’s point and noted it’s important to keep in mind the distinction between having radical thoughts and acting on those thoughts.
“You can’t perform a radicalized action unless you had a radicalized idea so yes, there is a connection between those things but nowhere near everyone who has radical ideas will perform radicalized actions,” he said. “The literature on these issues is very clear that it’s another conversion process. There’s one conversion process that happens between thinking mainstream ideas and having extremist ideas – that’s a pretty big kind of hurdle to jump over, it’s a pretty big conversion process that happens there. There’s yet another conversion process that happens between having extremist ideas and thinking that violence is an appropriate way to propagate those extremist ideas. So there’s no simple linkage between those two things. There’s sort of a necessary linkage — as I said, you can’t have B without A but A does not necessarily lead to B. “
Lang’s office sent an emailed statement in response for a request for clarification of his comments.
The statement reiterates the text of his speech at the conference.
“To be clear, I stated: We need to recognize that radical ideas lead to radical actions. It does not mean we should criminalize ideas, but we need to identify them; state that they have no place in Canadian society, even at university campuses – where sometimes the cloak of free speech is abused; and denounce those promoting them and facilitating such ideas – even if they are done in the name of religious ideology or doctrine,” the statement reads.
Don’t equate radical thoughts with actions, academics tell senator (iPolitics)
2015/03/04 Leave a comment
CBC put together a short list of the major public controversies, given the latest one, the decision by a judge in Quebec not to hear her case given she was wearing a hijab:
1. Sikh Mounties permitted to wear turbans
2. Turbans on the soccer pitch
3. Taking a citizenship oath
4. Testifying in court
5. At the voting booth
5 head-covering controversies in Canada – Canada – CBC News.
2015/03/03 Leave a comment
More coverage of the work by Lorne Dawson and Dan Hiebert on the need for greater emphasis on anti-radicalization and de-radicalization programming, the softer yet necessary prevention programming:
It would take an immense public education effort and support for families and Muslim communities to have difficult conversations, to provide support and resources. Dawson draws the comparison to how we now approach suicide. Just as parents and teachers should never ignore a 14- or 15-year-old who says he’s going to kill himself, Canadians have to respond to young people espousing sympathetic feelings for extremist ideologies from the get-go.
“If someone says, ‘Anyone who is not a Sunni is a kuffar and they should all be killed,’ that’s not a line you let pass. The trouble is if your only recourse right now is to phone the police or the RCMP, it’s not going to happen,” says Dawson.
That’s because the Canadian government has chosen to focus on “hard security” — boosting investigative powers, intelligence gathering, arrest powers. There is no provision in the Conservative government’s massive anti-terror Bill C-51 to provide new resources for de-radicalization programs — the kind of “soft security” measures that Dawson, Hiebert and others say are key.
By that they mean interventions involving law enforcement, teachers, social workers and psychiatrists — resources that are woefully lacking at the moment for Muslim communities across Canada, the Senate committee has heard.
The researchers say Ottawa should look to other countries, pointing to a program in Britain called Channel that draws in police, social workers, psychiatrists and teachers “to deal with the other aspects of that person’s life that need to be fixed, to get them to divert from that path towards radicalization and violence.”
“That’s expensive, but, again: an ounce of prevention, a pound of cure.”
And they urged continued funding for research projects such as theirs. “We don’t adequately understand radicalization yet,” said Dawson. “To put it in simple terms, we’re very worried . . . . If you don’t have a fine enough conception of what’s causing the problem, it’s difficult to develop the most effective counter measures.”
‘Soft security’ measures also needed to battle home-grown radicalism, experts say | Toronto Star.
And a good interview with Dawson:
The lure of terrorism: Q&A with cult expert Lorne Dawson (with video)
2015/03/03 Leave a comment
Some good reporting on the sex-ed debate within different communities. Not surprising, but I think that many are living in denial of reality:
Politicians in the South Asian community also spoke out against the curriculum. The Weekly Voice and South Asia Mail reported former MPP Harinder Takhar (who served under Premier Dalton McGuinty) as saying that he had advised McGuinty against implementing the curriculum in 2010. He maintains this view stating that, “a serious debate is required in the community on this issue.” The same report also states Conservative MP Parm Gill’s apprehensions. Gill said that being the father of three children, the new syllabus is a cause of concern for him. He was of the opinion that the Liberal party had, “destroyed the institution of marriage and now it is (sic) on its way to put our children on the wrong track.”
There are some who support the provincial governments move, though their voices may be barely audible amongst the loud clatter of all the protestors. Two of the five parents interviewed by Can-India News thought it was, “about time.”
“Parents opposing the new sex-ed curriculum are living in denial. Schools should be discussing these issues and giving students the information they need,” said one parent, identified only as Parineet. “They should know about these things because everyone talks about it in schools and it is easy for them to get the wrong idea or information from friends or the Internet. The school would do it scientifically and professionally.”
Irrespective of how parents feel, Premier Kathleen Wynne is determined that the new sex-ed curriculum will be implemented this time. How much of a difference it will make is another matter though, as parents will have the option of pulling their children out of sex-ed classes.
Sex-Ed Not Welcome at Any Age for Many Immigrant Parents – New Canadian Media – NCM.
Click image for book purchase
