Blogging break
2023/11/17 2 Comments
Back in December.
Archaeologists discover previously unknown ancient language – The Independent
2023/11/16 Leave a comment
Fascinating:
Archaeological research in the Middle East is revealing how a long-forgotten ancient civilisation used previously undiscovered linguistics to promote multiculturalism and political stability.
The ground-breaking discoveries are also shedding new light on how early empires functioned.
Ongoing excavations in Turkey – in the ruins of the ancient capital of the Hittite empire – are yielding remarkable evidence that the imperial civil service included entire departments fully or partly dedicated to researching the religions of subject peoples.
The evidence suggests that, back in the second millennium BC, Hittite leaders told their civil servants to record subject peoples’ religious liturgies and other traditions by writing them down in their respective local languages (but in Hittite script) – so that those traditions could be preserved and incorporated into the empire’s highly inclusive multicultural religious system.
So far, modern experts on ancient languages have discovered that Hittite civil servants preserved and recorded religious documents from at least five subject ethnic groups.
The latest example was unearthed just two months ago. It turned out to be written in a previously unknown Middle Eastern language that had been lost for up to 3,000 years.
Over the decades, around 30,000 complete and fragmentary clay tablet documents have been unearthed in the ruins of the ancient Hittite capital – Hattussa (now known as Bogazkoy) around 100 miles east of modern Turkey’s capital, Ankara.
The great majority were written in the empire’s main language – Hittite. But the Hittite government’s scribes wrote around 5 per cent of them fully or partly in the languages of the empire’s minority ethnic groups – peoples like the Luwians (south-eastern Anatolians), Palaians (from part of north-west Anatolian), Hattians (central Anatolians) and Hurrians (from Syria and northern Mesopotamia).
The most recently discovered minority language, recorded by government scribes (and previously unknown to modern scholars) is being called Kalasmaic – because it seems to have been spoken by a subject people in an area called Kalasma on the empire’s northwestern fringe.
The discovery suggests that even the most obscure languages in the empire were being recorded, studied and preserved in written form. That in turn raises the possibility that other small previously unknown Middle Eastern languages will be discovered, recorded on Hittite imperial clay tablets, in the particular series of ancient scriptoria that the archaeologists are currently excavating at Bogazkoy.
The empire’s civil service scribes wrote all their manuscripts in a Hittite version of a pre-existing Mesopotamian-originating script (the oldest writing system in the world) called cuneiform, consisting of wedge-shaped lines arranged in groups representing syllables.
The area of the Middle East which is now Turkey was, in ancient times, particularly rich in languages.
Linguistic diversity often depends on topography. The more mountains and isolated valley systems, the more languages are likely to develop and survive.
At present only five minority languages are known from the Bronze Age Hittite empire – but in reality, given the mountainous topography, there may well have been at least 30
Indeed, just adjacent to the ancient Hittite Empire were the Caucasus mountains region which still today boasts some 40 languages.
The Hittite language is the world’s oldest attested Indo-European tongue.
The earliest inscriptions date from the 16th century BC. As an Indo-European language, it is related to most modern European languages (including English) as well as many Asian languages (including Iranian and many Indian ones). Indeed, despite the 3,000-year time gap, ancient Hittite and modern English have dozens of words in common.
Watar was for instance Hittite for “water”. Duttar was the main part of the Hittite word for “daughter”. “Wine” was wiyana, while card was “heart/cardiac” and newa was their word for “new”.
The excavations of the ancient scriptoria in Bogazkoy will allow linguistics experts to better understand the evolution of ancient Bronze Age Indo-European languages that English is distantly related to.
The current excavations are being directed by professor Andreas Schachner of the German Archaeological Institute in Istanbul – with the study of the texts on the clay tablets being undertaken by paleo-linguists from Wurzburg and Istanbul universities.
“Bronze Age Middle Eastern history is only partly understood – and discovering additional clay tablet documents is helping scholars to substantially increase our knowledge,” said cuneiform script expert, Wurzburg University professor Daniel Schwemer, who is leading the investigation into the newly discovered texts.
The excavations at Bogazkoy are currently yielding between 30 and 40 new cuneiform tablets or tablet fragments every year. Bogazkoy (ancient Hattusa) is particularly important because, as the centre of the Hittite empire (around 1650 BC to 1200 BC), it was the capital of one of the world’s first half dozen really large imperial political systems. It was therefore home to one of the world’s first really substantial document-producing civil services.
The Hittite empire stretched from the Aegean Sea in the west to what is now northern Iraq in the east and from the Black Sea in the north to Lebanon in the south.
Source: Archaeologists discover previously unknown ancient language – The Independent
Ramzy: Why diaspora communities in Canada are struggling to keep their first languages alive
2023/11/16 Leave a comment
Multiculturalism was always about integration into one of the two official languages. In the initial years, the program did support other languages, some of which is now provided at the provincial level (our kids attended farsi school for a few years in Ottawa). Enhancement of other languages was and is in that context as speaking an official language is crucial to integration:
Saiful Bhuiyan, who immigrated to Canada from Bangladesh via the United States two decades ago, is immensely proud of his two children. One is a software engineer and the other, a stem cell research scientist.
But, even over Zoom, I can see that underneath the pride lies sorrow. Bhuiyan, 59, who has built a successful accountancy business, fears that his children are losing their ability to speak Bangla, the family’s mother tongue.
“Now that they’re grown up … they’re talking among themselves in English, except when they’re talking with us,” he says from his home office in Windsor, Ont., a framed certificate hung on the stark white walls of the room. “And in the next generation, they might not be using it.”
At one point, he was so tormented by the loss that he became ill. He’s all too aware of the larger symbolism of language. After the partition of the Indian subcontinent in 1947, the newly formed government of Pakistan tried to make Urdu the sole national language, nearly outlawing Bhuiyan’s mother tongue. The move sparked the Bengali language movement and ultimately the Bangladesh War of Independence. The trauma of almost losing the Bangla language lives on in him.
“When I’m dying, I might not see anybody around me who can speak the language I love, the mother tongue I had when I was born,” he say.
His fears are real. Canada prides itself on being an international beacon of multiculturalism; nearly one in four people in Canada today is an immigrant. The country relies on newcomers to boost both population and productivity and aims to increase immigration levels to 500,000 newcomers a year by 2025. Yet its Multiculturalism Act, which enshrines the right of immigrants and Indigenous peoples to protect, preserve and enhance their mother tongues with government support, is falling short.
Mother tongues are in steep decline, generation over generation. Many arrive here not realizing they are likely to be the last generation in their family to speak their language. Worse, the important role of language in preserving culture is being ignored, say experts and advocates. “It’s not possible to have multiculturalism without multilingualism,” says Slava Balan, a human rights researcher and a PhD candidate at the University of Ottawa who immigrated to Quebec from Moldova. “If cultures are only reduced to the dances, songs, cuisine and all this stuff, that’s just a pretence. That’s not real multiculturalism.”
Some immigrants are finding innovative solutions on their own, while calling on governments across Canada to fulfil their responsibility to help preserve mother tongues.
Chief among those advocates is Bhuiyan. As a director with the Mother Language Lovers of the World Society and the former president of the Bangladesh-Canada Association in Windsor, he’s become one of Canada’s most passionate defenders of mother tongues. His work has helped lead to the recognition of mother tongues, from his city all the way to the federal level.
***
Language has been a political flashpoint in Canada for years. In the 1960s, amid increased tensions between francophones and anglophones, the Royal Commission on Bilingualism and Biculturalismexplored calls to protect the French language. But concerns from diaspora groups persuaded the commission to expand its scope to recognize how other ethnic groups contribute to Canada, too. In 1971, then prime minister Pierre Trudeau introduced Canada’s multiculturalism policy, positioning it within Canada’s bilingual model.
The move set up Canada as a hub of diversity, but it also set the stage for complications. Notably, Quebec has rejected multiculturalism in fear of losing francophone culture, language and tradition. Without adopting an official policy, Quebec has instead promoted the ideal of “interculturalism,” which aims to adapt newcomers to its French-speaking society.
Nevertheless, the Canadian Multiculturalism Act, passed in 1988, enshrined the federal government’s commitment to promoting and maintaining an equal, diverse society in Canada. It was the first of its kind in the world and changed Canada’s sense of self. But its implementation on languages has been disappointing.
For example, by 1991, Parliament had established the Department of Multiculturalism and Citizenship to create programs for cross-cultural understanding, heritage cultures and languages, and community support and participation. The Canadian Heritage Languages Institute Act came into effect the same year, in a bid to establish an institute in Edmonton to develop resources and standards for ethnic minority language classes in Canada. But its creation was deferred in the 1992 budget and repealed before coming into force.
While statistics are scarce, academic studies suggest that funding for heritage language retention and education has only decreased in the decades since. Federal support started strong with nearly $200 million during the first decade after the 1971 policy passed. A study in 2005 by Anjali Lowe, then a master’s student at the University of Victoria, found that it ended after that as the government chose to exclude language from its interpretation of multiculturalism. Alberta, British Columbia and Ontario offered heritage language funding through the public education system early on but have slowly phased it out, too, the study says. It adds up to failing to honour the role languages play in sustaining multiculturalism.
Bhuiyan’s experience proves the point. Despite being in communication with elected officials at all levels of government, his community still struggles to find funds for cultural events, placing a heavy burden on members to pay for these initiatives on their own.
***
Across Canada, census data show two interconnected, overwhelming trends. First, immigrants whose language is neither French nor English are arriving in strong numbers. Of the 1.3 million immigrants who arrived in Canada between 2016 and 2021, more than 900,000 had a non-official mother tongue. Today, there are nearly 400 non-official mother tongues in Canada.
Second, their children and grandchildren are leaving those languages behind in favour of the two official ones. The numbers are dramatic. About 6.3 million immigrants in Canada have a mother tongue that isn’t French or English. Among second-generation Canadians, it’s 1.2 million. By the third generation, only 250,000 people have a mother tongue other than English and French.
It’s a phenomenon I’ve felt in my own life. I immigrated to Canada from Egypt with my family as a nine-year-old in 2013. I was fluent in Arabic, my mother tongue, as well as English, and I had a better knowledge of French than the average Canadian anglophone child. But for some reason, I felt like my near-trilingualism was a curse, not a gift.
In the decade since, as I’ve struggled to make sense of who I am, I’ve found myself belittling my unique identity — responding to my parents in English rather than in Arabic and immersing myself in western pop culture to make up for missed years.
It didn’t help that all around me, I received the message that to fit in and succeed, I had to assimilate myself into this new society. Some of the messages were direct. At nine, I had to take English as a second language, a class I hardly needed. I faced comments from classmates about my slight accent. But other pressure was subtle, like encouragement from many adults in my life to become fluent in French rather than retain my mother tongue.
I’m not alone in this. Amir Kalan, an assistant professor of language and literary education at McGill University in Montreal, says his research shows this phenomenon is common among immigrant children. That’s why advocates like Bhuiyan are desperate for change. Preserving mother tongues in Can- ada — all 400 or so of them — is essential to protecting our multiculturalism, he says. “If slowly all the language is lost, culture is lost, diversity is lost, meaning that it’s going to be one country with one language and one culture, which is not colourful,” Bhuiyan says.
***
Canada’s diverse Indigenous communities know this feeling all too well. Across the country, Indigenous Peoples are fighting to reclaim their languages, which were violently suppressed after settlers arrived in Canada. Under the Multiculturalism Act and the 2019 Indigenous Languages Act, Indigenous communities are beginning to receive greater long-term funding to support language revitalization. But long before government support increased, Indigenous Peoples had to find their own innovative ways to revitalize their languages, says Lorna Wanosts’a7 Williams, professor emerita of Indigenous education, curriculum and instruction at the University of Victoria. She is the Canada Research Chair in Education and Linguistics.
Williams, a residential school survivor from the Lil’wat First Nation in Mount Currie, B.C., has dedicated her life to revitalizing Indigenous languages and providing models for other language learners as well. “One of the first things that we have to work on constantly, all of us together, is that multilingualism is a gift to the world,” Williams says. “Each of the languages portrays a very different relationship in the world that we live in and it gives us a little different understanding of this world.”
She started helping shape the curriculum for the community-led schools in her Nation with the help of a Dutch linguist between the 1960s and 1980s. “We had to develop a writing system for our language, because, like most Indigenous languages, our language is oral…but we live in a very literate environment,” she says. In doing so, Williams and her community ensured the survival of their mother tongue, Ucwalmícwts. And since then, her work has grown to help preserve other languages, too.
While government support is not nearly enough yet for Indigenous and other non-official languages, Williams hopes Canada can realize that every language can bring new knowledge to our country. “Multilingualism isn’t a divide,” she says. “Because that’s what has always been promoted, that if people speak many different languages, it hinders communication and a sense of togetherness. But it doesn’t.”
***
There are some bright spots. In April, a bill by Sen. Mobina Jaffer that called for Feb. 21 to be recognized as the annual International Mother Language Day in Canada passed with wide bipartisan support. Jaffer, who speaks Kutchi, introduced the bill in 2017, but it failed to gain momentum in the Senate through multiple attempts over four years. The bill is largely symbolic and makes no mention of the government’s mandate to support heritage languages. But it’s a step forward in recognizing Canada’s diverse communities and the languages they bring with them.
Jaffer’s attachment to her mother tongue is deeply personal. She arrived from Uganda after Idi Amin, the former dictator and president, expelled thousands of South Asians from that country in 1972. For her, and for many in other diaspora communities, language is identity.
Source: Why diaspora communities in Canada are struggling to keep their … – Broadview Magazine
Globe editorial: Who we are, and must be, as Canadians
2023/11/15 Leave a comment
Same principles, of course, apply to any form of racism, discrimination and hate:
…Solidarity can take many forms. Tearing down posters of those held hostage by Hamas is a hateful act; do not let that happen unopposed. Go out of your way to solicit businesses that have been targeted for being Jewish-owned. Most of all, reach out to your fellow citizens to let them know that they are not alone.
That is who we want to be, who we must be, as Canadians…
U.N. Women’s Groups Accused of Boosting Hamas Massacre Deniers – The Daily Beast
2023/11/15 Leave a comment
Of note. Valid critique. Article highlights relevant comparisons and this policy and political failure:
…
Prominent human rights campaigners in Israel say the most important women’s organizations within the United Nations have failed to give proper recognition to the massacre and mass rape carried out by Hamas on Oct. 7.
The UN Women statement from Oct. 13, failed to mention any of the atrocities and the U.N.’s Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) talked amorphically about “the gendered dimensions of conflict” without laying out the brutality inflicted on women during the horrific attack.
“The silence of the international human rights and women’s rights community is deafening,” Professor Ruth Halperin-Kaddari, a former vice president of CEDAW, told The Daily Beast. “For those of us who believe in the power of international human rights institutions and in solidarity between women, it is a particularly devastating blow. The betrayal is not only to the victims of sexual abuse, but to the very integrity of the institutions.”
The reticence to comment on the specific atrocities in Israel and horrific gender-based violence in contrasts with UN Women and CEDAW’s history of speaking out in defense of women all over the rest of the world.
…
Source: U.N. Women’s Groups Accused of Boosting Hamas Massacre Deniers – The Daily Beast
The Return of the ‘Useful Idiot’
2023/11/14 Leave a comment
Some history of the term “useful idiots” and its application to some groups and individuals in the Israel Hamas war:
The Hamas charter calls for killing all Jews (not just Israelis), so how could it be that there are Jewish groups, such as If Not Now and Jewish Voice for Peace, who carry water for Hamas? Hamas and other Islamist groups punish gays with death, so why are there LGBTQ+ groups that are pro-Hamas? Given the way that Iran and Islamists treat women, why do some feminists back them?
The Jewish groups are the most perplexing. Placing the blame for the barbaric terrorist attack of October 7thsquarely on Israel, they are busy lobbying Congress to stop sending military aid. Anti-semitic harassment does not seem to concern them, and their rallies have led to headlines that surely make Hamas leaders gleeful: “Progressive Jewish Groups Blame Israeli ‘Apartheid’ for Hamas Violence” (Newsweek) and “Hundreds Arrested as US Jews Protest Against Israel’s Gaza Assault” (The Guardian) are but two examples.
This phenomenon is not new. Lenin supposedly called people of this sort “useful idiots” and, as the phrase suggests, he had utter contempt for them, especially the liberals of the Kadet (Constitutional Democratic) party. Although they did not themselves practice terrorism, the Kadets apologized for, even applauded, it. As with Hamas, Russian terrorists of the early 20th century reveled in cruelty. It was common to disfigure a person, often chosen at random, by throwing sulphuric acid in his face. Another favorite was to toss bombs laced with nails into a crowded café “to see how the foul bourgeois will squirm in death agony.” One group threw “traitors” into vats of boiling water. As the leading scholar of Russian terrorism, Anna Geifman, explained, “the need to inflict pain was transformed from an abnormal irrational compulsion experienced by unbalanced personalities into a formally verbalized obligation for all revolutionaries,” as it apparently was for ISIS and is for Hamas.
How could the liberals have stomached such cruelty? Paul Milyukov, the Kadet leader, declared that “all means are now legitimate… and all means should be tried,” much as apologists for Hamas favor decolonization “by any means necessary,” including, it would seem, burning babies alive. Another Kadet official, asked to condemn such terrorism, famously replied: “Condemn terror? That would be the moral death of our party!”
No sooner had Lenin seized power than the Bolsheviks proclaimed Kadets “outside the law,” which meant anything could be done to them. Right away two Kadet leaders were murdered in their hospital beds. Since Lenin made no secret of his plans—again, like Hamas—why did the liberals not oppose him? Even Russian capitalists contributed to the Bolsheviks and other parties sworn to destroy them!
As if not to be outdone by their Russian predecessors, some American liberals justified Stalin’s purges, the Gulag, and the starvation of millions of peasants. Other liberals objected, and so a split reminiscent of what seems to be developing today took place. Closer to our time, the radical gay cultural theorist Michel Foucault, whose ideas helped form the current academic ethos, came to back Ayatollah Khomeini. In short, we are witnessing a familiar pattern.
What explains it? What makes people useful idiots? It isn’t lack of intelligence. One is most likely to find useful idiots on the campuses of elite colleges and universities. Nor is it ignorance: Hamas is proud to broadcast its atrocities. So what then is it?
In his cycle of novels about the Russian Revolution, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn poses this very question. In one memorable scene, he describes the novel’s hero, Vorotyntsev, at a meeting of the Kadets. “They were all overwhelmingly certain that they were right, yet they needed these exchanges to reinforce their certainty,” he thinks. And despite his better judgment, Vorotyntsev goes along with them as if he were hypnotized—not because he felt he was wrong, but out of fear of saying something reactionary.” Today, many are unwilling to risk being called “conservative” or worse, not just to avoid the consequences that such a reputation might entail, but so as not to tarnish their sense of self, which is inextricably tied up with being on the progressive side of everything. At last, Vorotyntsev breaks free from ”the bewitchment” and speaks his mind. How wonderful it would be to get people to do the same in the present day.
Perhaps supporters of Hamas terror naively imagine that they will never find themselves the target of it. “There is reason to fear that the Revolution may, like Saturn, devour each of her children one by one,” declared the French revolutionary Pierre Verginaud at his trial, and it wasn’t long before the guillotine also claimed the revolutionaries who condemned him. Useful idiots need to use their heads before they lose their heads.
Source: The Return of the ‘Useful Idiot’
French march against antisemitism shakes up far right and far left – BBC
2023/11/14 Leave a comment
Of note. Of course, the anti-immigration and xenophobic discourse of Le Pen is directed against Muslims, surprising omission from the article:
Something unprecedented is happening this weekend in Paris, brought about by the war between Israel and Hamas and its spill-over in Europe.
For the first time ever, a major demonstration being attended by representatives of the major political parties includes the far right – but not the far left.
On Sunday afternoon thousands of people heeded a call from the Speakers of the two houses of parliament to show their support for French “Republican” values and their rejection of antisemitism – this in the face of a steep rise in antisemitic actions since 7 October.
Among the first to announce their presence were Marine Le Pen, three-time presidential candidate for the National Rally (formerly the National Front), and the party’s young president, Jordan Bardella.
Almost simultaneously came a rejoinder from their counterpart on the far left, Jean-Luc Mélenchon, irascible leader of France Unbowed (LFI). His party would not be attending, he tweeted, because the march was a “rendezvous for unconditional supporters of the massacre [of Gazans]”.
Source: French march against antisemitism shakes up far right and far left – BBC
Regg Cohn: Canadians who seek justice in the Israel-Hamas war should choose their words — and their targets — very carefully
2023/11/13 Leave a comment
Of note. Money quote:
“We used to say that the world needs more Canada.
It can now be said that Canada does not need more Middle East — neither the madness nor the menace.”
Across Canada, protesters are raising their voices for their rival truths on both sides of the Middle Eastern divide. But two harsh realities await:
First, Canadians can’t stop the endless bloodshed in Gaza and Israel from here.
Second, they quite possibly can start a new conflict on the home front — pitting Canadians against Canadians on the streets of Toronto.
That would be the worst possible legacy of the latest war.
In Sunday’s Star, I wrote at length about the continuing war against peace, based on my own journalistic journey covering the front lines in Israel, Gaza, the West Bank and Lebanon. Today, the conflict is closer to home.
Tensions are rising here just as they are around the world, notably in European countries where antisemitism and Islamophobia are two sides of the same debased coin. The difference is that Canadians aren’t habituated to so much intolerance and incitement.
Today, demonization is the common denominator.
Antisemitism is being normalized. Islamophobia is being legitimized. And xenophobia is being Canadianized.
Please don’t close your eyes to it, for it is in plain sight. If you can’t feel it — in the air, on the streets and online — then you have lost all feeling.
In my last article, I described how far-right Jewish settlers and inciters undermined the peace process in Israel with an assassination and occupation; how Hamas and Islamic Jihad acted not merely as terrorists but rejectionists, blowing up the peace process with suicide bombs targeting civilians.
Never underestimate the ability of extremists and extreme voices on both sides to hijack the agenda — two tails wagging two warring dogs.
I worry that something similar is happening here in Canada — not with weapons of war, just the weaponizing of words. Some are using social media and megaphones to drive a wedge of division.
Debate is good and democratic. Protests are core to the fabric of freedom and petitions are part of our history.
However, hate speech isn’t protected — antisemitic or Islamophobic attacks can be prosecuted. When a synagogue is hit with Molotov cocktails in Montreal, or a mosque in Ottawa is smeared with feces, it’s against the law.
Small comfort. I worry as much or more about the rhetoric that is perfectly legal yet utterly hostile, if not inciteful.
I’m not pining for a country that bans harsh words or uncomfortable ideas. But it is painful when I see people validate or celebrate protests that devalue what their fellow Canadians hold dear.
I don’t expect every protester to be a model of modulation. I’m not counting on every social media monger to show moderation.
But when it feeds bigotry and bullying, we are moving into perilous territory. There’s a fine line between protesting for peace and provoking a war of words.
That line has been crossed in recent weeks.
Those protesters who seek justice should also show judgment — in choosing their words and their targets. When they criticize Israeli actions over there, and then single out Jewish Canadians over here, it sends a chill here at home that Jews everywhere are fair game.
When crowds chant outside the Jewish Community Centre at Bloor and Spadina (on their way back from a nearby protest), it transmits an unmistakably antisemitic signal across the city that Jews are somehow interchangeable with the Israeli consulate. When protesters yell slogans outside restaurants allegedly to call out Jewish or Israeli connections — intending only to intimidate and berate those trapped inside — it sends an ominous message across the country.
Boycotts are blunt instruments at the best of times. This is the worst of times.
Shall our universities ban books or appearances by bestselling Israeli historian Yuval Noah Harari, one of his country’s harshest social critics, because of his origins? Should Canada follow the lead of Lebanon and other Arab countries in banning Wonder Woman movies because its leading woman, Gal Gadot, is Israeli?
Beware such sophistry, for it is a slippery slope.
Obviously it is possible to criticize Israel without being antisemitic — as I did and I do. It is also possible to be anti-Zionist without being anti-Jewish — though it is not as simple as it sounds.
For if Zionism is truly racism, and Israel is transparently racist, would we say the same of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan — carved out as the explicit homeland for Muslims during the 1947 partition of the subcontinent, a place where blasphemy still triggers a death sentence and church bombings remain rampant?
Polling shows most Canadian Jews are broadly supportive of Zionism and the existence of Israel (setting aside illegal settlements). So it is hardly surprising that chanting Zionism is racism, or that Israel is an abomination — and calling for its elimination — would raise alarm bells (just as attacking Ukraine’s right to self-determination would trigger anxiety among Canadians with family ties to that country).
Righteous sloganeering is the wrong way to bring people together. Without humility, there is no empathy.
We have already seen violent and hateful incidents in Canada and the U.S. against Jews and Muslims. We have already heard people claiming that pro-Palestinian protesters should be doxxed or deported for speaking out, or listened as Canadian Jews were accused of dual loyalties for having strong opinions.
Instead of reaching out across the divide and joining hands, too many Jews and Muslims can only see themselves as the bigger victim — oblivious to the other — both in the Middle East and now in Canada. But in any competition for victimhood, there are no victors — it doesn’t work over there, and it won’t help over here.
It is not too late for Canadians to regain their footing, recover their balance, reclaim their compass. But we all need better filters.
Campus excesses are today magnified by social media and then amplified by mass media — distorting the dialogue further. An echo chamber has been transformed into a boxing ring where people take their best shots to provoke the worst instincts among cheering throngs.
Instead of joining hands, we have moved to finger-pointing and flag-waving. I wince when I see the Israeli and Palestinian flags affixed to cars whose drivers honk furiously for their rival tribe or team — as if this deadly conflict were a World Cup soccer competition for the loudest fans.
In a world of conflict and ignorance, Canada can remain a country of coexistence and tolerance. At a time of political polarization, Canadians must show the path to pluralism and remain a role model for multiculturalism.
I wake up with a heavy heart when I think of the bloodshed across the Middle East now — as I did in the past for the hundreds of thousands of souls that have died in the countries I’ve covered as a foreign correspondent. But when I wake these days to what is slowly unravelling in Canada, I hear unmistakable echoes — and yes, echo chambers — from my time abroad.
Which makes my heart even heavier.
We used to say that the world needs more Canada.
It can now be said that Canada does not need more Middle East — neither the madness nor the menace.
Le rapport sénatorial sur l’islamophobie est le fruit d’une intoxication idéologique
2023/11/13 Leave a comment
The Quebec laicité perspective on the recent Senate report:
Irresponsable ? Catastrophiste ? Incendiaire ? On hésite sur le bon adjectif à utiliser pour décrire le rapport sur l’islamophobie que le Comité sénatorial permanent des droits de la personne (CSPDP) vient de déposer.
Les attentats à la mosquée de Québec et de London ont profondément bouleversé les Canadiens. Tous les crimes haineux mentionnés dans le rapport sont inacceptables, et les gouvernements ont la responsabilité de les combattre et doivent tout mettre en oeuvre pour favoriser la coexistence pacifique et la sécurité de leurs citoyens. Mais amplifier indûment la menace en dépeignant un climat de terreur pour les musulmans canadiens ne peut que nuire davantage. Les chiffres de Statistique Canada infirment d’ailleurs cette thèse alarmiste. Pourquoi taire, par exemple, que les populations noire et juive sont, et de loin, davantage victimes de crimes haineux ?
Ce rapport, s’il suggère bien quelques rares mesures raisonnables, préfère brosser un tableau hideux et sans nuances de la situation des musulmans canadiens. Ils se sentiraient attaqués, des femmes et des filles auraient « peur de quitter leur domicile pour aller au travail et à l’école », certains subiraient même de l’islamophobie tous les jours.
Définition, laïcité et idéologie
C’est que la définition proposée de l’islamophobie est très large afin d’englober le plus de cas possible. Par exemple, le fait de ne pas accorder aux musulmans, dans le milieu de travail, des locaux et du temps pour les prières est considéré comme relevant de l’islamophobie, au sens de racisme antimusulman (p. 66). L’approche intersectionnelle, comme les notions d’islamophobie systémique et de micro-agressions inconscientes, permet également d’amplifier le phénomène.
Le rapport reconduit également une compréhension hautement caricaturale de la Loi sur la laïcité de l’État. Les témoins interrogés, qui confondent le respect des personnes avec le respect absolu des préceptes de l’islam, « s’entendent tous pour dire que la loi 21 est discriminatoire, qu’elle a exacerbé l’islamophobie et qu’elle devrait être abrogée » (p. 65). Elle est même accusée de « déshumaniser les personnes ». On le voit, le CSPDP n’a pas entendu comme témoin un seul des nombreux musulmans qui soutiennent la loi 21.
Le rapport évite également de penser la réalité de l’islamisme violent et la peur légitime qu’il soulève, y compris chez les musulmans. Seul Rachad Antonius, parmi les 138 témoins entendus lors des 21 séances publiques, ose en traiter expressément, mais le rapport le passera sous silence. Il n’y aurait, à entendre les autres témoins, que des préjugés et des stéréotypes à combattre à grands coups de campagnes médiatiques et de formations obligatoires contre les biais inconscients pour tous les fonctionnaires et les élèves.
Le rapport ne retient que ce qui appuie une conclusion tirée d’avance. Tout écart statistique, comme la sous-représentation des musulmans chez les fonctionnaires ou leur surreprésentation dans les prisons, est compris comme une « preuve » d’islamophobie systémique, sans qu’il y ait recherche d’une explication plus plausible. Le rapport confond également idéologie et science en prétendant, sans justification, que « la plus grande menace pour la sécurité nationale provient des groupes militant pour la suprématie blanche » (p. 50). On taira donc un document sur la stratégie antiterroriste du Canada qui précisait pourtant que « l’extrémisme islamique violent est la principale menace pour la sécurité nationale du Canada » .
Une offensive contre les institutions chargées de la sécurité
Ce sont assurément les instances responsables de la sécurité nationale qui hantent ce rapport. Cinq des 13 recommandations y sont d’ailleurs consacrées, mais vont dans le sens opposé à celui qu’on attend de la part d’un comité sénatorial crédible. C’est que ce dernier semble surtout à la remorque des recommandations du Conseil national des musulmans canadiens (CNMC), contre lesquelles nous faisions déjà une mise en garde ici.
Le CNMC ne réclame en effet rien de moins que l’interruption de la stratégie nationale de lutte contre l’extrémisme violent et la radicalisation, et la suspension de la Division de la revue et de l’analyse (DRA) de l’Agence de revenu du Canada (ARC), qui est chargée de repérer les menaces de financement du terrorisme au Canada qui s’exercent par l’entremise d’organisations caritatives. Il propose plutôt que soient scrutés les organismes de sécurité nationale, dont le Service canadien du renseignement de sécurité, et les services frontaliers du Canada, qu’il soupçonne de pratiques racistes, xénophobes, islamophobes et même de subir la « pénétration de la suprématie blanche ».
Le CSPDP approuve tout cela et affirme que « les lois, les politiques et les pratiques relatives à la sécurité nationale sont profondément ancrées dans l’islamophobie et continuent de perpétuer des préjugés à l’encontre des musulmans » (p. 51). La preuve ? Soixante-quinze pour cent des révocations d’associations caritatives posant le plus grand risque de financement du terrorisme au Canada visaient des organismes musulmans, alors que ceux-ci représentent moins de 1 % de l’ensemble des organisations caritatives (p. 57). Malgré le témoignage de Sharmila Khare (directrice générale de la Direction des organismes de bienfaisance de l’ARC), selon lequel « les vérifications de la DRA ne sont entreprises que lorsqu’il y a un risque d’abus terroriste », le rapport conclut néanmoins que la DRA « fait preuve d’un parti pris structurel à l’encontre des organismes de bienfaisance musulmans » (p. 58).
Le simple fait que le modèle d’évaluation du ministère des Finances soit axé sur le risque serait même, selon le professeur de droit Anver Emon, « une déclaration explicite d’islamophobie » . Mieux, qu’un Canadien voyageant à Gaza et combattant pour le Hamas devienne suspect pour le gouvernement serait, ajoute-t-il, un « exemple d’islamophobie systémique » ! Faut-il vraiment relever que le CSPDP perd ainsi toute crédibilité en « oubliant » que le Hamas est sur la liste des entités terroristes du Canada ? Qu’en amalgamant islam et islamisme violent sous le parapluie de l’islamophobie, il mine le sentiment de sécurité de ses citoyens ?
Comment expliquer pareille intoxication irresponsable ? Une partie de l’explication réside peut-être dans le fait que la présidente de ce comité sénatorial, Salma Ataullahjan, est toujours conseillère au CNMC. Rappelons, pour finir, que cette organisation fait partie des plaignants qui sont devant les tribunaux pour faire invalider la loi 21.
Source: Le rapport sénatorial sur l’islamophobie est le fruit d’une intoxication idéologique
Neutral coverage below:
Islamophobia remains a persistent problem in Canada and concrete action is required to reverse the growing tide of hate, says a new Senate report released Thursday.
“The evidence is clear. Islamophobia is an acute threat to Canadian Muslims and urgent action is needed,” Sen. Salma Ataullahjan, chair of the Senate human rights committee, told reporters Thursday.
“We must commit to building a more inclusive country and to better promoting our Muslim relatives and friends, neighbours and colleagues.”
The report, the first of its kind in Canada, took a year and involved 21 public meetings and 138 witnesses.
The report said the committee “was disturbed to hear that incidents of Islamophobia are a daily reality for many Muslims, that one in four Canadians do not trust Muslims and that Canada leads the G7 in terms of targeted killings of Muslims motivated by Islamophobia.”
The report’s finding that one in four Canadians do not trust Muslims comes from a submission to the committee from Maple Lodge Farms, a supplier of Halal meat in Ontario’s Peel region, which said it gathered the information from a “national survey” it conducted of 1,500 Canadians.
The submission does not provide details on how the respondents were chosen or what specific questions they were asked.
The report found that Muslim women have become the “primary targets when it comes to violence and intimidation” because they are easily recognizable from their attire. As a result, many are afraid to leave their homes for work, school or other activities.
“The profound effects of gendered Islamophobia are such that it compels certain women to consider removing their hijabs to enhance their employment opportunities,” the report said.
“Testimonies highlighted the fact that Islamophobia in the workplace is not merely the consequence of a handful of people’s actions; rather, it is a systemic issue that is widespread.”
The report said that as a result, Arab women have the highest unemployment rate of any demographic group in the country.
Sen. Mobina Jaffer, Canada’s first Muslim senator, told reporters Thursday that in 2001, not long after 9/11, she was flying from Vancouver to Ottawa with about 60 members of her family when she and her husband were singled out by airport authorities.
“Coming from a refugee background to be appointed by [former prime minister Jean] Chrétien to be a senator was a great pride for my family,” Jaffer said. “And my husband and I both were called outside. And my husband and I both had to completely undress … and I don’t wish that on anybody.”
‘A confirmation of what we have been seeing over many years’
Uthman Quick, the director of communications for the National Council of Canadian Muslims (NCCM), told CBC News that the council was satisfied to see the report highlight the poor treatment of Muslim women in Canada, which he said is a growing problem.
“I think the report is really a confirmation of what we have been seeing over many years, but particularly over the last few weeks, since October 7,” he said.
Quick said there has been an increase in the number of Islamophobic incidents reported to the NCCM since the starte of the recent conflict between Israel and Hamas, a group designated as a terrorist organization by the Canadian government and other nations.
“I am hoping the recommendations are followed through upon. Now more than ever, we can see that they are absolutely needed,” Quick said.
Islamophobia and the media
The report said that the problem can be blamed in part on negative and pervasive stereotypes of Muslims the report said have mischaracterized “concepts of sharia, jihad and hijab.”
“The recurring portrayal of Muslims in media has entrenched these stereotypes, leading them to become falsely accepted as truth,” the report said.
The report found that hate-based information being spread on social media remains a growing problem, with more than 3,000 anti-Muslim social media groups or websites active in Canada.
“The frequency of hate speech and misinformation on social media platforms such as Facebook, X (formerly Twitter) and Instagram was a common concern for [committee] witnesses,” the report said.
A written submission to the committee from Meta, Instagram and Facebook’s parent company, said its efforts to combat Islamophobia are a “work in progress.” It said it is taking steps that include monitoring hate speech and engaging with Muslim communities.
Representatives from X did not appear or make a submission to the committee.
Recommendations
The report makes a number of recommendations for the federal government:
- Ensure mandatory, regular training on Islamophobia for all federal government employees and the judiciary.
- Launch a multimedia campaign and educational resources on Islamophobia that can be incorporated into classrooms.
- Provide additional money to address hate-motivated crimes.
- Increase specific Criminal Code offences for hate-motivated crimes.
- Review the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission’s mandate to ensure it reflects the needs, interests and aspirations of racialized communities.
- Introduce legislation to crack down on online hate.
- Review national security legislation to ensure it takes Islamophobia into account.
- Modernize the Employment Equity Act to ensure it takes Islamophobia into account.
The report also recommended the federal government introduce legislation in a number of areas to help the Canada Revenue Agency better understand the context for audits of religious organizations and provide quicker decisions on appeals.
The report said that in 2021, 144 anti-Muslim hate crimes were reported to police across the country, with an additional 1,723 crimes reported that were motivated by racial or ethnic hatred.
According to Statistics Canada data used to write the report, there were 223,000 reported cases of hate crime in general in 2020, but the report said those numbers fail to provide a complete picture of hate-motivated violence against Muslims in the country.
Mohammed Hashim, executive director of the Canadian Race Relations Foundation, is quoted in the report telling the committee that only one per cent of reported hate crimes are reported to police and only a fraction of those result in charges.
“Muslims in Canada feel like they are under attack. The psychological impact of constant fear and vigilance is a heavy burden,” the report said.
“Survivors of violent Islamophobia live with the trauma of their direct experience, while countless others live with vicarious trauma brought on by justified fear that their communities are not safe.”
Source: Senate report on Islamophobia says urgent action needed to reverse rising tide of hate
The Census Bureau sees an older, more diverse America in 2100 in three immigration scenarios
2023/11/11 Leave a comment
Of note:
By the end of the century, the U.S. population will be declining without substantial immigration, older adults will outnumber children and white, non- Hispanic residents will account for less than 50% of the population, according to projections released Thursday by the U.S. Census Bureau.
The population projections offer a glimpse of what the nation may look like at the turn of the next century, though a forecast decades into the future can’t predict the unexpected like a global pandemic.
The projections can help the U.S. prepare for change, from anticipating the demands of health care for seniors to providing insight into the number of schools that need to be built over the coming decades, said Paul Ong, a public affairs professor at UCLA.
“As most demographers realize, population projection is not an inevitable destiny, just a glimpse into a possible future,” Ong said. “Seeing that possibility also opens up opportunities for action.”
Population changes due to births and deaths, which are more predictable, and immigration, which is more uncertain. Because of that, the Census Bureau offers three different projections through 2100 based on high, medium and low immigration.
Under the low-immigration scenario, the U.S. population shrinks to 319 million people by 2100 from the current population of 333 million residents. It grows to 365 million people at the end of the century under the medium immigration scenario and to 435 million residents with high immigration. In each immigration scenario, the country is on track to become older and more diverse.
Americans of college age and younger are already part of a majority-minority cohort.
Aliana Mediratta, a 20-year-old student at Washington University in St. Louis, welcomes a future with a more diverse population and believes immigration “is great for our society and our economy.”
But that optimism is tempered by existential worries that things seem to be getting worse, including climate change and gun violence.
“I feel like I have to be optimistic about the future since, if I’m pessimistic, it disables me from doing things that I want to do, that are hard, but morally right to do,” Mediratta said.
Here’s a look at how the U.S. population is expected to change through 2100, using the medium immigration scenario.
2020s
By 2029, older adults will outnumber children, with 71 million U.S. residents aged 65 and older and 69 million residents under age 18.
The numeric superiority of seniors will mean fewer workers. Combined with children, they’ll represent 40% of the population. Only around 60% of the population that is of working age — between 18 and 64 — will be paying the bulk of taxes for Social Security and Medicare.
2030s
“Natural increase” in the U.S. will go negative in 2038, meaning deaths outpacing births due to an aging population and declines in fertility. The Census projects 13,000 more deaths than births in the U.S., and that shortfall grows to 1.2 million more deaths than births by 2100.
2050s
By 2050, the share of the U.S. population that is white and not Hispanic will be under 50% for the first time.
Currently, 58.9% of U.S. residents are white and not Hispanic. By 2050, Hispanic residents will account for a quarter of the U.S. population, up from 19.1% today. African Americans will make up 14.4% of the population, up from 13.6% currently. Asians will account for 8.6% of the population, up from 6.2% today.
Also in the 2050s, Asians will surpass Hispanics as the largest group of immigrants by race or ethnicity.
2060s
The increasing diversity of the nation will be most noticeable in children. By the 2060s, non-Hispanic white children will be a third of the population under age 18, compared to under half currently.
2080s
Under that medium immigration scenario, the U.S. population peaks at more than 369 million residents in 2081. After that, the Census Bureau predicts a slight population decline, with deaths outpacing births and immigration.
2090s
By the end of the 2090s, the foreign population will make up almost 19.5% of U.S. residents, the highest share since the Census Bureau started keeping track in 1850. The highest rate previously was 14.8% in 1890. It currently is 13.9%.
FOREIGN BORN AND IMMIGRATION
Experts say that predicting immigration trends is more difficult than in the past when migration was tightly linked to the pull of economic opportunity in the U.S.
When immigration is instead driven by the push of climate change, social tensions exacerbated by authoritarian rulers and gangs, as well as fluctuating anti-immigrant sentiment in the U.S., it is harder to predict, said Manuel Pastor, a professor of sociology and American Studies & Ethnicity at the University of Southern California.
“In the past we would say we get immigration from economics, and you can make some reasonable projections,” Pastor said. “Now, we have these push pressures for people to come to the U.S., and we have a further racialized reaction to migration, we have a much wider band or error, or the potential to make mistakes.”
RELIABILITY
How reliable will the numbers be, especially as race and ethnic definitions change, and immigration levels are hard to predict?
While there is an extreme level of uncertainty projecting almost eight decades into the future, it is a good starting point, said Ong, the UCLA professor.
“Over 80 years, birth and death rates, fertility rates and migration rates can be changed through policies, programs and resources,” Ong said.
Mediratta, the college student, imagines that 20-year-olds like her two centuries ago were also concerned about the future, but they didn’t have TikTok or Instagram to amplify their worries.
“It seems like things are bad all the time,” Mediratta said. “I feel that things were probably bad all the time 200 years ago, but nobody could tell everyone about it.”
Source: The Census Bureau sees an older, more diverse America in 2100 in three immigration scenarios
Multiculturalism in Canada: Evidence and Anecdote
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Multicultural Meanderings 