Pluralism accommodated: Canada’s religion, state relationship

2013/10/08 Leave a comment

An interesting overview from a former military chaplain on how Canada, and the military, have addressed multiculturalism and pluralism from a faith perspective. Silent on the recent cuts to the chaplain program that disproportionate hit on non-Christian religions.

With decades of real life experience in peace, peacekeeping, and war, the chaplain branch has developed a strong expertise in religion/state affairs. The focus of the chaplain is service to all members and their families. Chaplains provide services that include pastoral counselling, advocacy, the promotion of spiritual wellbeing, and facilitating the faith requirements of everyone. In order to provide leadership to the Canadian military and to complete their mission in operational theatres, commanding officers turn to chaplains for their understanding of ethics, deep-seated conflict, and world religions. Chaplains work together in effective teams regardless of their gender, rank, sexual orientation, creed, or cultural background. This is a group of religious professionals who are long past any effort to proselytize people from one faith group to another, acknowledging such activity as arrogant and ineffective. To ensure the highest quality of service the chaplain branch has a sophisticated training program for their vocation, an advanced system of professional oversight, internal monitoring/promotion of well-being of chaplains, a code of ethics, long-term planning mechanisms, and well-designed accessible manuals.

Pluralism accommodated: Canada’s religion, state relationship | hilltimes.com.

Filed under Multiculturalism, Religion Tagged with , , , ,

Le dérapage intégriste de Charles Taylor | Le Devoir

2013/10/08 Leave a comment

This opinion piece suggests that  UN and international organization staff have more of a common mindset – secularism – than Canadian and other societies. The international organization elite may be more uniform than they think. Interesting.

Not to mention the unique focus on Muslim fundamentalism, not other religions.

Le dérapage intégriste de Charles Taylor | Le Devoir.

Filed under Charte des valeurs québécoise, Interculturalisme, Multiculturalism, Religion Tagged with , ,

Why Ottawa’s right to procrastinate on the values charter – The Globe and Mail

2013/10/07 Leave a comment

Tom Flanagan on the Quebec values charter and why one needs to let the internal QC debate take its course, which will likely end up reasonably. A stronger position in favour of provincial, rather than individual rights than many.

Given the tenor of QC debates to date, and just how poorly the proposed Charter has been received, he is largely right, although it was necessary for all federal politicians to lay down some markers.

Why Ottawa’s right to procrastinate on the values charter – The Globe and Mail.

Filed under Charte des valeurs québécoise, Interculturalisme, Multiculturalism, Religion Tagged with , ,

The Promise and Peril of Pope Francis – NYTimes.com

2013/10/07 2 Comments

An interesting reflection by Ross Douthat of the NY Times on religion in the West, how the centre is “hollowing out,” with the more orthodox, traditional or conservative tendencies becoming relatively stronger. Some interesting longer-term implications for many religions:

But the test of his [Pope Francis’] approach will ultimately be a practical one. Will the church grow or stagnate under his leadership? Will his style just win casual admirers, or will it gain converts, inspire vocations, create saints? Will it actually change the world, or just give the worldly another excuse to close their ears to the church’s moral message?

The Promise and Peril of Pope Francis – NYTimes.com.

Filed under Multiculturalism, Religion Tagged with , ,

I’m sorry, but we have to talk about the barbarism of modern Islamist terrorism – Telegraph Blogs

2013/10/07 Leave a comment

Hard to argue against this harsh critique of modern Islamic-inspired terrorism and the weakness of relativism in condemning it for what it is: senseless, aimless, barbaric violence.

What we have today, uniquely in human history, is a terrorism that seems myopically focused on killing as many people as possible and which has no clear political goals and no stated territorial aims. The question is, why? It is not moral masturbation to ask this question or to point out the peculiarity and perversity of modern Islamist violence. My penny’s worth is that this terrorism speaks to a profound crisis of politics and of morality. Where earlier terrorist groups were restrained both by their desire to appear as rational political actors with a clear goal in mind and by basic moral rules of human behaviour – meaning their violence was often bloody, yes, but rarely focused narrowly on committing mass murder – today’s Islamist terrorists appear to float free of normal political rules and moral compunctions. This is what is so infuriating about the BBC’s refusal to call these groups terrorists – because if anything, and historically speaking, even the term terrorist might be too good for them.

I’m sorry, but we have to talk about the barbarism of modern Islamist terrorism – Telegraph Blogs.

Filed under Radicalization, Religion Tagged with , , , ,

Canadian anti-Muslim sentiment is rising, disturbing new poll reveals – Macleans.ca

2013/10/04 Leave a comment

Another in a series of polls that demonstrates discomfort with Islam, not entirely unexpected given the number of domestic and international stories on terror-related incidents, plus the normal discomfort with more recent waves of immigration.

And not surprisingly, while the hijab is largely accepted in English Canada (65%), in Quebec the figures are reversed (63% oppose allowing public servants to wear the hijab). But opinions converge less on the niqab than I would have thought; while 90% in Quebec would not allow the niqab in public sector workplaces,  only 62% shared that view in English Canada. I suspect should a co-worker show up in a niqab in English Canada, the reaction would be less tolerant.

Canadian anti-Muslim sentiment is rising, disturbing new poll reveals – Canada, Capital Read, Editor’s Picks – Macleans.ca.

http://www.angusreidglobal.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/Canadians-view-non-Christian-religions-with-uncertainty-dislike.pdf

Filed under Hate crimes, Multiculturalism, Religion Tagged with , ,

How to immigrate to Canada if you’re a polygamist

2013/10/02 Leave a comment

While there is a policy rationale for the allowing people to “regularize” their marriage, and I can imagine the complex policy and legal discussions that led to this policy, I tend to be with Gillis on this.

… sharp eyes will notice a contradiction between these guidelines and longstanding immigration policy in Canada. Polygamy is considered a crime in Canada. Criminality is supposed to exclude you from eligibility for residency. As Kurland put it in an email to me this morning: “Who lets the CIC choose the sections of Canada’s Criminal Code to ignore?”

Evidently, the policy recognizes the legality of polygamy in some countries, such as Jordan, Iraq and Syria, allowing for people to adjust their living arrangements so they comply with Canadian law. Our flexibility is this regard is remarkable: children from marriages other than the applicant’s first, for instance, can come along as dependents to Canada, provided the other parent confirms they were not abducted.

Depending on your outlook, I guess this all makes us either sophisticated, cosmopolitan and nuanced—or credulous to a fault.

How to immigrate to Canada if you’re a polygamist – Canada, Charlie Gillis, News & Politics – Macleans.ca.

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Le complot islamiste n’est pas une menace, dit Gérard Bouchard

2013/10/02 Leave a comment

A dose of reality from Gérard Bouchard:

Il n’y a pas à s’étonner, cependant, du malaise et de la peur qui accompagnent la présence de croyances religieuses. « La rencontre interculturelle interpelle toujours au fond de chacun ce qui s’y trouve de moins rationnel – ou de plus émotif -, à savoir : l’identité, les valeurs, les idéaux, les traditions […] », a-t-il dit.

Le complot islamiste n’est pas une menace, dit Gérard Bouchard | Le Devoir.

Filed under Charte des valeurs québécoise, Interculturalisme, Multiculturalism, Radicalization, Religion Tagged with

When prodigal jihadis come home: Brender

2013/10/01 Leave a comment

Good piece by Natalie Brender on the issue of returning jihadis. Never easy, and touchy, but other countries have embraced finding such counter-narratives as one means to reduce potential future jihadis. I witnessed one of the UK initiatives in this area; while I cannot judge the results, the approach was interesting and appeared to engage youth at risk and have merit:

One means of creating “counter-narratives” about Islam and militant politics is by drawing on the credibility of those who once embraced those ideas and now renounce them. To this end, the brief [U.S.-based Council on Foreign Relations] urges, efforts at countering violent extremism should include “[e]ducating Muslim thought leaders in mosques and on university campuses through workshops and testimonies from former radicals about why Islamist hardliners threaten Muslim communities.”

Such efforts must originate within Muslim communities; they will not succeed if viewed as propaganda by Western governments. But Western governments can help by providing resources to enable Muslim-led counter-extremism activities to succeed. For that reason, Canada’s government, and Canadians, should keep an open mind to the possibility that some fighters returning to this country might now be ex-jihadists ready to support the anti-extremist cause.

When prodigal jihadis come home: Brender | Toronto Star.

Filed under Multiculturalism, Radicalization, Religion Tagged with , , ,

Réplique à Charles Taylor – Les religions «indiscrètes» doivent respecter la société civile | Le Devoir

2013/09/30 Leave a comment

And the inevitable reply to the arguments of Charles Taylor from Yvan Lamonde, also from McGill, arguing in favour of laicité and secularism. Part of the problem is that many of the secularists are as fundamentalist in their beliefs as the more fundamentalist religious believers, rather than having a more nuanced and open approach to questions of identities. Calling other religions “indiscrètes” says it all.

We live in the world of real people, with all their complexities and identities, not in a theoretical construct.

Est-ce cette liberté individuelle d’un certain type qui justifie qu’on veuille occuper l’espace civil gouvernemental de signes dont des croyants ne seraient absolument pas capables de se départir momentanément, entre huit et dix-sept heures, sans jouer leur identité ? Identité religieuse dans un espace d’identité civile. Pourquoi la « visibilité incontournable » des religions « indiscrètes », pourquoi le jusqu’au-boutisme religieux devraient-ils prévaloir dans la société civile, dans l’espace de l’État ?

Où est la contradiction ? Où est la confusion ? Finalement, l’argument de la « réponse » religieuse donnée à une certaine quête humaine est-il l’ultime justification de la liberté religieuse individuelle et d’un plaidoyer en faveur d’un forcing du religieux dans l’espace étatique neutre ?

Réplique à Charles Taylor – Les religions «indiscrètes» doivent respecter la société civile | Le Devoir.

Filed under Charte des valeurs québécoise, Multiculturalism, Religion Tagged with ,

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