Why Muslim Canadians should vote for the NDP

Traditional leaders are playing games and trying to please all parties

By Jehad Aliweiwi & Tarek Fatah

On Monday, millions of Canadians will go to the polls to elect a new parliament and a new Prime Minister. Muslim Canadians have been active in the body-politic of this country for decades. Although we have participated vigorously in election after election, our traditional leadership has invariably invoked expediency and rarely backed the party that has stood up for our community's collective interests.

This election—the second after 9/11—provides us an opportunity to assert our presence, and send a message of solidarity to people who stood shoulder-to-shoulder with us in our darkest days. In the last election in 2004, the traditional Canadian Muslim leadership unwisely used the country’s mosques to serve short-term partisan ends and promote the ruling Liberal Party.

This year, despite questions of integrity hovering over the Liberal Party and their introduction of American Michael Ignatieff, who supports 'Torture-Lite', the traditional Muslim leadership continues to play coy and refuses to distance itself from the tainted Liberals.

As an example, in London, Ontario, with one of Canada's largest populations, the local Mosque leaders have thrown their support behind the Liberal candidate, rejecting the anti-war NDP candidate who has stood by the community through thick and thin. This subservience to social conservatism and right-wing politicians reminds us the American elections in 2000 when the American Muslim leadership kowtowed to George Bush's religious right agenda.

In another example, the Canadian Islamic Congress is opposing Olivia Chow of the NDP and has endorsed her Liberal opponent Tony Ianno despite the fact Olivia has been an integral part of the anti-war movement and has stood up passionately for minority rights.

However, more and more Muslims are parting company with the opportunist, self appointed right-wing leadership of the community, and are finding the truth for themselves. They are waking up to the reality that the Liberal Party is not their friend.

Let us not forget the days following 9/11. Those memories are still vivid. The men who were spat on at subway stops; the women who had their head covers yanked in university campuses; the little children who were yelled at as ‘terrorists;’ the mothers who were refused service by sales clerks and the fathers who were laughed at simply because of their Arabic, Pakistani, or Somali accents. Those scars are etched in our minds forever.

Isolated as we felt in those dark days, the community was not alone or without friends. People stood up and said, “I am a Muslim,” even though they were not.

Arab Christians like John Asfour and Rajah Khouri stood up gallantly with us; Jews like Barbara Landau and the “Women in Black” rallied against Islamophobia; the Black and Chinese communities made us feel loved when we were all so lonely; Sikh and Hindu Canadians suffered unnecessarily with us, yet spoke out in our favour.

Among our many friends, standing tallest was the New Democratic Party—the NDP.

One of the most touching stories of this dark period was that of the son of Dr. Mohamed Thabit who came home crying from school and asked his mother to change his name from “Osama” to a more “Canadian” name. He had been bullied in school and was called a terrorist.

The next day, the then Leader of the NDP stood up in the House of Commons and proclaimed, “Osama and Muhammad are Canadian names.”

That act of courage was just one of the many steps the NDP took to fight for Muslim rights in this country. They were the only ones to oppose the war in Iraq and Afghanistan; vocally and without hesitation. Without care for its own popularity, the NDP did not flinch even for a moment in standing up for our rights.

When Monia Mazigh stood alone outside the Parliament on a cold winter night, asking for justice for her husband Maher Arar, only the NDP rallied for her. Who can afford to forget that moment?

NDP Members of Parliament fanned out across the country; some went to Iraq, another confronted Israeli soldiers in Palestine. At every anti-war protest and parade, the only party visible shoulder-to-shoulder with us was the NDP.

Yet, today we are witnessing in Canada what has been the ambivalence and indecision displayed by traditional Muslim leaders in the Muslim world. Unfortunately abandoning our friends and befriending the powerful has been a hallmark of the Muslim leadership world-wide. We can ill afford to repeat the mistakes of the Arab World, South Asia and Africa, in today’s Canada.

For too long the Liberal Party has taken our communities for granted; it is time for the traditional leadership of Canada's Muslim communities to cut their ties with the tainted record of the Federal Liberal Party and demonstrate solidarity with Jack Layton and his New Democrats.

In dealing with racial minorities, the Liberal Party while promising one thing delivers the exact opposite. Paul Martin and the Liberals have trampled on the rights and aspirations of Muslim Canadians and other racial minorities by curtailing their civic rights, imprisoning Muslims without charging them, and permitting racial profiling as a law enforcement tool.

The Liberal Party has hastened the privatization of Canada's cherished healthcare system; fuelled Quebec separatism by its corrupt practices in that province; saddled students with huge debts and abandoned hundreds of thousands of new immigrants to an underclass status while paying platitudes to multiculturalism and using the communities as convenient vote banks. Muslims as principled Canadians with a clear conscience should not look the other way and reward Paul Martin and his cohorts.

We are impressed with the positive role played by Jack Layton and the New Democrats in the outgoing parliament. With only a handful of members, they were able to accomplish a lot for the people of Canada. While other politicians look for their own interests, the NDP has clearly demonstrated that it is the only party that has the interest of ordinary Canadians in mind.

UN Resolutions on Middle East

Paul Martin's recent decision to vote alongside the US on UN General Assembly resolutions on Palestine, demonstrates the fact that he is turning Canada into a satellite of the US while posturing during the campaign as Captain Canada.

For decades Canada had been voting alongside the rest of the world in asking Israel to withdraw from the Arab lands it has occupied since 1967. This month, in a slap to face of Muslim Canadians, the Liberal government of Paul Martin abandoned Canada's principled historic stand, and abstained from voting on a resolution urging Israeli withdrawal from territory it has occupied illegally since the 1967 war. The Liberals also reversed Canada on two more resolutions of routine support for U.N. organs working on behalf of Palestinian rights. On both, only eight countries were opposed - Australia, Canada, Israel, Marshall Islands, Micronesia, Nauru, Palau and the United States.

This shameful abandoning of Canada's historic role in the Middle East and the arrogant disregard of the interests of Canada's Muslims, should serve a notice to all those who cherish our country's sovereignty and independence: Paul Martin should not be rewarded for mimicking George Bush's foreign policy. Muslim Canadians should think twice before offering their traditional unconditional support to the Liberal Party. They should instead consider voting for the NDP that has stood in solidarity with them in their hour of need.

Ordinary Muslims may not have access to the tightly controlled khutbas and the authoritarian mosque committees, but, if they believe in standing up for truth, social justice and peace, then they should show solidarity with NDP leader Jack Layton and his New Democrat candidates in Monday’s vote.

The NDP has a long history of fighting for equity in Canada. It is the party that introduced Medicare; brought in pensions, old age security and unemployment insurance, despite the fact it has never been in power.

Immigrant Head Tax

It is sad that Paul Martin and the Liberals plan to give away billions of dollars to the richest Canadians as tax breaks, while still charging a head tax on all immigrants coming to Canada. Asking people from the developing world to pay down Canada's debt is perhaps the most immoral and unethical tax on earth. Isn't it enough that Canada takes away the brightest and the best educated people from Africa, Asia and Latin America, that it wants their money too? Only the NDP has promised to abolish the hated Immigrant Head Tax, which the Liberals disingenuously refer to as the "Landing Fee."

Muslim Canadians and other marginalized racial groups must reject the tokenism offered by the Liberal Party to a handful of traditional community leaders and vote with their conscience. We are no longer willing to be treated like cattle and fed false promises on the altar of multiculturalism. The economic, civil and human rights of our communities have been compromised. To reward those guilty of this transgression, by voting for them is unconscionable. Muslims and other racial minority Canadians must vote for the NDP on Monday.

Michael Ignatieff

If Muslim Canadians have any doubt over the true intentions of Paul Martin and the Liberal Party, they should look no further than the parachuting of Michael Ignatieff into the riding of Etobicoke Lakeshore.

Mr. Ignatieff, who is beibng touted as Paul Martin's successor, may try to masquerade as a progressive intellectual, but he cannot fool Muslim Canadians who are familiar with his endorsement of the Bush Agenda and his support of "indefinite detention of suspects, coercive interrogations, targeted assassinations, even pre-emptive war."

Mr. Ignatieff brings to Canada the greed and corporate agenda of the current US administration and we consider him to be a threat to Canadian values. The fact that Paul Martin's Liberal Party machinery would manipulate his candidacy and allow him to bully his way into Canadian politics, should be a clear message to all Canadians, particularly Muslim Canadians. Paul Martin and the Liberals are pushing Canada towards the integration with the USA while deceiving Canadians that they are doing the opposite.

If Canadians want to ensure their country's continued sovereignty; maintain its independent foreign policy; protect its threatened healthcare system; and put a stop to the privatization of its cherished public institutions, then they should work hard to elect as many New Democrats as possible on January 23, 2006.

Integrity and honesty should determine how we vote, not a misguided sense of expediency. On Monday, when you go to vote, remember the words of the former Prime Minister of Iran, Dr. Mohammed Mossadegh. He said: "I prefer defeat while fighting for an honourable cause rather than a shameful compromise to be on the winning side." On January 26, vote for the NDP candidate in your riding. You owe it to them.

Tarek Fatah is host of the weekly TV show Muslim Chronicle on CTS-TV while Jehad Aliweiwi is host of the weekly Radio show Kan Ya Makan on CKLN. Both serve on the Board of the Muslim Canadian Congress.