Hypocrisy Masquerading as Diversity

After 9/11, fundamentalist Muslim groups draped themselves in 'moderate' garb

Reverberations from news of the alleged Toronto terror threat had barely subsided, when the merchants of multiculturalism were out with their begging bowls asking for government funding to find the "root cause."

The Canadian Islamic Congress (CIC), for instance, sent an urgent communiqué demanding money from the government, ostensibly to conduct "solid social science research that details why and how imported extremist ideologies are finding their way to some vulnerable Canadian Muslim youth."

Complaining that "Zero dollars were spent by governments to investigate and follow up on such disturbing trends," the CIC concluded that "Governments, both federal and provincial, must fund legitimate academic research to diagnose this serious social problem and provide scientific solutions to it."

But the CIC was not alone. At a press conference in Ottawa, the Canadian Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-CAN) joined the Muslim Students Association in asking Prime Minister Stephen Harper, Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty and Toronto Mayor David Miller to help them organize a summit to prevent marginalized youth from falling under the influence of Islamic extremists.

These financial demands drew loud guffaws among many observers who, like myself, have followed the fortunes of Islamic fundamentalist groups. After 9/11, some fundamentalist Muslim groups draped themselves in "moderate" garb and then sprinkled their discourse with leftist lingo to fool Canada's socialists into believing that they were latter day Sandinistas.

But the weapon these groups have used most effectively has always been multiculturalism. It is the camouflage behind which Islamists all over the West hide their misogynist, homophobic and segregationist agenda. These were the very groups that once urged young Muslim men to stay away from integrating into Canadian society. They now want money to develop a cure for the ills they created.

But can you blame the CIC or the Muslim Students Association for exploiting this opportunity?

Multiculturalism has long been an avenue through which successive Liberal and Conservative governments have showered money on ethnic groups, and thereby exerted control over the communities' self-styled leaders.

The Toronto terror troupe, if the allegations turn out to be true, was not born as a result of Canadian multiculturalism any more than was the ideology of Osama Bin Laden or Ayatollah Khomeini. However, there is no denying that the Muslim groups purporting to address the problem are peddling "integration" while implementing "segregation."

Today, there is a need to upgrade Multiculturalism 1.0 with a new version; a version that moves beyond "celebrating diversity" for its own sake, and invests in the values that bind us as Canadians. What we need is a creed that respects difference, but celebrates only that which unites us.

Such a program would not be used to bribe community leaders, but would be spent to educate all Canadians about the concept of universal human rights, our history as a nation where citizenship is not based on inherited race or religion; and where laws are passed by Parliament, not rooted in a religious text.

Too many people have toiled and died throughout history; from the American and French revolutions to the anti-colonial freedom struggles in Africa and Asia; from the civil rights movement in the United States to the anti-racism campaigns in Canada; from the trauma of World War II to the lessons of the 20th century's too-numerous genocides. Too many have suffered so we could live in societies where all humans are equal - if not in spirit, then at least according to the letter of the law. The West cannot squander these sacrifices by permitting the growth of enclaves that reject all that was won.

Any multiculturalism that does not celebrate the separation of religion and state; that does not discredit the use of religion as an instrument of politics; that permits some men to invoke culture as pretext to walk five feet ahead of their wives; that tolerates the encasing of women in a tent-like prison made of black cloth; that allows accusations of blasphemy and apostasy as a tool to invoke fear and silence; will not work.

That is not all. If we do not reform multiculturalism to promote integration and civic secular society, we risk creating a fragmented nation, divided into 21st century religious and racial tribes, suspicious of the other and longing for the home we left behind.

While I value diversity, I am exhausted of celebrating it. What I truly want to celebrate is our common humanity.
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This article was first printed in Toronto's National Post on June 14, 2006

Tarek Fatah is host of the weekly Saturday Night TV show, The Muslim Chronicle, now in it tenth year. Born in Pakistan, Tarek was a student leader during the tumultuous days of the late 60s, twice being imprisoned by successive military governments. He started his career as a journalist in 1970 as a reporter with the Karachi SUN and then went on to be an investigative reporter with Pakistan Television until 1977, when another military coup forced him out of the country.

Tarek and his family have called Canada home since 1987 where he has been active in poltics with the left wing NDP, having run for provincial parliament and having served on the staff of the Premier of Ontario from 1991-95 and later with the Leader of the NDP from 1996-1999.

He is a founder of the Muslim Canadian Congress and has been published in the Toronto Star, the Globe and Mail, Canada's National Post and TIME Magazine. Tarek is married to his university sweetheart for 32 years and they have two daughters; Natasha and Nazia.

The title of this column--Thaa!--literally means "Smack" in Urdu and Punjabi. It was the headline in a major newspaper in Lahore when the fundamentalists were wiped out in the 1970 elections (they won 4 seats out of 301).