Does multicuturalism kill?

By GERRY WARNER
Cranbrook Daily Townsman
Dec. 14, 2007
How do I put his gently?
Maybe gently is the wrong word when you consider the horrific fate of Aqsa Parvez, the deceased 16-year-old Muslim girl from Toronto whose father admitted to murdering her in a 911 call to police. Friends of the slain teen told Canadian Press the girl clashed with her family over wearing of the traditional hijab or head scarf. The Canadian Muslim community is now in high damage control mode, cautioning none-Muslims not to draw the obvious conclusions about this senseless and ghastly tragedy.
"I don't want the public to think that this is really an Islamic issue or an immigrant issue," said Mohamed Elmasry of the Canadian Islamic Congress. "It's a teenager issue."Yeah right. Ausma Khan, editor-in-chief of Muslim Girl, said most Muslim families are open to letting their children explore their faith in different ways and if a girl is wearing a hijab chances are it's because she wants to."It's something they see as very liberating and very empowering and something that expresses their commitment to God."
Hmmm. I'd really like to believe that, but consider what some of the liberated dead girl's friends said about the empowerment Aqsa was supposedly enjoying. "She didn't want to go home . . . to the point where she actually wanted to go to shelters," classmate Ashley Garbutt told the Toronto Star. Being a church-goer myself, but a non-fundamentalist, I'm not going to go further down this path of criticizing someone else's religion. God knows, the Christian religion has enough death, horror and destruction to account for starting with the Crusades, the Inquisition, the 100 Years War, George Bush et al. I actually think there's a larger issue here and it's one that Canadians on the liberal-left side of the political spectum would rather not talk about while some on the extreme right say things that should never be said in a civilized, tolerant country.
And that, of course, is good ol' Canadian multiculturalism. Canada is supposedly a beacon to the world on this issue with almost one-in-five Canadians an immigrant now and thanks to the 250,000 immigrants that pour in every year our population is increasing rather than shrinking and we enjoy a prosperous country with a rich cultrual mosaic. So far; so good. But how far should we go in encouraging official multiculturalism? Does being multicultural give you the right to murder your child if they violate what you regard a sacred tenant of your faith? In the name of multiculturalism, should you have the right to vote -- the most important thing we do in a democracy -- wearing some sort of religious garb that completely hides your identity? Does being multicultural give you the right to have an ultrasound if you're pregnant, and if you discover your unborn baby is a girl, the right to abort it? God knows, I hope not, but it happens all the time.
I could go on, but I think you get my drift. Speaking personally, I know this much. Say I emigrated to India, a fast-growing and very prosperous place these days, and I got a nice job there. After coming home from a hard day at work would I be throwing the cow on the barbecue in the back yard? I don't think so. Cows are regarded as sacred by some people in India and I would respect that sensibility. Given that, is it too much to ask some of our good multicultural neighbors in this country to respect some of our ancient White Anglo Saxon Protestant cultural traditions? Should I fear saying Merry Christmas because it might offend someone of a different faith? I hope not. Will I be cutting down and erecting a "holiday tree" in my living room this year? Not on your life. Toleration and empathy are fine things, but they have to go both ways. And this is especially so in a country as multicultural and ethnically diverse as Canada.
No religion on the face of the earth gives anyone the right to murder or break the laws of the country they've supposedly sworn allegiance to. And the real tragedy of people whose religion or culture stops them from assimilating to the customs of their new land only results in fires of prejudice and hate being stoked against them and we all want to avoid that. Many examples of this float around on the Internet in the form of jokes and cartoons that aren't really funny at all. But it's going to get worse if we all don't learn to be more respectful of each other.
There's been much ado in the media lately about the supposed racists in Herouxville, Quebec who passed a series of bylaws directed against unassimilated immigrants in La Belle Province. On the surface, the folks of this small Quebec town are indeed expressing a lot of attitude -- some might use a different word -- towards people they preceive as undermining their values. Perhaps the Herouxville reponse was a bit over the top, but when you hear of a father killing his daughter over a piece of cloth to hide her face, it makes you wonder.
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