Thursday, August 26, 2010

Quebec Muslims Back the Wrong Horse

The last couple of weeks saw a flurry of stories in the Quebec and national media about the 20th anniversary of Gilles Duceppe and the Bloc Quebecois' arrival in Parliament. The stories were pretty predictable with sovereignists for and federalists against.

One thing that went unnoticed and unreported in the anglophone press, was the Quebec Muslim's community's letters of support of Gilles Duceppe printed in both the Le Devoir and LA Presse.
Gilles Duceppe, Spirit of Openness -Le Devoir (French)  
We, Quebeckers of Arab origin and Muslim confession, on this day of Ramadan, congratulate with great pleasure and honour the leader of the Bloc Quebecois....  

A man of integrity and national aspiration, Duceppe vigorously defends the interests of Quebec in the Canadian Parliament and calls for authorities to safeguard the cultural and francophone character of Quebec society..... 

We support the political interventions of Mr. Duceppe in support of a Quebec's culture, its language and its model of coexistence.....

For us, Gilles Duceppe is an example of a politician committed to defending the principles of equality, social justice and the fight against intolerance, discrimination and social exclusion.

Dr Mohamad Sawan, O.Q., président du comité exécutif, Centre islamique libanais.
Dr Bachar El Solh, président, Fédération des Canadiens musulma ns, qui regroupe les associations suivantes: Association musulmane de Montréal-Nord (AMMN); Centre culturel islamique Ach-Choura (CCI Ach-Choura); Centre islamique BADR; Centre islamique Sainte-Rose (Centre Kawtar Laval); Mosquée Montréal (MM); Regroupement des Algériens du Canada (RAC); Regroupement des Marocains au Canada (RMC). Bassam Hussein, vice-président, Association El-Hidaya.
Samer Majzoub, président, Forum canadien musulman (FMC-CMF), qui représente les organismes suivants: Association communautaire AlHijrah (ACA); Association musulmane du Canada (MAC-Québec); Centre culturel musulman de Brossard (CCMB); Centre culturel musulman de Montréal (CCMM); Comité de la femme musulmane canadienne (CFMC-CMWC); Congrès islamique canadien (CIC- Québec); Mosquée Al-Rawdah; Regard Alternative Media (APM-RAM); Scout musulman canadien.
Ehab Lotayef, vice-président, Parole arabe.
Mohamed Sherif Kamel, Comité de coordination de CJPP, collectif Échec à la guerre.
Mohamed Habib Marzouqi, président, Centre culturel Abou-Baker.

Mohamed Zrig, secrétaire général, Association des droits de la personne au Maghreb.
Gilles Duceppe, 20 year of fighting intolerence -La Presse (French)  
On this day of Ramadan, we congratulate, with great pleasure and honour the leader of the Bloc Quebecois, Gilles Duceppe, on the 20th anniversary of his election as MP in the House of Commons. 
A man of integrity and national aspiration, Duceppe vigorously defends the interests of Quebec in the Canadian Parliament and calls for authorities to safeguard the cultural and francophone character of Quebec society..... 


We support the political interventions of Mr. Duceppe in support of a Quebec's culture, its language and its model of coexistence.....


For us, Gilles Duceppe is an example of a politician committed to defending the principles of equality, social justice and the fight against intolerance, discrimination and social exclusion.
* Les signataires de la lettre:Mohamad Sawan, président du comité exécutif, Centre islamique libanais; Bachar El Solh, président, Fédération des Canadiens musulmans; Bassam Hussein, vice-président, Association El-Hidaya; Samer Majzoub, président, Forum canadien musulman (FMC-CMF) et Ehab Lotayef, vice-Président, Parole arabe.
While most of the signatories represent Muslim Arabs of French extraction, some are associated with Canadian National organizations which poses the question as to whether these letters of support represent national policy.
I think not. One of the national organizations mentioned as a signatory doesn't even have a French web site! Link 
It seems that the Quebec wing is running amok. (like the NDP Quebec wing, many moons ago)

At any rate, Canadian Muslims have always been generally bad at public relations, their representative organizations and lobby groups doing little to promote the image of modern Muslims integrated into Canadian society. The general perception of Canadians from coast to coast is that Muslims are outsiders, unwilling to integrate in Canadian society, whether it is true or not.
It's surprising that Muslims with all their image problems haven't created an anti-defamation league as the Jews and the Italians did in relation to their own particular image problems. Heavens knows the Muslims can use such an advocacy group!

It seems that Muslims in the USA are no smarter and suffer the same poor image and do  public relations as poorly as their cousins in Canada. The latest bugaboo is the building of a large mosque near Ground Zero in New York City. Nobody denies their constitutional right to do so, but you'd think they'd have better sense. It seems like a provocation that the community could do without. Sometimes, self-inflicted wounds are the worst.

The rationale behind the support for Gilles Duceppe by these Muslim organizations is his position in favour of 'open secularism' in Quebec, which basically allows for the burqa and such. This policy is directly at odds with the Parti Quebecois' position and Richard Martineau in Journal de Montreal blasts Duceppe for taking a public position at odds with that of the PQ, something the two parties agreed not to do.

But backing Duceppe is a no/win gambit for Muslims.
Unless Mr. Duceppe becomes head of the PQ (which is a possibility) he may talk a good a game, but ultimately can deliver nothing.

Backing the wrong horse will not endear Muslims to Canadian federalists, the only group that can truly offer them serious and meaningful support.

If they think sovereignists are in their corner, they are sorely mistaken. No political constituency is less sympathetic to their cause. A few kind words from Duceppe won't change the fact that Quebec nationalists want to do away with religion in public.
Gilles Duceppe is in the position to promises all things to all people, he will never be in power. Supporting Duceppe is like supporting the Tooth Fairy, an illusion. Better to remember that it's your parents who put money under your pillow.

Muslims should pray to Allah that the federalists stay in power.

Flirting with Gilles Duceppe is a recipe for disaster.

14 comments:

  1. I've begun my comment on this blog a few times by noting how remarkable it is that in Montreal you can find francophones and anglophones (and, I suppose, even more languages such as Italian) working and living and speaking to each other. Pretty much any other civilization on earth would have turned Montreal into Belfast or... Beirut by now. Beirut, huh. Here's a clue, we're onto something here Canadians, Québécois, whatever you want to call yourself. It's peaceful and somehow we haven't fucking bombed each other yet.

    I'd rather see francophones and anglophones united against arabs. Maybe this is the one thing that could pull us together. I have francophone friends. We like the same things: TV, cold beer, female nudity, bacon.

    Those arabs, though. Compared to them all the militant francophones and anglophones should feel pretty fucking glad to be thrown in the same pot. Imagine a life without un bon club sandwich, une émission de Mad Men (traduite ou non), a pint of beer and une danseuse nue. These are the things arabs hate and yet in Montreal, French and English people love these things. Wake up and smell the falafel, so to speak. We could have a real bilingual paradise if only we realized how much we have in common, and how fucking evil some of the alternatives are. A mosque at ground zero indeed. Fuck off.

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  2. So what does this say? The Muslim community is endorsing somebody that wants to destroy Canada? Sometimes it's best to keep ones mouth shut. Especially when there is so much being said about Islam wanting to destroy the west. Pandering for tolerance with the Bloc & the PQ is like having the bring your own knife to the party that they'll put in your back one day.

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  3. "Gilles Duceppe, 20 year of fighting intolerence -La Presse (French)"

    This is comical if not disgusting and a lie all at the same time. Let’s see now, bills 22, 178, 101... In most civilized countries, these kinds of anti-English language laws would be called intolerant, racist, xenophobic, bigoted and extremely hateful. Just goes to show you how twisted and messed up this country has become, especially the French media. They actually believe the lies, the spin and BS they print. What a sad state Quebec and Canada is in. All government and most media seems to be involved in the daily dose of propaganda, revision, lies spin and BS. Wow, its worse then I thought.

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  4. Mississauga Guy said...

    Since actions speak louder than words, just let me point out a few facts of life.

    Israel was awarded some land in 1948 and bought for TOP DOLLAR a plenitude of sand dunes. Within no time, Israel was at war with neighbouring Arab states, all the while starting to build an infrastructure consisting of schools, hospitals, shopping centers, hotels and everything else a modern civilization could conjure. All this while fighting four wars in its first 25 years.

    Seems at least a small minority of Muslims are hellbent on destroying all a modern civilization has to offer. The question is why? Is it envy? Is it hatred of everything not Islamic? What in the name of Allah is it?

    What bothers me a lot is that it is a supposed relatively small elite that is this fundamentalist (fanatical, really). Why is it that the Muslim community in general does not so much as admonish it? Are they afraid of retribution? If so, then the cukoo birds making up this minority have won.

    On paper, they are a peaceful, reserved bunch, at least the majority come across that way. Perhaps they're not fully cognizant of their new-found freedom where they will not face persecution or prosecution for their religious and/or political beliefs. In the surface, this makes them seem sheepish; a lack of self-initiative and overly compliant.

    Then again, it wasn't so long ago our society was more compliant and didn't question authority like today. It makes things more disorderly, but then again, it is a dog-eat-dog world out there and asserting oneself is a means of survival. It's also a means of letting those who try to violate your rights better be prepared to take you on.

    Sadly, being newcomers, this community is still ignorant and I find it hard to believe they are not aware the pur laine ilk are fighting them already. What happened in Hérouxville opened the floodgates. It has led to the Bouchard-Taylor Commission, a can of worms Charest couldn't seal, and now the Islamic way is under the scrutiny of Quebec society.

    From a linguistic standpoint, many of them already speak English when they arrive. Welcome to Canada, not just Quebec (even though the conditioning of the immigration department in Quebec is to remind the newcomers their obligations are to Quebec, Quebec only, and nowhere else but Quebec).

    I like to think over time, these many new immigrants will learn of their place in Quebec, and they'll see standing behind the separatists is collectively not in their best interest. Trouble is, it's hard to tell Tweedledum from Tweedledee these days. As far as I'm concerned, the PLQ are not federalists!

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  5. WTF - Scout musulman canadien! When did
    Canadian Scouts become separtist?

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  6. Are these people idiots? Gilles Duceppe has said that he is against multiculturalism, which is inclusive of Muslims.

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  7. Dartagnan has it right: BQ love Muslims because they speak French and many hate the US.

    The enemy of my enemy is my friend. Classic

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  8. Mississauga Guy said...

    Dartagnan, maybe they're YOUR friends, but not so much Quebec society's friends in general...especially once the burqas go on!

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  9. Dartagan,,, I think you don't understand what you are doing. Quebec use to have a larger english minority, but this minority was pushed out because of language. Now, Quebec brings in people who speak french, but once they get here, your Quebec realizes that they are not compatible with the so called Quebec society concept.

    End result, you pushed away people who are closer to the Quebec society concept because they spoke english. Now you have people who speak french but threaten your Quebec society in other ways.

    There is a serious danger that this will explode one day. The anglophones could leave. Go somewhere else to work and live if things got bad. But, where are these new francophones going to go when things get tough for them. They will be stuck. And they will be forced to fight back. This is not a good situation.

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  10. ... as for the rest, they'd be a captive labor force in a deteriorating hell-hole?

    Vive le Québec libre!

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  11. "Nobody denies their constitutional right to do so, but you'd think they'd have better sense. It seems like a provocation that the community could do without."

    Why can't Muslims build a mosque wherever they want? There's also been people trying to get a church built near ground zero but no one gets mad about that. Why do you give Muslims different treatment?

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  12. Jaloux ! vous êtes jaloux parce qu'on ne vous donne pas d'appuis ! « Nous ne voulons pas être une province pas comme les autres, nous voulons être un pays comme les autres. » — Pierre Bourgault

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  13. Vive le Quebec!!Vive le pauvre Quebec!! Vive le pauvre Quebec libre!! Charles De Gaulle was right. He knew about muslims invading La Belle Province. He was friend with Nostradamus. Encore une fois" Vive le pauvre Quebec Libre des Anglos mais entoures de musulmans!!!

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  14. Answer to JS. Simply because our customs, habits and our country were edified on Christianisme. Go to muslim countries and try to build something with a wooden cross on it. You would not see the sun set that day. OK? Js?

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