Arutz 7 The MacDonald-Laurier Institute and the Globe and Mail held a
public conference recently on the phenomenon of Muslim immigration to
the West, which debated whether or not the influx is bringing a culture
of violence to Canada and other Western countries. The debate was conducted between Doug Saunders, journalist for Foreign Affairs for the Globe and Mail, and Salim Mansur, a Political Science professor at the University of Western Ontario, reports Shalom Toronto. [...]
Professor Salim Mansur begged to differ.
"Canadians’ mistaken notion that all cultures are equal has
disarmed this nation in the confrontation with the illiberal demands of
radical Islam," he fired, noting he was "drawing upon – as an immigrant,
as a person of color and as a Muslim – inside knowledge of and lived
experience in the cultures of both liberal democracy and Islam."
"A liberal-democratic society based on individual rights, freedom,
and the rule of law cannot indefinitely accommodate non-liberal or
illiberal demands from immigrant groups without subverting its own
culture," Mansur noted. He then identified three risk factors: the
rise in birthrates among the Muslim community, the nature of Muslim
culture and its relationship to non-Muslim cultures, and the West's
multiculturalism.
Statistics cited by the professor include proof that the foreign-born
population in Canada has become predominantly non-Western since 1967,
especially in major city centers, and that the Muslim immigrant
population is growing four times faster than other immigrant
populations.
As a culture, Mansur stressed, Islam became a "rigid, closed system"
during the 14th century, as a result of a heavy Bedouin influence.
Mansur maintains that early Islam found Bedouin culture "savage" - but
it nonetheless prevailed.
"The full face of this Bedouin-ized Islamic culture that has
wrecked the diversity of the Muslim world from within is to be seen in
the bigotry, violence, vulgarity and misogyny of Al Qaeda, the Taliban,
the Khomeini followers," Mansur noted. "It is the nature of mainstream
contemporary Muslim politics – or Islamism – to conform to the Bedouin
disposition."
This disposition, Mansur claimed, characterizes contemporary
Islamic values - even in immigrant communities. The things heard in
Canadian mosques are "intractably opposed to liberal democracy," and aim
to "ruin from within" Canadian and Western values, according to the
Professor.
Multiculturalism, meanwhile, threatens to allow this attitude to rear
its ugly head in the political sphere, according to Mansur.
"In having swallowed the toxin of official multiculturalism,
Canada has disarmed itself of the ability to discriminate between
immigrant groups which are importing cultural baggage that is harmless,
and those that are toxic to the values of liberal democracy," Mansur
concludes.
