* Moroccan writer says indifference of Canadian authorities to extremism shocked her
* Says vulnerability of moderate Muslims scared them to confront ‘Islamists’
By Khalid Hasan
WASHINGTON: Fatima Houda-Pepin from Morocco, who is Canada’s first elected Muslim woman politician, has expressed dismay at the fundamentalist interpretation of Islam and the spread of a harsh ideology in the country where she has lived for the last 35 years.
Writing in Le Presse, a Montreal-based French daily, Houda-Pepin says that what shocked her on arrival in Canada was her discovery of circles of indoctrination where women are veiled even inside their own houses, with ramifications in the Middle East, Pakistan, Iran, Europe and the United States. Imams trained in fundamentalist ideology, sent on missions and paid by foreigners, spread a radical Islam aiming at isolating Muslims from their host society. Messages call for jihad and to hate the agnostics, Jews, moderate Muslims, and Christians.
Shock:
Her ‘second shock’, she records, was the indifference of the authorities, which felt that as long as these problems were contained within the communities, they did not have to bother. A lack of knowledge of Islam and Muslims allowed radicals freedom to impose their views.
Houda-Pepin writes that the ‘Islam of knowledge and tolerance’ that marked her youth in Morocco was transformed in Canada into a straitjacket, reduced to a series of impositions, most often on women. At the same time Muslims were being degraded with pictures of violence coming from the Middle East, Africa, Asia, and the 9/11 attacks. Islamic groups, using indifference and surrounding ignorance, adapted a negative strategy. They managed to set themselves up as ‘spokesperson’ of communities to the distress of the moderate Muslims who struggle to integrate and ask only to live in harmony with their fellow countrymen.
Vulnerability:
“This is the vulnerability of these communities, among which the silent majority do not dare to confront the Islamists on their own ground. A broken up leading role, weak community structures and the feeling of exclusion from the young people also contributes to their marginalisation. However their contribution in human resources, competences, economic and cultural provision is considerable,” she points out.
She maintains that a pluralist society must be fair and equitable in its protection of minorities against abuses of the majority. Religious extremism is first obvious inside minorities themselves. In 1990, fundamentalists tried to impose shariah (Islamic law) in Toronto before standing back under the pressure of Muslim women. This battle was won inside communities themselves, before it surfaced in the public in 2003, with a more sophisticated sales talk and a plan of communication. Ontario abandoned the plan. She also writes about the ascent of the right-wing religious forces in America. In 1978, 22 percent of the Americans declared themselves Evangelists, a number that rose to 33 percent in 1986. The movement has not ceased growing and it is being completely transformed. The rise of the religious right is swarming everywhere, she notes. In Canada, different fundamentalist spheres of influence are already at work. Everywhere they aim at the school, at the family, at institutions and at political power.
At the same time, according to Houda-Pepin, Islamic spheres of influence have spread in several Muslim countries where they lead a conflict against regimes in place, considered as corrupted, ‘faithless’ and morally ‘decadent’. The law, which guarantees them religious freedom, is targeted as backward to destabilise these political regimes and at the same time, allow postponement of democracy. The ‘Islamists’ strategy, she warns, as they move forward in the closed circles, is an incorporation of a community without borders - an Islamic planet where a Muslim must be governed according to the shariah, independently of the country where he lived.
This allows fundamentalists, in the eyes of community and government leaders, as the spokespersons for all Muslims. In this sense, any advancement of these groups on juridical or symbolic plan is a powerful lever to impose an ultimatum in the name of religious freedom - in a secularised society a model of governance where the sovereignty of God will dominate the men.
* Says vulnerability of moderate Muslims scared them to confront ‘Islamists’
By Khalid Hasan
WASHINGTON: Fatima Houda-Pepin from Morocco, who is Canada’s first elected Muslim woman politician, has expressed dismay at the fundamentalist interpretation of Islam and the spread of a harsh ideology in the country where she has lived for the last 35 years.
Writing in Le Presse, a Montreal-based French daily, Houda-Pepin says that what shocked her on arrival in Canada was her discovery of circles of indoctrination where women are veiled even inside their own houses, with ramifications in the Middle East, Pakistan, Iran, Europe and the United States. Imams trained in fundamentalist ideology, sent on missions and paid by foreigners, spread a radical Islam aiming at isolating Muslims from their host society. Messages call for jihad and to hate the agnostics, Jews, moderate Muslims, and Christians.
Shock:
Her ‘second shock’, she records, was the indifference of the authorities, which felt that as long as these problems were contained within the communities, they did not have to bother. A lack of knowledge of Islam and Muslims allowed radicals freedom to impose their views.
Houda-Pepin writes that the ‘Islam of knowledge and tolerance’ that marked her youth in Morocco was transformed in Canada into a straitjacket, reduced to a series of impositions, most often on women. At the same time Muslims were being degraded with pictures of violence coming from the Middle East, Africa, Asia, and the 9/11 attacks. Islamic groups, using indifference and surrounding ignorance, adapted a negative strategy. They managed to set themselves up as ‘spokesperson’ of communities to the distress of the moderate Muslims who struggle to integrate and ask only to live in harmony with their fellow countrymen.
Vulnerability:
“This is the vulnerability of these communities, among which the silent majority do not dare to confront the Islamists on their own ground. A broken up leading role, weak community structures and the feeling of exclusion from the young people also contributes to their marginalisation. However their contribution in human resources, competences, economic and cultural provision is considerable,” she points out.
She maintains that a pluralist society must be fair and equitable in its protection of minorities against abuses of the majority. Religious extremism is first obvious inside minorities themselves. In 1990, fundamentalists tried to impose shariah (Islamic law) in Toronto before standing back under the pressure of Muslim women. This battle was won inside communities themselves, before it surfaced in the public in 2003, with a more sophisticated sales talk and a plan of communication. Ontario abandoned the plan. She also writes about the ascent of the right-wing religious forces in America. In 1978, 22 percent of the Americans declared themselves Evangelists, a number that rose to 33 percent in 1986. The movement has not ceased growing and it is being completely transformed. The rise of the religious right is swarming everywhere, she notes. In Canada, different fundamentalist spheres of influence are already at work. Everywhere they aim at the school, at the family, at institutions and at political power.
At the same time, according to Houda-Pepin, Islamic spheres of influence have spread in several Muslim countries where they lead a conflict against regimes in place, considered as corrupted, ‘faithless’ and morally ‘decadent’. The law, which guarantees them religious freedom, is targeted as backward to destabilise these political regimes and at the same time, allow postponement of democracy. The ‘Islamists’ strategy, she warns, as they move forward in the closed circles, is an incorporation of a community without borders - an Islamic planet where a Muslim must be governed according to the shariah, independently of the country where he lived.
This allows fundamentalists, in the eyes of community and government leaders, as the spokespersons for all Muslims. In this sense, any advancement of these groups on juridical or symbolic plan is a powerful lever to impose an ultimatum in the name of religious freedom - in a secularised society a model of governance where the sovereignty of God will dominate the men.
Source: Daily Times Pakistan
 |
Posts
