There is no Islamophobia in Canada

 

Where else in the world would a Catholic prime minister, the leader of its right-wing Christian Conservative opposition, the left-wing party headed by a turbaned Sikh and the head of a separatist party join the city’s mayor, the province’s premier and tens of thousands of ordinary citizens to condemn the horrific mass murder of a Muslim family, allegedly at the hands of home-schooled Christian man?

The answer of course is Canada. The entire nation stood in solidarity with us Muslims, yet the only consensus heard for days since the tragedy is that this country of ours, that opened itself to so many Muslims fleeing tyranny, is itself “Islamophobic.”

What more do we Muslims expect from Canada?

Our impact on Canada has forced almost every urban secondary school to allocate space for makeshift mosques and, at times, cafeterias where Islamic clerics go to give sermons to ensure gender segregation and lecture our youth on how to reject the “western way of life.”

No Buddhist, Hindu, Sikh, Jew or Baha’i demands special prayer rooms inside workplaces, universities, or washrooms to accommodate mid-day washing rituals Muslims undergo. No manager dare say “no” to our request and, if they do, Lord help them en route to the Human Rights complaints office.

Everything we ask we get, including call to prayers on mosque loudspeakers in neighbourhoods where the majority of the population is not even Muslim.

And pray, what do we say during these prayers? Pious and religious Muslims who pray five times a day invoke a verse that refers to Jews as people who have incurred the “wrath of Allah” and Christians as “people who have been led astray.”

The actual verse of the Quran says:

“Guide us to the straight path

The way of those upon whom you have bestowed your grace

Not the way of those who have earned your wrath

Nor of those who went astray”

From the Quran published in Saudi Arabia to its interpretation by the 8th century jurist Ibn Kathir, all claim that these words or derision are meant to describe Jews and Christians.

The question then is simple: If we Muslims are comfortable denouncing Jews and Christians 48 times a day in our five daily prayers, then isn’t it we who spread hate and then play victim?

If it’s true that Islamophobia exists in Canada, then our country is not alone. Wherever we Muslims live or have moved as a minority, the fact is it is our behaviour in relations with the majority and our contempt for the host community’s religion and civilization has aroused in them this supposed ‘irrational ...

https://torontosun.com/opinion/columnists/fatah-there-is-no-islamophobia-in-canada