by Klaus Rohrich
November 4, 2004
For all those people who thought it was a good idea to allow "Canadian culture" to die in the name of multiculturalism, the smell of the coffee must be getting too strong to continue sleeping. For many years critics of multiculturalism have pointed out its obvious weaknesses. For those who can’t remember, they include the creation of balkanized quasi-citizens whose hearts and minds lie in their homeland and they pose a very real danger that conflicts in and around those homelands will spill over into Canada.
To date most immigrants to Canada with issues back home have played nice inside Canada because after all, this country is the goose that lays the golden egg. Where else could Tamil Tigers, the originators of suicide bombings, raise millions of dollars annually to support their terrorist activities in Sri Lanka? Oh, sure, the occasional Sikh has blown up the odd airliner bound for India, but by and large, there was a tacit understanding that things were to be kept cool so that everyone could go on doing what they were doing.
Until now.
The declaration by Mohamed Elmasry, a computer professor at Waterloo University and head of the Canadian Islamic Congress (CIC), that any Israeli over the age of 18 is fair game for Palestinian suicide bombers represents the opening salvo in what I believe will result in blood flowing in our streets. according to Mr. Elmasry it’s okay for suicide bombers to hit civilian targets such as movie theatres and pizza parlours in their war against Israel, which by extension means that it is also okay to do so right here in Canada.
The startling and remarkable thing is not that Mr. Elmasry made this remark, but that he made it on television. His appearance on The Michael Coren Show gave him a platform from which to spout his hatred. The fact that no action was taken against Mr. Elmasry speaks volumes about where the government of Canada’s head is.
Try making a similar statement on television about gay people or blacks and see what happens. But the fact that this statement was made by the head of an Islamic (i.e. religious) group against Jews betrays two things: the first is that in the interest of maintaining multi-culturalism we are ready to apply our hate laws (with which I vehemently disagree, but that’s fodder for another column) selectively. If a member of the Knights of Columbus or B’nai Brith were to make a similar statement in regards to Palestinians, he or she would be in jail faster than you can say Salaam. The second reason no action has been taken against Dr. Elmasry is that the government of Canada is rightfully concerned about terrorist reprisals. So far there has been an implicit gentlemen’s agreement between immigrants of a terrorist bent and official Canada because the government of Canada doesn’t want terrorist events happening in downtown Toronto or Vancouver, while those of a terrorist bent want to continue their plotting and fundraising in peace. In fact, some of that fundraising has been enhanced through the support of federal Members of Parliament and cabinet ministers.
If Mr. Elmasry were charged with a hate crime for making his very hateful statement, all bets would be off, as Islamist terrorists based in Canada would declare open season on "white meat" Canadians.
Perhaps this is the defining indictment against multiculturalism as an official policy. It works really well if you want to watch quaint ethnic dances, see quaint ethnic clothes and eat quaint ethnic foods. But when the chips are down (insert origin here)-Canadians will always consider themselves (insert nationality here) before they consider themselves Canadians.