Confrontation at Concordia

I saw this 5-part documentary on the “Confrontation at Concordia”. This series of events took place in 2002 at Concordia University, where the Jewish student group invited former Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to speak on their campus. The Muslims on-campus had a beef with him because of war crime accusations, and in what seems to be a disturbing trend that the mainstream media seems to be ignoring, they simply protest to the point where there is enough destruction and mayhem to warrant shutting down the talks due to security concerns. The documentary is incredibly well done and presents the events over a period of several months, following the student council, Jewish club, and some Muslim activists.

Now to go off on a tangent… I will be the first to admit that religion and I don’t get along. I believe it is the root cause of many of the world’s atrocities at the moment; worse than greed, worse that bigotry (though most of the time they are associated), and more than political agendas and politicians. I will admit that I read right-wing websites like littlegreenfootballs.com and I will admit that there is some anti-Muslim bias in the posts there. I am cautious to say “some” anti-Muslim bias because all the posts there are properly sourced and cited, even though they present one facet of Muslims and Islam.

There is a fine line between diversity and assimilation. I, for one, was against the whole concept of diversity and multiculturalism from a teenager. The concept of celebrating each other’s difference is a sad excuse for pointing out how different we all are instead of celebrating and uniting underneath the idea that we’re all Canadians. The University of Waterloo’s diversity campaign, if it’s still going on, is misrepresenting diversity at the university. The first two people they interviewed was an Asian and a Brown person. Since its inception, I haven’t seen a single White person interviewed.

I am not a Chinese-Canadian, but I am Canadian. Other people may not see it that way, but then again, aren’t we all taught to trust our own instincts? Whenever I hear about people calling themselves Chinese-Canadian or Indo-Canadian, I long for a system of assimilation where every puts their allegiances to their birth country first and their parents’ second.

What I want to get at though is the debate of whether or not there is a subtle Muslim influence creeping into the traditional Western system in Canada. There is just too much accomodating nowadays in our society. It is accepted for Jewish students to skip school for holidays, and likewise Chinese students on Chinese New Year. Muslims are probably granted the same rights all the time in schools. What about the rest of the Pastafarians? Why aren’t we recognized? Students get suspended for dressing up like a pirate, a sacred figure in Flying Spaghetti Monster (FSM) lore. Now I admit, FSM is a joke religion. We all know the beliefs are crazy. Pirates? Crazy. But when applied to the other mainstream religions, how much crazier does it sound?

Recently, the Canadian Federation of Students (CFS) released the Final Report for the Task Force on the Needs of Muslim Students. In that report, there were some valid points like creating proper spiritual places (i.e., prayer rooms) for Muslims, and I would hope for all other religions, and probably many other good things. I have qualms with the negatives though. Issues such as the report suggesting creating interest-free grants for Muslims because Islam forbids taking loans and identifying that some Muslims choose not to run for Finance Minister in the student council because they’d be managing alcoholic campus bar revenue are two examples of sheer ludicracy. They have to choose between their religion and their school or student council position, respectively. This is almost as stupid as the Muslim Council of Britain suggesting schools remove dance and allow students to not swim during Ramadan for fear of swallowing water, because it’s un-Islamic. And how about dropping the Crusades and the Holocaust from the curriculum because of fear of anti-Semitic remarks and challenges from Muslim students that they’re being taught differently than what they learn at their mosque? Ridiculous.

At what point will we say enough is enough? Probably never at this rate. People that challenge these concessions / accommodations are considered religionists (racists just doesn’t fit) and those that do accommodate are considered pansies by the small minority of “crazy” right-wingers. I remember a friend of mine who was fasting for Ramadan, but he kept on playing volleyball. We weren’t going to adjust the schedule and practises to accommodate him. He accepted that and just planned around our times. He was slightly tired, and that’s understandable, and if he couldn’t keep up in his level of play, he would have been benched. It’s the simple facts that dictate life, not the simple facts and three pages of religious exceptions.

I know I’m riding on Muslims a lot in this post, but fundamentalist Christians and Catholics are just as bad. I’ll dig some dirt up on them eventually. For the time being though, Muslims are the ones in the news more often (unless you come across the crazy Christians… those stories are just hilarious).

So let’s stop being so politically correct and address the facts at hand. Going back to the Confrontation at Concordia, it’s obvious there was something a little deeper than just protesting a certain speaker. Even though people may or may not have done bad things in their life, they should still be given a chance to speak. Protest all you want, but you should still respect the Charter of Rights and Freedoms (not the person, if you’re so inclined). They do have a right to speak.