dialamah

What an idiot, speaking ego instead of accuracy. Didn't see anything saying he must resign, although I don't disagree with the sentiment.

Ok, thanks. Sorry I didn't look.

I consider the people who slapped your hand when you were merely handing them something extremely rude and I don't actually give them a pass due to their religion. If I've failed to make that clear in previous conversations, I apologize. They only ones who'd get a pass for that kind of behavior would be those (of any color or creed) who had some kind of disability that made them fearful of touch, but that doesn't include religion. If I were slapped by Muslims as you described, I'd consider them very new to Canada. I'd make an effort to find out if anyone had explained to them that it was unacceptable or if I could do so myself. If they realized the error of their ways and stopped doing it - or better yet - apologized, I'd let bygones be bygones. I assume that if they continue that behavior they will find Canada an unfortunate experience for them. If I were laying on the ground and being approached by men with guns, I might yell out too.

Thought it might be interesting to track the rise of Islamaphobia in Canada. The worst example is the Quebec shooting of 25 Muslims, six of whom died and let's hope that remains the worst. Here's another less extreme example - kids and adults being threatened in the Peel School District due to Friday prayers, which have been happening for a couple of decades, but only in the last while have people decided to object. The mother in this story worries about her son, who attends these prayers, but not about her daughter who attends a publically funded Catholic school that holds mass.

Then you haven't really been paying attention to Argus, DoP, Hal9000 along with a couple of others, although you certainly haven't hesitated to agree with them. Rue, Bonam, Boges, BCSapper - a few of the ones who disagree with much of what I say but do not regularly denigrate all Muslims using the worst possible terms, nor have they called me a liar or stupid, told me what I believe, accused me (or all Liberals) of working to destroy Canada because we fail to hate Islam or Muslims. Every time someone on here calls Muslims dirty, ignorant, backward, violent, unable to change they are talking about my sister and my brother-in-law, who are none of those things. And, despite having grown up Muslim in a 'backward' country, has somehow managed to obtain a doctorate in one field and a masters in another, who has published in his field, has worked throughout the world, and is well-respected by those who know him. Just like millions of other Muslims which Islamophobes pretend don't exist, or claim don't matter because 'there aren't enough of them'. As if they'd know.

When someone cannot talk about anything except the way in which Muslims or Islam is evil, immoral, violent, ignorant, uncivilized, that is Islamophobia. When the simple fact FGM is practiced by people other than Muslims is mentioned, someone is inspired to find an article disputing it, that's Islamaphobia. When every single thing anyone posts on here says anything positive about Muslisms or Islam is shouted down as being apologist, refusing to face reality, part of "liberal" insanity and the ruining of Canada, that's Islamophobia. When efforts to discuss or address the issue of *extremism* or partriarchal attitudes and attendant abuses how it can be identified, addressed or mitigated ignored in preference to claims that Muslims are too ignorant and backward to learn or change, that's Islamaphobia. I've tried multiple times to actually address the issues that the anti-Islam group here claims they are so concerned about - violent extremism, patriarchal attitudes, Sharia law - but instead of discussion I get abuse heaped on me for not subscribing to the view that all Muslims are ignorant, backward, violent extremists. I'm called a liar and my patriotism to Canada is called into question. And yet if the word "Islamaphobia" is mentioned, people cry about how unfair it is, like a bunch of pathetic snowflakes. So yeah, that's the label you get because you've earned it.

Not really, Goddess. Why bother? You, Argus, DoP and a few others are absolutely determined to lay every single nasty thing you can come up with at Islam's feet and by extension make guilty every Muslim in the world. You guys are no better than Hot Enough who blames the US for absolutely everything he possibly can, regardless of the facts. I'm tired of it, I'm tired of the willfull ignorance, the hateful comments on this board. I can find way better and honest discussion about the ways in which Islam needs to change it's outdated moral code, and address the actions of extremists who use Islam as a cover - with both Muslims and non-Muslims in other venues. I can also find information on people who are doing those positive things, instead of constantly having to address the same stupid Islamophobic crap here.

As any researcher will tell you, correlation is not causation. A while ago I found a website which broke down the incidence of FGM among Muslims, Christians (broken down between protestant and catholic) and "other" (usually animist) in Middle Eastern and African countries. I posted the link, as well as some of the information in a post. The information clearly demonstrated that FGM is not limited to Muslims, but covers all religions. Even where there was a difference, it was rarely more than 10% and in one country Muslims were not the ones with the highest incidence. But hey, it's an Islamic problem. We'll just go with that, because it's much more important to blame Islam than to recognize that this affects all women in that region.

Yes, because this practice occurs in a region mostly people by Muslims; nonetheless, the same percentage of Christians and "other" religions practice FGM in those areas. If 8 out of 10 women in any given region suffer FGM, those women are Muslim/Christian/Other. This makes FGM a cultural practice and not a religious one. If a tip line had been implemented, people who believe as you and a few others here would only be looking at Muslims, and missing all the non-Muslim women who may also be suffering. So how about you, who claims to care so much about women, starts spreading some truth instead of BS?

I support the study's stated purpose, which is to examine the issue of religious discrimination and persecution in Canada. Supporting the government seeking additional information and also not supporting unnecessary laws are not mutually exclusive. If a law were proposed as a result of this study, I would have to know exactly what the law said and reasons behind it before I could decide whether or not to support it. Generally speaking, I probably would figure it was overkill. I don't subscribe to the paranoia of "OMG, M103 is Sharia law in the making" and I don't consider myself prescient enough to conclude that "there will be a law".

Incredible talent and a showman, too!

Have you heard of the Duning-Kruger effect?

Yes, they did. Proving that sometimes the government turns out to be smarter than the people who support them.

Which will, of course, be the fault of the liberal leftist media, Clinton and Clinton, Obama and Benghazi.

Good ideas, IMO.

No, it's not. Immigrating to a country is not like visiting a friend or neighbor. A closer analogy would be a homebuyer or even renter looking at a property, noticing some things and saying to the homeseller/landlord "I want to negotiate this before I sign on the dotted line".

So calling people who disagree with you idiots is fine in your book, but god forbid anyone should respond in kind. Right back at'cha.

So if people don't agree with you then they lack sense, are idiotic and support proven harmful immigration policies. This, despite the fact that Canada is rated among the best countries to live and among the top 10 performers economically, even with our 'harmful' immigration policies of the last 150 years. The facts don't support these conservative claims, Argus. That and their assumption that conservatives are the only sensible ones no doubt contributes to the way in which people consider conservatives claims more xenophobic than thoughtful.

Imagining for a moment that the Libs and Cons came together and decided to send money out instead of bringing refugees in, how long would it be until Conservatives starting biatching about that money going to foreigners? Not long, I'm thinking. Conservatives already don't like spending on FA, as any perusal of news stories demonstrate. They also don't like to spend on poorer people in country, instead saying things like "get a job, get a better job" and characterizing social assistance recipients as lazy and fraudulent, even when studies demonstrate that fraud is very low. The only "charity" that Conservatives appear to wholeheartedly support is the kind that provides benefits to rich people and corporations. And spending money to keep undesirables out as the support for Kellie Leitch's plan to add more cost to immigration and Harper's plan for a 'tip' line. As Haidt pointed out, Conservatives are fine if poor people and minorities suffer. From my perspective it looks like Conservatives are loyal to financial wealth more than anything else.

Perhaps Liberals and NDP get more votes from minorities because conservatives support anti-immigrant policies and bigotted attitudes.

Rightists want to put their heads in the sand and pretend that its ok to spread misinformation about people and then enact laws based on that misinformation. Case in point: FGM is believed to be only an Islamic practice, by those who uncritically believe everything right-wing media sources say. There are already laws and procedures to deal with those kinds of things; we don't need more. This is exactly the same reason you and I have agreed on a previous topic that we don't need more or special laws for to deal with anti-Muslim crimes. Please note my consistency: we don't need more laws to deal with illegal cultural practices OR anti-Muslim hate crimes. Please note your inconsistency: We don't need more laws to deal with anti-Muslim hate crimes, but we do need more laws to deal with the crimes believed to be specific to Muslims.

Yup and they investigate them. FGM, for example, is child abuse, so a neighbor can use that if they have concerns. A 'barbaric practices' tip line singles out a specific population. A tip line only validates the false belief that only a certain type of person does these things. And since we already have laws and procedures in place to deal with these practices, a tip line for them is redundant.

To give Argus credit, I think he's tried but it always comes back to religion, specifically Islam. Its an important part of my Canada that we include humanitarian outreach and help those who are suffering. The right-wing focus on only economics and dismissing my values and beliefs about the importance of national commitment to refugees certainly does not endear me to their cause. I can agree that immigrants should be primarily selected based on economic criteria (and 60% are); I can't agree that should be the only criteria or that refugees should not be accepted.