Repressing religion

Canada has an odd relationship with religion and I blame a combination of multiculturalism and militant secularism.

It used to be simple, Quebec was Catholic, Ontario was staunchly Protestant and Orange and the rest of the country leaned mildly in the Protestant direction.

Quebec has dumped its Catholicism, turning at the official government level into a rabidly anti-religion and pro-statist society.

For the rest of Canada, we’ve turned into a society that doesn’t want to talk too much about religion.

Sure, plenty of us are still involved at church or temple, plenty show up each week.

Right now, we have a provincial government in Ontario trying to force Catholic schools to accept something that goes against their faith. This on a school system that pre-dates Confederation and the establishment of public education in Ontario.

Earlier today, the Supreme Court of Canada ruled against religious freedom and parental rights in saying that the Quebec education system could impose a religious curriculum on school children. This curriculum, the critics say, teaches that all religions are the same, all are equal.

Parents who wanted to withdraw their children from this program have been told by the court that it is too bad, they don’t have that option – in Canada, the state is a child’s first educator even in matters of faith it seems.

Quebec has also tried to force this on private schools, so withdrawing from the public system may not be an option.

That’s how Canadian governments deal with religion, at least what we would call western religions.

Then there is Islam.

Canadian politicians take a deferential stance toward Islam. When they are not praising or defending it, they do their best to ignore problems.

The same provincial government in Ontario that says Catholic schools must violate their own teachings also approves of the Mosqueteria and segregation of boys and girls in public schools.

You remember the Mosqueteria story, it was broken by a blogger named Blazing Cat Fur.

At a number public schools in Toronto, the cafeteria was turned into a mosque every Friday. Non-Muslim students were kept out, boys and girls were segregated as happens in a regular mosque and menstruating girls were made to sit at the very back of the room.

The Liberal government said everything was A-Okay. Here’s what Liberal MPP Kathleen Wynne said:

“We’ve had religious accommodation in our schools for many years. We are simply providing space. It’s a practice that’s making us stronger.”

There were concerns raised about what might be taught in the mosqueteria but those were dismissed.

Now we have word of a report put together by CSIS – “The 4th ‘R’: Radicalization and Islamist Extremism in Canadian Secondary Schools.”

The report says that Canadian students are being radicalized in their high schools towards Islamism.

I’m sure Premier McGuinty will say there is nothing to see here.

Just as all kinds of politicians have turned a blind eye for years to Imam Aly Hindy.

Hindy has admitted to performing polygamous marriages in Canada, bragging about it to media. He called the Toronto 18 – “good people.” He considers the 9-11 attacks to be the work of the CIA and has refused to condemn terror attacks carried out by Muslims in the name of Islam.

Well now we find that Hindy’s mosque is currently getting about a quarter of its funding from overseas sources in Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates. Gulf money to build a huge mosque from countries that don’t allow the free practice of religion – other than Islam in their lands.

We have two different standards for dealing with religion in Canada.

If you are Christian or Jewish or anything that can be described as Western, you will be asked to stay quiet about your faith. Any vestiges of the old ways might be tolerated when not being attacked but for Islam, Buddhism and even First Nations spirituality – those can all be embraced by politicians and celebrated.

The warts and problems can be glossed over by our media and political elites.

It is in short a sort of self loathing of Western civilization brought about through the combination of multiculturalism and militant secularism.

We need to stop repressing our roots while celebrating all that is new.

We need to get a grip. Religion is not going away.

And that’s the Byline.