I was
dismayed when I learned that Mr. Erik Millett, the principal
of Belleisle School in Springfield, N.B., prohibited singing
our national anthem because the families of a couple of his
students objected to it.
As
a social scientist, I have been opposing political correctness,
lack of assimilation of new immigrants to mainstream Canada,
hyphenated Canadian identity, and, among other things, the lack
of patriotism to our great nation.
We
are restricted to do things the Canadian way lest we offend
the minorities. We cannot even say Merry Christmas. It is amazing
that 77% of the Canadian majority are scared of offending 23%
of Canadian minorities. We have become so timid that the majority
cannot assert its own freedom of expression.
We
cannot publically question certain foreign social customs, traditions,
and values that do not fit in the Canadian web. Rather than
encouraging the new immigrants to adjust to Canada, we tolerate
peculiar ways of doing things. We do not remind them that they
are in Canada, not in their original homelands.
In
a multicultural society such as Canada, it is the responsibility
of minorities to adjust to the majority. It does not mean that
minorities have to totally amalgamate with the majority. They
can practise some of their cultural baggage within their confinement,
their back stage behaviour. However, their front stage behaviour
should resemble mainstream Canadian behaviour.
Whoever
comes to Canada must learn the limits of our system. We do not
kill our daughters or other female members of our families who
refuse to wear hijab, niqab or burka which are not mandated
by the Quran. A 16-year-old Muslim girl named Aqsa Pervez should
not have been killed by her father in Toronto because she refused
to don a hijab. We do not kill our daughters if they date the
“wrong” men. A 17-year-old Sikh girl should not
have been killed in British Columbia by her father because she
was caught dating a Caucasian young man.
We
do not approve of testing the sex of the fetus, and aborting
it if it is female. We do not practise the dowry system in Canada,
and, therefore, do not kill our brides because they did not
bring enough dowry. Millions of female fetuses are aborted every
year in India, and millions of female infants have been killed
by their parents in India and China. Thousands of brides in
India are burned to death in their kitchens because they did
not bring enough dowry. Thirty thousand Sikhs living abroad
took the dowries but abandoned their brides in India in 2005.
This is not accepted in Canada.
In
some countries thousands of women are murdered every year for
family or religious honour. We should not hide behind political
correctness and we should expose the cultural and religious
background of these heinous crimes especially if they happens
in Canada. We should also expose those who bring their cultural
baggage containing the social custom of female circumcision.
I was shocked when I learned about two cases of this inhumane
social custom that were practised in St. Catharines, Ontario
a few years ago.
I have
said it on radio and television; have written in my columns
in both the Calgary Herald and the Calgary Sun;
and I have written in my latest book, Journey to Success,
that I do not agree with the hyphenated identity in Canada because
it divides our loyalties. My argument is that people are not
forced to come to Canada and they are not forced to stay here.
Therefore, those who come here on their own volition and stay
here must be truly patriotic Canadians or go back.
Let
me put my words where my mouth is. I am a first generation Canadian
from Pakistan. I left Pakistan 45 years ago. I cannot ignore
Pakistan, because it is the homeland of my folks, but my loyalty
is to Canada alone. I am, therefore, a proud Canadian, no longer
a Pakistani-Canadian. I am a Canadian Muslim, not a Muslim Canadian.
I do
not agree with those Canadians who engage in their fight against
the system in their original countries on the Canadian soil.
They should go back and fight from within. For example, some
of the Sikhs, Tamil Tigers, Armenians, and others have disturbed
the peace in Canada because of their problems back home. Recently,
a lower level leader of MQM, the Mafia of Pakistan, came to
Canada as a refugee and started to organize public rallies to
collect funds for their cause in Pakistan. On July 18, 2007,
the Federal Court of Canada ruled that MQM is a terrorist group
led by London-based Altaf Hussain, their Godfather. As a member
in the coalition government of Pakistan, this terrorist group
is currently collaborating with the Taliban in Pakistan. That
refugee was deported back to Pakistan.
Similarly,
I disagree with Canadians who bring their religious baggage
here. For example, Muslims are less than 2% of the Canadian
population, yet in 2004 and 2005, a fraction of them, the fundamentalists,
wanted the Sharia law in Canada, a secular country. They should
go where Sharia is practised.
