Saturday, February 11, 2006
When I woke up the other morning to a story on Canada A.M. to a story about a university newspaper that published those same cartoons that have incited so much hatred in Europe I was at first concerned. Could the same thing happen here? Would there next be violent protests by the large Muslim communites in such places as Montreal? Probably not, and I found a great article today on The Globe and Mail.
The full text is here."It's a shift, for Canadian Muslims, that has not happened anywhere else."
Mohamed Elmasry, president of the Canadian Islamic Congress, said violent demonstrations simply aren't a fit with the Canadian Muslim community -- which, because of Canada's immigration requirements, he said, is the most highly educated Muslim community in the world.
"They would find legal and peaceful means of protest far more productive," said the imam and professor at the University of Waterloo. "With demonstrations, you cannot have full control over who does what."
In other news I just learned that Dallas Green's band City and Colour is touring this spring, with a stop in Winnipeg! I'm looking forward to that show, since most, if not all of his music is just acoustic. Check here for when the show's coming to your place.
Goodness you're going to have a busy concert year.
Interesting article.
I was at the Muslim protest in Montreal this weekend (as an unbiased observer) and everything went a-ok save a few minor incidents. There was a counter-protest on the other side of the street about freedom of speech. No fires, no burning. Just some chants and after 45 minutes, it wrapped up. Relatively short for a demo. I don't think anyone, anywhere needs to resort to violence to get their point accross on this thing. And about the PEI paper....I don't think she should have published anything just out of unbiasedness. Yes, you could counter with the "free speech" argument, but you don't see any of the big guns of the media make fun of religion, so I don't think a student newspaper should.
I saw on the news the protests here in Toronto. There were about 500 people out there and they were completely peaceful. Lots of respect from me for the dignity that they displayed.
Scott
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