The annual Muslim holiday of Eid has come and gone, and once more the community has been showered with messages from politicians tripping over one other to prove their credentials as lovers of Islam and all things Muslim.
I have an offer to make to all these men and women who stumble and mumble to utter “Salaam Alaikum” messages written by their Muslim staffers: If you are so enamoured by my faith and impressed by the conduct of my community, then stop these annual shenanigans and once and for all come join our ranks. Convert to Islam.
Perhaps, some have already taken the plunge.
Take for example this year’s Eid message by Jack Layton. Addressing us Muslims as “Dear brothers and sisters” the NDP leader preaches the end of Ramadan “is an opportunity to renew the spirit and faith in Islam.”
I am waiting with baited breath to see Layton “renew” his faith in Islam. Will he be following in the path of Cat Stevens and Cassius Clay who became Yusuf Islam and Muhammad Ali? Or has he already embraced the ‘Shahadah” (oath of Islam)?
He goes on to say, “We are not celebrating the end of Ramadan, but thanking Allah for the help and strength given throughout this special month…".
We? Oui! May I suggest a new name for Layton: Jack AsSalaam.
After being lectured by Imams and mullahs; saints and sufis all my life to “renew” my faith, do I need to now hear these sermons from none other than Ustaz Layton?
Over the years I have become accustomed to guilt-ridden politicians, who are otherwise atheists or agnostics, embracing my faith Islam as if it was newest fad in town. First it was George Galloway and Ken Livingstone, now Jack AsSalaam is to be our new Imam.
As if to ensure his credibility and authenticity as the true pro-Islam politician in Canada, Layton invokes the names of some Muslim Canadians and his solidarity with them. No, he does not mention the CEO of Rogers or the Secretary-Treasurer of the CLC nor does he mention any of the Muslim Senators or MPs; trade unionists or physicians; janitors or economists. He assumes we Muslims do nothing other than pray and preach. That all of us are all linked up in varying degrees to religiosity and Islamic organizations ranging from the Taliban and Al-Qaeda to the local chapter of the Muslim Brotherhood. This is why the name he invokes in his Eid message is that of Omar Khadr . He writes:
“We will continue to call for the repatriation of Omar Khadr, and have introduced legislation to protect Canadian citizens abroad.”
Might I ask, what has Omar Khadr got to do with Eid or Ramadan or with Muslims?
Far too many politicians are today bending over backward to solicit votes from the Muslim Canadian community and in doing so naively believing that we Muslims take our political cues from men in beards and women in burkas.
Layton is not alone in catering to this leftwing orientalism that defines Muslims as a vote bank whose members can be identified by the exotic attire they wear, not their political thinking. On the day Jack Layton was preaching like a mulla, Michael Ignatieff was photographed with two women in exotic hijabs, looking at him with adoring looks as he threw up his hands, as if to say, “enough…I am not worthy.”
Contrast this Canadian pandering to hijabs and burkas with how European politicians have sought to make a statement. Look at France. President Sarkozy has elevated three Muslim women to cabinet level. All of them strong women, fully integrated in the culture and politics of French laïcité and free of the constraints of yards of cloth draped around them like shrouds.
One is Rama Yade. Black, Muslim and Female, Yade was born in Senegal and raised in Paris by working class immigrant parents. She, along with Rachida Dati and Fadela Amara became the face of Muslim women in France, sitting as ministers in the French cabinet.
Rama Yade, who is visiting Washington this week as a guest of the Black Congressional Caucus, describes the left and the Socialist Party as creators of a “service window republic” in which immigrant children get “pity instead of respect.”
Elsewhere, in Sweden a Muslim immigrant woman from Burundi, Nyamko Sabuni, has risen to cabinet status and has taken on the clerics in her community. She wants to ban the Hijab on children
In Germany, politicians from across the spectrum rallied to the support of a Muslim woman MP with the Green Party who has received death threats after urging Muslim women in Germany to take off their headscarves. Elkin Deligöz’ was not shunned, but embraced as she spoke out against the clerics in her Turkish community.
In Denmark, Yildiz Akdogan sits in parliament as a Social Democrat and was part of the Muslim group that stood up to the Mullahs of Copenhagen who triggered the cartoon crisis. None of these women have succumbed to the pressures that force Muslim women to don the hijab or the niqab.
Contrast this with Canada where politicians are unwilling to back Muslim women who stand up to their clerics. The NDP in particular has run candidates that support the second-class status of women in the mosque and society, who support sharia law and oppose same-sex rights.
Perhaps it is time for Jack Layton and Michael Ignatieff to take a sabbatical and visit Europe where this battle for the soul of the Muslim society is being fought and learn from them, rather than take cues from the Muslim Brotherhood or whoever else is advising them. Once they are done with Europe, they might want to visit Iran, Pakistan, India and Bangladesh, There they will discover Muslims do not pay much heed to what the Mullahs say from the pulpit and have no ability to pull votes.
