Mohammed Al-Sharpton’s replacement at the Canadian Islamic Congress is as totally obsessed about Mark Steyn quotes as he was, and sounds just as stupid and dangerous. Too bad they aren’t as obsessed about all the stuff in the Koran about killing infidels and enslaving women.
It was shortly after 9/11 that I had an “us” versus “them” experience that was unknown to me in my previous 40 years in Canada. True, like any other new immigrant, I too experienced incidents of racism and bigotry, but never where I was clearly identified as an enemy — or one of “them.” Appearing at an event on behalf of the CIC I was asked whether I would formally denounce the actions of the 9/11 terrorists.
This question struck me as if it were a bullet.
Here I was being asked to denounce “them” in order to verify that I was really with “us”. Yet, the “them” I was being asked to denounce were as alien to me as they were to any other Canadian. My initial reaction of shock turned to anger and then momentarily to fear: could it be that as a Canadian citizen of 40 years I could be denounced on the basis of actions of individuals as culturally and ethnically removed from me as are the Swedes? Was the ostensible sharing of a common religion between the terrorists and me enough to indict me in the eyes of my fellow Canadians? Was this not an inquisition of sorts?
I wish…
