Be careful what you say, because it may come back to bite you.
A few weeks ago, Prime Minister Stephen Harper sparked uproar when he argued to the CBC that the major threat to Canada’s security “is still Islamicism.”
Harper may have thought it clear that he meant “Islamic terrorism,” as a Conservative spokesperson later explained. But it’s easy to see how viewers, without that context or a dictionary handy, might have thought that he meant that Islam was the threat.
Harper and other high-profile Canadians have to be careful with the words they use. People easily misinterpret information, especially if it’s expressed in broad or misleading terms.
Post-9/11, there’s been a lot of talk about Islam in the public sphere. But it’s too much talk and too little context, and somewhere along the line the discourse has failed to educate.
Ignorance and disregard of the difference between Muslims and the few fanatics who use Islam as a political weapon are still rampant, and it’s fuelling Islamophobia. Commentaries without context on the connection between Islam and terrorism can lead people to mix fact with fiction and extend their hatred of Muslim terrorists to the Muslim population as a whole.
With these generalizations come irrational fears that are tough to fight. Fear bypasses our logic, and once it has taken root it’s hard to counter, even with cold, hard facts.
That’s why there are still Canadians who believe that, because the fanatics who attacked the World Trade Center were Muslim, now all Muslims are guilty by association.
Some 56 per cent of Canadians feel Islam is irreconcilable with Western values, according to a survey released by the Association for Canadian Studies just before the 10th anniversary of 9/11.
There have been attacks on mosques across the country. A mosque in Dorval, Que. was vandalized four times in one year. Another in Toronto was attacked three times. Attacks against mosques have also occurred in Winnipeg, Hamilton, Ottawa and Waterloo.
The recent niqab ban in Quebec caused a media uproar.
And the Toronto District School Board is still locked in a nasty battle over the rights of Muslims to pray in public schools.
Add political rhetoric and media manipulation to the mix, and people get carried away by paranoia.
This fear is politically opportunistic — you can justify anything as long as people feel their security is threatened — but it’s also dangerous. It can mobilize the community to punish whole groups of people for the actions of a few.
We’ve seen it in the past. Canada is notorious for the unjust internment of Japanese civilians after the attack on Pearl Harbour during the Second World War. The government also interned Italian and German Canadians out of fear they’d be loyal to fascist ideologies.
Fast-forward to 2011 and everyone can see how disastrous, disgusting and racist those actions were. And yet, we’re allowing history to repeat itself.
When news first broke about an explosion in Norway, the media’s first reaction was to report it was a Muslim attack. For example, a British tabloid put this headline on the front page of their online edition: “Al-Qaeda Massacre: Norway’s 9/11.” The New York Times reported on the tragedy by referencing an unknown terrorist group, Ansar al-Jihad al-Alami. They later revised the article.
Other reputable media, like the Huffington Post, have linked religious terrorist group Al-Qaeda to the Iranian government. That’s like saying oil and water mix well. Iran is predominately a country of Shi’a Muslims, a minority sect within Islam. Whereas, Al-Qaeda belongs to the ultra-conservative Wahabbi school. Wahabbis are known for their hatred of Shi’as and they consider them to be infidels. The idea of Al-Qaeda collaborating with ‘infidels’ is laughable.
There have been attempts to counteract Islamophobia, including Muslim outreach programs, interfaith dialogues, mosque open houses and countless online resources.
So, the problem’s not a lack of information — it’s laziness. Laziness on the part of politicians who fail to choose their words carefully; laziness on the part of journalists who fail to check their facts; and laziness on the part of a public that fails to critically analyze what they hear and read.
Harper’s comment may seem like an innocent political gaff, or the vandalization of mosques just the acts of a few hooligans. The niqab ban may just be a Canadian constitutional issue. And the school board battles? They’ll die out eventually.
But when pieced together like a puzzle, these isolated incidents reveal a larger, disturbing picture of what we as Canadians are willing to assume of the innocent. It’s a picture marred by fear, irrationality and ignorance.
This is our society today, and if it continues, it will be to our future shame.