Survey Says!

Well, this is the time of year where there seems to be an awards show every week and a new poll every day.

I found a few interesting facts about Muslims in Canada from a new Environics poll conducted in association with the CBC.

A much larger proportion of Canadian Muslims are satisfied with the way things are going today in Canada than is the case in Europe.

More than 80 per cent of Canada's roughly 700,000 Muslims are broadly satisfied with their lives here and only a very small percentage - 17 per cent - feel that many or most Canadians are hostile toward their religion.

The proportion is greater even than the 61 per cent of Canadians who generally feel their lives are on the right track.

In general terms, the poll found that 73 per cent of Canadian Muslims describe themselves as "very proud" to be called Canadians, even if many of them see their religion as coming first in certain instances.

As well, they have very little sympathy for extremists or terrorist groups and they aren't crazy about the northern climate,
-it tops the list of things they like least.

Now comes the interesting part! Asked about the arrests last summer of the 18 Muslim men and boys who were allegedly plotting terrorist attacks in southern Ontario, 73 per cent of the Muslim respondents said these attacks were not at all justified and 82 per cent said they had no sympathy for those who wanted to carry them out.

O.K. That means 27 percent felt there was some justification for the terrorists and 18 percent had some sympathy for the perpetaraitors. Why isn't it 0%

Now I realise that these small percentages are probably accounted for by the under thirty crowd, but just the same it is worrying!

Almost half (49 per cent) of the general Canadian population feel new immigrants should blend in with the rest of the country, while 40 per cent feel they should be encouraged to maintain their religious and cultural practices.

The differences are more pronounced when it comes to women: 81 per cent of non-Muslim Canadians feel ethnic minorities should adapt to mainstream Canadian beliefs about the rights and roles of women, whereas only 36 per cent of Canadian Muslims feel that way, the poll suggests.

A majority of the Muslim respondents (53 per cent) would also like to see Islamic Sharia law adopted for divorce and other family disputes, and a much larger number, 86 per cent, of Canadian Muslims do not feel governments should ban the wearing of headscarves by Muslim women in public, including public schools.

Many of these concerns are more strongly backed by young Muslims under 30, the survey suggests, and Haideh Moghissi, a York University sociologist who has worked extensively in this area, says these should probably be seen as more of a "political gesture than a religious one" by those who have felt their community "bearing the brunt of this suspicion and fear" since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

In fact, almost 60 per cent of Muslim women do not wear any kind of covering on a regular basis, the survey found. And 72 per cent of the respondents said they were not too worried or not worried at all about Muslim women taking on more modern roles in Canadian society.

These figures seems to suggest about the same numbers as for other ethnic groups over the years, except for the one disturbing aspect of some sympathy and support for terrorist ambitions.

This alone should justify any concerns about the Muslim community!

Your "ever vigilant" scribe;
Allan W Janssen