After tolerating months of slander, Canadian Muslim parents are pushing back against the character assassination they have had to endure at the hands of the press and the politicians (which we have covered extensively in this space). On September 25, the Muslim Association of Canada published a press release titled “Statement by MAC on Statements by Canadian Leaders and School Boards on Recent Protests.” It is worth reading in full:
The Muslim Association of Canada strongly condemns remarks on recent protests made by certain politicians, including our Prime Minister, as well as statements from school boards, unions, and reports from some media outlets.
By characterizing the peaceful protests of thousands of concerned parents as hateful, Canadian leaders and school boards are setting a dangerous precedent of using their position of influence to unjustly demonize families, and alienate countless students.
On Wednesday September 20th, thousands of Muslims, joined by other faith-based groups, protested to raise their concerns, calling for their rights as parents in relation to their children’s education. Their intent was to be heard, not to sow division. Parents should have the absolute right to advocate for the wellbeing of their children.
The statements from Canadian leaders and school boards increase the potential for Muslim children to face increased bullying and harassment in schools, both by educators and peers, a trend that’s already distressingly escalating. Civil rights organizations and Muslim organizations across the country have documented numerous validated accounts detailing situations where children have been coerced into activities that contradict their faith, or where parents teaching religious values to their offspring have been unfairly attacked.
We call on politicians and school boards, beginning with Prime Minister Trudeau, to retract their deeply inflammatory and divisive comments and issue an apology to the thousands of Canadian parents hurt by these comments.
Justin Trudeau, of course, does not apologize – but that doesn’t mean that this latest culture war salvo won’t make him deeply uncomfortable. The MAC is the largest grass-roots Muslim organization in Canada, with a “national reach rooted in strong local chapters in 13 cities across Canada,” including “23 community centers, nine full-time schools, 20 weekend schools, four child-care centers” and serving over 55,000 people weekly across the country. Traditionally, they have been largely reliable Liberal voters – until the LGBT agenda was imposed on their children, breaking what many saw as Canada’s multicultural bargain (which could be summed up as: “Leave our kids alone!”)
After years of cultural outreach in which progressive politicians paid exaggerated homage to their traditions, Muslim leaders have now been hearing very different views. As one union organizer helping to organize counterprotest to confront parents across the country stated, “They are fundamentally racist. They are fundamentally anti-union. They are fundamentally queer and transphobic.” In fact, the CBC actually published an editorial claiming that the very concept of parental rights was invented as an excuse for bigotry.
The MAC is the sort of organization that gets heavily wooed come election time – and they are demanding an apology from the prime minister, who has condemned protests organized in large part by Muslims as bigoted and hateful – and when confronted by concerned Muslims, has condescendingly insisted that their concerns are a result of their being confused by far-right American propaganda. Trudeau – and, presumably, other progressive politicians – are now stuck between the pincers of their pro-LGBT base and the much larger base of new Canadians they rely on to ignore their radical social agenda and vote them into office.
