Multiculturalism in Canada: Muslims want children excused from music, mixed phys-ed classes.

This is the sort of thing that British Prime Minister David Cameron and German Chancellor Angela Merkel were warning about. Multiculturalism has arrived in Canada: newly arrived Muslim immigrants have made demands to the Winnipeg school system that teaching music and mixed-gender physical education classes are forbidden in their Islamic religious culture. The core values of our democracy is freedom of choice and majority rule but the Muslims who want to use the free public education system don't understand that. Nothing prevents them from sending their children to private schools except that it isn't free. And secular laws, which are condemned in the Qur'an, based on majority rule mean nothing to them. Here is the way the Canadian web site Global Winnipeg reported the story:

Muslims want children excused from music, mixed phys-ed classes

Nick Martin, Winnipeg Free Press: Saturday, February 5, 2011

WINNIPEG — A dozen Muslim families who recently arrived in Canada have told Winnipeg's Louis Riel School Division that they want their children excused from compulsory elementary school music and coed physical education programs for religious and cultural reasons.

"This is one of our realities in Manitoba now, as a result of immigration," said superintendent Terry Borys. "We were faced with some families who were really adamant about this. Music was not part of the cultural reality."

Borys said the school division has alerted Education Minister Nancy Allan about the situation since music and phys-ed are compulsory in the province's elementary schools.

As usual, the informative web site Jihad Watch had the relevant background information behind these latest Muslim objections. 

It's not just "not part of the cultural reality." The hostility to music and musical instruments within Islam is rooted in the fact that, according to authoritative Islamic sources, Muhammad detested music as intensely as he hated crucifixes: "Allah Mighty and Majestic sent me as a guidance and mercy to believers and commanded me to do away with musical instruments, flutes, strings, crucifixes, and the affair of the pre-Islamic period of ignorance."

And "On the Day of Resurrection, Allah will pour molten lead into the ears of whoever sits listening to a songstress."

You only had to worry about the bogeyman under the bed when you were a kid. How about the creator of the universe waiting to pour molten lead in your ears?

It may seem paradoxical that while so many Muslims choose to adhere to the strictest fundamental concepts of Islamic teachings about modesty, the wearing of hijabs (head scarves) and burqas (full body covering), and condemn music, mixed-gender physical education and swimming pools, none-the-less, they see nothing wrong with sleazy bathing beauty contests if it suits their goals. The current Miss USA, Rima Fakih, is a Muslim who was born in Lebanon and lives in the Muslim community of Dearborn, Michigan. And, Oh yeah, who just happens to be a relative of one of the leaders of the Hezbollah terrorist group. Makes for great public relations.

This problem is not new to Canadians. It was reported last November and I wrote about it.

The following story comes from the Canadian newspaper, the National Post, that illustrates what changes may be felt on this side of the Atlantic.

Islamist groups seek ‘parallel society’ in Canada: report

Stewart Bell, National Post · Saturday, Nov. 13, 2010

TORONTO — A newly released intelligence report says hardline Islamist groups want to build a “parallel society” in Canada, which could undermine the country’s social cohesion and foster violence.

The de-classified Intelligence Assessment obtained by the National Post says extremists have been encouraging Muslims in the West to reject Western society and to live in “self-imposed isolation.” The report focuses on groups such as the Muslim Brotherhood and Hizb-ut-Tahrir, which do not advocate terrorist violence but promote an ideology at odds with core Western values.

“Even if the use of violence is not outwardly expressed, the creation of isolated communities can spawn groups that are exclusivist and potentially open to messages in which violence is advocated,” it says. “At a minimum, the existence of such mini-societies undermines resilience and the fostering of a cohesive Canadian nation.”

The report was written by the Integrated Threat Assessment Centre, which monitors threats to Canada’s national security and is composed of representatives of CSIS, the RCMP, Foreign Affairs, National Defence and other agencies.

It was circulated internally last year after Hizb-ut-Tahrir invited Muslims to a conference in Mississauga, Ont., to discuss the establishment of an Islamic caliphate. A copy of the document was recently released under the Access to Information Act.

“While the issue of violence by Islamist groups has continued to be a counter-terrorism priority for Western governments and particularly security services for many years, Islamist social ideology appears to have gone unstudied, precisely because the use of violence is either unsupported or understated,” it says. “Nevertheless, several Islamist movements advocate a rejection of Western society and mores, and encourage self-imposed isolation of Muslims in the West.”

It says Islamists believe that Islam should govern all aspects of society and that Sharia law and state law should be “synchronized.” Extremists forced to flee Muslim-majority countries such as Egypt now preach these beliefs in the West, it says, adding, “By definition, their world views clash with secular ones. A competition for the hearts and minds of the diaspora Muslims has hence begun.”

“Some Islamists advocate isolationism and the establishment of a parallel society,” it says. “Isolationism can lead to conditions where extreme messages can incubate and eventually become the catalyst for violence. At a minimum, isolationism undermines a multicultural and democratic society.”

The report notes that Mennonites and Doukhobors have also sought to isolate themselves form the mainstream. “Why then, should Canadians be worried about Islamist extremists who reject democracy or isolate themselves from non-Muslims?” it asks.

But activist Tarek Fatah said there is a difference. “You can talk about the Mennonites but the Mennonites’ aim in life is not to destroy Western civilization, it is seclusion.”

sbell@nationalpost.com

The fact is that politically correct attitudes such as multiculturalism don't work because they simply contradict the meaning of a democracy. In our politically correct country, when a single individual such as an atheist can object to a Nativity Display and have it removed - the will of the majority in a community is denied. There is no difference if that individual was a Muslim and objected to their children being exposed to music in school, even though the music taught in school is a world apart from the popular heavy metal rock, hip-hop, rap garbage that passes for music today.