re: #414 CuriousLurker

Well, I’m not familiar with the laws in Canada, so I can’t comment ion that part. But here is not Canada, and we obviously DO have laws about it. Yeah, if other prayers aren’t allowed in schools, then Muslims can’t be allowed either.

I have to wonder though, if D_F would be equally opposed to Christian prayer in schools. And what about federal holidays that are religious, like Christmas? Big can of worms there…

Technically it is not legal in Canada. I am Canadian and live in Toronto and have followed this issue. The school is some 80% Muslim. Basically the principal was sick of seeing a large part of the student body peel out of school at lunch on Friday and not come back. It is a challenging issue.

THe main difference between this and the experience of Jews assimilation or not, is that Jews never made demands on the public system for accommodation. Ever. Jews were never used to being a majority, and were not a proselytizing religion. Therefore never had any ambition to be a majority, or want to emulate their past experience from wherever they came from.

Throughout the Western World, Muslims have indeed made demands on the public system, Look at the movement to ban pork form soup kitchens in France.
That fact and their birth rates, make the discussion of the impact on muslim immigration on multiculturalism a very live debate. They are difficult issues for sure.
I personally have no problem with Muslim immigration. I do however believe that we, just as Europe has now, will face tensions in society from muslim immigrants whose values may be inconsistent with our own as embodied in our Charter, and our laws. Their numbers, and the birth rates as well as it being a proselytizing religion, mean that the dangers are far different than those that were talked about when Jews were immigrating.