Toronto Star slams religious ties to conservatives

Unholy alliance on the right

SAEED RAHNEMA

I wonder what would happen if a white anglo-saxon wrote this story?

Anyways on to the propaganda:

While non-Christian religions form a very small minority — a combined 7 per cent of the Canadian population — their leaders are growing more active and vocal, lending support to conservative and anti-secular voices among the majority Catholics and Protestants. In turn, right-wing politicians, hungry for votes, support them without regard for long-term consequences.

Gee what long-term consequences are we talking about here? The hoped for destruction of liberalism?

on to more crap:

Though spearheaded by majority Christians and supported by conservative politicians, the present concerted effort on the part of all these religions to derail same-sex marriage legislation is another example of an (un-)holy alliance against secular democracy.

Gee is it possible that the writer is a gay visible minority shill for the LPC (Liberal Party of Canada)?

More crap:

Understandably, all religious leaders try to show they have a large following of devout and active believers. While statistically all religions are growing (except for mainline Protestant denominations, which are declining), the rising figures are due primarily to population growth and immigration.

So this writer is agruing that there is no way these religious leaders of various dispariate religions can entirely represent an ethnic population? I would say based on my experience in Toronto that not only can they do this but they are doing it.

Then there is that dirty word again: immigration, too much of it and I don't like it, but that is for other posts to come..

for more BS propaganda from torstar:

Moreover, one important fact is completely ignored, namely the relatively large and growing number of secularists and Canadians with no religion at all. The combined number of Canadian agnostics, atheists, humanists, pagans and those simply with "no religion" is more than twice the size of all non-Christian religions in Canada. According to the 2001 census, 16.2 per cent of Canadians fall into these categories, a 44 per cent increase in a decade. Vote-seeking politicians may want to also pay attention to this growing group of the population (though perhaps not a good fit for Mr. Harper!).

Now we got the writer arguing that all the non-religious freaks are more important than the clean and moral religious community.. yeah right!

I'm loving the lefty propaganda, now here for more:

Many religious institutions simply act as centres for community support and provision of useful social services. This is true particularly for members of minority religions who face serious problems of racism. Lingering and even growing anti-Semitism plagues the Jewish community, hostility toward Hindus and Sikhs continues, and Canadian Muslims are faced with expanding and deepening Islamophobia.

Here in the above article excerpt, our genius lefty argues that in fact these religions are not really religions at all but social clubs where immigrants hang-out and try to learn to beat the system.

It goes on:

But in developed countries that host Muslim diasporas, such as Canada, it is the conservative religious leaders who act as agents of change, working toward regressive transformations and eroding modern values and practices even while gaining support from democratic governments in the name of multiculturalism.

Here our commie little buddy argues that religion which defines these cultures for the most part in fact begins to enslave them in free countries like Canada. But he then goes on to praise multiculturalism which is the sole advantage that these same people can hope to bring to Canada. Is this person confused?

the grand finale and conclusion:

Multiculturalism — as opposed to assimilation — is no doubt the best approach to achieving social harmony and respect for group rights in an ethnically diverse society. In granting group rights, however, attention must be paid to the contradictions between the rights of a group and the universal rights of its individual members.
Canadian democracy and its social cohesion are in danger if religious assaults are not confronted by a concerted response by progressive secular forces that believe in the separation of church and state and respect for citizens' rights, as guaranteed by the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

First off I would like to challenge this author's belief that multiculturalism is superior to anything. I can point to the experience in the USA regarding the melting-pot system and see a number of superior outcomes - that is if one believes in destroying their country via immigration in the first place.

Now this idiot is arguing that religious freedom as offered to ethnic immigrants is in danger of destroying the very democracy of this country and they even drag the charter of rights into this... if you have a problem with people that believe in god, because you obviously do not, then go back to where you came from.