Laicité vs. Complicité
by Eduardo del Buey
Laicité vs. Complicité
On October 6th, Québec Premier François Legault said that he wanted to ban praying in public and was considering using the notwithstanding clause of the Canadian constitution to enforce such a move.
"Seeing people praying in the streets, in public parks, is not something we want in Québec," Legault said.
CBC reported that his comments, a departure from the other topics in the overview, came after a report in La Presse described religious behavior at Saint-Maxime school in Laval, Que., which included Islamic prayer inside classrooms. It also reported that teachers communicated among themselves and with students in Arabic.
"We have seen teachers implementing Islamist religious concepts in schools. Teachers who forbid girls from playing sports, among other things. Teachers, we see it again this morning, in Laval, who say prayers in the classrooms of our schools," Legault said.
"When we want to pray, we go to a church, a mosque, but not in public places. And yes, we will look at the means to act legally or otherwise."
Since October 8th, 2023, the world has seen an explosion of radical militant Islamism on the streets and campuses of our major cities.
One element of this has been the practice of public prayer on city streets, blocking pedestrian and vehicular traffic at all hours of the day and night.
Similarly, Mr. Legault's observations about Islamism in public schools underscore attempts by Islamists to use public schools to indoctrinate students in radical Islam and impose its values on mainstream Canadians.
Marxists used to claim that capitalists would provide the rope with which to hang themselves.
Today, it would appear that many in our midst are willing to provide radical Islam with the tools to alter our society and slowly erode our fundamental freedom of choice.
Schools are venues where we teach critical thinking to our youth. They are also places where they can explore their values and develop not on ideological or religious lines but on secular ones, free from intimidation or forced adherence to practices and values espoused by a small minority.
I believe in freedom of choice.
I believe in the freedom of every individual’s choice.
I do not believe that teachers have the right to proselytize their particular beliefs and impose them on students and parents in a public school system.
Taxpayer funds should not be used to support one set of religious beliefs over others or to impose one particular set of religious beliefs on students.
This freedom allows Christians, Muslims, Jews, and others to establish schools that cater to their particular beliefs, funded by their believers, yet respectful of Canadian values and mores.
Schools that meet the legislated academic standards in order to be recognized and allow their students to obtain the required legal records for access to post-secondary education in Québec and abroad.
Québec spent eons fighting against the power and influence of the Catholic Church in public education. Religious schools have been created where religious beliefs can be taught in a manner that respects the Canadian Charter of Rights and the equality of all races and creeds and where girls and women, LGBTQs, and even straights enjoy full rights as human beings.
Public demonstrations of religious or political beliefs must be limited in public spaces because they are public, secular spaces.
To believe otherwise is to divide society at a time when unity is essential to safeguard everyone’s rights and freedoms.
This is not antisemitism, anti-Christianity, or Islamophobia.
This stands for the common values that unite all Canadians. These values should be instilled in our youth so that no religion preaching injustice or intolerance has any place in our educational system.
Immigrants should always be admitted to Canada if they accept and are willing to adhere to basic Canadian values.
Absent such a commitment, we face the eventual dismantling of our society and the cultural glue that binds Canadians.
Hence, I support Premier Legault on this issue.
I agree that any religion or political or policy position that restricts freedom of thought or promotes violence is contrary to the rule of love on which natural law is founded. Radical Islam does both. People need to learn that. And they can easily do so by seeing how they treat their women, not to mention, each other.
España mantiene y divulga a través de la jerarquía eclesiástica unos conocimientos totalmente obsoletos que Roma se empeña en mantener y fomentar. Sigue muy estancada en la doctrina de Trento. No creo que sus manifestaciones sea únicamente fruto de una cultura local. Es una cultura muy arraigada en su dimensión cognitiva, afectiva y conativa en donde sin duda alguna hay a lo largo de la vida real muchas disonancias e incongruencias en los participantes de esos ritos, pautas y comportamientos. La iglesia católica, apostólica y romana, obsoleta por otra parte y cada vez mas disminuida se interesa mucho por mantener esa cultura. Su mantenimiento y sus ritos complejos son un serio problema que va generando poco a poco un serio distanciamiento social entre los españoles y de manera especial y singular entre los jóvenes. La presencia de otras alternativas no es un problema marginal. Hay que seguirlo.