In North America, Two Outlooks on Muslims: Canada is Kinder , America is Weary!!

His appearance at the airport in Toronto in December carried an entire message. Young photogenic Prime Minister Justin Trudeau hugging the Syrian refugees. Putting warm jackets on their backs. Declaring to them and to the whole world: "Welcome to Canada. You are at home now!!" They, have reached a safe harbor.

Contrast this to the bluster of America's Trump. He, a fool, does not speak for America. But he is the poster idiot of a mean America. And no one in the Republican establishment dealt harshly with his profane calls for: A database for American citizens who happen to be Muslims; a non-return to America of those citizens; a total ban on the entry of other Muslims to America, even for study or family reunification.

Trump (or Chump) glories in anti-Islamism. And in anti-Latinos. And in anti-women. And in anti-peace. His mantra, which is a call for an American Sparta, is "Make America Great Again." 

A demented buffoon who is exposing America to the wrath of 1.6 Billion Muslims. Daring to fight the world from fictitious citadels called "The Trump Towers." Punching the air with his fists, saying: "I am rich" -a stupid qualification for ruling a super-power.

Now to Canada. That is where you find its Prime Minister on hand at the Toronto airport welcoming Syrian refugees. But that was one aspect of Canada's kinder outlook on Muslims and non-Muslims. Fleeing their countries westward in search for safety.

That phenomenon was best described by Obama. Standing on December 15 in Washington, D.C. delivering an address at a citizenship ceremony, he graphically summed up the migrants dilemma. He likened Syrians fleeing the civil war in their native country to the Jews who fled the Nazis.

But in America these words do not compare to actions and public campaigns in Canada. A gulf of differences between two outlooks.

For in Canada:

• Prime Minister Justin Trudeau keeps on repeating: "Extending the sins of the Islamic State group to all Muslims is irresponsible,"
• He also adds: "There shouldn't be a contradiction between what it takes to keep us safe and what it takes to keep us Canadian.;"
• At the provincial level, political leaders, like Andrea Horwath calls on the Ontario government to face up to racial issues. This is to be accomplished through action on legislation providing for setting up a secretariat to conduct public education and research on racism.
• The hallmark of schools in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) is extra help provided by teachers to immigrant children. These are traumatized kids of very diverse backgrounds;
• During the Christmas season, front page newspaper articles project the beginning of the healing process for new immigrant arrivals. Photos are splashed for toddlers lighting prayer candles at the St. Mary Armenian Apostolic Church;
• A chorus of hundreds of children of different faiths singing the greeting extended to the Prophet Muhammad by the residents of Medina upon his arrival, fleeing persecution in Mecca 1437 years ago;
• The Canadian Government, through its Minister of Immigration, keeps on increasing the figures of migrants from Islamic lands fleeing into the welcoming arms of non-Muslim western countries.
• By contrast, Saudi Arabia which prides itself on being the Custodian of the holiest of Islamic shrines in Mecca and Medina, had an obtuse response to this humanitarian calamity. Its foreign minister's response was: "Many Saudis are married to Syrian women." Four million Syrians have fled their war-ravaged country since its slide into civil war in 2011.
• During the Canadian elections of October 2015, the majority of Canadian voters showed their disgust for what the Toronto Star of December 15, 2015 described in graphic terms. It attributed the defeat of the conservative government of Stephen Harper to Canada's "own version of ugly Muslim-baiting by politicians desperate for votes."
• One of the top columnists of the same newspaper had his column in the same issue headlined: "Would Trump flourish here? Unlikely." The columnist Irvin Studin explained why. Here is what he opined:
• "The recent call by US presidential candidate Donald Trump for the wholesale exclusion of Muslims from entry into the United States can only give thinking Canadians some degree of comfort that our founders created Canada, in constitutional terms, as the negation of the American project."

Of course, in America, the Trump voice is rather negated by liberal editorial writings in The New York Times. In its issue of December 5, 2015, one such editorial was titled: "Fear Ignorance, Not Muslims." Following the San Bernardino massacre, the editorial commented as follows:

"Wherever the investigation leads, Americans must guard against overreacting, and subdue the panicked reflex of distrust and hatred towards the Americans among us who are Muslims. This has been a problem at least since 9/11 and will remain one as long as ignorance about Islam remains deep and widespread."

Wise words. But American public opinion continues to give the lunacy of Trump thumbs up. No less than 65% of Americans recently polled supported Trump's advocacy for a ban on Muslims. This is not only unconstitutional under several US constitutional provisions. It is also a clear violation of international law principles dealing with "freedom of movement" as a human right.

But here we must keep in mind the individual instances in Canada of a bias against some Muslims. Reference here is made to putting a woman teacher on leave for wearing the hijab.

That teacher undoubtedly believes that hijab is decreed by the Quran for Muslim females. She is wrong, as such an injunction cannot be textually proven by the Quran to be an obligation. The most charitable description of the hijab phenomenon is to say that only after the Khomeini Islamic revolution in 1979 was that fad elevated to a fareedha (obligation).

This issue is ironically further compounded by brutal enforcement in Wahhabi lands by a religious police called, for obfuscation: "The Volunteers" (Al-Mottaween). Storm troops with canes ready to strike without legal sanction.

These are lands which are divorced from the spirit of Islam as a faith continually evolving to accommodate changing circumstances. Particularly in regard to integration with legislated laws and customary practices in countries to which Muslims emigrate. This is the essence of what the Quran states 21 times as HEKMAH (the reasoning based on common sense).

We all recall how The Muslim Brotherhood, during its fascist one year rule in Egypt (2012-2013) terrorized the Copts. A lesson which the New Egypt, under El-Sisi, is not likely to forget anytime soon. It was a violation of the DNA of historic Egypt of 7000 years as a State.

Thus in regard to anti-Islamism, the issue is multi-faceted. Both Muslims as well as non-Muslims still have a way to go before mutual accommodation.

But the efforts at such accommodation seem to be more manageable, more promising, in Canada than in the U.S.A.

A Very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to All!