PULPIT
& POLITICS
By
Dennis Gruending
Boilerplate
hysteria has no place in civilized discourse
Recently I received an email
message urging me to read and then pass it along if I want to save western
civilization. The subject line said: Joys of A Muslim Woman: A MUST
READ. Actually, it was not about joy at all but was an alarmist rant
against Muslims. It was also an example of a recent fetish about “demographic
winter,” which has become a favourite preoccupation with the religious
right in the United States and to some extent in Canada.
The message I received provides material drawn from an author named Nonie Darwish. She is of Egyptian heritage and her father was a senior officer in the Egyptian army until the Israelis killed him in 1956. Nonie moved to the US in 1978 and became an evangelical Christian. She has written several books and has become prominent on the right wing lecture circuit and media. She is also founder of a group called Arabs For Israel and director of another called Former Muslims United.
One of Darwish’s books is called Cruel and Unusual Punishment:
The Terrifying Global Implications of Islamic Law. Her American publisher
describes it as “a wakeup call to the western world.” The
book blurb continues as follows: “Nonie Darwish presents an insider’s
look at sharia and examines how radical Muslim laws are destroying the
western world from within . . . Heed this warning: sharia law is attempting
to infiltrate western culture and destroy democracy.”
The viral message I received contained much the same admonition.
Darwish critique
I am not a fan of Shariah law and believe, for example, that the Ontario
government was wise to refuse suggestions that it be used in that province.
But what Darwish is saying — or at the least what is being attributed
to her — is boilerplate hysteria and has no place in civilized
discourse. Religious extremism is an ugly thing but it comes in all
flavours — Muslim, Sikh, Christian, Jewish and Hindu. The vast
majority of religious adherents are not jihadists or Christian warriors
but rather people who want to live peacefully with their neighbours.
Jim Holstun, an American professor, wrote a critique of Darwish’s
work in 2008, after she had published a book called Now They Call Me
Infidel. Holstun says that for Darwish there are no real distinctions
between moderate or radical Muslims, and no significant differences
within or between Arab and Muslim cultures. If that is what Darwish
is saying, it would come as news to the approximately 60 people of goodwill
— Muslim and Christian — with whom I attended a 12-week
course at the Ottawa School of Theology and Spirituality in 2009 called
Islam: A Deeper Look.
Muslims in Canada
The viral message I received ends with the following invocation: “In
20 years there will be enough Muslim voters in CANADA to elect the PRIME
MINISTER! I think everyone should be required to read this, but with
the ACLU, there is no way this will be widely publicized, unless each
of us sends it on!”
The ACLU, of course, is the American Civil Liberties Union, indicating
that this message is American in its origin and focus with a bit of
Canadian content added on at the end. Interestingly, the name attached
to the message is that of a Canadian academic in British Columbia. I
have attempted to contact her but have been unable to do so. I want
to know if she is actually distributing this message or if someone is
playing a nasty trick on her because a variety of right wing websites
are circulating the message over her name.
Demographic winter
The comments about there being enough Muslims in Canada in 20 years
to elect the prime minister play on the theme of demographic winter.
It is an idea much in vogue with the American political and religious
right and it turns a long-standing concern about world overpopulation
on its head. The problem, according to the new logic, is that a falling
birth rate will have what one speaker called “catastrophic”
consequences. The narrative usually reads that western (read white)
populations are not having enough babies to replace themselves, and
that we will one day (soon) be swamped by immigrants from other races
who will come to dominate our societies.
American blogger Bill Berkowitz, a liberal, wrote about demographic
winter recently on a blog called The Smirking Chimp. “For many
conservatives,” he says, “demographic winter — or
‘birth dearth’ as it is sometimes called — is the
ultimate culture war battle, rooted in the rise of feminism, legalized
abortion, the acceptance of homosexuality, illegal immigration, and
the growth of minority populations. All of this is supposedly the result
of a multi-decade campaign by liberals to undermine ‘natural law’
and the ‘natural’ family.”
One right wing website asks this rhetorical question: “Why is
global white population declining and not the other groups? Does this
have anything to do with the legal recognition of same sex couples worldwide
among predominantly white nations in modern history, besides general
reluctance to have babies?”
A vast conspiracy
The campaign around demographic winter allows the right to roll all
of its straw persons into one vast conspiracy. Muslims, Arabs, immigrants,
not to mention western liberals, feminists and supporters of same sex
marriage are all plotting to undermine western civilization. The alarmists
have created an intellectual frame, what one writer calls a “mainstream
media shorthand,” to explain disparate events: Muslim veil debates
in France (and Quebec); controversies over the construction of mosques
in Switzerland (or Alberta); a reduced birthrate in affluent western
countries and a higher one in poorer countries; the closing of empty
downtown churches in Europe (and Canada); debates over same sex marriage,
even contraception and reproductive choice. One might ask, as a matter
of Canadian interest, how the Conservative government’s maternal
health policy aimed at helping mothers in poor countries but refusing
to fund legal abortion, fits into this frame.
Since 2001, movies, books articles and seminars too numerous to mention
have played to the themes of demographic winter and often to an anti-Muslim
sentiment. While Europe Slept by Bruce Bawler is one such book. Pat
Buchanan’s Death of the West is another. For Canadian content,
there is the novel by Patrick Grady called Royal Canadian Jihad. There
is also a documentary called Demographic Winter: The Decline of the
Human Family. A seminar held in Washington in June, and sponsored by
the Family Research Council, dealt with the same theme. The council
is an offshoot of the organization Focus on the Family, which is also
present in Canada.
These groups and individuals are also hyperactive on the web. Do a search
for the term demographic winter and you will find no end of alarmist
sites touting the same dire warnings. On the other hand, there is very
little web material that offers a critique of the dystopian and chaotic
world described by the alarmists. Where are the progressives?
Scary indeed
The introduction to the email message I received was direct: “This
is scary and you must read it carefully . . . please take your time
and understand what it is telling you . . . Let us not become victims.
Let us fight and keep our country or we will not have life as we know
it for ourselves, our children or our grandchildren.”
Scary, indeed, that people are wasting their time, and ours, spreading
fear and hatred rather than understanding and tolerance.
Gruending is an Ottawa-based writer and a former member of Parliament.
His blog can be found at http://www.dennisgruending.ca/pulpitandpolitics
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