Faith Meets Life: Can religion be tamed?

An article in the current issue of Maclean's magazine is called “Europe's War against Islam.” In it Michael Petrou describes, among other things, the Swiss ban on new minarets, Islamic prayer towers.

Petrou wonders why the Swiss are so afraid of Muslims expressing their faith through the construction of the needle-like structures. He notes that Switzerland has not experienced a terrorist attack. Muslims make up only five per cent of the population. They are integrated into Swiss society, and few are radical or conservative according to Petrou.

Perhaps the Swiss are overreacting to the presence of Islam in their country. After all there are reportedly only four minarets in the whole place. That's less than there might be say in Toronto alone, or Hamilton or London.

It might be that Petrou really just wants the Swiss to be like Canadians. Most Canadians don't want to ban minarets and we pride ourselves on being tolerant. We can hardly even bring ourselves to be angry with the “Toronto 18,” young Muslim extremists who plotted to blow up trailer loads of explosives on crowded Canadian streets. Many are wondering why, even taking the youthful age of the conspirators into account, the ringleader might serve as little as six years (13 in total including the pre-trial custody). Not a few must be speculating that this will inspire other extremist groups to train minors in Canada as terrorists in the belief that if their plots fail, the penalties will be bearable.

Nevertheless, we have an assumption that, at least within our own borders, we can handle the potentially volatile expressions of religious belief. We can tame all comers.

Perhaps it is mainly “non-religious” people who believe that it should not be difficult to accommodate any number of religions into a cohesive society. Non-religious folks perhaps have less of an appreciation for the power of religious faith to shape lives. For example, Muslims, like Christians (and Jews once in their history long ago) want all people in the world to embrace their views on life. In fact, any religion worth its salt, and any “non-religious” view of life worth paying attention to, wants non-believers to join their camp. In other words, in case you did not know it — and this is putting it a bit simplistically - Muslims are on a mission to make you one of them. So are Christians. So are secular people.

Would Canadian society change if mosques and Islamic schools proliferated? Absolutely, to the same degree that Canadian society has been changed by the presence of churches in every Victorian town of the past and by their continuing presence in every suburb and downtown today. To the same degree that MuchMusic, malls, Google and the CBC influence society today.

The power of religious belief, I think, can't be tamed by secular media or conservative or liberal politics. Many secular people, perhaps represented by Petrou, or by “New Atheists” like Richard Dawkins, author of The God Delusion, seem to underestimate the power of religion to resist their criticisms and grow.

Islam, Christianity, and Buddhism (and also the secular faith) are not likely going to fade from the planet soon. In fact, when non-religious people complain that religious folks take their faith too seriously, they sound condescending and create resentment.

Academics are pointing out that the New Atheism mentioned earlier can inspire just as much intolerance as any religion. “The New Atheism is the new fundamentalism.” The creation of “in groups” and “out groups” is something that knows no boundaries. It can happen within any group of the committed.

If that's the case, what is the best bet for addressing cultural intolerance or religious violence? I have a couple of ideas about that and hope to get them into readable form soon.

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