The Muslim Question in Canada: A History of Segmented Integration by Abdolmohammad Kazemipur

Abstract

Reviewed by: Ali G. Dizboni, Royal Military College of CanadaCurrent debates on the Muslim presence in Canada are often security driven. The literature on issues such as radicalization, extremism, terrorism, public safety, counterterrorism, and cross-border security frames this presence in terms of its significance to Canadian national or social security. For example, the case studies included in the recent collection Religious Radicalization and Securitization in Canada and Beyond focus largely on Muslim groups.[1] Likewise, while the increasing corpus of legislation on immigration, public safety, and counterterrorism understandably avoids any reference to specific groups, the Muslim factor is the elephant in the room. By the same token, not only does religion play a major part in French and English works dealing with diversity, integration, and multiculturalism, but the Muslim component is salient in terms of its potential risks to peace, order, and good governance. This perceived Muslim exceptionalism in the West by no means derives from the fact that Muslim groups are the only or the most significant source of extremism and terrorism. In the United States, recent data shows that American right wing extremism has claimed more victims than Jihadist attacks and in Western Europe this gap is very close.[2] What makes this climate of mistrust even worse is that this security obsession with specific groups leads to a vicious cycle of securitization where the targeting of particular groups by public opinion, the media, and law enforcement leads to the stigmatization of an already marginalized group, thus ultimately increasing the risk of social segmentation and radicalization.Herein lies one of the most important contributions of Abdolmohammad Kazemipur's study, The Muslim Question in Canada . Inspired by a sociological rather than a philosophical approach, the author, a well-respected authority in the field, applies the insights of contact theory to the Muslim plight. Admitting that such a question exists, he disagrees with essentialists (or culturalists like Samuel Huntington) who believe that Islam by the very nature of its culture is incompatible with liberal democracy and that any solution would likely require total assimilation. Instead, Kazemipur maintains that the interactive and relational approach, which would involve strengthening economic and social connections, would work more efficiently and effectively toward integration.In the first of four sections following on a well laid-out introduction, the author examines the broad spectrum of views on integration and assesses their respective strengths and weaknesses in the Western context of socio-demographic encounters between Muslims and receiving societies. Part 2, heavily inspired by French sociologist Pierre Bourdieu, lays down the conceptual model of contact theory. …