Canadian Nationalism – Modern Day Tribes
A recent CBC-Angus Reid Institute poll asked Canadians if minorities in Canada should do more to fit in with the mainstream Canadian society; 68% said yes. To put that in perspective, only 52% said yes in the United States to the same question.
This may explain the behavior of Kellie Leitch – a Conservative MP and an author of Stephen Harper’s “Barbaric Cultural Practices” Act – who is suggesting that tests for “Canadian-ness” be applied to potential immigrants. She is currently seeking the Conservative party leadership.
On a larger scale, this explains the rise of Donald Trump, and his ability to connect with working class Caucasians in the United States. Trump replaced his ban of all Muslim immigrants with “extreme vetting.” According to the BBC, the new proposal bans immigrants from “an unspecified list of countries that export terror” and “includes creating an ideological test for immigrants entering the country, with questions addressing how each applicant views American values such as religious freedom, gender equality, and gay rights.” In other words, he stopped short of overtly targeting Muslims and now is covertly targeting them.
Years after the fall of Harper, who openly embraced a xenophobic attitude, Muslims still have to deal with the hatred that he and others unleashed on the Canadian society. Defeating him in an election did not defeat the narrow mentality that he dredged up. Now, with the rise of “white nationalism” across the Western world, how should Muslims respond to the specter of nationalism?
Modern day tribes
It is important to understand that nationalism today is nothing more than a modern-day revival of an ancient-old disease: tribalism. And while the proponents of nationalism can always couch their concerns under the guise of attempting to defend and protect their values, the desire to protect your tribal identity has nothing to do with a value system.
Values are not merely a product of an ethnic group or a result of living in one area together; values can be adopted by anyone who chooses to embrace them, and belonging to a particular tribe provides no protection against betraying one’s values. A white Canadian is just as likely to fall into bigotry, misogyny, hypocrisy, or a lack of compassion as a Syrian refugee.
Tribalism, on the other hand, is an unenlightened way for humans to bond with each other - as the Arabs of Jahiliyah (pre-Islamic times) did by tapping into the survival instinct that is within us all. This narrow view leads people to see one another in terms of race instead of as fellow beings, which leads to racial conflict and hatred of people outside of one’s tribe.
Consider Donald Trump, who has only given vague slogans about punishing companies who move to Mexico, but no clear, coherent or comprehensive solution to the problems of the American working class. Instead, he has directed the anger of the blue-collar Caucasians against Muslims, Mexicans, and other minorities, in order to increase his popularity.
Consider Stephen Harper, who – after eight years of failing to live up to his self-given title of “reformer” due to being embroiled in political scandals, captaining a faltering economy, and being unable to defend traditional values – completed his political legacy by saying that the greatest threat facing Canadians was “Islamism,” and spent his final days in office campaigning against the Niqab (face veil). Rather than blaming his inability to reform the system due to his unwillingness to challenge the status quo, and rather than owning up to the failures of Capitalism, he spent what was left of his time in office desperately attempting to breed hatred against Muslim women.
And while the impulse of nationalistic anger does nothing to actually solve people’s problems, the elite use it to distract people from the prevalent economic corruption and shift the anger away toward minorities. More insidiously – as the Canadian polls show – defeating a nationalistic politician does not defeat the hateful mentality that has been created among the public.
Tribalism cannot be defeated in an election; rather it must be intellectually challenged through a direct and grassroots approach.
Combating Tribalism – a Prophetic legacy
Tribalism has no place in Islam. Allah (swt) tells us:
“O mankind, indeed We have created you from male and female, and made you peoples and tribes, that you may know one another. Indeed, the most noble of you in the sight of Allah is the most righteous of you. Indeed, Allah is Knowing and Acquainted.” [49:13]
And RasulAllah (saw) said:
“He who calls to tribalism is not one of us. He who fights for the sake of tribalism is not one of us. He who dies following the way of tribalism is not one of us.” [Abu Dawud]
The elite of Makkah in Jahiliyah, who had solidified their power through a tribal hierarchy, were challenged by this message, and accused RasulAllah (saw) of turning brother against brother and father against son. But this did not stop our beloved Messenger (saw) from struggling to unite the hearts and minds of the people on something more essential than the circumstances of their birth or their genetics; he (saw) sought to unite them on their concepts, convictions, and their belief.
In fact, when he (saw) established the Islamic State in Medina, one of his first initiatives was to create brotherhood between the Muhajireen (emigrants) and the Ansar (supporters). He would pair one Muhajir with one Ansari family, asking the Ansari family to help the Muhajir until he was on his own two feet. This helped the Muhajireen and the Ansar to see themselves as brothers, and dissolved their tribal differences. In contrast, the racial divide in the US continues to be deep as it has ever been – as evidenced by the protests against killing of African Americans by police officers, nearly 50 years after the desegregation of America.
Combating hatred – an action plan
An inevitable byproduct of nationalism is a fear of those who “do not belong” to a particular identity. As Muslims, we continually face the risk of being vilified for not conforming to liberal secular values.
It is essential for Muslims to recognize that we must engage with Canadian society at large and convey the message with eloquence and clarity. We must make a collective effort to sit down with everyday Canadians and explain to them why we adhere to Islam, and what this adherence entails. We must ready ourselves to answer their questions, address their concerns, and embrace the controversies that this discussion might lead to. We must listen to their problems, understand their concerns, have an intellectual discussion, and explain to them the solutions that Islam offers to human problems. In short, we must to create a positive public opinion for Islam.
It is only through these efforts that we can directly tackle the distrust that many Canadians feel towards Islam and Muslims. However, we cannot achieve this task as individuals. It is both unreasonable and impractical to expect every single Muslim to actively explain Islam to non-Muslims. Rather, the leaders of our community must make a systematic effort to reach out to Canada’s civil society. Our Imams, Shuyookh, and Masjid board members should arrange joint events where they can explain the Aqeedah, systems, and societal vision of our Deen. The Muslim leadership should show the wider society how Islam is capable of solving the problem of tribalism as noted above; and they should present the solutions of the Islamic system without a hint of compromise or self-doubt, so that Canadians may see it as a serious alternative. The community should call upon its leaders to shoulder their responsibility to carry the dawah of Islam to non-Muslims – to inform them, to educate them, and to explain to them.
Conveying our purpose
It is not enough for Muslims to combat the hatred that might be directed toward our community due to tribalism; rather, we have an obligation to challenge the cheap and shallow connection it creates among people, and push Canadians to think more deeply about what binds them together. Perhaps tribalism’s most tragic consequence is that it convinces people that their highest purpose is to remain loyal to an identity that they had no part in acquiring or creating in the first place – and what a shallow purpose it is.
Former B.C. Premier Ujjal Dosanjh, a Liberal, was asked why the poll showed Americans more accepting of minority cultures than Canadians; he said it was because Americans have a common narrative – a shared purpose – through the guise of “The American Dream,” while Canadians do not.
What Muslims in Canada can offer society at large is better than the emptiness of a false “dream” in this worldly life. It is collectively incumbent on us to rescue our compatriots from a heedless life, and invite them to a direct connection with their Creator (swt). We have to invite them to become part of the Ummah of those who believe in the final message of the Creator (swt), united not by ethnicity, birthplace, or class, but by our love of Allah (swt) and His Messenger (saw).
If we fail to convey this to society at large, we will be answerable to Allah (swt) for having been negligent in our duty.
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