You can't ban immigration because of the sins of a few
A boy from a lower caste in Pakistan is seen walking with a girl from an upper caste, so the tribal council orders the boy's 18- year-old sister to be gang-raped by four council members.
So what's the first thing that pops into your head when you hear this story?
1) Men are pigs?
2) Men shouldn't be put in charge of anything, except their own grooming, and even that's debatable.
3) This world is a very sick place, especially for women.
4) Boy, immigration sure is a problem in Canada.
Well, No. 4 is what was top of mind for the folks at Citizens for Foreign Aid Reform Inc. When the rape story broke, C-FAR fired off a press release arguing this proves not all cultures are equal, which in turn proves we should severely restrict immigration to, I suppose, people who are exactly like us.
According to C-FAR, there should be a five-year moratorium on immigration, we should drastically reduce foreign aid and we should think twice about letting in anyone from the Third World. Apparently, this is what most Canadians want. So says the group's Web site.
Well, of course not all cultures, or shall we say cultural practices, are equal. Only a complete moron would think that.
There are some truly heinous things people do to each other in the name of culture, and religion and honour. Rape. Female infanticide. Genital mutilation (of both boys and girls). Female subjugation. Male torture (think of the recent murders at the South African adult-initiation camp). Capital punishment. A loosely regulated greed-is-good free market economy, doomed to produce Enrons, WorldComs and so forth.
We would be brain dead not to criticize aspects of any culture, including our own, which are regressive, if not outright dangerous. But to argue that just because aspects of a culture are downright evil (that's my vote in the rape case) we should limit immigration by anyone from that culture is creating a straw man - or should we say white bread man - only to poof him over. Because no one in their right mind would argue that my Canada includes tolerance for people who commit gang rape as punishment for mixing castes.
Heck, we don't even tolerate a caste system. (No need to. We've got in-laws to decide who's good enough for whom. Kidding!)
But this is serious. Because there's a difference between cultural practices that are worth tolerating and those that aren't. How to decide? Three words: the Criminal Code. Among other things, it bans anybody raping anybody.
So where's the threat in admitting to Canada anyone from Pakistan?
If Pakistani immigrants are of the rape-as-justice mindset, they'll be sorely disappointed by the limits on their behaviour in the land of the supposed free.
And if they're just as appalled as you and me by the disgusting spectacle of tribal justice (and there's indication that most Pakistanis, including police, court and government officials, are horrified) they'll settle in just fine. And why not?
As far as I'm concerned, any cultural practice that doesn't break our laws is worth tolerating. Heck, we can even learn a few things from other cultures. Like the emphasis on education. Or respect for elders. Or well-defined family structures. Or skirts for men, piercings for women, exotic food and funky music. May not be your cup of ginseng, but where's the harm?
We don't need to adopt the, excuse the metaphor appropriation, "kill 'em all and let God sort 'em out," approach to immigration.
Nor do we need to ban everybody to keep out the few undesirables who will, in C-FAR's words, "radically change Canada's demographic makeup." Whatever that means.
The ban-everybody approach is, of course, simpler. Lots of people suggested it for Middle Eastern immigrants post Sept. 11. Understandable, but boneheaded. Simple solutions never work for complex problems. And cutting immigration won't help us deal with the homegrown terrorists like striking garbage collectors. (Kidding again! Ya gotta lighten up.)
Of course there are real immigration issues to discuss. But using a rape to justify tightening the rules is illogical, not to mention breathtakingly insensitive.
Marianne Meed Ward, a freelance writer with an interest in social and ethical issues, appears Mondays. Her e-mail is: <pward@interlog.com>
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Title: A Multiculturalist Speaks
Author: Kevin Michael Grace
Publication: Canada's Independent
Newsmagazine
Date: August 12, 2002
Marianne Meed Ward's column in the TORONTO SUN is called "What's Right," and this column has already decried the flogging of that dead-horse pun. Indisputably, however, Ms. Ward is a typical Canadian "conservative": a liberal feminist with a strong bias toward the supposed "underdog", and a with a profound ignorance of culture.
She is, of course, a xenophile. Her July 8 column argues that importing people from countries like Pakistan, where honour rape is widespread, is not a problem because "there's a difference between cultural practices that are worth tolerating and those that aren't. How to decide? Three words: the Criminal Code. Among other things, it bans anybody raping anybody." But laws are efficacious only if they codify settled values. There is no pro-rape constituency among Canadians. There is, however, a considerable pro-rape constituency among Pakistanis and other Muslims.
Rape is against the law in Norway, too. The British news service, Ananova, reported (7 September 2001) that immigrants make up only 14% of the population of Oslo, yet "attackers of non-Western origin were described in 65% of all reported rapes" in the Norwegian capital. "Rachel Paul, from the Centre for Gender Equality, told the daily newspaper DAGLADET that immigrants need to be informed about sexual behaviour in Norway." In other words, "For your interest, guys, it's not okay to rape women here."
Forced marriage is also against the law in Norway. Yet the BBC reported (10 December, 1999), "A series of television documentaries exposed more thatn 20 cases of forced marriages involving young Norwegian women from minority backgrounds. In one case, a woman may even have been murdered for refusing her parents' choice of a husband. In a secret location outside of Oslo, we met a 22 year old Pakistani-Norwegian who asked to be called Jeanette. She was brought up in Norway but was forced into marriage in Pakistan, with a man she had never met, who raped her every night. She fled her marriage - and Pakistan - with the help of the Norwegian Embassy. "When a girl does what I have done, she brings shame on her family. Pakistani people cannot live with shame," she says. Jeanette believes if her parents found her, they would kill her to erase the shame."
France also forbids rape. But French Muslims have made it a sport. James Fulford notes at www.vdare.com (23 July 2002) that the 'tournante' (take your turn) is the "subject of a French movie, LA SQUALE. The movie, which "shocked a nation with its horrific scenes of gang rape," tells of the "code of silence" in the North African society that has transplanted to the suburbs of France. One of the female leads in the movie told the BBC's Rosie Goldsmith that the movie is totally realistic. "Two of my friends," she explained, "have been gang-raped. One Turkish girl and one white French girl. The boys jumped on them, one after another. In five minutes it was over but these five minutes have ruined their lives. I am afraid most of the time that it could happen to me."
Muslim gang rape has also been transplanted
to Australia, where last year, 15 Lebanese men were charged with over 300
assaults in one year on white Australian girls aged 13 to 18.